Mamjaku, the melting pot of the Sotho Coast. Dala had done thorough research of the area and had visited occasionally when she was younger. It had been five years since her last visit but the fort looked the same as ever. A golden dragon flew towards the city but landed a distance from the walls. Charise had grown over the years too, becoming too large to walk around towns with her. Hopping off of the dragon's back, she gave her scaly friend a pat on the head. 

"Go fly around for a bit. I'll summon you when we're ready." She said to the dragon. 

Charise gave her an annoyed look before nodding and flying into the air. For some reason, the dragon has been giving her more attitude as she got older. Dala assumed this was just a rebellious phase but it only occurred when girl sent her dragon away from her. Maybe Charise had an upset stomach? Deciding to worry about that later, the teenager approached the massive walls of Mamjaku. The city was alive with people from all over the world. She spotted elves, humans, chokwe, bifada, eket, fae, agaw, lindani, and even some girls with fox ears whom she forgot the species name. The scent of exotic spices and treats reached her nose as the crowds chattered around her. She moved past the colorful market section and went straight towards the tavern, a universal social place. 

She entered the building, mostly ignored by the other drinkers and sat at the bar. The girl simply ordered a non-alcoholic food item, knowing if she entered she would have to buy something. Along the left side of the tavern was a board where visitors could post quests and job requests since the town lacked a guild. Dala unpacked her own job quest and walked to the board and pinned it on. The job was to help her get through an ancient temple found right somewhere near Mamjaku in the wilds. The payment was 500 silver and any treasure that the applicant could carry. Suddenly one of the drunkards sitting at a table looked towards her with a big grin. 

"Look a little girl has decided to ask for some help. What's the matter? You're mama isn't able to help you?" He mocked. 

Dala snatched his drink and poured the liquid on his head. The man's face turned red with fury as he stood up, towering over the young girl. He attempted to throw a punch but she was able to dodge out of the way with ease. Unsheathing one of her daggers, in a few short moves she was able to press the blade on the man's neck. Her training for the last five years had not gone to waste. She still lacked the physical strength to rely on her sword too much but when it came to her daggers, she was highly skilled. She had to be when magic wasn't an option. 

"Sit, spineless motherfucker." She smiled with a cocky expression. 

The man, fearing for his life and thoroughly embarrassed, obeyed her commands. Sheathing her dagger, she looked towards the bartender and gave him a quick apology with some silver to pay for the mess she had made. It wasn't her intention to cause a ruckus. Her temper had flared easily at the slightest prodding. One of the many reasons she couldn't go alone. Eyes were on her after the fight, showing she now had the attention of the room. Standing up on an empty table, she decided to make announcement. 

"That idiot is an untrained buffoon." She announced, her wrath still taking time to die out, "I need somebody trained and intelligent. You'll get enough silver to last weeks if you make it out alive. If you think you have the balls and skill to join me, then prove your worth and fight me outside!"

Hopping off the table, she left the tavern without a word and didn't have to wait a single second before a challenger approached her. After fighting him for a few rounds, she was disappointed to find that he was untrained as well. Dala wasn't asking for much. Just some trained warrior who had experience and training that could make up for her own lack of wisdom. Was that too hard to ask for? Apparently the world said yes as the next two opponents were lackluster. Maybe she had chosen the wrong town? After finishing the next fight, she looked in the small crowd that had gathered for a new opponent and potential ally. 

"Who's next?" 

[OOC: Gmod granted from Dina :) ]

It had been ages since she had been in this city, at least it felt that way. So much time had been spent in Canelux the last year that she hadn’t had been to Onnen much, and when she was it was never for very long. But now she had some free time to herself, a vacation of sorts to do as she pleased, so Sharifa had travelled back to Onnen and headed to the city to have a look around and enjoy what it had to offer.

Sharifa had spoiled herself while she was here, finding treats and snacks that she wasn’t able to find in Canelux and eating just far too much. Between the smaller fried and roasted insects seasoned in all kinds of different ways and all of the sugary treats the wasp woman was satisfied and had wanted a place to sit down. Finding the tavern that she had been to in the past she had taken a seat off to one side and got a sweet wine to sip while she sat and relaxed. Still, a random lone wasp even here was somewhat out of place, so as to not draw too much attention to herself Shar kept the hood of her cloak over her head and kept her cloak around the rest of her. The only parts of her sticking out were legs from the knees down so it was the best that she could get.

So when some time passed and the young lady walked in Sharifa watched her carefully for a moment. She pinned a job notice to the board and went and ordered something to drink. Shar wasn’t great at guessing human ages but she was young, though no child she wasn’t a full adult yet either. Things got a little more interesting as one of the drunken morons spoke up and mocked her, but before anyone else could react to shut him up the human poured his own drink on his head. He stood up in a rage and took a swing but missed only to end up with a dagger at his throat.

Shar’s obsidian eyes widened slightly before a faint amused smile appeared on her face as she watched the scene unfold. When the human called out everyone else and headed outside Sharifa was of course going to watch this! She finished her sweet wine, paid for everything and headed outside but not before she took a look at the job flier the human had left attached to the wall. Interesting.

Stepping outside the wasp leaned against the wall of the tavern as she watched over the next little while as the young human made fools out of a few men that wanted to try and fight her. As the one was defeated Sharifa’s mind was made up, she’d take the girl up on her challenge and see what she could do against someone with a lot more training. Sharifa was armed, very much so, all of her weapons under her cloak, she was well strapped for a fight.

”I’ll fight you.” Sharifa spoke up and pushed herself off the wall. She kept herself mostly hidden though, hood down to make it harder to see her face, but again her legs were exposed and the gold and black fuzz on her black skinned legs made it far more evident that she wasn’t human, not to mention the way her feet were built. Some watching might know just from that what she was under the cloak so a few of them stepped back as Shar stepped forward in front of the human. ”Come on then, show me what you can do.” Shar challenged and the grin she had on her face echoed in her voice.

The little brawl did not last too long, as Sharifa was easily able to keep away from Dala’s attacks, side stepping just enough out of the way, never moving more than she needed to. But Shar never really tried to strike Dala either, nothing more than the odd shove or tripping to punish an overextension or a predictable attack. Shar also made sure to never expose her secondary bottom arms, as after each shove she would tuck the arm back into her cloak again. After enough of this to more than prove that Shar knew what she was doing the wasp woman knocked Dala’s feet out from under her again one last time and before the human could stand Shar’s foot was planted on Dala’s chest.

Looking down at the human now would be the best view that Dala would have had at Shar’s angular face. The gold fuzz on her head stood out from under the hood, and her obsidian black eyes, devoid of any pupal, could be rather startling if one wasn’t expecting to have a six foot, five inch tall wasp standing on their chest. ”Do you yield?” Shar asked, she wasn’t putting too much pressure on Dala’s chest, just enough to know that her foot was there.

"I'll fight you." A stranger spoke. 

Dala looked up to see a hooded figure who approached for a battle. The lady was clearly not human, probably either Amhara or some sort of Maasi. Either way it didn't matter. All that was important was whether or not this lady could fight. For the outside fights, Dala had been using a sword as a way to test how skilled she was and see if there was anybody who was better than 5 years worth of training. The teenager waited for a few moments, trying to test the stranger's fighting style. But Sharifa made no move, showing the girl if she wanted to fight she would have to be the one attacking. 

Her first few moves were fast attacks towards seemingly unprotected areas, but Shar was able to dodge with ease. Focusing more this time, she attempted a fake attack with a real attack next, trying to throw her opponent off balance. The stranger saw through the first attack and defended against the second one. Throughout Dala's series of fast attacks, Sharifa handled it like an expert. Dala was a mere novice in comparison. The teenager's feet were knocked out from under her and she felt a foot hold her to the ground. This was a real professional and the type of person she was looking for. 

"I yield." Dala said with a grin. 

Once the woman removed her foot, Dala hopped up and rushed over to her opponent with sparkles in her eyes. The girl resembled an overexcited puppy who had just been given a treat. The rest of the people in the crowd eventually dispersed off, disappointed that the battle was already over. The only one who didn't seem to hold any disappointment was the one who had been defeated. 

"That was amazing! I've never seen someone so skilled before. You were like one of those ancient war gods!" Dala declared, "Please please please join me on the trip to the temple. I need someone who would be able to survive the trip and you seem like the strongest person in town. There will be treasures and I will pay you 500 silver upfront regardless of how the mission goes."

The teenager quickly started begging the mysterious stranger. Her lessons in dealing with nobility never spoke on how to communicate or work with warriors. So Dala decided to handle the situation with good old fashioned pleading, showing her inexperience with socialization and proper conduct. The person in front of Sharifa was a well studied but young reckless girl who had yet to understand more about the world. Letting her go alone was a dangerous idea for both her and the people around her. 

The human surrendered the spar and Shar removed her foot and took a few steps back. As she did she removed the hood from her head revealing her full face, antenna unfurling from under the fuzz that was her hair. The crowd started to disperse since the fighting was over it seemed, which was fine with Sharifa, she didn’t like drawing too much attention to herself normally.

When Shar turned to face the young human again she had to take a step back since Dala was right up in front of her suddenly looking all excited. She praised Shar’s skills and the wasp human glanced around for a moment as she thought on things. ~Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.~

”Riiiight.” Shar started after a moment. ”Listen, kid, for now, keep your money, I wanna hear more about this job anyway before I accept it. By the way, my name’s Sharifa, but Shar is fine if you want.” In the past only a select few could get away with calling her that, but after hearing it so often in the last few years she had grown accustomed to it. ”I want you to tell me where we’re going, what we’re looking for, what might be there that might try and kill us and anything else you can think of. Then I’ll decide if I want to take the job or not. Fair?” She was young for sure, well trained for that age to be sure, but the inexperience was there, more so with dealing with and how she talked to people. But then again Shar wasn’t exactly a people person either, rather prickly at times, but she had gotten better in that respect to.

She opened the front of her cloak enough to have her top primary arms come out and she crossed them across her chest as she waited for Dala’s explanation.

"That's fair." Dala sighed before starting on her ramble of information, "Okay so Its a half day's travel towards the north. It's called the Temple of Karivo and was originally made as a place of knowledge but was turned into a storage facility when a nearby military took over. The storage was mostly used for treasures that the military discovered on conquests, which is the reason why there are going to be traps and other security measures. Then it sunk halfway into the ground and nobody has been to it since."

The girl had done her research beforehand, asking many locals and searching through books about the place. Most of this knowledge came from legends and fairytales that held bits of truth. The one thing consistent about every single myth was that the temple was once a place of knowledge and was turned into a storage place before sinking. Half of it was still above ground while the rest was below, making the temple extremely dangerous for adventurers. 

"I am looking for a scroll of knowledge. Every word in the scroll will help people tremendously." She explained, "We also will run into raiders, bandits, and possibly assassins. Though, the assassins are more of my fault than the temple. So what do you say?"

Dala looked up at the warrior with sparkling hope in her eyes. If this amazing warrior were to join them, the trip would be significantly easier. Either way Dala was determined to go. But having someone by her side would turn a difficult adventure into a cake walk! 

Sharifa kept a grin from her face as Dala sputtered out her explanation of what she was expecting to do and have happen. A temple half a days travel away, then taken over by some military as storage and probably filled with traps. Then abandoned once the whole place started to sink into the ground, but what Shar did pick up on was that Dala didn’t explain why that had happened. More likely, Shar thought, that Dala didn’t know and maybe hadn’t thought of it, but it was something that Sharifa was going to keep in the back of her mind going forward.

The whole thing about assassins being Dala’s fault was also something of important note, and for someone in Shar’s line of work that was a very important detail. All of that aside, Shar could tell that Dala was going to go eventually, possibly without finding someone to watch her back, or she’d end up with some shady character who would take advantage of the situation. Not wanting to see that happen, and also because Sharifa was curious as this point, the wasp woman nodded. ”I’m in, I just need to get some food to take with me and I’ll be ready to go. I was going to say to keep your gold, but, if you wanna pay for my food supply for the trip that will be enough.” Sharifa offered, she didn’t need the gold anyway, Angela provided pretty much anything Sharifa wanted or needed, while Shar maintained her own weapons.

Whether Dala paid or not Shar made a quick trip around the bazaar area and bought some food for her to eat. A few different items that would last for a while, dried fruits, fried insects like grasshoppers, that sort of thing, and of course some sweets because she had a hell of sweet tooth. Once that was settled Shar made a quick check of the rest of her gear, now opening her cloak enough that perhaps Dala would get a look at the other two arms that Sharifa had. Not to mention the multiple weapons she was carrying that could be seen strapped under the cloak.

”I’m ready when you are, oh, and I still haven’t caught your name, by the way.” Shar said when she was ready to go.

Dala waited eagerly for her response and when she agreed, the girl had a big smile on her face. She gave Sharifa the payment for food then checked her own bag to ensure she had everything for the journey. A part of her knew that the warrior probably felt worried or pity for her and was going along out of the goodness of her heart rather than any skill or silver that she offered. Dala didn't know whether to feel grateful or irritated about that. Those problems aside, she waited until Sharifa returned with an armful of food. While the warrior was checking her weaponry, the girl was able to take a peek at the two other arms and multiple weapons the fighter carried. She realized she made the right choice for ally. 

"I'm Dala!" She said with a smirk, "Epic adventurer and cool person! ….I'm still working on that title. Trying to find something that rolls off the tongue is easier said than done." 

When she was a kid she would do a dramatic pose after the fancy introduction. Now that she was a older and more mature, she did two poses. Dala beckoned Sharifa to follow her as she began to walk towards the gate of the city. They passed through the safe walls into the wild where a golden dragon was sitting, basking in the sunlight. The dragon was fairly large and had enough room to carry two people on her back. Charise, the golden dragon, sat up as soon as she saw her master leaving the city and waited for Dala to return. At the sight of Sharifa, the dragon snarled and bared her fangs at the stranger. 

"Hey! Be nice or I won't let you have beast treats!" Dala said giving Charise a little whack on the nose.

The whack was a physical warning that didn't hurt the scaled creature in any way but it was a good way to get Charise' attention on the days where she was less willing to listen. The dragon stopped snarling but still gave Sharifa the side-eye. Charise had little patience for any potential assassins and had an overprotective attitude for Dala. Despite this, Charise seemed to listen well and lowered its back, with the expectance that both would hop on. 

"Do you want to ride the dragon? We could probably cut down the travel time by half if we fly." Dala offered. 

The dragon seemed to anticipate this offer even before Dala made it. The girl didn't want to assume Sharifa would be comfortable with dragons so she asked. Then there was the fact that Sharifa might be able to fly herself, something that hadn't even occurred to Dala. 

The wasp couldn’t help a small grin as Dala introduced herself and her title. ”Maybe drop the “cool person” part? If you think you have to call yourself cool, people might think you’re trying to hard.” Shar offered as a bit of advice, friendly advice of course, and that was rare for Shar to do. Shar had stocked up on what food she needed and Dala had paid for it so it didn’t take the wasp too long to get ready for this unexpected trip.

Travelling out of the city on foot and into the wilds and Shar’s danger sense kicked in a few moments before they came across the dragon. Sharifa was much more used to dealing with the larger and dangerous beasts now that she had been living in Sularia for the amount of time she had. There were a ton of dragons there and most wasps didn’t get that much interaction with them, so it was had been a learning experience for Shar to get over any inborn fears she had had of them.

The wasp stilled stopped when the beast snarled at her, but Dala scolded the dragon and whacked it across the nose. Shar relaxed, slightly, at least it was listening to Dala. At the offer to ride on the dragon Sharifa shook her head. ”I have that covered.” She said and used her lower arms to reach behind her and undo a couple of snap buttons on the back of her cloak. That allowed enough of an opening for Sharifa to open her large wings without having to remove her cloak. A much needed modification that she had wished she had thought of earlier than she had.

Her wings buzzed and she lifted into the air a few feet and hovered there making a buzzing noise as she did. ”Led the way.” Shar nodded and this was why she would eat so much sometimes; flying burned a lot of energy, and it got worse over long distances. But she had enough sugary foods to last her, at this point Shar was well aware of what she needed and how much she needed to keep herself going for an extended period.

Dala's eyes widened with surprise and curiosity as she saw Sharifa's gorgeous wings. There weren't many times she'd seen wings in person. The only other pair of wings she had seen were the feathered ones Simone used. With a confident smile the girl hopped onto the dragon's back and motioned for Charise to take off. The golden dragon began flapping its wings before taking off into the brilliant blue sky. The wind blew through her blonde hair and the sunshine felt warm on her face. As always, the flying seemed magical in a way she could never quite describe. 

"Right!" She remembered what they were doing and took out a map. 

Using the map and a small golden compass, she was able to direct Charise towards the sunken temple. Once she knew the path, she put in her backpack and her dragon swiftly flew forwards. They passed several villages and little towns that dotted the area around the city. Finally, they approached a medium sized stone tower with chipped paint and a collapsed stone door lying on the ground. Charise landed on the ground with a thud, lacking the grace most other dragons maintained. Dala hopped off the dragon and rushed towards the tower with that confident smirk on her face. The tower was pointed at the top and had a square shape. A giant needle would be a fair assessment of the structure. 

The teenager entered the tower, stepping over the broken door and gazed up at the interior of the structure. The wooden floor beneath them creaked and groaned, as though it could barely take their weight. Above them was the pointed ceiling with an old rusted bell that once would have been beautiful but now was nothing more than an old chunk of metal. The walls held unreadable ancient writings that almost looked like pictures. Dust covered everything and little spiderwebs decorated the corners of the tower. There weren't any doorways, except the entrance nor any indication that there was any more to the building. Raiders had stolen the furniture and anything else of value many many years ago. 

"Here we are!" The girl declared, "Now lets get going! And try to keep up. I don't want you to get lost or trapped or-"

The floor beneath her snapped and the teenager girl fell through, letting out an ear-piercing scream. The ancient wood wasn't strong enough to hold up one person, let alone two. Beneath the tower was another room that led to the rest of the buried temple. The falling distance wasn't lethal and she was lucky enough to land on something soft and squishy. The entire room was dark, so Dala reached into her bag and pulled out a torch, lighting it with a match. 

"I'm okay!" She called up to Sharifa, "I landed on…. EWWWW"

The teenager had landed on a pile of slime that once was a living creature. Dala killed it on impact, causing the corner of the room and the girl to be covered in sticky green goo. She pushed herself to her feet and reached into her bag, using one of her spare canteens to wash off as much of the slime as she could. But the stench of a slime would still linger for the next couple of weeks. 

Shar’s buzzing wings easily kept up with the dragon as it flew ahead of her, and once in a while she pushed on more speed and flew along the beast before falling back again. She was using the larger beasts wake to make her own flying easier, so she didn’t have to burn as much energy keeping her wings beating. Their destination was soon in sight and it looked like a needle pointing into the air. Shar watched as the dragon landed with a thud and she set down beside it, the claws on her feet clicking as she did against the stone. Right away she scanned the area for any immediate threat, but the layers of dust on everything indicated that nothing had moved through here in some time, well, nothing living anyway.

Shar didn’t like how the floor creaked under their weight so she made sure not to step onto the same place as Dala did. But that didn’t do much in the end to help as Dala went screaming through the floor anyway and she was just out of reach of Sharifa who tried to catch the girl’s arm. ”Shit!” The wasp jumped down the hole just as Dala lit the torch and Shar’s wings flashed out and buzzed as she softened her landing on seeing that Dala was alright. The smell however hit her nose and Shar frowned, that was nasty to say the least, but looks like they’d have to deal with it. Dala was ok though at least and Shar sighed in relief.

As Shar eyed what was left of whatever it was that Dala landed on she removed her cloak, rolled it up and shoved into a pack she had been wearing. She liked that cloak and didn’t want to get it dirty. Now without her cloak her full figure was showing, she didn’t wear any actual clothing, because she didn’t have any outward sexuality to her, if it wasn’t for the way that she spoke and her name it would be hard pressed for an outsider to mark her as female or male. Other wasps and most other insects could tell on sight, but sometimes it would be harder for others to know. But it also showed how much weaponry Sharifa was packing. She had a sword on each hip, a small shield, two thin rapiers crafted from what must have been really large wasps to make the blades. Two tonfas crafted from giant beetle horns and a pouch that contained several shuriken, not to mention her limited casting ability. The only weapon she did not have on her was her bow and right now Shar was thinking that she wanted to have it, but she would have to do without.

”Well, at least we’re walking on a stone floor now.” Shar remarked as he looked around the place. ”Can’t say I can tell what it was you landed on though. Probably a rat?” Shar looked back up to where they had come from and then back around the room again. ”Come on, let’s keep going. That hole will give us an easy way out of here a least, I can lift you up there.”