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Project: TheirWorld – Chapter 006 - Part 2

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More Home Than Home

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TheirWorld

She wasn’t sure whether she should be excited at the detail, or frightened at the fact that her life in this game could get very tedious, very quickly.

Her mother, on the other hand, gave her a strange look, and looked to become increasingly impatient with her. Guin got a good scolding, but after she cleaned up and returned to her job, she finished quickly, and was allowed to go out into the town.

The town itself wasn’t far – it wasn’t even a five minute walk from her front door to the main street of the village. The path to her house was hidden in between a potter’s shop and a blacksmith. When she hit right where the forest ended, a new message popped up:

>

Guin tilted her head. Did she? Maybe later, she thought to herself, hitting the ‘no’ button, and moving forward. The town itself was rather quaint, with a small field in it’s center. In the field were two large maples and a few yellow birches scattered around. Children were running around and playing tag around a large, communal fire pit that was built in the middle. Several dogs barked and chased the children as they ran around happily while laughing adults looked on with warm smiles. A beautiful white building with a high steeple was at one end. It was small and simple, yet stood out with bright red doors.

Walking around the town was a rather odd, yet enlightening, experience. There was a General store, a Tinsmith’s, a Seamstress’s, an Apothecary. There was a rather large tavern with an inn attached to it called “Ginny’s Saddle House”. Not far from there, there was a Horse Breeder and a Saddle Maker. There was a milliner, and a cobbler, a wheelwright and a candle maker. There was even a cooper and a brick maker – though Guin couldn’t think of a reason a player in a game would need such things. She discovered over two dozen storefronts – half of which she had never before seen in a game that wasn’t somehow based in reality, and a few of which she had never heard of before. How many of these trades could actually be learned? How many of these trades would a person really want to learn?

Wandering throughout the town, she finally managed to find herself at the schoolhouse, which was a small building on the far end of the courtyard area. There were lots of people and children in the grounds. Guin smiled and began to walk on. There was much to see and do, and time was starting to run a bit thin for the night.

“Hey, you!” a big, shabby looking man with unkempt hair at the gate called. “Why aren’t you in school?”

“Huh?” Guin looked around, but seeing no one else the man could be talking to, she pointed to herself stupidly.

“Yes you, ya’ little brat,” he crossed his arms and stared down at her. With a sneer he said, “Playin’ hooky now, were yeh? Stupid little human thinks that it’s cool to do things she shouldn’t be then, eh?”

Guin gaped at him. The words were not unfamiliar to her – she’d heard them often since she had arrived at the Enclave. That fact, however, probably made it even harder for her to swallow. “E-Excuse me?” she asked, looking him over. Eventually she caught a glimpse of a few small, round, blue, mystriks in a line on his chin. He was a valkyrian. Feeling the corner of her eye twitch, she place her hands on her small hips. “Sure. I was playing hooky,” she answered him coyly. “Good job, old man, you caught me! What are you going to do about it?”

The man chuckled, “You’ve got guts, girl, but you ain’t gonna learn nothin’ like that. You’ll jus’ go off into them woods n’ die, just like yeh deserve.”

“Ye-ah,” Guin snorted. “I’ll get right on that, so excuse me!”

The man laughed as she left him there. I’m not playing this game to experience more real life bull shit even from NPCs… Quietly fuming, she continued to walk aimlessly through the town. It was full of laughing people, and people who seemed to be hard at work doing one task or another. People walked through the streets with large sacks on their backs, or with arms filled with fabrics, tools, bags of what, Guin could only guess. Only part of the town was backed by the forest, she discovered. As she followed streets and paths that were lined with trees, she was led out to fields of grass and grains that were lined with stone walls and wooden fences. There were people working in those fields, or leading horses and cattle around from stable to pasture, and from pasture to stable.

It didn’t quite take her breath away, but the whole thing amazed her. She heard hawks and blue jays and sparrows overhead. The sky was a clear white-blue. Fluffy clouds hung in the sky by the sun, casting down shadows over the fields. The wind blew through her hair, sending it in tendrils around her face. Ah, she thought to herself, once again fighting the urge to feel at home in this place. How is this a game?

She put her hand to her brow as she looked up at the sky. Strange shapes formed in the air, and a grin began to spread across her face as she saw two vaguely animal-shaped figures appear to dance together in the sky like wisps of smoke. Looking into the pasture revealed other figures as well, of similar smoke-like features, coming and going with the breeze.

Her mind traveled as she began to walk down to one of the stables. The people who passed by her smiled and greeted her warmly as she passed. She got the occasional “Shouldn’t you be at school?” but no one seemed to care to pursue it. She couldn’t tell if most were human or not, except the rare occasion when she was able to see obvious bat person or garule. She occasionally say saw a jikak, but for the most part, the others were human in appearance, as she would define them – though her instinct was to assume that they were valkyrian. Her mother was human though, as would have been her parents who lived in this town. It dawned on her that she had never thought about the subject of race in the minds of the NPCs until just then. For all that she was tired of dealing with the problems of her real life, would it actually be the same here? Although, she thought, at least here maybe I can have a little more freedom… The consequences in this world weren't worth worrying about.

Never you mind about it now, she told herself as she approached the stable. Guin put her hand out face up to let the horses sniff her. What would she do from here? There were many options for her at this point, she knew. She could go to school. She could become an apprentice. She could go into the forest and learn how to fight. Heck, she could even do chores, if she were so inspired to do so. No matter what, she could easily raise her stats while she was in the tutorial. In TheirWorld, stats weren’t just affected by level, but also by how much work one put into skills what used the stat.

The horses she had put her hand out to flinched back and pulled away as she reached to pat their noses. All but one of them. The one – a tall, brilliantly white stallion breathed into her face, causing Guin to fall into a fit of giggles. Petting it’s nose made her feel warm. She had always loved horses, but rarely had she ever gotten to touch one. It stared at her, it's blue eyes full of curiosity.

“You, girl,” came yet another new voice. Startled and confused, Guin looked around for the source of the voice – but found none. “Yes you. You can see me?I mean, you are petting me, which is far more odd, really.”