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(( Posting combined entry today for Day 15 and 16. Took me awhile to type so it rolled over to next day before I could submit.))

Dream World Mirau by Josephina Mari
Day Fifteen and Sixteen of NaNoWriMo

Night seemed to pass quickly in Mirau, but I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day regardless. I got up out of bed and walked over to my backpack to do a little reorganizing of things. I put my old clothes and shoes inside my backpack with my books then I put the bag of potions on top hoping that they didn’t get broken before I had the chance to learn what they were for from Karou. I double checked my inn room to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind then I put on my leather lace up shoes and pulled my backpack up onto my shoulders. “I wonder if Baer and Karou are already awake.” I thought to myself as I exited my room closing the door behind me. My room key was safely tucked away in my left pants pocket since my cell phone occupied the right pocket. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to get signal somewhere, but now that wasn’t all that important anymore. I felt safe around Baer and Karou so I didn’t feel a need to call for help anymore unlike my first day in the woods when I thought my life was over. I knocked on the door for the room Karou and Baer shared waiting for a response outside. Baer slowly opened the door with a half surprised, half asleep, look on his face that suggesting he didn’t get much sleep. I peered over Baer’s should for a moment to see Karou was still fast asleep even though the sun had risen a few hours ago. My gaze returned to Baer again, as I said in a worried voice “Are you alright Baer? We can start training tomorrow if you are not feeling well.” I felt dumb asking him when I already knew the answer, but still I wanted to hear Baer confirm it for myself.

“I will be alright Mari. I just had a nightmare about Aloen. Karou stayed up part of the night with me, trying to calm me down. Eventually I was able to fall asleep though. For your training session today it will be only you and Karou since I have something I need to take care of. I’m going to go take a look around town to see if I can find any leads on where my Master might have gone. Maybe if I find some more survivors of Aloen, they can point me in the right direction. Don’t worry Mari. I promise I’ll help you and Karou out with your next lesson. I’m sure Karou will be a better teacher then I am though. We should let Karou sleep in for a bit though, in the meantime would you like to get some breakfast?” Baer said covering his mouth as he yawned after he finished his question. “Sure breakfast sounds like a great idea. Could I leave my backpack in your room while we eat? We should bring something back for Karou as well.” I said glancing over at him again. Karou was still asleep and he showed no signs of waking up any time soon it seemed. “I don’t see a problem with you leaving it here. We don’t check out of the inn until three this afternoon. After that I’m not sure where we will be heading to thought.” Baer said as he stepped to the side to allow me to go into the room that looked almost identical to mine except instead of one big bed in the middle of the room there was two smaller beds pushed up against the two side walls on either side of me. I put my backpack at the foot of the empty bed then I ran over to Baer and said “Let’s go! A fried egg sandwich sounds good right about now.” I followed Baer into the lobby of the inn where the restaurant was located that we ate dinner at previously and then I took a seat at one of the available tables.

Once again Baer did his best to translate and explain the menu to me since I still didn’t understand Mirau’s language very well. This time a young looking waiter walked over to our table to take our orders. I decided to be brave and ask for the egg sandwich I had been craving. I wondered if the chef will still be willing to serve it even though it wasn’t on the menu. “It’s not on your menu, but could I request an egg and cheese sandwich? It is made of two lightly toasted pieces of bread, and an egg which is scrambled and then cheese is put on top until it is melted, and then you put the cooked eggs in between the two pieces of toasted bread. That’s how you make a perfect egg sandwich.” I explained as Baer was kind enough to translate into Mirau’s native language so that the waiter understood exactly what I was requesting. After hearing my description of what made up an egg sandwich, Baer was curious what one tasted like so he ordered one for himself and another for Karou in a to-go box as well. I was pleasantly surprised when the waiter returned with the three eggs sandwiches for me, Baer, and Karou. Baer and I finished our sandwiches at the restaurant table and then we returned back to Baer and Karou’s room to see if Karou was awake yet. As we entered into the room we noticed that Karou was sitting on the edge of his bed fully awake as if he was waiting for us to return.

“Sorry for the wait Karou. We got a little hungry and I wasn’t sure if we should wake you or not. Ultimately we decided to let you sleep in and we brought you back something Mari calls an ‘egg sandwich.’ It tastes really good.” Baer said as he offered the to-go box to Karou in apology for leaving him behind. “Don’t worry about it and thank you both for thinking of me. After I eat we will start the training lesion for today. Is that okay with you Mari?” Karou said as he flipped open the to-go box curious to see what was inside. “Whenever you are ready is fine with me Karou.” I said cheerfully then I took a seat on the edge of Baer’s bed while I waited for Karou to finish his breakfast so I could see his reaction. Baer had the most interesting expression on his face when he took the first bite of his sandwich that I had to try very hard not to laugh at him. The expression ‘greatest thing since sliced bread’ came to mind as I watched Baer take another bite then. “I’m going to borrow Nodin and take a look around town if you don’t mind Karou. I’ll be back an hour before checkout time to share with you any information I get on my Masters whereabouts. We can decide where to go from here afterward.” Baer said looking at Karou for a moment and then Karou nodded to him. Baer waved at us then before he left the room to begin his search. I had a sudden worried feeling of what Baer would do after he found his master. “Would Baer leave our little group to stay with his Master or would he leave his master behind to stay with us? Either way it would be a hard choice for Baer to make when the time came to choose. Maybe I could somehow convince Baer’s Master to come with us so that way Baer could stay with us and his Master. Figuring out how to convince his Master to come along on our crusade would prove not an easy task either.” I thought to myself while Karou finished off the last two bites of his egg sandwich then he threw away the to-go box in a trashcan near by. Karou was already at the door before he realized that I wasn’t following him since I was still worrying about Baer in my mind.

“Mari are you ready to go now? The sooner we check the request board the better. If we don’t get a move on all the beginner level jobs will get taken.” I heard Karou say but his voice sounded distant at first and a bit muddled due to my daydreaming about what might happen. “Sorry Karou! I’m ready to go now.” I said noticing that Karou was already finished with his breakfast and was now standing by the door leading out of the inn room. I followed Karou out of the inn room into the city square of Coasta Bleu where I noticed many of the residents going here and there along their chosen paths. Karou stopped one of the town residents with a hand gesture then he said something in Mirau’s native language. “Heir ka desiba cardo istru Coasta Bleu?” (“Mister where is the request board for this town?”) and then the resident pointed towards where the weapon shop was located. “Cerdure.” (“Thank you.”) Karou said before he motioned for me to follow him with his hand which I did. I expected Karou to take me to some kind of weapon training school or maybe a martial arts dojo to lean my basic combat skills. To my disappointment, it seemed like what Karou was asking about was a large wooden sign board with a bunch of papers written in Mirau’s native language stuck to it. “How is this going to help me learn? I hope all those pages aren’t my training lessons. For one I can’t read Karou’s language and two there are so many.” I thought to myself as I looked over the rows and rows of paper postings. Meanwhile Karou muttered more to himself “...Let’s see what would be good job for a beginner class archer and novice swordsmen I mean swordswomen.” Karou said as he scanned the postings with his eyes for the description of the requested job and what experience level was recommended based on the job’s difficulty.

“I think this one will be perfect for you Mari. We have to go register for the job request so that no one else can turn in for the reward. We have to speak to the mayor to accept this job.” Karou said as he took the paper off of the job request board then he said “This request is to locate and stop a group of imp monkeys that have been sneaking into town and stealing food from residents here. The imp monkeys are often found in wooded areas like the ones surrounding the western gate of Coasta Bleu, so that is where we will begin our search after we report to the mayor Dellan. I must warn you the imp monkeys are small and quick, so you may have a hard time hitting them with your bow if they come in close range. Have your sword ready in case multiple targets attack you at once. They are very fierce when they attack in groups so I will back you up if you get into trouble.” Karou said trying to reassure me that the mission would be easy. If this was a beginner mission I’d hate to see what the more advanced ones were like. “Okay let’s go see Dellan then.” I said trying to sound confident to convince myself that there was nothing to worry about. I followed Karou to Mayor Dellan’s house and then I heard Karou announce us at the doorway “Good morning Mayor Dellan. We are here to answer one of the job requests about the imp monkeys.” Karou waited outside of the house so I stood behind him unsure of what to do. I watched as a man appeared from the house looking to be about fifty years old, who could be none other then Dellan. He looked at Karou a little surprised then he stamped the paper Karou took off the request board with a read circular stamp signifying that the job was in progress and approved by Dellan. “Please report back here when you are finished to receive your reward. Once I see that the imp monkey problem is taken care of that is. Do take care and return back here if you need any supplies or information.” Dellan said and then Karou thanked him before he said as he looked at me “Well looks like we got approved so let the hunt for the food stealing imp monkeys begin!” Karou said sounding excited to finally get things started. I wondered how Baer was doing on his search for his Master as I followed Karou to the west gate of town to see what information we could learn about the imp monkeys from the guards there.