Ratte spent the better part of 4 hours scouring the internet’s resources for clues and ideas about how and where to start on her mission. She was confident that getting close was just a matter of slipping the guards, but the castle itself posed a problem. She wondered if there were any places that she could find a magical trinket of sorts to help ward off any unwanted magical creatures or allow her to see traps. It was worth looking around whilst her car was in the garage tomorrow.

She set her laptop down when her eyes blurred too much for her to read anymore and she curled up into the sheets. They were a little scratchier than the ones in her last hotel, but at least they were warm. She dozed off quickly and slept through until the morning.

[center]March 20, 201X[/center]

Ratte rose with the sun and streched her arms up and over her head as she watched the city start to rise out of the window. She watched a dragon fly in over the top of the city in awe and bit her lip, grinning. The city felt different; it felt alive with a sort of buzz that she had felt last night being in the presence of so much magic.

She changed into comfortable clothes - jeans and a black leather jacket, played with her hair briefly in the mirror and stuffed the money that Vincent had given her into a pocket at the bottom of her duffel bag. She put her wallet and phone into the pocket of her jeans and set out to her car. Since the car was likely to need at least an hour’s work, she wanted to scout this part of town out and she decided to get breakfast out too. She didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself and hoped to blend in as much as she could. The more she blended, the more she would be forgotten at the end of her mission when someone realised the book was missing. 

Ratte jumped into the car and ignored the red flashing light again. She drove up to the garage, listening to the radio again and keeping half an eye on the streets. It was amazing to see so many magical creatures around. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen them before- magical folk were in every city and town she had ever been in, but the sheer number here in Springfield was something that she hadn’t seen before. It was exciting. She pulled into the garage car park and parked up. She stepped out of the car and walked towards the garage door, looking for someone to talk to.