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Project: TheirWorld – Chapter 007 - Part 1

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When Talking to Horses and Weird Old Drunks

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TheirWorld

Furrowing her brows, Guin looked into the eyes of the horse. His silvery mane glittered in the sunlight as it shook His head. “You…” she murmured.

“You’re shocked, I’m shocked – well, aren’t we all shocked?” He said pointedly and flicked his tail. “There aren’t many people who can see me, forget talk to me.” As she listened, Guin wracked her brain, searching for the words that she was looking for. She didn’t remember reading anything about there be talking horses in-game – unless… He gave a whinny-like laugh. “Am I the first spirit that you have met, little veil child?”

“You’re a spirit?” she asked, more to confirm than anything else. The horse nodded. “But then… Why are you in town? In a… stable, no less?”

“Oh,” he went. “I’ve been sent to gather the Children of the Dusk – but very few children who can even see me are born into the village. Its rather sad, really. My purpose… Its enough to give a poor horse a broken heart.”

“Children of the Dusk?”

“Those who were born to walk in the veil, of course,” He said, pouting. “Much more rare than those silly ignorant dawn children who don’t know I’m here.The Children of the Dusk are those who have the potential to follow paths greater than themselves, and outside the dreams of simple men.”

“Hmm.”

“I wonder, little girl, are you a Child of the Dusk?” The horse peered down at her rather intensely.

“I-I’m not really sure what that means…” she answered. She had a general idea if the in-game war between the ‘dawn’ faction and the ‘dusk’ factions, but that seemed to be determined by class rather than declaring for one side or the other.

He nodded at her. “No matter, no matter – such a thing can be remedied in time. Why don’t you do something for me? It’s been a long time since I met someone who could see in this village, and I have a small errand that needs to be run. Do you think you go do it for me?”

“I-I guess,” Guin was more than a little curious as to where this was going to go. “What should I do?”

“Good!” He whinnied and pawed at the ground. “I promised my friend that I would meet them for tea later, but I have forgotten where I was supposed to meet them. I know that the Veil Ants might know where she is to ask, but I don’t have the time to look for one. If you find one, tell it that Giran Rune is looking for the great wise owl. Do this task for me, and I might even be able to find a reward for you somewhere.”

>

He has since forgotten where he was supposed to go for the meeting, and has asked you to find a Veil Ant to ask. Veil Ants are curious and hard to find creatures.

This quest is optional. It can be skipped.>>

> > >

“Alright!” Guin told him, accepting the quest. Giran Rune pawed at the ground with his hoof, and the window faded away.

“Very good!” the horse’s voice said in her mind. “Go now, then, into the world! Find some ants!”

“Um,” she started. “Where does one find a Veil Ant?”

Giran Rune eyed her with a bemused look in his eye. “Hmm, I wonder…” He chuckled a bit, and disappeared into the stable.

“Ah-” she began to call after him, but it was obvious that he was done talking to her. Quickly realizing that him telling her the answer would probably defeat the spirit’s ulterior motive for giving her the quest, she sighed and turned away.

Where does one find a Veil Ant? In the Veil? Wandering back into the main town as she wondered, she bit her lip. The Veil would be the obvious answer – but as she thought about it, she realized that she didn’t yet know how to use any of her skills, let alone the one that allowed her to walk in the Veil.

In that case, she supposed that she had two options. One, troubleshoot until she figured stuff out. Or two, go to the school house and begin the actual tutorial lessons. With a shrug, she started to skip and hum over to the school house – where the nasty valkyrian man was waiting, sitting on a barrel at the entryway. Guin skidded to a stop and felt her lip curl involuntarily.

“Oh?” the man said. “Yer back, are ya?”

With a roll of her eyes, Guin answered: “Why do you care?”

“I care ‘cause I’m the Gatekeeper,” he told her. “If you want to attend this here school, you need to register with me!”

“I-Is that so?” Guin asked, choking down the anger that was building in her heart. She wondered if it was possible that the game was able to pull memories and feelings to push players one way or another. “If I want to register, what should I do, Gatekeeper?” she bit at him.

His eyes darkened as he smirked at her. “First,” he said. “Yeh should ‘prolly start with some respect, girl. From there, I’ll need ya’s name – and a favor.”

“…What kind of favor?” she asked with great suspicion.

“I,” he started. “Need a drink.”

“…A drink?” she repeated dumbly.

“Ya get me a nice flask of cider ale from Ginny’s, and I’ll stop givin yeh a hard time ‘bout the school – how’s ‘at sound?”

> > > >

Guin sighed and accepted the quest. “Very well.”

The man gave her a grin full of rotten teeth. “Good girl! Off yeh go now,” he pushed her back out onto the street.