Chapter 7: "A Strange Errand, and a Shining Find!"

Alaylle hums as she walks from home to the church. 'Hmm... the first day of helping out there... I wonder what Father Renauld will make me do?' Alaylle knocks at the door of the Prontera Parish and then slowly opens it, looking inside cautiously. She quietly walks inside and closes the door gently.

"Yahaaaa!" Father Renauld suddenly jumps out of nowhere at Alaylle and grabs her shoulders again.

"Kyaaaaaa!" Alaylle stiffens again, but then opens up one eye. "Father Renauld... don't DO that!" She sighs and relaxes, "Honestly... just as goof-ballish like my Daddy..."

"Eh heh heh... sorry about that Alaylle... kind of forgot that you were coming in." Father Renauld chuckles and leads Alaylle deeper into the church. "This... is the main part of the church... the altar room."

The altar room looks… well… like a hurricane passed through it. A dusty, brown hurricane that happened to pick up many empty bottles, confetti, and rice, all of differing ages and stages of decay and decomposition.

Alaylle gasps at how dusty and dirty the place is. "Father... How..."

"Oh, we've just neglected cleaning the place for a while... and a wedding just occurred here too..." Father Renauld looks embarrassed. "And... well... some of the inhabitants and visitors here are less than tidy..."

"Umm... well, there's enough here to keep me occupied for a while... Where are your cleaning thingies?" Alaylle glances around quickly.

Father Renauld smiles, "Just ask the sister over there... to tell you the truth, I have some business to take care of. I'll check on you later, okay?"

Alaylle nods happily and looks over at the Sister Nun. "Umm... I'm Alaylle! Nice to meet you!"

Sister Nun smiles back, "Nice to meet you too, dear. I'm Sister Nun... at least that's what everyone calls me." She looks irritated for a moment as she grumbles softly, "I have a name too, you know... It's-" Sister Nun says a combination of syllables and utterances that no sane person would ever be able to duplicate. "But nooo... it's always 'Sister Nun' this and 'Sister Nun' that... I HAVE A NAME!" She glances back at Alaylle looking embarrassed, "Sorry about that... here you go... good luck... this grime... it almost seems to have an intelligence of its own and will try to avoid your efforts to clean it." She hands Alaylle a mop, a bucket, and some clean cloths.

"Aahh... don't worry about that! I have some experience with... uhh... inanimate objects that show intelligence." Alaylle smiles awkwardly.

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Meanwhile, back at Alaylle's house...

"Dear... really... you don't need to make lunch anymore!" Alaylle's father blocks a slice of cheese thrown at him with an improvised shield: a pot lid.

"Hmm... you have a point there, dear... but just one point!" Alaylle's mother says as she gives a meat tenderizer mallet to Alaylle's father.

Alaylle's father grips the wooden mallet and charges at the Savage and cheese sandwich with an attitude problem. "Die recipe from he- Err..." He glances at his wife for a moment and stops his charge, sweatdropping. "Uhh... I mean... you evil sandwich!" Alaylle's father quickly smashes the sandwhich, causing it to stop moving and spitting cheese slices. "Whew... how about we eat out for lunch? Whoa!" He quickly ducks to dodge a bite from a man-eating salad, complete with razor sharp carrot teeth.

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"Honestly... who sticks chewing gum underneath a chair?" sighs Alaylle as she slowly scrubs the resin off of the underside of a seating bench near the pew.

Father Renauld slowly peeks out from his room down the corridor to look at the main prayer room of the church-and nearly falls over in surprise. He runs on in and stares at the now clean altar room and looks around for Alaylle. "Alaylle? Where are you?... did you do this?"

"I'm over here, Father!" Alaylle rolls out from underneath a bench and onto the aisle. "I finished the floors... they're clean enough to lie down on now! But... I still need to finish waxing all of the bench-thingies..." Alaylle slowly gets to her feet. "Did you need something else done?"

Father Renauld blinks his eyes for a moment, but then recovers. "Acutally... yes... I have a package that needs to be delivered to a colleague of mine in Geffen Forest. Umm... don't worry about the benches... could you go and give this to him?"

"Aahh... Geffen Forest... I guess I could go there!... Uhmm... I hope I remember my way..."

"Hmm... well, don't worry... he's by some bridges... and he can tell you how to get out of the forest too." Father Renauld gives the package to Alaylle. "Oh... don't worry about the cleaning tools... I'll clean them up."

"Aahh... alright... I guess I'll start right now then!"

"Yes... please do..."

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Alaylle hmms as she checks the things she has in her basket that she retrieved from home. "Apples... a red potion... and the package... Oohh, the book too of course!" Alaylle nods and walks west of Prontera's west gate.

"Well... at least I know my way around this part... Oh!" Alaylle quickly looks down at a Poring that has stopped at her feet. "Oh, Mr. Poring! I never thought I'd see you again!"

The Poring nods happily but then winces.

"Hmm?" Alaylle takes a careful look at the Poring... it has a rather large dent on top of it's head. "Oh no! Did a mean person do that to you?" She pulls out the red potion, uncorks it and gives it to the Poring to drink. "Hmm..." Alaylle thinks for a moment and pulls out a bandage from her basket. She carefully patches up the dent with a bandage that looks like a little X. "There you go!... Say, I can recognize you really easily now, with that bandage on your head!"

The Poring nods happily and starts bouncing away-only to zip right back quickly once Alaylle drops a few apples for it.

"Hee hee hee... see you later Mr. Poring!" Alaylle waves happily to it and continues her walk west.

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Alaylle arrives without incident (and without seeing Mr. Rocker, sniff) in Geffen Forest. "Oh my... I hope I don't get lost... Father Renauld... he told me to stick to the bridges... so... it's not so bad... I remember the forest that far, at least..." Alaylle hums as she walks through the forest and makes her way to the bridges.

She carefully crosses each bridge and looks around alertly, looking for anyone that would think of living here. "Oohh! There's someone!" Alaylle runs up to the person quietly meditating on a small island. "Umm... excuse me... are you a friend of Father Renauld?"

The Hermit, for lack of a better term, (especially with that scraggy hair) opens his eyes and smiles at Alaylle. "Why yes, I am... Oh, do you by chance have a package from him? He's being rather late with delivering things recently..."

"Umm... yes I do! Here..." Alaylle pulls the package out of her basket and hands it over.

"Wonderful! I've been waiting for this for a while!" He looks up at Alaylle and smiles. "Are you an Acolyte in training, by the way?"

"Oh no... I'm just helping out Father Renauld..." Alaylle smiles happily.

"Hmm... how nice of you. How do you like this forest?" He seems to be thinking of something...

"Umm... well, I like it! It's nice and peaceful, and... so green!"

"Well then! How about taking this? You can bring a little bit of the forest back with you" the hermit gives Alaylle a small pot with dirt in it.

"Gosh... really? Alright!" Alaylle happily accepts the pot.

"Do you need help finding your way out? I understand this forest can be quite confusing..."

"I think I can find my way out..." Alaylle looks over the little pot.

"Alright then... farewell!" he smiles at Alaylle and goes back to his meditation.

Alaylle waves goodbye happily and starts looking around for a plant to take with her. "Hmm..." She puts the small pot into her basket and pulls out her book. She flips through a few pages as she walks, and stops upon seeing a small green plant. "Green Plant... that's not a very original name... Uhmm... A common weed that grows nearly everywhere. It's fern-like leaves can be used to cure poison." Alaylle shakes her head and is about to move on when something catches her eye.

Alaylle carefully looks behind a tree and spots a plant that shines with iridescence in the light. "Oooo... how pretty! I wonder what this is?" Alaylle quickly flips through several more pages. "Shining Plant... an extremely rare plant that is so rarely seen, it is said to be a mirage. No information available about it's leaves. Gosh!" Alaylle quickly puts the book away, carefully uproots the plant and sets it into the pot.

Alaylle stares at the plant for a moment, but can't help but feel guilty. 'Oohh... I really shouldn't... I probably wouldn't be able to take care of it right... I know who can, though!' She carefully takes the plant and pot and heads back to the hermit that is meditating.

"Umm... excuse me... I'm sorry to interrupt you again, but... I saw this, and... well..." Alaylle shows the man the plant as he slowly opens his eyes, which then widen considerably. "I... know I can't take care of it well enough... and... I can't help but feel guilty... but I know you can! Here... I can't take it with me..." She gently places the pot down in front of him.

The hermit looks up at Alaylle kindly, "Are you sure?... You did find it and all..." He looks at Alaylle's eyes and then nods, "I'll take good care of it... don't worry. Ahh... here..." He takes out a butterfly wing and gives it to Alaylle. "Do you know how to use these?... Just toss it up into the air and it'll take you home."

Alaylle looks carefully at the butterfly wing and then tosses it up. "Like thi-" Alaylle vanishes in a gust of wind as the magic of the wing takes her back to Prontera.

"Hmm... interesting..." the hermit gets up from his meditative pose and over to his homing pigeon. He takes out a small piece of paper and writes quickly, then tucking the message into the pigeon's talons and sending the pigeon on it's way to Prontera Parish. He quietly walks back to the potted plant and waves his hand over the Shining Plant. The plant slowly fades to the color of a Green Plant. "Very interesting indeed..."

End of Chapter 7
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Chapter 8 Preview!

Alaylle: "You want me to go WHERE!"

Renauld: "I'm sorry dear... I know it sounds a bit extreme..."
"But she really needs this..."

In the next Chapter: "The Dangerous Desert!"

Alaylle: "Alright... but I'm sooo not walking there!"
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