<div class="floatleft">(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOLddRmFGdsSuiH4htcFCE-rkkpNUW1yBZYB0dPCezqszrQwRxAg)<br/></div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Ralena Tharin</span><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Amber < Guild hall<br/><strong>With:</strong>Nobody<br/><hr/><br/>The town of Amber was a small, peaceful place that usually kept to itself and didn't intrude much on the outside world. They lived their simple lives mostly independent of the outside world, and they were satisfied with it for a long time. They mostly sustained themselves off of their agricultural scene, and several of Amber's farmers were able to make entire life styles out of growing their own food while selling off excess harvest to the merchants and travelers who were passing by. It was a simple, peaceful life that didn't justify any change, that was, until the fog's shadow appeared. For about a full year now, teenagers in the town would go missing without a trace, and then they'd show up a few days later when a thick fog bathed the entire city, their bodies shallow and liveless husks compared to the lively and energetic young people that they had been before. After the third disappearance with the townspeople unable to solve the mystery on their own, they were left with no choice but to put out a request out for an official guild to solve the mystery in their stead. And that was how, on this morning of the thick fog, a figure completely covered from head to toe in a white cloak made it's way into the town.<br/><br/>The figure lifted it's head, bringing up one of it's hands as it seemed to squint outwards from the inside of it's hood. "Nngh... The fog is so thick..." I can't see anything..." She lowered her head, letting out a small whine as her shoulder slumped down. "Maaaaaan, and I was really hoping to get a little bit of time to relax after that long trip. Traveling by foot sucks." The woman in the cloak had to make the last leg of her trip by foot, since the roads leading into and out of Amber had gotten slowly more and more degraded ever since the fog started appearing, making them unsuitable to travel by magic powered cars or the sort. Either way, the woman stepped further into town, her head shifting from left to right as she looked around, trying to find the source of the fog while she was here. Eerily enough, everybody in town was unconscious from the looks of it, she had arrived in the middle of the day after a long trip, and she could see every person in town knocked out and laying on the ground as though they had fallen asleep smack dab in the middle of their daily lives. While it had been obvious before, this guaranteed for sure that there was some kind of magic at work here.<br/><br/>It was during this trip around town that the robed woman suddenly felt a disturbing presence nearby, magical power suddenly closing in on her position with alarming speed. Thanks to her incredible reaction time, she was able to juke backwards in time to avoid some kind of devastating magical attack that would have torn her body apart limb from limb with a flurry of seemingly invisible blades. As it was, however, all the invisible blades succeeded in tearing apart was her cloak as the black haired woman skidded to a halt, left in her white battle robes held together with a red ribbon around her torso. The blades attacked again, but this time Ralena was ready as she dodged out of the center of the attack again. Another flurry appeared at her end location while she was in the middle of her dodge, however, and it looked as though she was going to dodge herself right into her own imminent doom. When she arrived, however, no doom awaited her as she stuck her hand out in front of her and turned around in mid-air to face where the flurry would come from. While the blades themselves were invisible, Ralena was able to see the way that they stirred and disrupted the fog, giving her an idea of where to be ready for an attack. When she arrived at the location of the third flurry, a huge blue shield would materialize in her hands, grinding the flurry to a halt as Ralena skidded to another halt, now breathing slightly heavily as the blue shield evaporated into dust.<br/><em>"A guild mage... in my domain? You're a brave one, little girl."</em><br/><br/>The guild mage smiled confidently, getting back up to a comfortable posture standing straight up before she looked around her for the source of the fog. Eerily enough, it seemed as though it had come from all around her, the fog itself speaking to her in that wispy voice, just barely above a whisper. "Well yeah! Didn't you know that kidnapping people is bad? I'm here to bring you to justice!" from all around her, the girl with the black hair would hear only laughter from the whispering voice of the fog.<em>"So full of confidence and life... You'll do well, you'll fuel me for years to come."</em>At this point, Ralena could start to feel her breath getting more difficult to manage, it was as though taking in air was an impossible task when breathing in this strange fog.<em>"I am the ruler of this domain. The moment you chose to come here, your fate was sealed."</em><br/><br/>Oh, well OBVIOUSLY! No, not the fate sealed part, something else was just as obvious that had clicked in the black haired girl's head, as she felt herself struggling for breath, her mind getting hazy thanks to the lack of oxygen. This fog wasn't merely a way for the attacker to hide their identity, it was the source of their power. How had she been so dense? Well, since she now knew that this fog was generated by magical power, and wasn't a natural part of the environment, she had a few plays that she was able to make. The palm of her hand would glow with blue magical power that would take the form of an orb, forming a small ball in her hand that she'd slam together in between her palms. The blue orb in between her hands would explode outwards, the fog vanishing without a trace while Ralena sucked in a huge and proud breath of air.<br/><br/>Before her stood a man in his late millions, judging from his face and the condition of his body. It wasn't a stretch to figure out what was going on at this point, this old man was some kind of fog wizard, and was using his powers to cover his tracks as he kidnapped young people from the town and used them to fuel his own magical power, and likely put off his inevitable death via old age.<em>"What? But how... how did you?"</em><br/><br/>The girl smiled, holding her right hand outwards as the blue energy from before appeared in her palm again. This time, however, the blue energy hardened and solidified into the form of a sword, which she'd extend outwards and point towards him. "It's just how I roll. If you rely on cheap gimmicks or using nothing but magic to beat me, you're in for a bad time." She rushed in his direction at this point, slamming the sword straight into his stomach and sending him knocking back. "So why don't you show me how tough you are when you've gotta fight face to face?" The old man recovered surprisingly well from the hit, a bank of fog seemingly breaking his fall as he would have hit the ground. Ralena, however, didn't ease up as she began running towards him, her sword disappearing as her fists began to glow with the now familiar blue energy, hardening into stylish blue gauntlets as she closed in on him. "What's the matter? Not so tough without your fog? Well then how about you just GET DOWN!?" the gauntlet connected with his face, and the old man was rocked backwards, this time smashing fully into the ground with the girl standing over him, the gauntlets vanishing as she crossed her arms. By now the people of the town were coming to, the sleep spell of the fog wearing off. "Ralena Tharin, remember the name, because some day I'm gonna be a legend!"<br/><br/>.............................................<br/><br/><strong>At Fairy Tail HQ</strong><br/><br/>Ralena stood proud on one of the tables, a few of her fellow guildmates listening to the story of her most recent mission. "And that's when the people paid me, but I didn't go home just yet. Oh no, I wasn't satisfied until I saw that old creep sailing off towards magical prison with my own two eyes." She crossed her arms proudly, a broad smile across her features. "And that's the story of how I saved Amber!" By this point, however, most of the people that she had forced to listen to her story were talking among themselves or had zoned out. "I know, but she doesn't have to make it sound like every job she takes is the greatest thing ever." "I wonder how many details she lied about to make it more exciting." "Can we go now?"<br/><br/>Ralena let out a slightly deflated sigh, shrugging as she sat down again, the story listeners dispersing and going about their regular, daily lives. "Ah well, *I* think I did amazing, and that's all that really matters." For now she settled in, enjoying a complimentary guild meal that had been provided to her thanks to Leona's copious amounts of preparation.