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Post by Noa on Jul 19, 2021 19:36:48 GMT -6
Noa wasn't really the kind of person who liked to do favors for other people. Actually, he generally found it a waste of time unless there was something in it for him; and even when there was, if the task felt too mundane, it was hard to work up much enthusiasm for it. Thus he had something of a love hate relationship with the quest board. The things available through their shop were valuable enough to entice him out of his tower every so often, to see if there was some easy or interesting job to be had... But there generally were not, and he generally had to content himself with something he would have otherwise considered beneath his notice. This week was fast proving to be no exception. The only thing of note he had managed to find on the board was a request by someone to have the rodents in their barn evicted. Why they couldn't simply have acquired an Estharne or something to do the job for them was anyone's guess, but if the quest board was willing to put up the legal tender for this request, well, then Noa supposed there were worse things he could be doing with his time. Actually, he had looked at several other requests that were even more bland and boneless than this, so there really, emphatically were worse things he could be doing right now. Naturally this called for backup. Given the lack of specifics, Noa decided Nightshade and Azalea were the ones for the job. 1
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Post by Noa on Jul 19, 2021 19:42:31 GMT -6
{... Are you sure you want to bring those two? Not someone else? Or just me, this time, maybe?} Rhys had asked this same question twice already in the last half hour, and it was quickly starting to wear on Noa.
"If you have something to say, just say it," he said. Rhys winced, but Noa didn't worry about it too much. It wasn't as if his temperament was anything new, and Rhys had to have known that he was pushing it with asking it so many times. Things would go faster if Rhys would just say what he had meant to say the first time.
{Well, I was just thinking... I don't think Azalea or Nightshade are very good at catching mice. They're too big, and the mice are so small... Do you think they would even fit into the barn?} This last statement was spoken with an almost hopeful tone, as if he had somehow found an out. Noa considered his words, but in the end, all he had for Rhys was a shrug.
"The posting said we could frighten them away if we need to. Azalea's frightening enough. And Nightshade can be unnerving when he wants to be." All of which was true, though Rhys didn't seem convinced by these arguments. He continued to look hesitantly at Noa's choice of companions.
But Rhys wasn't the one calling the shots, and seeing as he had failed to talk Noa out of this, Noa was just going to proceed with what he had planned.
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Post by Noa on Jul 19, 2021 19:46:43 GMT -6
The trip to the barn could certainly have been more pleasant. Noa didn't know the area well, so he couldn't teleport them all there -- not to mention that doing so would have been a considerable expenditure of his magical power, and he didn't know whether he would have to draw on any of it today. He rather doubted he would; after all, mice were not terribly powerful, and there wasn't a whole lot they could do to him, as far as he knew. But this was also not a job he had taken on before, and in case something happened, he didn't necessarily want to be tapped flat either.
It was a pity and a shame that neither Azalea nor Nightshade knew as of yet how to carry a rider, though both were of a size to. Perhaps he ought to have brought Avander after all, but he felt better leaving Avander behind at the estate to keep an eye on things. Lately Briar had been snooping around the property more brazenly, and while Noa was more amused at his efforts than anything else, there were still places he'd much rather Briar stay away from, and things he'd much rather Briar not get into. As far as deterrents went, Noa felt that Avander was still the most persuasive, of all the tools Noa had available at his disposal. That might not remain true forever, but for the moment that was how things stood; and so Avander had been the one left behind.
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Post by Noa on Jul 19, 2021 20:06:45 GMT -6
But maybe he would think about working with Azalea or Nightshade more closely at some point, so that one or both of them could carry him. As it was, however, they were restricted to Noa's walking pace, which was the slowest possible speed they could go -- not to mention the fact that it tired him out to do it. Even Rhys was faster if he flew.
By the time they arrived at the farm, Noa was already a little cross, even though it was in part a problem of his own making. In retrospect he supposed he could have severed the bond with Rhys for a bit, and let the Faeron scout out the location, and offer him a telepathic image so he knew where to teleport them to... But that would still have been a waste of magical energy, he supposed.
Well, they had arrived, in the end. The farm itself really wasn't much to look at. The barn itself was in even worse shape, to the point where Noa wondered why the owner had taken such pains to hire someone to clear out the mice. As far as he was concerned, the money or the time and effort would have been better spent trying to get someone to clean it first. Surely there were hired hands who wouldn't be turned off by a simple rodent infestation. Or worst comes to worst, there were always the robots created by that one shop in town, though Noa supposed that would have been a bit costly.
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Post by Noa on Jul 19, 2021 20:11:01 GMT -6
The one point in the barn's favor was that it was big enough to fit Nightshade comfortably. The entrance was nice and large too, and given that Azalea was so long and narrow, proportionally speaking, she could probably fit in too... though it would be a bit snug if he was going to try having both of them in there. Hmm.
{What are we doing here?} Azalea said. She had come along happily enough, content to go along with whatever Noa asked of her so long as she could manage it. And accompanying him to a location wasn't a very difficult request. But now that they were here, she sensed that he had something more in mind, though of course she couldn't have known what it was, since he hadn't explained the purpose of the excursion to her.
As for Nightshade, he was already nosing around some of the hay piles next to the building itself. It didn't take long for him to jerk back slightly, as if surprised by something, then bury his nose in with renewed interest. It seemed as if he had found at least one of the vermin in question, though whether he was going to be able to catch one remained to be seen.
"We're here to get rid of some mice," Noa said. "Or at least, that was what we've been asked to do, anyway." He was still trying to figure out how exactly to go about scaring them away, which seemed like the most likely avenue for success.
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Post by Noa on Aug 26, 2021 23:32:04 GMT -6
As he was thinking, Nightshade made some abrupt movements, which ended in a pained squeak and then a rumble of satisfaction from the Wiurn. {Not enough for a snack,} Nighshade concluded after bolting down his prize. But considering his size, that was hardly a surprise.
He had the right idea, but it was going to take them forever if Nightshade and Azalea had to catch them one by one like that. More to the point, given her size discrepancy, Noa wasn't sure that Azalea could do it.
"Apparently they can be frightened away if a predator is in the premises," Noa said. "Azalea? You couldn't screech for me, could you?"
It was a command she knew, so Azalea obliged, letting out an ear-piercing screech. Noa watched the hay bales carefully, half expecting a swarm of rodents to come flying out, but no such thing happened. He frowned. This wasn't going to plan at all.
"Smash this," he said to Nightshade. {Oh, fun.} Nightshade seemed, if anything, eager to give it a try. His tail lashed out and swept through the hay bale, scattering hay in every direction. Maybe mice fled from this latest attempt, or maybe they didn't. Noa certainly didn't know. In the ensuing cloud of hay, he couldn't see anything, and what was worse, the dust thrown up by it sent him into a fit of coughing.
Rhys fluttered into the air and used his wings to beat back the dust, until Noa could breathe in relative comfort again.
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Post by Noa on Aug 27, 2021 22:53:22 GMT -6
Right, so evidently that wasn't the way to do it. Noa looked around at the barn and frowned. "You know," he said, "there probably wouldn't be such a rodent problem if they didn't have so many places to hide."
{W-Well... It wouldn't really be much of a barn otherwise,} Rhys said.
"How many of them have you killed, Nightshade? I saw you eating one a moment ago," Noa said.
Nightshade inclined his head to one side, and then the other, as if he had to think about it before he could give a proper answer. {Too small,} he said after a moment. {Too much fur.}
It didn't exactly answer Noa's question, but it did pretty well rule out having him catch them one by one. This was starting to turn into a much longer and more painful endeavor than Noa had anticipated when he first took on the job.
"Well, let's take a look around the barn," he said, though not with much enthusiasm. "Maybe we'll find something we can put to use."
{And if you see a mouse, um, do your best to get it,} Rhys added. {Every mouse we get is one less they have to deal with!} Frankly Noa didn't think a one mouse at a time approach was going to amount to much, not with the rate those things reproduced, but optimism had always been Rhys's purview, and not his.
Unfortunately for all of them, the barn itself wasn't very interesting. Or very helpful, for that matter.
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Post by Noa on Sept 29, 2021 18:48:19 GMT -6
And after a certain amount of looking around, Noa found that he was running out of patience. This was supposed to be a simple job, and he didn't want to waste more efforts here just to satisfy the request of some farmer who couldn't get a decent mouser of his own.
"This is pointless," said Noa. "The mice or whatever are just going to come back even if we do manage to clear all of them out." That was a problem for whatever poor schmuck the guy foisted this job onto next, and not Noa, but still, it rankled him to be set to a task that he had realized was pointless. He had never thought about it before, the prevalence of vermin; the storehouses of the estate were protected by surer means, and they weren't really in the business of growing edible things to sell there anyway. But it struck him that the farmer here wasn't very smart, to be outsourcing such a job to a one off contractor, if this was his livelihood to begin with.
{We did take the job,} said Rhys in a small voice. Nightshade's attention had long since began to wander, and Noa didn't seem particularly interested in minding him. Azalea had stuck by Noa's side, being the more obedient of the two -- and more obedient, in general, by nature. Noa was tapping his chin in thought, absentmindedly watching as Nightshade nosed through yet another hay bale, when the Wiurn paused, then suddenly sneezed.
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Post by Noa on Sept 29, 2021 18:57:48 GMT -6
It was such an odd thing; Noa had never heard him sneeze before, but then Nightshade wasn't usually in the business of shoving his nose in places where it didn't belong. That might have been the end of it had he been a normal Wiurn -- or even something like Avander -- but the trouble was that he was Nightshade, and Nightshade had command over a curious sort of fire, some of which chose to manifest itself just then.
It wasn't normal flame, not exactly, but it was flame-like enough, evidently; the hay bale caught flame at once, and then the barn.
{It's burning! Quick, put it out!} Rhys was the first one to realize what had happened, and urged Noa on even as he fluttered toward the raging flame. Noa clicked his tongue and summoned his magic, creating a small torrent of water to put out the flames. But it wasn't enough, and by the time he managed to summon more, the fire had spread elsewhere. The beating of Rhys's wings hadn't helped, fanning the fire on to new locations and greater heights.
A single water node, greater or otherwise, proved to be insufficient to put out the flames. The whole thing went up faster than dry timber in the middle of summer. After a while Noa could do no more than stand back, out of the reach of the worst of the heat, and watch it burn,
"Well," he said slowly, "that solves the rodent problem, at the very least."
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Post by Noa on Sept 29, 2021 19:03:08 GMT -6
These were the words he chose when informing the farmer too, though the man didn't seem terribly appreciative when Noa broke the news. Rhys was cringed into as tight a curl as he could manage around Noa's neck, and he flinched when Noa spoke the words the second time.
A series of emotions flitted across the man's face, from incomprehension to disbelief, and then finally to rage. He stepped forward, grabbed Noa by the front of his shirt, and bodily shook him.
"You did what?!" he yelled. "You burned down the barn? All of it? I asked you to get rid of mice, not destroy my property! What have you done!"
Noa smiled; and, smilingly, he placed his hands over the farmer's where they held him by his shirt. The man flinched hard, then let go as if stung, shaking his hands as he stepped back from Noa. "I don't appreciate being manhandled," said Noa, his voice light and pleasant, but his smile didn't reach his eyes, and their gaze as they regarded the farmer was cold. "As for the matter of your barn, consider this an opportunity to start afresh. There were obviously issues with the structure itself if you were having such a severe rodent infestation, and unable to deal with it through your own means.
Now if you'll excuse me, I believe we're done here."
The farmer looked as though he wanted to say something else -- several somethings, and none of them very pleasant. But he could do no more than watch as Noa turned and took his leave.
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Post by NPC on Oct 12, 2021 15:57:01 GMT -6
Congratulations, you've successfully completed the quest! Your QP will be added to your bank shortly.
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