[h3]Cinder, West Entrance[/h3]

[hider=Part One] 	Viridis stood quietly outside of the entrance to CInder, even if it wasn’t much of a grand entrance in her eyes. People walked by her without so much as shooting her a glance despite her small size and vibrant colors. She simply stood, staring inside and frightened to approach. She had never seen such an aura of red in her life. It looked so dark and pulpy it practically looked like blood to her, which gave her even more unease. This place clearly seemed to not care about appearances, as it’s color scheme mostly seemed to be dark. Browns, greys, blacks, colors that made her heart sink. She clutched the map in her hand, and the staff in her other tightly, and gave herself the courage to walk in.

	Viridis looked about as she walked, avoiding everyone she came across who gave off the foul aura of red. What she could see baffled her as to why anyone would want to be in this place. A stone path that had holes nearly everywhere, homes and shops that looked half-finished. Viridis could only shudder in response. Viridis grew careless as she walked about, accidentally brushing shoulders against a young man in rags. 
	“Watch where you’re goin’ girly! The heck are you wearin’ that garbage for?” the man said with an altogether intimidating demeanor.
	“I apologize sir, I didn’t mean to bump into you. It’s just my clothes is all,” Viridis said submissively and avoiding eye contact, hoping the man would scoff at her and leave.
	“You don’t sound like you’re s’posed to be here. Say, what’s that you’re carryin’?” The rat like man eyed her staff and her knapsack with what looked like a feverish hunger.
	“Are you sure you want to do this in public? Aren’t there guards around that could stop you?” Viridis stuttered as she started to back up from the man getting a better view of him, nearly falling onto the dirt covered stone below her.
	The man had matted brown hair, and an entirely unkempt appearance. His eyes were bloodshot, and it looked as though he was foaming from the mouth. Altogether, he was a disgusting abomination the likes of which Viridis had never seen before.
	The man only laughed in response to her, “guards!? Oh, you haven’ been here before! If you’re wanting to leave alive little girl, just give me those things.”
	Viridis grew increasingly angry as the man spoke to her, and she grabbed her staff in both hands, looking at him with an intense scowl. She drew a path in the runes on the staff, which readied one of her charged spells.
	“Seeing as you still feel like robbing what you think is a child, you leave me no choice. I didn’t want it to come to this, but i’ll give you a fair warning. Back off now, and I won’t tie you up on the spot to dangle for weeks!” Viridis shouted at the man, poking her staff into his belly as the two garnered a crowd of what looked like children. 
	“A magician I see. Considerin’ you’s a little girl, I don’t have nothin’ to fear. I’ll be takin’ that stick right now!” The thief said in an attempt to grab at her, which only caused Viridis to react.
	“Yaren’vela!” She yelled as vines shot out from her staff and ensnared the man. He shook in disbelief, slowly being covered by thorny green vines that slid through his skin, leaving cuts upon cuts into him. The vines then attached themselves to the roof of a building next to them, and dragged him upwards, leaving him to dangle in place, with a trickle of blood pouring down from the many cuts the vines made. The man screamed, and struggled, only making his wounds worse as he attempted to escape. Viridis never looked at him after the vines surrounded him, a disgusting feeling rising in her heart.

	Viridis walked about the port town, now asking for information from the people about the man she was searching for. Word had spread fast about what she had done, and so, many people attempted to answer her as best as they could. As Viridis walked up to a haggard old man on a corner, she finally received her answer.
	“Agh, Gen be the one you’re searching for. He’s got plenty o’ hiding spots here, but the place he loves best is the inn closest to the docks. ‘Ya can’t miss it,” the man pointed, to which Viridis bowed.
	“Thank you kind sir, I wish you fortune,” she said politely as she left.
	Viridis moved closer towards the docks, which had a distinctly worse smell than the one she had just gotten used to. A mix of fish, sweat, and an assortment of other aromas from whatever the ships seemed to have been bringing in. She had to pace down the docks from where she was quite a while before finding an inn called The Dry Fish. It didn’t sound as whimsical or inviting as any of the inns she visited along the way to Cinder, but she started to expect this sort of thing. [/hider]

[hider=Part Two] 	Viridis opened the doors to the inn and looked cautiously inside. The noise and raucous enjoyment that was inside spilled into her ears as she heard music and singing. Viridis was stunned, and walked inside of the place with a sense of relief. Immediately, the bartender took note of her, and had to shout with a polite tone.
	“Oi missy! This inn isn’t for children! You’d best go back to your parents!” He said, to which Viridis walked closer.
	“I very much apologize, but I’m most definitely not a child. I turned fifty not too long ago,” she said politely.
	“Ah, so are you a witchy type then? Judgin’ by the staff and that speech. But’cha clothes definitely don’t look witchy,” the bartender said, trying to guess at what she was.
	“I apologize, it would take a while to explain to you, but I’m a being of the forest. I came a long way to here to find someone. I have a paper with his description,” Viridis reached back into her bag, whose vines lifted away to allow her to grab the wanted poster, and sealed themselves back up.
	Viridis showed the paper to the bartender, notably seeing that it said wanted on it, and smiled.
	“That’d be Gen. He’s normally here with his thief buddies though they never caused no trouble, but a month ago he came in with no one, paid for a room, and I ain’t never seen him since,” the bartender explained.
	“Thanks for the information. I have one request though. Can I look in the room he used?” Viridis asked.
	“Of course. Here’s the key. Make sure you don’t stay in there too long though, otherwise I’ll have to charge ‘ya,” he said with a wink as he handed over the key.
	Viridis nodded, and ran up the stairs in the inn towards where the room the man stayed in was. She inserted the key, cautiously twisting it, and slowly opened the door. Inside, the room didn’t seem that out of place, even if it was below average compared to the inns she had been in before. Viridis started to investigate the room.
	It had a bed hugging the wall on the left, a small drawer on the opposite side. It had a mirror against the wall directly in front of the entry, which let Viridis get a good look at herself in her flowery clothes covered in dust. She could hear the jolly singing from downstairs with the same volume, so the room clearly didn’t have thick walls. She wasn’t exactly sure what to look for, but started to move things around the room, pushing at the walls to see if there was some sort of hidden contraption. Viridis then noticed that the only thing she hadn’t touched was the bed, to which she pushed it from its place and revealed a small trap door.
Viridis held in a celebratory cheer, and instead, lifted the trapdoor, revealing an inky darkness below. She exited from the room, and grabbed a candle from off of the wall, and then traveled down into the hole.

	It was nearly pitch black, and so she wasn’t sure where to go inside of what looked like a storage room full of boxes. Every once in awhile she came across stray bottles lying around, and Viridis decided to levitate herself to avoid making any noise. Once she came across a trail of broken glass, she realized that if someone was here, they definitely did not want her to be there. She floated over the glass into a small corridor, and kept following the trail, keeping slow to watch out for any sort of traps. All she managed to come across were some tripwires that she managed to avoid, and what looked like a barrel full of knives intended to fall onto someone.
	As Viridis explored more, she saw a ray of relief. A dull orange glow coming from underneath a doorway. Viridis very slowly opened it, and saw inside, a single sleeping man. She grabbed her paper again, and compared it to him, which caused her to nearly jump for joy. Slowly, she floated over towards him, making sure that her wings did not make enough noise to disturb him. She went to grab at the pendent, but noticed something clearly over it. The man had his hand on his chest, and concealed in his clothing where he could easily grab was a knife. Viridis then thought of something different. She exited the room, closed the door, and simply, knocked.

	“Who’s there!? You scoundrels I’ll kill all of you for defecting! Give me back my money! I’ll have the lot of you, and I’ll feed your innards to the homeless!” Viridis heard yells, and the sounds of knives being stuck into wood as the man raged on inside the room.
	Viridis simply knocked again, and the man calmed down.
	“Wha? Who would be stupid enough to knock on my door, but smart enough to get past all me traps?” The man said, expecting an answer.
	“Er, me, Viridis, I suppose,” Viridis responded.
	“A child? How?” Gen opened the door with a sword in hand, pointed directly at the girl.
	“First off, I’m not a child, and second, that pendent does not belong to you. I need it,” she said simply. 
	“Ohoh, I see, now, this pendant does belong to me, because my father, the previous owner, gave it to me. Y’see, it’s one of the few things I legitimately own,” Gen replied.
	“Where did your father get it then?” Viridis responded, pointing Gen’s sword away from her.
	“From my mother,” Gen responded angrily, “and if you want to know where she got it from. She always told me she got it from a tree.”
	“That’s preposterous! Only guardians can receive that pendant! How would she have gotten it from a tree?” Viridis asked.
	“Listen, I don’t ‘ave time to listen to you, okay? This is my pendant, that’s square and final, now run along and go play with a doll or something, yeah?” Gen brushed her off and turned around.
	“What? No, I came here for the pendant, and I’m going to have it. I’ll stay here all day bothering you if I need to,” she said with a pout.
	“Alright, alright. I’ll give you the pendant, if! You can help me make some visits. I need to see some old friends of mine, and in all honesty, it’s incredibly borin’ and tiresome journeyin’ on your own. If you can help me out, I’ll give you your pendant. Deal?” Gen outstretched his arm for a handshake, which Viridis reluctantly took.
	“Alright partner! Now, what’s your name?” Gen asked with a smirk.
	“My name is Viridis. Guardian of the forest you humans call the whispering wilds,” she said with a curtsy.
	“That raises questions, but I suppose I’ll save ‘em for the trip. For now, I’ve got some old potatoes in a bag over there. Help yourself if you want,” Gen pointed.
	“No thanks, I don’t exactly need food,” Viridis crossed her arms.
	“I can tell this’ll be a fun trip. Plenty of questions, hopefully you’ve got plenty of answers, and also hopefully, you know how to pull your weight,” Gen said with a smile, styling back his hair. [/hider]