Tabitha figured that the trip back to wherever Runa was from would be a great time for some information gathering. At the same time, though, she didn’t want to overwhelm the injured girl, so she kept the questions simple.

“By the way, what’s up with the ears and tail? You from a furry commune or somethin’?”

As far as Tabitha was concerned, asking somebody about their body, if they were a furry, and if they were from some sort of commune all at once was taking it easy and keeping it simple.

“What’s… what’s a furry commune?” Runa asked.

“You know, like… a bunch of folk livin’ in the woods off the land wearin’ fursuits and whatnot. May or may not be a cult in disguise. In very furry disguises. Hah! I crack myself up sometimes. Get it? Furry disguises? Because they’re furries?”

Runa’s expression made it abundantly clear that she had no idea what Tabitha was talking about. Even so, she nodded out of some remaining concern for her own safety. “I—I wouldn’t call our village that.”

“So, not a bunch of furries? Darn.”

“Is… that a problem?”

“Well, not really. Ya see, I ain’t about that lifestyle, but I am about makin’ some money, and there’s no client like a wealthy furry client. Seriously, I swear some of the most powerful men in the world are furries with how much money they spend on art. There’s probably some oil baron out there pumpin’ half of his company’s profits into furry art commissions. If half the money spent on furry commissions went to solvin’ world hunger, I’m tellin’ ya that not a single kid would ever starve again. Anyways, all of that’s just to say I’d make somebody a fursuit as long as they pay me to. Easy money!”

“What’s a,” Runa sounded afraid to even ask, “fursuit?”

“It’s a big, furry suit that looks like an animal walkin’ around on two legs. People wear them and go to conventions and stuff. But uh… let’s not talk about what happens at their conventions. I feel like every hotel in the area is gonna ban me from stayin’ there if I even bring it up.”

“I don’t know about the rest of what you said… but looking like an animal is the last thing we want to do.”

“Are ya sure about that? I mean… have ya looked at your ears?”

It became immediately obvious to Tabitha that she hit a sore spot when Runa frowned and looked away. “It’s not like I want to look this way.”

“Couldn’t ya just take them off then?”

That was an easy way to get Runa to turn her head back around. “Take… my ears off?”

“Yeah. They’re connected to a headband under your hair, right?”

Runa tilted her head. “These… are my real ears.”

And Tabitha leaned her head back. “You’re screwin’ with me.”

“I wouldn’t joke about that. None of us would.”

“Can I touch it?”

“I would rather you not, but… if it will make you stop your jokes, fine.”

“I ain’t jokin’,” Tabitha said before reaching her hand around Runa’s waist up to touch her ear. Surely enough, it felt real. And it twitched. When she gave it a gentle tug, she pulled Runa’s entire head with it and made her yelp. “Well, I can say that if they’re fake, they’re really glued on there.” Next, Tabitha slid her hands underneath Runa’s hair where a human ear should have been only to not find anything but more hair. “Alright. So, let me get this straight. There’re no dwarves… but there are people with dog ears? I reckon the tail is real, too.”

Runa nodded and sighed. “I told you. Are you done mocking me?”

“Mockin’? Wait, hang on. I didn’t mean to be rude. I apologize if I was. Actually, yeah. Thinkin’ about it, I was probably comin’ off as mighty rude there. That’s on me. It’s just, I’ve never seen anybody like you is all. We uh… don’t quite have your kind back where I’m from. Just furries. So uh, if you’re not a human or a furry… what are ya?”

Runa looked like she was about to cry. “Do you promise you’re not making fun of me?”

Tabitha already felt bad, but seeing Runa’s expression really made her feel bad. “H-hold on! Don’t go cryin’ now! I promise I ain’t messin’ with ya! Look, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I’m from a planet named Earth. Pretty sure this ain’t Earth. I’ve got no idea where I am or what anything else. Promise on my Gramp’s grave that I don’t got the slightest idea what I’m supposed to call ya.”

Runa went from saddened to blinking and curious. “You’re… not from this world?”

“Definitely not, unless they’ve been keepin’ this whole place secret from us. Not sure how they’d do that with satellites and drones and all.”

“You promise you’re not making fun of me?!” Runa sounded real excited now. Excited to the point where it was Tabitha’s turn to look a bit worried.

“I promise?” Tabitha replied.

Runa’s smile spread from ear to ear at that point. “I can’t believe it! You—you can help us! You can help our village! There’s no way that a Summoned won’t be able enough to help us!”

“Ho-hold on now. Don’t be gettin’ your hopes up. I’ve got no idea what you’re talkin’ about. Also, if a ‘Summoned’ or whatever is as great as you’re implyin’, maybe ya shouldn’t go trustin’ that somebody is one just because they sound like they’re not from your parts.”

“But it would explain everything! It explains why you have clothes unlike anything I’ve seen before, and why you don’t know anything! You—ow.” Runa got a bit too excited and moved her injured leg.

“Oi, careful there. Just try to calm down, alright?”

“Ri-right. Sorry. It’s just… I’ve always dreamt of meeting a Summoned, and our village has really been struggling lately. It’s why we’ve had to resort to using those traps for hunting. It’s not like we want to use traps, but… they’ve kept us fed and warm.”

“Heh.”

“What—is something funny?”

“Just, you’re a lot more talkative now is all. I like ya better this way. No offense, but ya kind of reminded me of one of my moody customers before. The smile and energy you’ve got now is much more to my likin’.”

Runa’s eyes widened for a moment before blinking as if she could hardly believe what she just heard. Her ears twitched and her tail wagged a little as well. “Is—is that so?”

“Everybody looks better when they’re smilin’! Anyways, I still think ya should be more careful about who ya trust, but I can promise I’m… probably one of those ‘Summoned’ folk? I’ve got no idea how I got here, but I’m from another planet and randomly woke up in the middle of this here forest, so.”

“Well… I’ve never heard of a Summoned randomly arriving like that, but I don’t know what else would explain you. Oh! And since I never did tell you… well, we like to consider ourselves humans, but we know we’re not anymore. We haven’t been fully human for hundreds of years. The only other identity we have now is what others call us… and we really don’t like those names.”

“Ah. Well, I ain’t gonna press the issue then. More importantly, ya said somethin’ about helpin’ your village? I mean, I ain’t sure I’ll be able to help, but I wouldn’t mind tryin’.”

Runa’s face was a rollercoaster of emotions of highs and lows. “You—you really will?!”

Tabitha narrowed her eyes a little. “Maybe. And ya gotta tell me about it first.”

“Well, you see… the land hasn’t been good to us the last few growing seasons. We lost a couple of families over winter because we barely had any food stored going into it. Now, our first crops of the year have already been struck by blight. It feels like the land itself has given up on us and wants us gone. I… have no idea how you might be able to help, but we’ve all heard the stories of Summoned in other nations helping those who needed them!”

“That uh… that sounds like a tall order for somebody like me, and it ain’t because of my height. I ain’t sure I’ll be able to help at all, but I mean, I’m not opposed to checkin’ things out and seein’ if I’ve got any ideas?”

Runa nodded with an excited smile. “Even doing that for us would be more than anybody else has done!”

Tabitha didn’t know what she was getting into, but she could tell how genuinely thankful Runa was just from looking into her eyes. She doubted a girl would look that desperate and thankful for help if it wasn’t serious.

More importantly, she found out that there were apparently others like her who might be from Earth. Maybe they’d know what was going on? Though, honestly, discovering that was a very low priority for Tabitha. Sure, she was curious about how she got to wherever she was, but she had no intention of ever returning to Earth if it meant having to go back to a fast-food job that made her regret existing every single day. Not to mention that she got to craft all sorts of things and was already having more fun than she had in years. For the first time in a long while, she actually wanted to live. She couldn’t wait to see what would happen the next day, what new item she might craft, and even what new people she might meet!

The only depressing part was that there were no dwarves.

She really wanted there to be dwarves.

I wonder if it’s possible to craft a dwarf…