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snowwy-sprites · 1 year ago

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A Day In The Life Of Nepetan Ijoni

Nepetan awoke with a mighty stretch of her arms and legs, pushing the covers of her bed down to the foot and brushing her knuckles against the wall. The lamp by her bedroom door had been lit before she woke up and was illuminating the room as if it were sunrise and her bedroom had a window. Nepetan had a job to do today from the Surface Guides’ Guild to protect some whatshisname as he went to look for some kind of treasure. The fine details were escaping her mind in its fuzzy, half-asleep state.

After a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up Nepetan returned to her bedroom, the door marked distinctively with a carved wooden sign reading “NO PANSIES” as an attempt to deter her sister Meulim from entering. She retrieved her satchel from her bookshelf and grabbed a folded-up piece of paper from the front pocket to read it. The Surface Guides’ Guild name and emblem were visible at the top, underneath which was a body of text containing the client’s description of the job he wanted done. At the bottom of the paper were two lines, one marked for the client and the other for the guide, to be signed upon completion of the job. According to his job description, whatshisname wanted to be taken out to an unspecified point in the desert to find a “forsaken family heirloom” which was “cast into the desert never to be seen again” but he somehow had a map to. The more senior guides in the guild passed up the job because it was ridiculous, but the pay was good enough for Nepetan to ignore that.

Upon folding the paper up and putting it back into the satchel pocket, Nepetan tossed her pajamas to the bed to replace them with her outdoor clothes: a simple shirt and pants underneath a practical jacket and a hat adorned with good luck gems she found when she snuck out of the canyon as a child. That adventure was the first time she ever saw a Dragon, and luckily, the first time she ever evaded one. Nepetan filled the satchel’s outer pockets with a variety of tools and weapons, then tied one of her tail flails around the end of her tail to provide easy coverage if anything attacked her from behind. Two rolls of cloth went into her jacket pockets to protect their faces from dust and debris if the wind picked up too much. She left her bedroom once again, this time putting the lamp out on her way, and headed to the kitchen to stock up on food and water. She filled two flasks up with water and attached them to the drink holds on the sides of her satchel, then filled up the central pocket with fruit. She slung the satchel over her shoulder, put on her shoes, and left the house.

It was about ten in the morning on a sunny day as Nepetan navigated the wooden walkways nailed to the sides of the canyon and the simple suspension bridges that connected them on her commute to the Surface Guides’ Guild building. The warm-colored rock that made up the canyon walls was vibrant today and when Nepetan touched it she could feel the heat it had already absorbed. Nepetan didn’t mind a hot day but she still preferred it if some clouds could come in later and cool the canyon off.

When she reached the Surface Guides’ Guild building she signed in at the front desk and headed to the guides’ lounge in the back to wait for her client to arrive. She was halfway through a bowl of complementary chips when one of the front desk clerks came in and called her name, indicating that her client had arrived. Nepetan walked into the lobby to meet whatshisname and was met with a kid about five centimeters taller than her wearing multiple bedazzled earrings and a gold bracelet. He looked impatient despite arriving about fifteen minutes later than the indicated time on his job posting, which he should’ve known as he was just looking at the large clock on the wall above the front desk that showed the minute hand pointing almost directly at the nine.

“You’re… supposed to be my guide?” whatshisname questioned, his tone skeptical but slightly amused.

“Yep! Nepetan Ijoni of the Surface Guides’ Guild, here to provide protection while outside the safety of the canyon!” Nepetan replied, putting on her best customer service voice.

Whatshisname paused for a moment, before questioning further. “I thought the Surface Guides’ Guild only allowed adults to join?”

What? “They do, I’m ten,” Nepetan replied slowly, dropping the voice.

“No, you’re shorter than me and I’m short for eight. You can’t be older than me.

Nepetan was thoroughly befuddled, and reached for the best example she could think up on the spot. “Do you read the newspaper? I won the Mars Canyon Climbing Contest a couple months ago by two minutes. I was on the front page.”

She was met with a long, drawn out “Riiight…” before whatshisname dropped the topic. “Well, we should get going now. I have the map, I’ll lead the way.”

“The surface is dangerous, it would be best if I would-”

“I’m not letting anyone else’s claws touch this thing!” whatshisname snapped back. Nepetan was startled and a bit confused, but gave in with a shrug. She reminded herself of the money she would receive upon getting back.

Nepetan followed whatshisname as he headed out of the Surface Guides’ Guild building, down the walkways and bridges of the canyon, and to one of the ladders leading out to the surface. She stood back at first while he climbed, but after a few moments of watching him slowly ascend she unsheathed her claws and scaled the rock next to the ladder in a matter of seconds. Whatshisname reached the top shortly after her, panting heavily, clearly having sped up his climb.

“Why did you do that?” he complained.

“It’s faster if we’re both going up at the same time,” Nepetan responded deadpan. Whatshisname rolled his eyes.

The two turned away from the canyon to survey the vast desert stretching out in front of them. To the inexperienced eye it was an endless expanse of sand, dirt, and hidden predators, but Nepetan had been up here many times before. It wasn’t windy, which was good for dust but not great for heat, and they were facing east in the direction of the far-off Scylla Ocean. The only reliable landmarks were the sparse trees and distant mountains but the visibility was quite good today.

“Do you have a compass?” whatshisname asked, breaking the silence. Nepetan handed him the cheap compass she always kept in her pants pocket.

He put the compass on his map and stared at it for a few seconds, before turning southeast and walking straight ahead, not looking up from his map. Seriously? Nepetan thought to herself. Guess her job involved being his eyes.

They made it a miraculous fifteen minutes before Nepetan had to tell him to watch out, he was about to step on a snake burrow. It took about twenty minutes for the same thing to happen again, and then another about twenty minutes for whatshisname to almost walk directly into a hole, only saved by Nepetan grabbing him by the back of the shirt.

“Could you not do that?” whatshisname complained, audibly annoyed, while rubbing the front of his neck where his shirt was pulled into.

“This hole is taller than you. And,” Nepetan kicked the rim of the hole and the dirt easily crumbled away, “not made out of material that’s easy to climb up. Maybe if you kept your eyes on your surroundings and let a trained navigator handle the ma-”

“Absolutely not!” he spat back. Nepetan was starting to believe that map was cursed. After a few seconds he continued, “Well, if we’re stopped now anyway, I need some water.” She handed him one of her flasks of water and once he was satiated she put it back in her satchel and they continued walking.

As morning gave way to afternoon the desert was heating up further. Nothing Nepetan couldn’t handle, but whatshisname was visibly sweating, still not looking up from the map. A glance to the west showed clouds coming in from the Charybdis Ocean, and while they were dark they were still far away. Hopefully they would deliver some rain to the canyon later in the day.

Close to an hour later, another hour of Nepetan trying to get this kid to watch his damn step, she spotted something in the sky, small but getting bigger. At the rate it was growing in size it was most likely a Dragon flying in their direction. Nepetan spotted a nearby tree that would provide adequate cover, and tried to get whatshisname to follow.

“It looks like there’s a Dragon flying our way. If we hide behind that tree before it gets here it should ignore us.”

“We’re too close to the treasure to risk it by going off-course for what ‘looks like’ a Dragon.” He glanced up from his map to see the creature growing larger. “Probably just a large bird. Let’s keep going.”

“You can’t be sure of anything out here! Even a bird that large would consider us food, and Dragons have attacked us in the safety of the canyon before! The risk of getting lost is less important than the risk of getting eaten!”

“It’s not the risk of getting lost, it’s the risk of not finding my treasure! I will not let that hap-”

Nepetan cut him off with a kick to the groin. The Dragon was now close enough to confirm its identity and regardless of whatever whatshisname wanted to yell next, Nepetan was not taking chances. She clasped a hand firmly around his mouth and wrapped her other arm around his torso, dragging him over to the tree despite his attempts to get out of her grasp. Nepetan’s extended claws dug into whatshisname’s scales as he tried to wiggle loose. She watched as the Dragon flew toward them, passed overhead, and continued on without stopping. Once she trusted it was out of earshot she dropped her grip on whatshisname.

“WHAT ON GAIA WAS THAT ABOUT? YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ASSAULT CUSTOMERS! YOU MADE MY CROTCH HURT AND CLAWED SOME OF MY SCALES LOOSE!”

“THAT’S BETTER THAN BEING DRAGON FOOD!”

“I’M THE ONE PAYING YOU, SO I CALL THE SHOTS! IF I SAY WE KEEP GOING WE KEEP GOING! AN ACTUAL GUIDE WOULD KNOW THAT!”

“A MORE EXPERIENCED GUIDE THAN ME WOULD’VE DRAGGED YOU OVER HERE SOONER! IF YOU DIE I GET EXILED!”

“WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET EXILED!”

Nepetan punched him square in the face. She was finally fed up with his idiocy. While whatshisname was startled she kicked his legs out from under him and tied his hands up with one of the rolls of cloth stored in her jacket, plucking the map out from his claws in the process. She dragged him closer to the tree and tied him to it with a sturdy length of rope from her satchel.

“STOP THIS INSTANT YOU MANIAC! I AM ABSOLUTELY GETTING YOU EXILED FOR TODAY!” whatshisname protested as she tied him up.

“Who is the Surface Guides’ Guild more likely to believe? Some kid mad he didn’t find his most likely made-up treasure or the guide who, while still a rookie, has a track record of completing all her jobs?”

“The senior guides will take my side. After all, I am the one providing money to the Guild.”

“The more experienced guides saw your job posting before I did, and you know what they thought about it? All of them passed it up because they thought it was too stupid. Lucky for you, I was willing to ignore that stupidity for the money.” Nepetan turned away from whatshisname before he could respond, and unfolded the map in front of her so she could chart a course to get the treasure for herself and-

What in the ever-loving fuck was she looking at.

This map was like nothing she had ever seen before. Dead center was placed a hollow circle but around it was a warped grid, constantly shifting for an almost headache-inducing image and no frame of reference. On the border of the map was a filled in circle, only a little bit smaller than the hollow circle, moving with the grid but staying on the edge. Nepetan assumed the hollow circle was the position of the map and the filled circle was the position of the treasure, but she couldn’t figure out what the grid was supposed to represent as it was moving even when the map was still. Turning the map shifted the grid even more than it was moving when sitting idle, so Nepetan guessed the enchantment included a sense of forward. Shouldn’t be impossible to follow, but now she understood why whatshisname was so focused in on it.

After approximately thirty minutes of attempting to follow the map, thirty minutes where she did not almost step on snake burrows or fall into holes or get eaten by Dragons, the filled circle finally moved off the border of the map. Nepetan could see a boulder in that direction and headed toward it. The boulder was too heavy to move unassisted, but she was able to find a sturdy enough stick she could use to push it out of place. Underneath the boulder was a metal box sitting in a small hole. The box was locked and Nepetan had no key or lockpicking implements, but the hinges were on the outside and she was able to pull the hinge pins out with her claws. The lock still kept the box somewhat closed but the metal of the box was thin enough to bend so she bent the box open enough to access the contents.

The only item inside the box was a few pieces of paper wrapped around some object. Unwrapping the papers revealed they were three more sun-damned moving grid maps concealing a chunk of obsidian with a magical aura so powerful that even a Mortal like Nepetan could feel it upon contact. She folded the four maps up and stored them in her satchel for later then turned her attention to the obsidian. It was unpolished except for one flat surface, into which was carved a symbol unfamiliar to Nepetan consisting of a central circle with six cones radiating out from it, three large and three small. When she stared too long at the symbol she saw a faint image appear inside it, of colorful clouds against a black backdrop with bright points of light dotting the clouds like glitter. Upon a double-take the image vanished, leaving only black obsidian. There wasn’t enough room in her satchel to store the obsidian so she took the time to have lunch before she headed back to whatshisname.

Upon her return whatshisname was still tied firmly to the tree where Nepetan left him, however now there was a coyote seemingly investigating if he was food. Whatshisname was unsuccessfully trying to shoo it away with his legs. Nepetan convinced it to leave with a flick of her tail and the flail attached to it.

“I suspect you found my treasure,” whatshisname greeted her coldly.

“I, in fact, did. Would you like to help me figure it out?”

“Well it is my treasure, if you would be so kind.”

Nepetan retrieved the obsidian chunk from her satchel and showed it off to whatshisname, who tried to wriggle out of his binds to get to it. Instead, Nepetan pointed the carved face at one of his feet to see if it would do anything. No results. She tried again except with two hands, once again with no results. She then turned the face toward her, closed her eyes, and imagined whatshisname’s foot, to which her eyes were startled back open when he yelled quite loudly.

“HEY! What on Gaia was that for?”

“I just told you, I’m figuring it out.”

“This is why only my family should have access to the treasure! It’s dangerous in the hands of anyone else!”

“Do you even know what this does?” Nepetan snapped back. Whatshisname didn’t respond. “Thought so. How about a deal?”

“Does it involve me getting my treasure?”

“I’ll make sure I’m the only one who knows about this. The map will stay a secret too. Oh, and I won’t use it against you again. In exchange, you tell everyone that despite your best efforts you couldn’t find your treasure. You searched valiantly and I did my job in keeping you safe.”

Whatshisname sighed. “Fine. Just untie me first.”

Nepetan freed him from the rope and the cloth before retrieving the paper with the job details and her pen. Whatshisname rolled his eyes and signed on the client’s line, before Nepetan signed on the guide’s line. She folded the paper back up and placed it back in her satchel before they headed back home to the canyon.

The clouds had rolled in by the time they got back to the Surface Guides’ Guild building, where whatshisname told the cover story to the front desk clerk and Nepetan turned the signed job paper in for a full payout. As she headed home it started to drizzle, a welcome cool-down after the heat and dust of the surface. Once at home she made a beeline to her bedroom where her clothes were quickly tossed in the laundry bin. She finished her water and fruit before storing her satchel back on her bookshelf. The magic obsidian and the two weird maps were hidden in a secret box behind the drawers in her dresser to be explored further another time.

After putting everything away Nepetan redressed herself in her pajamas, still on her bed from the morning, and laid down to drift off to sleep despite it only barely being five in the evening. Still, thoughts of the day clouded her mind. She remembered seeing a book on magic relics in the royal library, she could check that out tomorrow provided they still had it available. Nepetan knew she wouldn’t be telling Meulim about what she found out, she would tell her best friend Kurlozok who would probably try to take the obsidian for himself. Nepetan could trust her own best friend Quiseq to not spill the beans but he would most likely insist her findings be turned over to the queen and the royal advisor. Nepetan wasn’t quite sure what she would do with the new maps, she wanted to at least figure out the symbol and the weird clouds she saw in the obsidian first. But that could all wait until tomorrow, because her eyelids were getting quite heavy, and before she knew it she had dozed off to sleep.

#nepeta leijon #martians #fanspecies #literature #fanspecies week #fanspecies week 2023 #fsw 2023

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