Winston woke up on Christmas morning feeling antsy. He hadn’t logged into Otherworld for more than a day and he wanted to know how much of his farm was left standing. He and Trish had worked for hours to move as much of his harvested crops and tools out of the farm but he knew there’d be cleanup. Those bastards would search the whole place to find anything worth stealing.

Today was Christmas though and it would likely be late afternoon before he could get away from all the celebrating. He pulled himself out of bed and got dressed, then hit the bathroom before he stumbled downstairs. His mom was already in the kitchen cooking waffles by the smell of it and Winston pulled up a chair and plopped down at the table, across from his dad and next to Josh.

He pulled the plate of waffles closer and plucked two down on his plate before slaughtering them in butter and syrup. Next was a sausage patty and two pieces of toast before he was ready to dig in.

“Still eating plenty I see.” John said scornfully. Winston’s fork paused just above the food but he shrugged off the insult and continued to eat as if no one had spoken. The only problem Winston had found with exercise was that he ate even more now than he did when he was fat. He was nearly always hungry and wondered if he was going to grow taller again. He was only seventeen and guys grew well into their twenties.

“How was Christmas-eve at Trish’s last night?” Josh asked around his own mouthful of waffles. He’d put blueberries on his, which was just blasphemy in Winston’s opinion.

“About what you’d expect. Lots of old people drinking egg-nog and bitching about the government. Won two dollars playing penny poker, and got into a rather interesting discussion about how the NSA is run by the Graymen with one of her drunken uncles.” Winston said.

Josh laughed and even his mom snorted as she added a plate of bacon to the table. Winston polished off his plate and leaned back in his chair, sighing as let his food digest. “You want some help with the dishes mom?” Winston asked.

“Nope, I got it.” She said. “You should head into the living room. We’ll be opening presents soon.” Winston nodded and started to clean up the table, picking up the empty plates and putting the butter, syrup and other condiments back in the fridge before turned to head towards the living room.

“I wasn’t done with that.” John snapped. Winston rolled his eyes so hard he nearly hurt himself.

“Than walk the two steps to the fridge and get it back out.” Winston said without even turning around.

“You can’t talk to me like that!” his father shouted from the table. Winston turned and looked at him flatly.

“I can and will. I only give respect to people who deserve it.” Winston said, before he walked away and found a spot on the couch.

“I wish you’d try to get along with him.” Josh said to Winston once he’d sat down. He sounded more resigned than hopeful. “You two baerly speak to each other anymore when your not fighting.” Winston shrugged.

“I don’t see much point. I’ll turn eighteen in 7 months. Then I’m out of here. I’ve got the money for it now, I’d just like to save it to spend on my farm. Hopefully my next summer I won't have so much crap to work on.” Winston said.

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Are you really making that much?”

“Things have been going well. My biggest payoff wasn’t really something repeatable, but making 1000 dollar a week, isn’t really that hard, even with the value of gold going back down after the expansion.” Winston said honestly. The one to ten ratio was closer to one to twelve now, and would likely keep going down for a while. He imagined it would bottom out around 1/18 around next fall, but that was just his guess.

“You’re making fifty grand a year playing games?” Josh asked incredulously.

“Less than that, with taxes, exchange fees and all the gold I need to reinvest.” Winston said. “Forty thousand is a better number and that’s assuming I could work for an entire year without someone coming to kick over my sandcastle.”

“Still, forty-thousand is a full time job, and it’s what twice minimum wage?” Josh said.

Winston shrugged. “Something around there, but I’m working full time hours, four hours a day during the week and usually 10 to 12 on the weekends. It’s hard work and I’ve made a few enemies.”

“How do you make enemies farming?” Josh asked incredulously.

“Break a multi-guild blokade by planting a super-seed left over from the games early days and turning it into a giant bamboo stalk.” Winston said.

Josh’s eyes went wide. “And why did you do that?”

“They paid me seven thousand dollars to do it.” Winston said honestly. Josh shook his head.

Winston’s mom and dad came into the room a few minutes later and the family went through the long drawn out tradition of gift opening. Winston got a lot of new clothes, which was good, because few of his old ones fit anymore. Josh got a microwave, minifridge, and futon, obviously for his dorm-room next year, as well as new headphones, some clothes, and a bunch of smaller items.

The giant pile of presents next to Josh was comical compared to the four small clothing boxes Winston had. Even with the obvious favoritism he couldn’t be too mad. Josh really did need all that crap for college next year, and Winston needed the clothes. He would have let the whole thing go had his father not started instigating again.

“Not gonna say anything?” John said snidely. “Not going to complain about how unfair it is.”

“No, that would be childish. Just like badgering one of your own children into an argument so you have a chance to yell at them is childish.” Winston had meant what he said after his blow-up during Josh’s birthday. As far as he was concerned he didn’t have parents. That meant there was no reason to get upset when they continued to belittle him. He’d nearly perfected his apathy towards his father. It still hurt but it was a pain he’d grown used to long ago. He could nearly convince himself he really didn’t care what his father thought.

John’s lips peeled back in what was nearly a snarl, but Josh interrupted him before he could fire back.

“Dad, stop. What are you doing?” Josh asked, sounding honestly confused. “Why are you always picking on him so much? He’s your son too?”

“HE’S NOT MY SON!” John shouted. The room went silent and Winston’s eyes widened.

“I’m a bastard?” Winston blurted out before he could stop himself. He ignored his father, or step-father, or whatever and turned to his mom. She met his gaze unflinchingly and nodded. She didn’t look particularly embarrassed about it.

“I found out Josh was screwing his secretary, turn about seemed fair play.” She said.

“MOM!” Josh yelled, sounding horrified, but Winston only had one thing running through his mind.

“Thank god….” He muttered, but no one heard him as everyone else in the room started to yell.

*********************************************

They didn’t end up going to their grandmothers like they usually did on Christmas. After the long argument, the name calling, and the gloomy mood, none of them felt like facing the family. Josh stormed out and went to Jessica’s house. John left to find a hotel and Winston’s mom went to see her sister. That left Winston alone in the house and feeling confused.

He couldn’t say he was unhappy about the revelation. In fact it was a huge relief. Trying to constantly when approval from a father that seemed to hate him for no reason had been a constant source of bitterness for Winston. Now that he’d found out John wasn’t his father at all had taken a great weight of his shoulders and soothed the pain he’d had so long he’d forgotten it was there. If John wasn’t his father than he had no reason to put up with the asshole behavior towards him.

Winston considered calling Trish and unloading some of his problems on her but it was Christmas. She was with her family and she didn’t deserve WInston dropping a bunch of drama on her. No, he headed back upstairs and climbed into his machine. It was time to see what the damage was and start on the clean up.

A number of messages greeted Winston as soon as he logged in.

[You Have Died]

[You Have lost 1 level]

[You Have lost 9 gold]

[Your Pet Bogdona Had Died]

[She has lost 1 level]

[You May resurrect her at any time if you have the appropriate skill]

Winston sighed and performed the thirty-second long resurrection. Bog appeared in a flash of light, looking the same as ever. She waddled over to his and pressed her shoulders against his waist. Winston hugged her and ruffled her feathers as he started to walk back towards his farm.

The sun was bright and the sky clear. He’d spawned in a glade north of his base but east of the lizard-people village. The walk was only a few hours and Winston decided to spend the time going through his messages. The message icon was flashing with a small three next to it. He open the menu up and started to read.

It’s me Troll,

This is all pretty fubar but I got all your stuff loaded and dropped off everything that you wanted. Thanks for getting everything out, I’d have been mad if I drove all the way out there and got killed and robbed. Having to walk all the way back to town after a respawn with nothing to show for it would have really pissed me off.

Either way, let me know if you want me to come back this week or not. I’m not sure how much damage they did to your farm or if you’ll have a crop this week.

Winston grunted but flipped to the next message. He wouldn’t know if Troll needed to come back until he saw his farm.

Dear Win Mills,

This is Alex head of the Blood Hound’s logistics and support divisions. I talked to you briefly at the guild halloween party back in October. Triska has brought yesterday’s attack to my attention. Although I have no idea what you might have done to incur the ire of so many players your farm is in our territory and the Hound’s will not tolerate such behavior.

That does however put us in a bind. Although your farm is on our territory, you are not in fact part of our guild. While Triska has strongly hinted that she wishes to up patrols those players have to come from somewhere. Sending out enough high-level players to stop a strike-force of multiple level 40+'s will cost out guild manpower and resources. If you were part of the guild, such things would be your due but as an independent operator you can understand if we are hesitant to expend such resources on your behalf.

Still, I understand your farm is quite successful and that a pledge of safety from us would mean a great deal to you. If you’d be willing to provide our guild with a small percentage of your earnings, we are perfectly willing to send out the required troops, as well as make it known that your farm is under the Hound’s protection.

Without such a largess on your part however, it may take our guild a few weeks to free up the requisite manpower to stop the raids.

Our Deepest Regrets,

Alex

Member of the triumvirate of the Blood Hounds

“That smarmy bastard.” Wiston growled. He’d been expecting it but even Winston hadn’t expected them to put it so bluntly. He’d been expecting more innuendo and hints. Instead Alex had just stuck out his hand and expected Winston to fill it with money.

He supposed that when someone had you over a barrel they could be as blunt as they wanted. Winston decided to put of any decisions until he’d read the rest of his mail. He opened the next letter.

Win Mills,

It’s Casey from the from the Hound’s. Trish just brought back some of that coffee and damn… That was good, even if you suck at roasting it evenly. Still, I was wondering what it would set me back to order a bunch. Lots of coffee drinkers at the guild and getting coffee is always tough. Lemme know what you can do for a bulk order.

Casey

Finally, some good news. A bulk order of coffee was just what he needed if he was going to have to hand over his hard-earned gold. If they were going to drain him, he’d just have to make more. Winston waved away the message and picked up his pace.

“Well Bog, let’s go see how bad it’s going to be.”

The farm was both worse and better than Winston had been expecting. One wall of the hut had been broken. Most of the stuff inside trashed, but the barrels were ok and all the furniture had been cheap anyway. Six orange trees had been burnt down by some fire-spell while another three had been ruined because we’d used them for cover. Nothing else was too bad. The oven and the ginseng plants had been left alone oddly enough. The golden ginseng was likely the most valuable thing in the whole farm and it hadn’t been touched.

That was actually better than Winston was expecting. He had too many orange trees anyway. Losing nine and replacing them with coffee was a better financial choice. They kept longer and were worth more. He wondered vaguely if peach wood was worth anything. If not, he’d just use it in the oven.

Winston shook his head and found a wheelbarrow. He had a great deal of clean up to do, but first he had to go get his supplies. It was nearly five miles to the spot Trish had stashed his gear and Troll had dropped his off. That was a ten mile round trip and Winston would have to make at least three trips with only a wheelbarrow. He really did need to get a cart. Maybe he’d try to build one. If cavemen could do it, it shouldn’t be that hard. Winston sighed and logged back out. He didn’t have the energy to deal with any of it today.

It took all of the next day to haul everything back to his farm and two more to chop down all the damaged trees, pull their stumps and replant. Kishia showed back up during the third-day and was more than happy to start playing with her new alchemy gear. That had forced Winston to dig another larger herb garden and plant it with basic herbs for healing and mana potions. With all the extra work, the trees still fruiting, and the wall he now had to start on again because his wards were down. It was nearly new years before he was really to start on his own projects again. He had a feeling he couldn’t put Runa’s quest of much longer or she’d start getting testy.