- Mission Info:
- Name: Scout the Border
Rank: C-Rank
Participants: Moon Village, Sun Village
Type: Solo Mission
Reward: 20 EXP
Location: Within a village's region
Details: Just like patrolling the village is important, it is also important to make sure the nations borders are secure. Your task is to spend time roaming the regions borders and making sure nothing looks out of place. This includes roaming the main road, outing bandit camps or arresting thieves. While it can be boring at times, you never know what is going to pop up out in the wild.
Requirements: Your post must be at least 600 words.
Kannagi wore a thin cotton face mask over her nose and mouth, allowing her and Cirilla to move at a much faster pace without concerns of sand debris entering her lungs. Bump-ba-dump-bump, bump-ba-dump-bump. Cirilla's feathered hooves went from canter to gallop in the span of a heartbeat. Kannagi adjusted her hands, riding Cirilla mostly with her thighs, feeling the rhythm to aid the pony in gaining speed. The best way to travel across the arid expanse before them, scouting the area for bandits or travelers who needed aid, was with a mount. That was what the Irezumi believed anyway and why they revered and raised mounts so ardently. After only a half hour, the blue haired shinobi caught sight of a single straggling person in the dust, stumbling and walking as if blind in the area. Kannagi clicked her tongue, driving the gray mottled mare towards them and sliding off to approach on her own when they got close enough.
"Greetings. My name is Kannagi, shinobi of the Sun village. Do you need assistance?" Kannagi reached out an open palmed hand towards the person. They were lightly hooded, lightly dressed, but carried no canteen upon their body. Kannagi questioned firmly, "You travel without water often? Do you desire death?" The hood tilted back and a woman's face appeared. She had dark skin and dark eyes, with short black hair too. She took hold of Kannagi's hand and allowed the shinobi to help her stand stable for a moment. "I'm so thirsty," She gasped. "Those monsters left me out here. Please, help." Kannagi led the woman towards Cirilla, the great sun beating down upon them as it reached noon's zenith. She pulled one of her extra canteens off the saddle and handed it to the woman. "Drink as you like. Not too fast though, or you'll be sick. Can you tell me your name?"
The woman took the canteen, starting to drink slow and then chugging the water in large gulps. Kannagi touched her shoulder and she jumped, pulling the canteen away. Water was still dripping from her lips and she looked quite desperate as she told the female shinobi her name and story. "My name is Arabelle, it is. I work with my brother and his friends. Merchants mostly," Her face looked concerned, as if she might be about to tell a lie while she paused. A stubborn expression replaced the one she wore and Arabelle continued, "Sometimes we transport goods to less than legal groups for better profit. It's a hard life sometimes, it is." Kannagi just lifted her head and uttered, "Go on." Arabelle did. "Food and knives is one thing it is, but animals!? I couldn't just look at those faces. It's wrong, so wrong, it is." Kannagi inhaled deeply and brushed the sweat from her brow. This day couldn't get any hotter and this woman's story couldn't get any longer. She said nothing but gestured towards the canteen, still wanting to help this woman. Arabelle pushed back her dark hair and lifted her hood again, trying to shield her face from the sun. She drank again from the canteen, but this time at a more reasonable rate. She removed her lips with an audible gasp.
"I confronted my brother's friends and they promised to return the beasts. The next morning I awoke alone in the sand, I did. They took the carts, the food, everything. It is a miracle you found me out here, it is. Thank you," she said with a bright and earnest smile. "I'm no saint miss, but I just want to get out of here and go home. Those poor animals don't stand no chance, but I at least still do." Kannagi took the empty canteen from the woman and returned it to Cirilla's saddle. "Tell me everything on the way back. I will try and investigate and track them down. With your honesty, I won't have you arrested but I won't save you a second time from this sort of living. You'll need to find more genuine work." With that, Kannagi helped the woman up onto Cirilla's back. She climbed up behind her and took the reins; reminding her of the way her father would ride his old brown camel with her in the front. It was back into the wind and the hot expanse for Cirilla and Kannagi, racing swiftly back the way they had come to get this woman some real help.
WC: 743