49 - Highpond

Eden, Beastkin Nation of Otha, Capital City Highpond

Around them, the beastkin town burst with activity as half-beast half-men creatures carry large crates, announce their products, or simply walk hurriedly from place to place, many of them not being particular on walking on two legs… Or using the ground, for that matter.

It is obvious the city has been designed with beastkin in mind, and Avril might have even enjoyed the experience of exploring it, if not for the constant looks, and worse, sniffs, thrown her way.

Not entirely different from what a busy street in a modern city would look like, if you ignore the fantasy aspect, of course… However, if there is a difference, it is how frequently people seem to stop and talk to each other, often on a first-name basis.

Ha. Almost like they don't have a screen to stay glued to. Her parents would fit right in.

As she sweeps her gaze over their lively surroundings, Avril shudders.

"Avril?"

Noticing Avril has stopped, Sara also halts her steps as she glances over her shoulder.

How come she doesn't seem bothered at all?

"…Forget it. We're almost there."

Sara smiles, though the expression seems somewhat awkward. "Actually, I was hoping we could speak for a bit… You know, in a place where everybody isn't looking our way?"

"I can't imagine what you'd have to say that'd possibly interest me."

Sara pouts exaggeratedly. "C'mon, pretty please?"

Avril sighs, which immediately brings a smile out of Sara.

"Sweet."

"Make it fast. And don't think you'll always get your..."

Avril realizes Sara isn't really listening once the girl turns and walks toward a group of nearby beastkin kids currently in the middle of some sort of ball game.

"…Way."

Avril clenches her teeth, though she doesn't push the issue, following after Sara silently.

One of these days…

"Hey there little guys, gotta a minute to talk?"

The beastkins continue their game as though Sara hasn't spoken, bringing a smile to Avril's lips.

"I told you, there's no point in wasting time with every NPC we come across. Some of them might have advanced AIs, but we'll get some sort of worthless side quests from randoms, at best."

Sara throws Avril a glance, though she doesn't answer, instead returning her gaze toward the kids as she smiles at them.

"Okay, I guess you're not interested in the secret I was about to tell you…"

Sara makes as if she's about to walk away, though she doesn't give more than a step before a catkin boy abruptly grabs the ball midair, stopping the game dead in its tracks.

"Bullshit! There's no secret!"

"Hey!"

Sara smiles at the boy. "Is it?"

The boy stares at Sara with narrowed eyes, ignoring his friends' protests. "You're the people Gramma told us to stay away from. You can't trick us."

An avian girl lands near the boy while shaking her head. "I can't believe you're falling for it, Christian."

"I'm not falling for it!"

Sara steps closer, though it is clear to Avril she's trying to stay as unthreatening as possible.

"You see, me and my friend here need a private place to talk, but we're new to Highpond. We were hoping you could show us a spot around here."

"There's a-" one the kids, a taller bearkin, starts, before Christian covers his mouth, moving as quickly as… Well, as a cat.

"And what about the secret?" Christian asks suspiciously, ignoring his friend's faint protests.

Sara smiles at him. "I'll tell you when we're there."

The avian girl rolls her eyes, while Christian frowns deeply, as if facing a problem of unfathomable difficulty.

"…You better not be bullshitting me."

"Christian…" his avian friend starts, only to find herself ignored as Christian smashes the ball softly against the bearkin kid's chest, who grabs it by reflex, before walking away from the group.

"You guys keep playing, I'll be right back."

Christian throws Sara and Avril a glance as he walks by them, green cat-like eyes gleaming with suspicion.

"You two follow me."

Sara throws Avril a triumphant smile, who frowns.

That was… Surprisingly responsive. Nearly as responsive as her conversation with Vrics, if not more. But, among so many NPCs, the chances they immediately stumbled on some super-secret quest chain are almost null, meaning…

"…This sort of advanced AI can't be the standard," Avril murmurs, "That's just… What sort of processing power…?"

"Avril, you coming?!"

Avril shakes her head, giving the playing kids a last glance before heading after Sara and Christian, who leads them for a minute or so down the street before entering an alley next to a busy tavern.

"Don't worry, they're with me," Christian murmurs toward some of the tavern's customers standing near the alley, whose gaze follows the trio until they're out of view, deep within the alley, where the tavern's sound has grown faint.

Christian stops, while Sara and Avril exchange a glance.

"I'm not stupid, ya know?" Christian says, glancing over his shoulder as he meets Sara's gaze, then Avril's, "Curiosity is a known weakness of us catkin's. Gramma warned me hundreds of times."

"We weren't trying to trick you," Sara says, smiling at him, "As promised, I'll tell you a secret."

Christian crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes as his tail swings impatiently.

Sara takes a deep breath. "The truth is… I've never k-kissed a boy before."

Christian blinks, and so does Avril.

"T-that's… What sort of worthless secret is that?!"

"…I can't believe you stuttered for that."

"It sounded a lot better in my head!" Sara glances at Avril, blushing slightly, then turns toward Christian as she scratches her head awkwardly and smiles. "Look, it isn't worthless, okay? As long as it remains a secret, you have some power, right? You could threaten to tell everybody, and I'd have to listen to you."

Christian averts his eyes, his own blush painfully obvious. "…Fine. It was a small favor, so I'll accept your secret as payment." Without looking at them, he points his thumb down the alley. "Keep going, and you'll find a good place to talk. Walls won't stop a high-level beastkin from hearing you, so you want to stay near the fountain if you have something important to say… The water you drown your voices."

Sara raises her eyebrow. "You're really smart, aren't you?"

"Shut up and go already so I can go back to playing! You think Gramma lets me do it the whole afternoon?!"

Sara smiles at him as they walk past, meeting the red-faced beastkin's gaze for a brief moment before he averts his eyes again.

Avril wonders if she should warn the boy about bringing strangers to an alley… Though thankfully, she remembers Eden is a game in time to walk past without saying anything.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting this…"

Sara and Avril find themselves stepping upon grass as they leave the alley, surrounded by a large garden which seems to occupy the backyard of several buildings, the tavern included, and does, indeed, possess a small yet somewhat loud fountain in its middle.

…Pretty.

Sara smiles as she walks toward the fountain, beckoning Avril to follow.

Though she sighs in annoyance as she does so, Avril walks after her. "Fuck, what a waste of time. Just tell me what you want already."

"It wasn't a waste," Sara says, smiling as she glances over her shoulder, "You wanted to test Eden's AIs, didn't you? Wasn't that a good test?"

"…I suppose so."

Sara sits at the fount's edge as she reaches it, releasing a sigh.

"You know, except for our bodies, I can't tell the difference." Staring toward it, Sara drags her fingers across the water. "Between this place and reality. The sun feels hot, and the water feels wet…"

Avril crosses her arms. "It's pretty impressive… I thought we went over that already."

Sara nods, sighing again. "Avril… I'm sorry. I know you're mad at me for dragging the team into this, and you have a right to be. I know how much you care about For Glory…"

"Please don't tell me you dragged me here for some worthless apology?"

Sara smiles. "C'mon, I can tell you're actually mad. And I'm not just saying either, I am sorry."

Frowning, Avril points at her accusatorily. "If you're sorry, then stop…!"

However, Sara's surprised expression causes Avril to stop and follow the other girl's line of sight toward her midsection, only to realize her tail now points forward as her finger did.

"Wow, you're already getting the hang of it…?"

Clenching her teeth, Avril stops herself short of screaming at Sara.

To surprise, her tail does move back down under her command.

Avril sighs.

This overheated type really doesn't fit her style.

Instead of screaming at Sara, isn't it much better to make things clear from the start?

"You know what, dimwit? You did show up in time for practice this week, and you seem to be taking the game seriously now. More seriously than before, at least. So, I'll forget about the rest… As long as you continue to. Do you understand?"

Sara meets Avril's gaze, smiling slightly. "…It works for me."

"No, I don't think you understand. You see me as some misunderstood emo always making empty threats, don't you?"

Sara blinks. "No, I don't...?"

Avril smiles. "It's okay. I don't need people to take me seriously, I just need them out of my way most of the time, out of pity, fear, or mockery, it doesn't really matter… But there's one thing in this world I'll never forgive. There's one thing in this world I actually care about."

"…For Glory?"

Gods, how she hates those big, honest specs of blue light.

"And if you fuck it up for me again, Sara… You understand, don't you?"

Sara scratches her head. "Look, I'm pretty sure I don't wanna find out."

Avril huffs. "No, I you need to understand what's at stake here. It's simple, really: You fuck my game, I fuck yours."

Sara sighs. "I figured as much. And I suppose I deserve this, to some extent. You done?"

Why is she so…!

"…Yes, I'm done."

Sara smiles. "Ya know, I like you, grumpy captain. Don't worry, I meant it when I said I wanted to give For Glory a real try. And I know that even if you hate me, you value my skills. I think we'll make for a good team."

Completely unfazed as always… 

Blue eyes under the sky staring at her without shame or fear… Almost as if they're able to see past her facade.

…Annoying.

Avril averts her gaze. "So? I assume your delayed apology wasn't the only reason you wanted to talk?"

"Of course not. Actually, I wanted to show you something… Promise you won't be mad?"

Sara rises as she beckons toward a nearby tree, and Avril follows her gaze in time to spot something jumping from it and falling over the grass below as it scurries in their direction, climbing through Sara's body and finally stopping on top of her open palm, big brown eyes facing Avril's with undisguised intelligence.

"…A squirrel?"

The squirrel bows. "Pleasured to make your acquaintance, Miss Hayes."

…She's speechless.

"…Sara?"

Sara smiles awkwardly as she glances toward the squirrel, who meets her gaze with an empty expression.

No, wait, why did she expect the squirrel to have some sort of expression in the first place…?

"This is Leaf," Sara clarifies after clearing her throat, "They're part of a special quest I was offered, though I can't give you many details. They replaced one of my racial skills, and if they die, so do I. Also, they spawn with me; They swam away before you could see them earlier… And we can't be more than twenty meters from one another."

A special quest? Before she even entered the game?

"…I don't even know what to say."

Sara laughs, prompting Leaf to climb over her shoulder, which it does without complaint. "That's okay, I was surprised as well. I just thought I should tell you, since we'll be acting as a trio instead of a duo."

She can't tell what this girl is thinking.

Avril shakes her head. "Hardly the first game to come with a pet system. You can connect with it, right?"

Sara blinks. "How do you-"

"Please; You said you can't be separated from it, and it just happened to follow us here while staying hidden? It's obvious you're hiding something from me, but I don't care. You want me to pretend your squirrel called Leaf is a normal part of the game? I don't care. This whole thing was your idea; I just want to get it over with."

Sara smiles at the squirrel. "See? I told you she wouldn't mind."

"I believe Miss Hayes used the word care…"

Avril clenches her teeth. "If you can speak telepathically, then do so!"

Sara smiles. "Leaf will scout ahead for us, though they tell me the beastkin are often aware of their presence."

On cue, Leaf jumps from Sara's hand as it scurries along the grass, quickly disappearing from view.

The day grows stranger by the minute… But an extra pair of eyes won't hurt, especially once they leave animal city and Leaf is able to stay undetected.

"Was that it?"

"I guess so."

"Then let's go."

Without waiting for an answer, Avril turns and heads toward the alley through which they entered. And so, it isn't long before she and Sara are back into the fray of Highpond's busy afternoon, though Avril is far from happy to have returned…

Eventually, Sara insists they ask for directions, and after doing so twice, they finally arrive near the market.

"Annnnnd… Here we are! I told you we should've asked from the beginning… Wow. This place sure is something, isn't it?"

Avril sweeps her narrowed gaze over the crowd of strange creatures moving from stall to stall through the straight corridors of Highpond's market square. A constant buzz of words, often drawn by the screams of nearby stall owners, brings a grimace out of her.

Being here in person is much more uncomfortable than she thought… She's definitely delegating any future market visits.

"Oh, I see the quest board! Damn, that's big… C'mon, let's go!"

Avril sighs.

The "quest board", as Vrics himself called it, is a giant piece of wood nearly trice Avril's height, and about ten times as large, placed near what Avril can only assume is the market's entrance.

By the time she manages to reach it, Sara is already skimming through its content – hundreds of small pieces of parchment – excitedly, as she walks from one side of the board to the other and back.

Meanwhile, Avril's gaze falls on a smaller board nearby, which seems to contain rules regarding the quest board itself.

"Most of these seem about part-time jobs and people looking for apprentices!" Sara screams over her shoulder, "You already decided on what we're taking?!"

Avril raises her eyes from the list of rules as she meets the gaze of a nearby ratkin guard, who tips his helmet at them despite the suspicious gleam of his eyes.

"…Something that lets us kill low-level mobs. We should start leveling as we get used to our bodies."

"Got it."

Sara tilts her head as she stops and stares toward the board, before pointing her finger at a parchment and turning toward Avril.

"This one seems interesting."

"Good. Grab it and follow me."

"It's a good thing they speak Elysium," Sara comments as she grabs the parchment and hops after Avril, "Can you imagine if we had to deal with learning a whole new language?"

Avril cliques her tongue. "No game known to man has ever done something so stupid."

Sara laughs. "Fair enough."

The building Avril heads toward is much larger than most of the ones surrounding it, standing beyond a large yard filled with training equipment, a screaming bearded wolfkin, and several guards currently in the process of performing what Avril assumes is some sort of drill.

How does that work, anyway? Do their stats increase if they train enough…?

No, she shouldn't look for logic where there is none. They train because they were programmed to… Though based on how NPC interactions have gone so far, she's curious about what they'd have to say if she were to stop and ask.

Ha, look at her, wanting to start a conversation of her own accord… Her parents would be proud.

Avril walks through the yard's entrance under the eyes of its two watchers, though she does not hesitate to go in, and they don't stop her either.

The old wolfkin gives them no more than a glance. Here, at least, she can see some of the guards from other clans, though they're few and far between.

Since the building's large double doors are wide open, Avril enters, once more, without hesitation, though she ends up stopping inside as her eyes adjust to the light, or rather, to a lack of sunlight, and her ears to a much quieter environment.

"Holy shit!" Sara whispers, "They've got one of those wanted walls! Look, they have the criminals' levels written down and everything… And some of those are obviously not humanoids!"

"Would you cease acting like a country bumpkin?!" Avril hisses at her.

Sara sticks her tongue out. "I'm sorry for being excited about the game, Mom."

Avril shakes her head as she inspects the Guard's headquarters and what seems to be its lobby, eventually heading toward a bored-looking avian woman sitting behind a large desk.

"We would like to register a quest being accepted," Avril starts, bringing the woman to slowly, almost begrudgingly raise her gaze from her pile of documents as she gives them an onceover.

"…You're outsiders?"

"If by that you mean that we're new here, then-"

"No. I mean, are you the people summoned here from another world?"

"The one and only… Except there are like, thousands of us, I guess," Sara buts in, ignoring Avril's glare.

"…Yes, that's us."

The woman sighs. "Cap will want to see you. First door on the right, you can't miss it."

The avian woman points her thumb toward a set of stairs leading up, then returns to her documents.

Sara shrugs. "Let's go?"

Avril grimaces.

…Not like they have another choice.

Some of the guards around give them looks as they head for the stairs, but no one moves to stop them.

As the avian woman described, a large set of double doors awaits them at the top. Avril only hesitates briefly before knocking.

"…Come on in," a man's deep voice calls from inside.

Avril and Sara exchange a glance, though neither of them says anything before Avril pushes the door open and steps inside… Only to freeze in place as she lays eyes on the mountain of fur, muscles, and scars sitting before her.

"Avril, what… Damn."

The room itself is big, ending in a large window which showcases the yard outside, the market beyond, and much of the lively city as a whole, making for a beautiful view eventually interrupted by Highpond's distant wall.

Below it, a large table stands, behind which sits the biggest man, or, in this case, bearkin, Avril has ever seen.

"We both know I should lock you up and throw away the key."

Avril takes a moment to realize the room is occupied by two people, rather than one, and that the bearkin's sharp gaze is not directed at her, but rather, at a teenager-looking catkin standing before him, whose green eyes slide in their direction for a sidelong glance before she returns her gaze toward the giant looming over her.

"…And still, we both know you won't do it."

Furious looking, the large bearkin raises his fist, only to stop himself short of hitting his table as he abruptly relaxes, then releases a sigh, sitting back on what has to have been some sort of custom-made chair.

The bearkin man stares down at the bored-looking cat-kin for a long moment. "…You're a disgrace to your father; Every morning, I curse the day he left. Get out of my sight."

She snorts, throwing her set of impressively sharp nails a glance. "That's it? I'm free to go?"

"No. You'll stay outside until I've decided what to do with you."

"Awesome."

The bearkin's fury is palpable, darkening the room's atmosphere as the girl turns and heads for the exit, though he merely watches as she walks by Sara and Avril, giving them no more than a disinterested glance.

"…I assume you're Chosen?" the man speaks after a moment, attracting Avril's gaze from the closing door as he signals for them to approach.

It is clear the man has yet to calm himself. However, Avril refuses to allow herself to feel intimidated so easily, and steps toward his table after no more than a second of hesitation, meeting the man's eyes directly as she points toward the parchment in Sara's grip.

"We wanted to register a quest, and your receptionist told us to come see you."

The man crosses his hands atop his table as his gaze jumps from Avril to Sara, then back.

"…I see. I'm Teagan, Captain of Highpond's Guard. You said you have a quest for me?"

"R-right."

Sara steps forward in order to hand him the parchment, through which Teagan skims his eyes before setting it aside, pulling a large book toward himself, and grabbing a pair of glasses as he opens the book and flips through its pages for a moment, then stops and raises his eyes once more.

"Names?"

"…Avril Hayes and Sara Palmer."

Teagan nods, grabs a nearby feather, and writes something down in his book, something which is far too extensive to have been only a pair of names.

"Very well."

Closing the book, Teagan removes his glasses once more as he leans in and meets Avril's gaze.

"You understand that for a quest like this, there's a fee to be paid upon failing to complete it?"

"…What?"

"Yes."

"…You did?!"

"Good." Teagan nods once more as he opens a drawer and grabs out of it a stamp, before smacking it over their parchment. "As long as you obey the rules, you'll find no trouble from me or my men. Welcome to Highpond, lads."

As Teagan extends the parchment in their direction, Sara releases a sigh of relief, smiling at him as she reaches to grab it.

"Thanks."

"Stay out of trouble."

"Copy that, Sir."

Avril contains an urge to roll her eyes.

"…Wait."

"Avril?"

Sara throws Avril a questioning glance, which she ignores.

"Is there a problem?" Teagan asks, raising a large eyebrow.

Avril crosses her arms as she gives the middle-aged bearkin a smile. "Actually, I think we might be able to help each other."