Pirate RP - Quest for the Snark

[Deleted]

Foot-in-mouth syndrome has repercussions. Nasue quickly took a mental note of that when the Captain gave her a rather unpleasant-looking glare, causing the blue-furred coati to cringe instinctively.

Fortunately, the dragon-lady was more forgiving. Willing to help, even. Or was there some ulterior motive behind this willingness? Dunno... can't be too careful, I guess. So she followed the others into the Manor.

And the moment she stepped inside, there was a splitting headache. A very faint yellow glow began to emanate from her, but after a moment it faded. The pain did so, too. Still, it remained as an ache, and her yellow eyes seemed brighter than usual.

...apparently it doesn't like the Manor... 's that why I feel so strange?

Then suddenly, they were someplace else - but she wasn't. And the headache came back in full force. Nasue gritted her teeth and hissed, clutching her head with one hand.

"Dang it, would you stop acting up?!"

And then the world shifted, and she was in front of a pair of doors (but behind the others). Her eyes were now glowing brightly, and she could see strange colours everywhere.

She grumbled and rubbed her temples once more. Stupid powers.

--

Somewhere in the Kage Mountains, there was a waterfall. The Ebi River went over the edge of a cliff, forming a large pool at the bottom before flowing on. It was this waterfall that some ninjas liked to visit from time to time; some would simply meditate, some would marvel at the sight, and occasionally, some would even bathe in the waters.

For one, "occasionally" was not enough.

And so the sound of the waterfall was, once again, almost drowned out by the sound of a deep, booming voice trying to sing and nearly succeeding.

"I am the very model of an evildoer smite-cleaver; I do uphold the Greater Good, I train each day and night-ever..."

That voice belonged to a massive humanoid reptile bathing in the waters, scrubbing himself with a cloth. His name was Kovaran Mokra, he was a komodo dragon, and he was called the Screaming Dragon for a very, very apt reason. In some ways he was the opposite of a typical ninja: most were stealthy and silent, with appropriate tactics. He was loud and brash and preferred to face his problems head-on.

Surely, someone like him would not belong in a guild so focused on stealth. And yet they kept him around - he had his uses. Besides, some ninjas actually liked him.


"E-excuse me, Kovaran!"

He looked up to find an NNPC on the shore, looking tired, perhaps from running a long, long distance. The big lizard lifted an arm and waved.

"Ah, youth there!" He grinned a toothy grin, exposing sharp teeth. "Were you in hopes of bathing here? I do not mind sharing."

The NNPC fell backwards, stuttering and stammering. "I-it's not--look, I--I really came here to tell you something. There's been a messenger bird. You're needed for a meeting."

Kovaran's grin disappeared. For a moment he was silent, something which they used to think was uncharacteristic of him... before a few weeks ago. His behaviour had begun to change, and he would not explain why.

"Very well!" he suddenly barked, loud enough to make the poor NNPC jump. "If the ninjas need me for a mission, then I will uphold it; disregarding any affectations it may have, to abandon my duty would be severe."

With that, he swum over to the bank, where his armour, longcoat and gigantic sword were lying. He climbed out and promptly began dressing.

"Youth, let them know I will arrive."

The NNPC agreed and promptly dashed off.

--

On his way back to the dojo, a thought suddenly hit the NNPC. Wait a second. Doesn't "affectation" mean "an act put on to impress"?

Then the meaning of what Kovaran said hit him in full. The shock was too much for him to take. Luckily, it just so happened than another NNPC was right nearby, and as the first one hit the ground the second one was there, asking what had happened.

The first one explained with weak breaths. Then he lost consciousness.

The second one sighed, then heaved the other over his shoulder and began to run back to the dojo.

[Huntress]

"Thanks for the support, but unless the Commander says otherwise, I'm responsible for myself," Haggoth said. Hunty smiled briefly. She might even grow to like this guy.

"What, do you think I want to be responsible for you guys? It's frankly a pain in all sorts of undiplomatic places. But it's the Code. The Code is the Law. I can't go against the Law. Full stop." Her voice acquired a hint of schoolteacherism at that point.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Bloody Mary commented through his nose; magic made his nose itch so he'd spent the last five minutes scratching himself. The captain snorted quietly, turned around and nearly walked into Krisseh, who asked why they were after the Snark. Hunty scowled.

"We're not in the habit of disclosing all our secrets," she said, "but we don't want any wars here. And we'll appreciate any help." She shot a look at Fraze and once again hesitated. Like hell did she want to bend over backwards to pander to the Mages' stupid grudge - even though it's sort of warranted, and they're after all a bunch of powerful mages and you're on their territory and need their help, the ever-rational section of her mind pointed out. This wasn't the first time Hunty felt sorry for being unable to glare at her own brain.

"Well, you could keep an eye on the blarf," she said a bit grudgingly. "He's been acting up and there's only so much civilized explaining you can do with a ship-sized eldritch beastie, but he always liked you. I'll need someone to make sure that he doesn't go on a bloody rampage against the Manor."

"Smooth," Bloody Mary said.

"Shut."

She turned around, took a few steps and was whisked away to the library. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, although also not an unfamiliar one, she'd been to the Manor before. She just wished it didn't have to be so... magical.

"O-kay, this is a library, so let's keep it down, gentlemen," she said cheerfully and opened the doors.

[Celestial]

The Librarian had moved on from his talk to the Archmage, although his confidence that she'd get things done was low. But he didn't mind telling her the same thing over and over again until she got the point. She was still human, even if she didn't look it. All humans eventually wore down.

"O-kay, this is a library, so let's keep it down, gentlemen," came an unfamiliar voice from behind the doors before they opened. The Librarian looked up at the new arrivals. There was the Archmage and a group of other people who he guessed were pirates, judging by their clothing. He nodded at them in a way that made the light reflect off his glasses.

"Silence isn't needed. Be careful with the books. I mean it," she said to them calmly before resuming reading his book, My Family and Other Eldritch Beings.

***

Celestial sighed as soon as she heard the Librarian speak. He was always like this with anybody he didn't recognise, Mage or non-Mage. Unfortunately, with tensions already running high, he wasn't exactly helping.

"That's The Librarian. He's always like this but better do what he says. You don't want to know what happens otherwise. We've had cases," she stated in a fairly exasperated tone. "But if you need to access the demon books, ask him for access. The only reason we keep him is that he's the only who can handle them."

She pointed to a stone door with mystical symbols all over it's surface. It would have been pretty if there weren't enough chains attached to it to hold down an insane elephant.

"With that said, welcome to the library! You'll probably find what you're looking for here, as long as you don't get lost."

She went inside and over to a small shelf near the entrance full of books, each one less tatty than the last. Taking out the neatest one, the dragon mage sat down at a nearby table and grabbed the nearest quill before she started scribbling something in the book, atrocious handwriting and all.

[Kengplant]

The library had been cleaned up a fair bit since she was last here and now that she wasn't running or fighting for her life Keng, took a moment to enjoy the impressive collection. There were books, mountains of books, hordes of books. Books as far as the eye could see, and off in the corner there was a small clock slapping a candlestick. Odd that. Well, best get to it, with the the best place to start being the librarian Keng approached the man who had hunched back over his book.

"Pardon me sir, I imagine none know this magnificent, vast collection of books better than you, would you happen to have anything on snarks?" she asked politely.

[Speck]

Along with most of the pirates, Speck walked into the the Manor. Her stomach did a somersault when the group was suddenly planted in front of the library's carved doors. As she stepped in behind Goosh, she marveled at the amount of books around her. Speck snuck off into the stacks, making sure to grab Zari on the way.

She whispered to Zari once they were a fair distance away from the group, "Listen, sorry I had to pull you away. But I didn't think your commanding officers would want you to lose your charge."

Realizing that she was still holding onto Zari's shirt, she let go. "I'm just going to, um... look around a bit. I've got a job to do on the ship, now, and I would really like to do well at it."

She briskly walked up and down the aisles until she found the section she wanted: magical projectiles. Grabbing books left and right off of the shelves, she found a table and plopped down to read. She pulled her notepad out of her pocket and poured over the books with as much focus as she could muster.

[Draco]

The shadow from the tree slides down, and draws closer to Mage Manor. He walks closer, remembering to clear his mind of all ill intent, not that he had any from the start.

"A little more info wouldn't hurt..."

He crouches low as he sneaks around Haggoth's ship stopping suddenly.

"What was it that we were taught about the Blarf?"

He leans against the ship as he tries to remember. Was it kill on sight? Feed it? Don't move because it's eyesight was bad? The correct answer was run away because the ninjas haven't figured out a good way to deal with it yet. Sadly this NNPC did not remember that, and only remained hidden thinking.

---

Before Draco headed off to the meeting place he made a detour to the armory. He figured if they were to get a mission, they would most likely head out right away, and he lacked a main weapon. His katana was taken by Kiddo during the events of the Underdeep, and both her and his sword went missing. He placed a special order to the ninja blacksmith about a week earlier.

He steps into the room full of all sorts of weapons that range from small barbed jacks to something only Kovaran or something equally as strong could use. There were even a few items that looked like they belonged in other guilds in case they were needed for a disguise (or just personal liking).

"I've come to pick up my order. Is it ready yet?"

The blacksmith nods his head, and places a long sword in sheath that resembles a Nodachi on a table.

"O' course I got it done. Who do ya think I am? It was done days ago and you had da nerve to just leave it here. She was a beaut ta work on. Give 'er a look."

Draco places a hand on the handle of the sword, and at his other hand on the end of the sheath. He pulls from both ends, and two blades come out, two kodachi. The blades are two short to be long swords and to long to be daggers. He swings them around a few times before sliding them back into their sheath.

"They look great Vinny. Thanks a lot."

"An da money?"

Draco drops a small pouch of money on the table, then he straps the double kodachi on his back and under his coat. He begins to leave.

"Wait. Ya gave me more then needed."

Turning around, a small bag is thrown at Draco.

"I know you. You have plenty of equipment in them pockets of yours, but take these as extras just in case."

"Thanks."

With that he walks out of the room and took the meeting place. Pocketing the new equipment on the way. When he arrives to the meeting place, he stands around and waits.

[Fraze]

Fraze stepped through the manor door. He felt a sort of mental weight, which he knew was the Manor judging his intentions. It passed quickly. A different sort of feeling lingered a bit longer on his left shoulder, near his neck. He had been carrying the security drone so long that he had forgotten about it, but apparently the AI in it had enough capacity for thought that the Manor noticed it. Apparently the drone was judged to be not malicious, because it went through unscathed.
The unknown mage gave Fraze a glare. It was more of an "I don't trust you one bit and will be watching your every move" glare than an "I want to bury you up to your nose in a termite nest" glare, which meant it was quite a bit more personable than most of the looks Fraze had gotten recently. He returned the gaze long enough to show that it had been received and understood, and then turned away to move closer to the rest of the group.
He went through his mental roster of people. He had memorized the names, faces and backgrounds of the leaders and assorted senior members of all the guilds--in his position, it was necessary. However, he didn't recognize this particular mage. This meant that either she had only joined recently, or she was not a particularly high-ranking member. Or both.
His machinations were interrupted by a sensation not unlike running through a dozen sprinklers at once while standing still. Well, there were worse ways to travel.
Upon walking into the library, Fraze had a strong urge to remark "Mine's bigger" in the most blasé way possible, but this would not have done much good for inter-guild relations. And he wasn't entirely sure that it was true.
Back before 'Fleet relations with the Mages broke down, the two guilds had traded catalogues of their respective libraries. The 'Fleet had left out all of their classified documents, and Fraze was certain the Mages had done something similar, but that was at least a good place to begin. He accessed the Mages' library catalog on his wristcomp, and soon found several good places to start searching. He chose the closest one--the section on legendary creatures--and began searching.

"Oumain...qtynbit...sailhat...smicken...snailbat...strycthitinus...nope, next one. Five Thousand Twenty-One Mystical Creatures. Why not just cut out some of the boring ones and make it a nice round number? Well, apparently snarks aren't mystical enough to make the cut."
This went on for a good half hour, and Fraze had nearly reached the end of the section. "Super Duper Awesome Magical Beasties? Seriously, were they even trying when they came up with that...oh."
The author of the book was a name Fraze vaguely recognized. Which could mean it was either written by a great mage (which would be good) or by a prankster (which would be not so good). More interestingly, the book opened immediately to a page with SNARK written in elaborate illuminated letters.

He picked the book up, carried it under one arm, and trotted over to Hunty. "Hey, does this stuff look serious to you? The title makes it sound like an awful joke. But it looks professional enough to be real."

[zarikrahia]

Zari gave Speck an uncomprehending look for a few seconds before what the pirate said fully dawned. "Oh, right. You're, um, gunner. I guess Pirate weaponry doesn't have instruction manuals." she said, smiling weakly. This whole business was beginning to feel like a Yrkaxan action movie- too much happening in too short a space of time.

She wandered over to a nearby shelf and pulled out a book that looked promising. "'Unsolved Mysteries of Magic'." she read aloud, slowly sinking to the floor in a cross-legged position and beginning to read. The text was in Anglese, thankfully- Zari was only fluent in Angelese and Illhvrenan.

The book turned out to be mainly urban legends and nothing to do with any kind of snarkery. Zari sighed and put it back on it's shelf, taking another and resuming reading, tugging distractedly on the end of her ponytail.

[Jina]

Jina looked around the library.

...Okay, that was weird, how did I get here from the ship? And why is Fraze here? ...And that hog-thing? She pondered this question for a few moments, then shrugged. Must've been sleepwalking, or something. Ohwell, better start looking busy then.

She took another look around, and noticed that everybody seemed to be reading books, which was hardly surprising in a library. And, in fact, there was a book open in front of her. Well at least I'm useful when I'm unconcious. Now, if only I knew what I'm supposed to be reading about... She looked down at the book in front of her, and saw mentions of magical creatures. Last thing I remember, Zagora was telling us about this Snark thing... I suppose we must be looking it up. That's the best guess I've got, anyway.

She flipped to the back of the book, and looked through the index for any mention of a Snark, but there wasn't one. She sighed. What a useless book.

[Huntress]

Hunty, who'd never been particularly fond of reading long texts - she always got the feeling that the words were there to hide something important she couldn't ever pinpoint - had taken to leafing through illustrated cartography instead. There was a long period in mapwriting that put more focus on drawing feisty dragons on all blank uncharted spots than actually charting the shores, which made them only halfway reliable both as maps and as zoology textbooks. But you could find unexpected information this way, and places that couldn't be found on regular maps, which was always a bonus.

"You could've brought Justice along for this," Bloody Mary said, leaning forward on the captain's shoulder to skim through everything she opened on the table. "She's the only proper speedreader we have around."

"Point made and very much taken," Hunty agreed, "but neither of us had the brains to think about it in advance, apparently. Isn't this the Tabloid Town coastline?"

"Looks like it," said the meepit, barely shooting a glance at the familiar coastline that had no sprawling city on it but instead a small drawing of a temple with Wery Dangerouse! scribbled next to it. "Focus, will you? This is all very interesting but if we looked at everything that strikes our fancy, we'd have to start paying the Mages rent at the end of the month."

"I know, I know." Pages turned. Parchment rustled. Silence reigned.

"Dude, hey, turn back!" This snapped through the quiet bustle of the library like a whipcrack and Hunty's hand jerked in surprise, nearly tearing off the page.

"I didn't see anything snarky on that page," she said, turning back. Bloody Mary shook his head and pointed.

This coastline was familiar as well. It was an archipelago they'd occasionally sailed to and hidden loot in. It was far away and out of the way so it mostly worked as a backup of a backup, but it was known waters nevertheless. The mainland was far away so there had been a lot of free space for the unnamed artist to fill with fantastic beasts. The meepit was pointing at one of them.

It was a plump furry creature, with impressive crooked fangs showing in a ferocious snarl, and equally impressive claws stretched out from all six paws. And there were spikes running down its back. And tentacles wherever there was room. It wasn't a spitting image, but it was recognizable all the same. Hunty bowed closer.

"The Great Megahexapod," she read. "Well, that's interesting."

"And very unimaginative," Bloody Mary grumbled. He bowed closer as well. "Look, it has a bunch of ghost-type things curling around it. Wonder what it means?"

Their ponderings were cut short when Fraze came over with a book, and that book was much more to the point, making both the captain and her shouldermeepit instantly forget about the odd drawing. Hunty took the book and skimmed over the page.

"We heard about the Snarks on our tenth day in the village," she read quickly and leaned against the table to better support the heavy tome. "The villagers claim that it's a small creature that lives deep in the jungle and does funny things to your head." Her eyebrow rose a little at that point. "We thought it sounded awesome and headed into the jungle the next day to look for it because Skazz wanted to see if combining it with the mushrooms would make the trip more intense." The other eyebrow deemed the first one lonely at that point and went to give it company. "Chief Mbongatuktuktuk showed us the way, totally swell guy. Said that a three-day walk to the east would take us to the area where the Snarks live."

"And then they wandered around the forest for the next week eating mushrooms and nearly getting eaten by a hippo," said Bloody Mary who was a faster reader, "and I personally suspect that they weren't going in an even remotely straight line. Who wrote this thing? Show me the preface."

Hunty leafed back to the preface and scrutinized it with a scowl. "Okay, so looks like it was the research of a group of young mage students who used this as their graduation thesis. They travelled to the western islands of Mare Mille Barcos to compile a book on all the magical creatures that live there-"

"-and spent most of their time trippin' their balls off," Bloody Mary said smoothly. "Magical creatures, all right."

Hunty looked up at the ceiling, took a deep breath and said a few words that made the meepit blink. Ten inches from her face, a couple tiny fuzzy blue creatures suddenly popped out of thin air and flew off over the bookshelves with a high-pitched wheeeeeeee!

The captain stared after them.

"Lovely place to raise a kid," Bloody Mary commented. "If you use bad language, it doesn't let you sleep at night and pulls your blanket off all the time- hey, careful!"

Hunty had swung her head forward again, burying the meepit under a cascade of black and blonde hair. By the time he struggled out from under it, she was already leafing frantically through the pages.

"The western islands of Mare Mille Barcos, which island were they currently on...?"

"Out of the three and a half thousand we have?" Bloody Mary asked a bit grumpily.

Hunty's finger stopped on one page. "The Isle of Toves. That's what they were on." She bit her lip. "Isle of Toves? I know Isle of Toves."

"It's in Tristan and Belle," Bloody Mary said helpfully, raising an eyebrow. "Big place. Thirty square miles or so. No actual cities either, just one big terror incognita."

Hunty nodded, digging out a more up to date map that'd been buried under other atlases on the table. "The entire area is one big no-man's-land. No kingdoms, no countries, just small villages living off the land. Wasn't that where Rane's pirates were founding their big pirate city?"

"Further west, I think. If the government doesn't get there to thwart those plans before they're done." Bloody Mary hopped down in the middle of a cluster of jagged islands that made up the Tristan and Belle Archipelago. "It's pretty far, though. We'll be needing supplies and suchlike. Think we can risk stopping at Port Parnassos?"

Hunty's brow wrinkled. "What are they this week, a democracy?"

"No clue," said the meepit. "They were recently giving tyranny a try but that comes with censored press so latest news haven't been getting out."

[Strife]

Haggoth stood a fair distance behind Huntress and her meepit as they talked about how to reach the so-called Isle of Toves. He had never been there himself, having only focused on the primary continents during his surface visits, but islands were often secluded. He could really use that to relax.

"As far as supplies go," he began, stepping towards Huntress and leaning against the table with one elbow while clutching his utility belt with his other hand, "I've got some travel essentials back at the ship. Not sure if they'll cover the entire gang though."

He rubbed his snout for a moment, then looked towards Commander Fraze. "Sir, I could contact HQ and have them send a dropship en route to the Isle, have them meet us on the waters with extra supplies. I'm not the host of this party though, just here to relax, so I'll leave it up to the happy couple, yesno?"

[Fraze]

By the level of discussion, Fraze inferred that yes, this was indeed a useful lead he had found.
"I still don't entirely trust the source. It sounds fairly legitimate, but it also sounds like the writers spent a bit too much time voluntarily relinquishing control of some of their faculties. I'd still like to try to find more information--at least now we've got a geographic region to work with."

Haggoth spoke up, and Fraze held back the urge to chuckle. "This is a vacation, not a mission. I suppose you can call in for things that you, Prof. Ailden and I will need, but don't go overboard." Because we've done enough favors for the Pirates already and really shouldn't make a habit of it, part of him wanted to say. "You can call in for a few containers of water if you want, and maybe some ration packs for emergencies. I, for one, sweat like a--" He stopped himself before finishing the phrase, which Haggoth might have taken as a racial slur. "--faucet, so I'd rather not put unnecessary strain on their water supplies. Other than those things, we'll be earning our keep just like everyone else on the ship. Besides, I don't want to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare of explaining these expenditures to the resource committee."

He punched a few keywords into his wristcomp, and soon found several books dealing with the fauna and/or magic and/or folklore of the Mare Millie Barcos islands. Being an archipelago consisting largely of enormous numbers of tiny islands, there were all sorts of minutiae to pore through. Several, however, had records of a creature called "snark," "snork," "shnook," "fsark," and, in one particularly brow-furrowing instance, "Eugene."
"This certainly looks like the thing you're looking for," Fraze said to the group as a whole, flatly disregarding that a) they had been researching for less than an hour, ignoring the possibilities that b) there was more than one creature called "snark" and c) none of the pieces he had found said anything about the appearance, habitat, scientific classification, intelligence, eating habits, mating habits, or danger level of the snark--because, of course, d) he didn't really want to stay in the Manor any longer. "There isn't much more information about the thing beyond what you already found, of course. It's an animal of indeterminate-but-probably-small-ish size and the natives say it messes with your head. I've had better luck chasing wild geese. What're we waiting for?"
He paused and thought, which rather ruined the dashing-headlong-into-adventure-ly moment. "You might want to see if you can get copies of these texts. For reference's sake."

[Deleted]

Several minutes after Draco arrived at the meeting place, there was a familiar thundering noise. A small group of ninjas were there, and many of them barely acknowledged the sound. One of them - a white dog - looked up, his ears turning.

"So he's coming. Didn't take long."

And sure enough, seconds after the dog had spoken, the Screaming Dragon appeared, panting. He was carrying a gigantic sword on his back, clad in leather armour, and wearing a blood-red longcoat with gold trim; he looked more like a samurai than a typical ninja. Though, the dog noted with irony, that had turned out to be useful more than once.

"I have arrived, elders," he spoke in his loud and booming voice, fist held to his heart.

"As has Draco," the dog replied, standing up to face the two ninjas.

"Now, I received a messenger bird earlier today. Not much earlier; you two were quick. You might not have been told what the message was. You should.

"Crew of the White Weewoo - mostly seen in Le Singe for the past few weeks. Scout reported that they moved. They were spotted with the... sea monster they travel with, approaching Mage Manor in Dunburrow."

The dog looked at the two to make sure they were still paying attention. Of course, Kovaran was. He had to fight the urge to smile wryly.

"The pirates were accompanied by some people from Spacefleet. Don't know why. Do know they would go there for a reason."

"What reason, Ginga?" another of the ninjas asked.

"Finding information, perhaps," Ginga replied. "From what I know of pirate thinking, doubtful that they would look for knowledge for knowledge's sake. They'd do something with that knowledge."

"And how exactly does that justify sending these two--" the second one pointed at Draco and Kovaran, "--a psycho and a lovestruck super-moron--"

"Beg your pardon?!"

Ginga sighed. "Sorry, Kovaran. You know their opinions on... you know.

"As for this mission... did not say Draco and Kovaran would be spying on them."

Silence filled the room. And then one of the other ninjas went, "Huh?"

[Draco]

Draco stood listening to the arguments of the elders. This was the kind of stuff they had to deal with since they didn't have a real leader at the moment. Now they had to obey a majority vote of a group of old people, who tended to argue more with each other then figure anything out.

His attention focuses when he hears the words 'psycho.'

"I do not believe I am a psycho... Yes I slipped up and let the Underdeep take control, but I never did something to call me a psycho. I disliked what happened, but...." He pauses. "But I've come to terms with it."

One of the elders spat at the ground next to him, then pointed a finger at Draco. "Is that what you call locking yourself in your room for weeks? Coming to terms? You killed a number of innocent people, including our own, and even caused one to leave the dojo completely!"

"Yes... That is how I came to terms with what I did. And for the records, the flaming remains of the Merc Base killed those NNPCs and Toshiro still writes."

The elder only glares at him and takes a step back.

"What is it you plan us to do exactly? I can think of a number of ideas, but I am not sure which would be the most ideal plan to follow."

[Deleted]

Ginga smiled. Some of the other elders looked a tad uneasy at the sight of this smile. While he was one of the more open-minded members of the council, he wasn't above breaking the rules if it allowed him to get his way.

"Still sharp as ever, Draco. Now, chances are, by the time you get to the Manor, pirates would have left. So for now, go meet up with scout for updates--" he lifted his paw as if making a gesture, "--head to shore from there. Along there should be a hidden cave with ships in it. Take one, use it to follow them. Keep an eye on pirates. If necessary, intervene - help them if needed, stop them if needed."

"Now wait a minute!" snapped another elder. "They're not supposed to know about that cave! And what makes you so sure they're a good choice?!"

"Keep valuable secrets from fellow ninja? Who might need to know? Quite underhanded of you."

The others went silent. Ginga smiled once more, then looked at Draco and Kovaran.

"As for why you two were picked... think of it this way. You know what happened in the Underdeep incident. Lost credibility, thought of as liable at best by other ninja. This... a chance to redeem yourselves in our eyes. Perhaps help prevent disaster or improve relations with other guilds."

Kovaran suddenly seemed more attentive than before.

"Is this all you ask of us both?" he asked.

"Yes."

The big lizard was silent for a moment. Then he clenched his fist and pounded his chest with it, near his heart.

"By the Greater Good, and by the Ninja Superior's memory... I shall!"

--

One of the other elders stared at Ginga. What are you planning?

--

Elsewhere...

Nasue hadn't spent a long time in the library, probably because she felt rather uneasy being there. Something was weird about the librarian; she wasn't sure what to think about the colours he gave off, except that it made her want to keep her distance.

Still, while looking through, she noticed that there were some books on identifying different types of magic. After hesitating for a bit, she took them and flicked through, hoping to find something about what her own powers might be.

While reading, she made a discovery. She dropped the book in shock upon realising what it was.

So when she left and returned to the Blarf, there were all sorts of things going through her mind. Some questions had been answered, but in return, more questions had popped up. She did get that they were after some sort of small animal on a distant island, but if anyone paid attention, they might have noticed that Nasue wasn't quite all there.

You've got to be kidding me.

How the [BWIFF] does anti-magic even work?!