Oar’s Rest in the morning was dramatically different from the night. Having arrived at the port town during the late hours of the night, with the moon up high and the stars shining brightly, Tsukiko hadn’t expected that it was that lively of a town. Perhaps adventurers were accustomed to sleeping early, in order to set out on expeditions. Perhaps daylight was a precious resource, and no one wanted to waste a second of it in bed. There were still so many things she had to learn about her new, if not temporary, home, but for the time being, Tsukiko brushed away a strand of ink-black hair from her face as she clapped her hands twice, bowed her head twice, lit a single incense stick, and placed a small dish of grilled fish on rice at the miniature shrine. As always, she performed her morning devotionals with the grace and elegance befitting of a Priestess. Praying for divine protection on her first day in the hostile lands of Edea, the young woman rose up, smoothed the folds on her dark clothes.

[b]“May the Great Spirits be with me.”[/b]

A tickling warmth spread up her spine as those words passed through her lips, and she smiled. Hefting her pack over her shoulders and holding the Phantasmal Blade, Tsukimi, in her right hand, Tsukiko left her one-bedroom suite, locking the door behind her. Unlike most adventurers who were fine just with some ramshackle inn room with a piss-stained straw mattress, she had located accommodations beforehand in one of the quieter parts of Oar’s Rest, a few blocks away from the Central Square. She would have preferred if the females-only dormitory was closer to the docks, where she could enjoy the smell of the ocean’s bounties, but, alas, it was good enough that Tsukiko had been able to find permanent lodging that she could actually afford.

Stepping out onto the streets and still feeling a bit sleepy from the absolutely perfect napping temperatures that the tropical continent had, the woman stretched out luxuriously, yawning wide.

[i]Bonk.[/i]

Her irregularly long sword swung out as a result of its wielder’s impromptu calisthenics, the hard scabbard smacking the back of a poor soul’s head.