It was a day later when Takachi sold the photograph, for a grand total of 25,000 jewels. Currently, the young protagonist is still at the Weekly Wizard headquarters. In her sweater and shorts along with her wallet-camera combo.
"Ms. Lias,?" Mr. Barns said.
"Uh..yeah?" Takachi Lias, the resident photographer responded.
"If you're not busy could you photograph that new ship at the docks?" He said.
"Uh, I'd be cool with that." She said, conveying her excitement in her own awkward way.
"If this goes well then I guess I'll be sending you on more assignments." He said. Takachi was more than ready to go on another assignment.
"I'll be, uh looking forward to it." And with that Takachi rushed out of the store, like a man on a mission, or in this case, a photographer on an assignment. After exiting from the building, and onto the cobblestone street. She ran haphazardly between the houses and shops trying to get to the dock as fast as possible, much like the street itself.
Once the next corner was rounded she could see the dock, along with the large merchant ship. Although upon further inspection she noticed the charred splotches on the ship's hull, along with large tears in it's sail.
After taking pictures of the ship, she realized that she needed to figure out what caused the disembowelment of what she knew was once the pristine 'Morning Glory'. With that in mind, she edged up the dock. Aware she, however unfortunately, would have to investigate and maybe even ask around in order to find out what happened to the ship. With that in mind she approached the bedraggled merchants.
"So um, what happened?" Takachi said. The merchants, a collection of middle aged adults with red noses and sad faces. Looked up upon hearing the question.
"We were attacked." One of them said.
"By pirates." Another continued.
"Oh, that's uh, too bad." Takachi said, hoping the conversation would soon end.
"Could you get our merchandise back?" The apparent leader said, drawing the merchant's attention to Takachi. The entire group stared at takachi in hope. Takachi, desperate for them to stop staring, knew there was only one thing she could do.
"Um, uh I'm s-" The staring intensified further. "I'll, uh do it." Takachi said, breaking under the pressure. The merchants however, were happy with this outcome and went back to talking amongst themselves. One of them paused to point at the shoreline.
"You see that point out there? The pirate camp is right over there. It shouldn't be more than an hour walk each way." The merchant said. Takachi mutely nodded, already regretting her decision to approach them in the first place.
She then started to walk away before the merchants could ask her for anything else. 'Salesmen, am I right?' she thought to herself while she trekked towards Rockside Point.
XXX
Only thirty minutes later and she was very much regretting her choice not to bring any snacks or water with her. The terrain had recently changed from flat and sandy, to rocky and slightly uphill. The flip flops didn't help with that, but Takachi had faith in flip flops, she would sooner stub her toe yet again than abandon her favorite footwear.
Not that she'd just abandon her shoes, her feat would be torn up by the small rocks and she had already been through thick and thin with her beloved flip flops. Now that she thought about it seemed a bit unjust that she hadn't even bothered to name her faithful companions.
What would she even name flip flops anyway? 'Yin and Yang' was a no go, as was 'One and Two', she then decided to just go ahead and name her shoes. She briefly considers naming them 'Thing one and Thing two', but decides against it because of the names length. She then thinks up the name 'Salt and Pepper', but soon after that ditches the name in favor of 'Pepsi and Cola'.
She's happy with this choice, and feels like the name Pepsi really fits her right shoe but secretly thinks that Cola, her left shoe, is even better.
XXX
Takachi's extra cautious as she approaches Rockside point. She knows the pirate's camp is somewhere around here. So she keeps her eyes peeled on the surrounding terrain. She's looking further inland when she spots the camp.
The camp's set partway into the forest, the other part being on the rocky shore. Takachi creeps towards the camp as quietly as she can. When she's around 25 feet away she crouches behind a large rock while she starts to survey the camp.
There were several pirates loitering around the camp, all of them looking threatening. Takachi waits a moment before running behind another rock. She locates the merchandise, it's at the back of the camp, so she waits till she's sure no one's looking and then transitions from behind her rock to behind one of the trees
The merchandise appears to be a large pack filled with various spices and pieces of jewelry. Next to the pack is a barrel with an uneaten meal atop, further ahead is the center of the camp. Which holds a fire, more valuable stolen goods, and lots of pirates.
She inches forward, sweat gathering on her palms as the nervous tension skyrockets. Her hands are almost resting on the pack when a twig snaps under her foot. It makes a large cracking sound which draws the attention of all the pirates. In an instant her hand grabs the pack and she starts to back up, intent on getting the heck out of there.
"Hey you, stop!" A burly woman says reaching for her musket. Takachi, heart beating in her ears, hesitates for a moment before shooting into action her unoccupied hand snatches the dinner plate off the barrel and chucks it in the women's direction.
Without waiting to see if she hit her target, Takachi slung the pack over her shoulder and took off in the other direction. She's fifteen feet away when her foot catches on a root and she momentarily loses her balance before she rights herself and rushes forward. She hops over a different root hoping the forest would slow down the pirates who were rapidly gaining.
"Get back here!" Another voice shouts, and she can't help but decline the offer. Turning left of the next tree before she ducks under a low hanging branch. She barely heard the loud voices with her hammering heartbeat and raging breath.
She sees a steep hill up ahead and picks up as much speed as she can before launching herself up it. The pirates are sharp at her heels, and she depends on her momentum to make it further up. There's only a few seconds before her heavy pack and body weight cease to carry the momentum.
Takachi clings to one of the many roots embedded in the hill, but she doesn't make it very far before she feels a hand clamp onto her foot. She kicks her legs while she struggles to hand on, her hands slipping even further thanks to her sweaty palms.
Feeling herself being pulled down for good this time she pushes all the magic she can muster into her unoccupied foots flip flop, Cola. Wishing for something to slow down the pirates she kicks off Cola. She hears the shoe connect with a skin and heaves herself up the moment her feet are free.
She scrambles up the top of the hill and starts running again. Sparing but a glance for the seen behind her, pirates in various hats clambering up the hill while a wolf made of an odd black material tries its best to stop them.
Silently mourning her shoe, she runs into the woods, disappearing from sight.