Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 016 - Part 1

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The Fools of the Forest

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TheirWorld

When she came to in-game, she was in her house, snuggled up in her bed. TheirWorld worked at a 3x time speed, meaning that in 24 hours real time, three days would pass in-game. Being around 8pm in reality, it was now midday in her part of the world.

Guin climbed out from the covers and stretched. She cast [Spirit Armor], and went into the kitchen area where her mother had left her a care package and a note about feeding the animals. She went ahead and placed the package in her bag and went to take care of the animals, which gained her two more chore completions.

For every chore you complete with this quest active, you will earn one Tutorial Token which can be traded to masters for skills and abilities.

When you complete all 22 chores, or wish to drop the quest, speak to your parent for your earned rewards.

This quest is optional. It can be skipped.>

>

While she wasn’t overly attached to this chore quest, she wanted to see it through to the end.

She pulled up her map and looked to where the Webspinner marked it. Eager to get back to Tik-Tak, she wanted to check on the directions before hand. In order to increase her dismal skills and to test the benefits of the tutorial zone, she began jogging back toward the glade.

Once she hit the forest edge, she started activating [Fox Form] and shot off. It took her about fifteen minutes to get from her house to the glade at this pace. About half way there, she was greeted by the sound of bells as a screen popped up:

> <<[Fox Form]>> > > > > > >

Level 2! It was a whole 15 second increase in maintaining the form - an incredibly valuable increase! Grinning, she wondered how many skill levels she could get while she was in the tutorial. Surely, having any increased skills would give her a decent head start in the main game.

Satisfied, she calmly entered the glade -

- And was promptly pounced on by Tik-Tak, who must have been eagerly awaiting her arrival. The two little foxes played for a bit, without exchanging words.

“You have returned, I see,” came the Webspinner’s ethereal voice.

Guin and Tik-Tak bowed cordially. “I have, Lady Webspinner,” Guin answered.

“Allow me to give you a blessing of fate before you begin your journey,” The Webspinner’s voice said, and in a flash both Tik-Tak and Guin were enveloped in a bright blue light that faded after a moment. Reverting to human form, Guin checked her status and saw that she had a buff called [Web of Fate] which granted her +5% Fate for an in-game day. Guin’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. It was probably useless in the tutorial, sadly, but was this a benefit that she could get in the main game as well? The natural instinct to befriend the little spider filled her as she bowed deeply.

“Many thanks for your blessing, Webspinner,” Guin said.

Meanwhile, Tik-Tak was circling around her feet. “Where should we go?” he then asked. “The Webspinner said that we should find Wise by finding the fools… where do we find them?”

Double checking her map, Guin pointed to the East, “That way; we should be able to go straight. It’s quite far though, compared to the village.” Guin entered [Fox Form] and once again bowed to the Webspinner before turning to Tik-Tak and saying, “Let’s go!” Together, the two foxes ran off into the woods.

It really was quite far. Even in her fox form, it took them a good ten to fifteen minutes to get to the area on the map. Luckily, however, it didn’t take her look to find a very bizarre scene in the woods. In fact, Guin was slightly taken aback by what she found.

“Get out, flea fool!” came a sharp, high pitched voice from the trees.

“Get down here, Nuts!” came a low, growling voice.

Guin edged closer to the scene, using a tree as cover. The low growls were clearly coming from a beautiful white wolf - who was being rather unsightly, standing on his hind legs, shouting up into the tree the other voice had come from. His ear twitched as he looked down at the ground. Falling to all fours, he stalked at an apparent hole in the dirt for a moment, then promptly shoved his nose in it, hackles raised, shouting what sounded like, “Mumph, mumph, omph, mumph-mumphen!”

Guin couldn’t help but laugh a little, though she was hoping that she was wrong. Tik-Tak shuffled over closer to her left side as she took another few steps forward.

“Wait!” the high pitched voice shrieked. “Biter! Hopper! Look!”

The wolf pulled his muzzle out of the hole with an irritated expression on his face as he shook off some of the dirt. “What, Whaat?” He demanded, “Unless you are planning on coming down here, I don’t care!”

A small, red rabbit’s head appeared from the hole the wolf had had his nose in. “What’s that?” it asked, then pulled it’s head back into the ground as the wolf went to chomp off it’s head. Whining sharply after his nose hit the ground, he shook his head, sticking out his tongue. Rather than the head of the rabbit, the wolf came up with a mouthful of dirt.

“Who the hell cares?” the wolf shouted angrily. “Unless it’s edible - then I care!” The wolf’s black eyes move to where Guin and Tik-Tak were. Guin froze as she read that carnivores gaze he held. Baring it’s teeth into a smile, he asked “What? What are you looking at tiny fox creatures? Asking to be eaten?”

Stepping in front of Tik-Tak - who had taken to cowering behind her anyway - she glared and prepared to morph back into human form.

“Who wants to be eaten?” Came the voice from the trees.

“Don’t you?” The wolf grinned back up at the tree.

“Who would?” asked the rabbit, appearing from the hole again.

The wolf glared down at the rabbit. “I won’t fall for it again.

The rabbit rolled it’s blue eyes. “Of course you will.

“I mean, you do at least once a day,” went the voice from the tree.

Not sure whether she should be amused or concerned, Guin went back into human form. As the wolf ran growling up to the tree again, Guin knelt next to the rabbit who was watching her, rather than the wolf. It didn’t seem overly surprised that one of the foxes had turned into a human. It’s eyes went looking for Tik-Tak, but he had taken to hiding in the bushes nearby.

“Excuse me,” she started. “I’m sorry, but do you think you could help me?”

The wolf came down and looked at her as the rabbit did, and from the tree a small black squirrel dropped down onto the wolf’s head.

“What do you want?” the squirrel asked, munching on a nut.

“You can’t have my food,” the wolf informed her.

“You can’t have my hole,” the rabbit informed her.

“You can’t have my nuts,” the squirrel said.

“Who wants those?” asked the wolf with a growl. “Get off my head!”

The squirrel lifted his head in a snotty way. “Educated people,” he answered.

“...I don’t want them either,” said the rabbit, distaste lining his voice.

“No one asked you!” The squirrel stomped his foot in agitation, then jumped over onto Guin’s shoulder. “See what I’m working with here? You know the value of my nuts, don’t you?” he asked, thrusting his hips forward in an awkward way. Suddenly, Guin felt extremely uncomfortable as she wordlessly opened and closed her mouth, searching for words for the situation...