The job started off fairly normal. At least, normal in Yanina's standards.
They went and talked to the client, who was the mayor of Hargeon. This step she knew fairly well, and the mayor recognized her of course. Which made an onslaught of questions appear from the girls who weren't with them the first time a bandit job hitched. One look from Erza though shut them up, and Yanina was thankful for that.
"Please do not destroy the forest!" The mayor begged once he was done explaining the situation. Raising an eyebrow, she glanced over at her new friends who looked suddenly awkward.
After assuring the mayor that they wouldn't destroy anything, the girls set off towards their destination. "Do you guys destroy stuff often?" Yanina asked in amusement, laughing at the spluttering that came from the girls.
"Well..." Lucy trailed off with a wince. "Our guild is known for destroying things, but that's mostly the boys. And sometimes Erza," she flipped her thumb towards the red-headed woman, who was blushing as red as her hair at the call-out.
Clearing her throat, Erza gave Yanina a sheepish look. "I sometimes get over-excited..." She admitted, making the other girls giggle. The plant mage laughed at how shy Erza looked. That was not a look that Yanina ever thought she would see on the proud warriors face, but it was a cute one.
There was truth in don't read a book by it's cover, and it seemed that Erza had a lot of layers underneath. Yanina would love to get to know the overly confident woman.
Yanina let the foliage lead her towards where the bandits were living. She saw some smoke coming from a chimney and she hushed the girls, pointing towards where a cabin was located. "Someone needs to go in and wash them out while the others capture the bandits," Yanina murmured, glancing between the girls.
Standing up straight, Erza saluted - grabbing Lucy by the arm who yelped in alarm. "We'll do the ambushing," the blond being pulled tried to protest but had no use as the red-headed woman was already pulling her along.
"That means we're the capturers, get ready girls." The three left outside split up to different parts of the house. Within a split second the plan was set in motion. Erza and Lucy forced the bandits out and they went in separate directions, trying to run away from the mages. Though they didn't realize that three were hiding right outside of their base.
"Vine Whip!" A bunch of vines appeared out of thin air, roaming towards one of the lingering bandits. With a yell the man was dangling from a vine, one of Yanina's specialty vines that brought pain the more someone struggled. "Got one!" She called out to her companions as she heard more commotion around the cabin.
"And we got the others!" The girls cheered, Erza pulling the other four behind her with a rope. The bandits looked too terrified to try and defy the red-head - which was rather smart on their part. Lowering her captured bandit down, Yanina allowed Erza to tie him up with the others.
"That was one of the quickest jobs I've ever been on," Levy chuckled, though there was pride on her face as they started their way back towards town. Yanina smiled at the blue-haired bookworm and went to comment, only to pause when she saw a dark purple haired girl in the shadows. She seemed to be watching them as they dragged the bandits out of the forest, and a spark of something familiar settled into Yanina's chest. She knew that girl, but didn't know from where. As soon as Yanina saw her though she disappeared, and it was like she had never been there before.
However, Yanina knew what she saw.
"These types of jobs are fairly easy," Yanina explained, shaking her head and turning to look at Levy. "These bandits don't use magic, they just like to terrorize the citizens. They use store-bought magic. Like magic guns, rings - stuff like that, which would feel like a prick to us." Levy nodded her head as she made a mental note. "They get scared when someone confronts them and forces them to stop scheming whatever they are scheming." Which is true. That was how Yanina got most of her jobs done. Distract and capture was the best formula for non-magic bandits.
Now magical bandits were another story all together. They required a little bit more afford to get the job done. Most magical bandits were weak, though there were a few stronger bandit groups meant to cause trouble for everyone other than the normal citizens of the town they resided near. Like those Zeref cults who think that they are doing everyone justice when they were really making a scene, and making light mages look bad.
"You seem to know a lot about these jobs," Cana quipped, raising an eyebrow at the girl.
Yanina shrugged. "I was a traveling mage before I joined the guild, I had to make a living somehow." Cana nodded in understanding, though she still looked a bit skeptical. "Traveling mages didn't usually take the bandit jobs so I made my earning tracking them down. It helped strengthen my magic, and my tracking abilities."
"The mayor called you the Blossoming Traveler..." Lucy trailed off with a thoughtful hum. "I've heard that name before." Yanina's heart quickened a little as she glanced at Erza, who just shook her head - indicating that she hadn't told anyone. She didn't want people knowing who she was.
"Probably has to do with my magic," Yanina tried to stall, not showing the nervousness she felt on the inside. The only thing she had to do was stay far away from any sort of journalist who wanted a good story. Now being in Fairy Tail she knew that they often got sponsored onto Sorcerer Magazine and other magical media and she wanted to stay far away from that as possible.
"Uh, can I use the restroom?" A timid voice asked from the group of bandits, only to yelp when the ropes surrounding the group tightened.
"No," Erza stated bluntly, tugging on the ropes with malice. The girls giggled at the sight, shaking their heads with amusement. At least that seemed to stop the questioning for now.
When they brought the bandits to the authorities they were paid. Yanina smiled as she held her part, feeling more whole. Working a job with friends was much better than working a job by yourself. She didn't realize just how lonely she really had been, and how much this guild was already starting to mean to her. Shes only been here a day and yet she felt like she belonged.
"Thank you for coming with me," Yanina told them when they entered the train to head home. "That was a different change of pace for me. I never realized how much fun it was working with someone."
The girls all smiled at her. "It was no problem, really," Levy assured with a bounce in her step. "This was a change of pace for me as well. I usually have my boys with me, and sometimes Gajeel when we do something that requires more muscle. We should do this again sometime!" Everyone agreed to that, which made Yanina smile. If she knew it would be this great to be in a guild she would have joined one a long time ago. Maybe it was just fate that brought her to this guild in particular, instead of all the other dozens of ones that were out there. She knew not all guilds were the same, but there was something different about this one. And it seemed like everyone could agree that they were something great.