Grarl opened his eyes.

Jason was calm. He felt around the wound on his neck to feel if it was healing well or not. He was surprised to find it was doing well. Whatever the healing builder had done, was working.

A good night of sleep

+2hp

Total: 8hp

Masin was already up, instructing the builders, and they listened. Grarl thought the effort Masin was putting into creating relationships with builders was wasted. Humans would never trust orckin, so why bother.

Yet as he observed Masin doing his morning rounds, smiling, being friendly, providing encouragement, there was a slight improvement in relations between Masin and the humans. Maybe it was worth it.

Then Masin left the group of builders he was talking too, and half of them gave him the finger.

Maybe not.

Triuk called to Grarl and Nunda, “Get up and eat. We leave within the hour.”

Grarl got up, gave Nunda a slight kick in the side to hurry up while making a quick sidestep to avoid her surprisingly quick attempt at thumbing his leg. She missed.

Around the fire Triuk said, “Masin and I discussed our options last night while you two slept. I hope that is okay with you both, but we needed a plan.”

Grarl said, “I don’t mind, I have no idea what to do anyway.”

Nunda simply shrugged her shoulders to say she didn’t care. She looked as if it was a foregone conclusion that she wouldn’t be involved in decision making, and she didn’t seem to care as he ate her pancake with honey.

Triuk said, “We believe the best thing to do is head to Thakis, a decently sized town two days away from here. We know the cleric is there, we know enough to think the cleric will join us. It makes the walk worth it. When we have the cleric, our little group will be five strong. We need experience, gold and a way to improve relations between the orcs and humans before they start fighting again. We have a mild acceptance on the human side by building this house for us and to provide a place for negotiating issues. But we have no relations with the orcs other than Grarl having a half-brother who wants to kill him. So, we need to do something for the orcs to prove ourselves. Something decent that they can’t do.”

Grarl bit into her pancake. It was surprisingly tasty. And it was another reminder of how detailed the virtual reality was. He was seriously wonder how the hell it was being done.

Triuk drank some water, took a bite from the pancake he had just removed, then kept talking, “Today, one of the builders mentioned that there was a disturbance in the hills, something big, and it is killing orcs. That is all we know about it. So, when we get the cleric, rather than return here, we are heading into the forest to investigate the disturbance, fix it, then inform the orcs we have resolved the issue for them.”

Grarl said, “You make it sound easy. That all we need to do this thing and the orcs or humans will listen to us.”

Nunda said, “He thinks the world works like that. He is wrong. But then, this is not the world, it is a stupid, crazy dangerous game. So, we need to try. I, for one, want to find the save point and get the hell out of here. Even though I am really enjoying it.”

Grarl considered Nada for a moment, then Triuk. Grarl said, “Look, your plan is better than no plan. We are here to have an adventure, we can either have it or find a farm somewhere remote and live the rest of our life here.”

Masin arrived then said, “Do they know?”

Grarl answered, “We know. Have you finished sucking up to the humans?”

“Yep, and it is slowing working.” He went to the campsite to begin organizing his backpack, throwing in some rope, rations and other items. As that was happening, they finished their meal then packed their own backpacks.

Within a short time, all four of them were ready to go.

As they headed back out from camp, walking the North Road to Thakis, Grarl was coming to recognize some of the turns, the curves of the hills. The farm with Abagail came quicker than he expected. Abagail, yet again raised her hand in acknowledgement. Grarl returned it. She, at least, seemed grateful. Her father, rather predictably, made her stop waving. Although this time, it almost looked like the old man gave Grarl a slight nod of acknowledgement.

Grarl reciprocated the nod exactly.

Soon after the farm the clouds started to roll in from over the hills. Nothing sinister, but still full of rain and coming directly for them. Jason was feeling exposed as he knew they were walking and had nowhere to sleep the night, when it came. He felt strange thinking that he couldn’t simply get into his car and drive home to a warm house and comfortable bed.

He had to walk and accept the idea of an uncertain shelter at the end of the day.

The rain eventually caught them, it was a cold rain that sucked the warmth out immediately from your skin. The rain kept going for hours, his skin was in pain from the unending cold water smacking against it.

Grarl felt he had been walking forever. He was trying to tell himself that this day will end, that each step was one step closer to shelter. He tried counting his steps down from one thousand on multiple occasions but gave up on it after a while as it was bringing him down.

Even though it took forever, they made it to a small village. Walking into the row of shops made Jason feel safe. Seeing the people pull their children closer as they walked by made him feel angry.

Triuk led them into a small tavern, approached the keeper and negotiated a room for them to sleep in. He handed over the gold. The tavern keeper pointed down the corridor and said, “Room three. Don’t break anything or you will pay for it.”

Masin smiled while saying, “Thank you for the room. We will return here on the way back.”

Nunda simply grinned and thank the man.

Grarl gave him a death stare that was so good he took a step back in fear. That made Jason smile on the inside.

The room was basic, only had two beds and some old mattresses leaning against the wall. Thankfully there was enough room for Masin and Grarl to take their turn on the floor with the mattresses. Half way through the night Nunda wanted to swap to the floor because the bed was so uncomfortable.

In the morning, Triuk informed them that they were about to run out of gold. He had enough for breakfast but nothing else. Nobody complained. But after their breakfast, with packs on backs and plenty of sun warming them up nice against a chilled breeze, they decided it was better to reach Thakis today without food then wait another day to hunt and prep the kill for eating.

Masin said, “We need gold.”

Grarl had his hand in his pocket holding the gem he found after killing his first orc and wondered how valuable it was. And he wondered why he didn’t tell anyone that he had it.

Since they had no food, the only reason to stop was to reduce tiredness and drink. This meant they made good time even though their energy levels were dropping. For some reason, Jason was surprised at how well Grarl was coping with the low levels of eating, his body was tired, but he wasn’t getting the hungry pangs he got in his own body.

As the sun was became its decent into late afternoon, they crested a hill and saw Thakis for the first time. They all stopped on the hill to view the township, Grarl said, “This is the first medieval type town I have ever seen. It is more advanced than I expected it to be.”

They were looking down onto a town with stone walls around it that reached three time the height of a normal man. They were made solidly and created an imposing fortification. The town was capable of defending itself and by the appearance of it, they were used to doing it.

Triuk said, “This town is actually impressive. I wonder if those walls are there because of humans fighting humans, or defending against orcs?”

Nobody answered. But twenty minutes later, as they closed the distance, the answer came to them in the form of three orc heads on sticks on the side of the road. They all took their time staring at the rotting heads and they all silently understood that this place would not be overly friendly to them.

Or less friendly than they thought was bad.

As they neared the town, more people appeared. They each kept a safe distance from the orckin. Everyone knew they were orckin, so nobody outright denied their movements. Until the walked the road along the wall to the gateway.

The guards saw them approaching from a distance and were prepared and tense as they began the encounter.

The lead guard walked out to meet them, making a direct blocking path so Masin had to stop.

The guard asked, “What is your business here?”

Masin said, “We are here for food and rest and to pick up an orckin cleric we heard is here.”

“She is in lock up for a few days. She took exception to four men harassing her and broke the town rules of no fighting.”

Masin said, “She was being harassed and is now being punished for defending herself?”

“They are all being punished. She is more than capable of dealing with them, all orckin can do that. We wanted her removed but given she has been healing people for the last week or so, we reduced her term to four days in a cell.”

Masin said, “That is good of you. How much longer is her term got?”

“One day.”

Masin turned to Triuk to say, “We have a one day stay.”

Triuk said, “We need to speak to her. Is it possible for us to speak with her?”

The guard looked back at the tower and gave them a signal. He waited for their reply before saying, “We are a lawful town. Your weapons are allowed for defending only, but even that comes with a punishment. We do not tolerate problems in the walls from your kind. We have enough issues with the orcs and it is only the kindness of the mayor that she has allowed orckin into the town. I know it will end in orckin being banned, it only takes one to ruin it. So, while you can enter, make sure you stay lawful, don’t be the one who gets all orckin banned. Not that I want your kind in here, but because for orckin to be banned, bad things happen to the people here. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

He indicated with the sweeping of his hand that they could pass and enter. As they walked through the gate the other guards said……

“Go live with the orcs.”

“Make trouble, I like punishing your kind.”

“Fuck off, Dog Faces.”

The orckin walked through pretending to be deaf. On the other side there was a market space. It was busy with stands for fruit, meat, vegetables, clothes and more. Everyone who saw them coming stared and gave room. It was like a path was opening before them as the human tress parted ways. On the other side of the market, they located a tavern but before entering it Triuk said, “We have no more gold. I will see if we can earn our keep. Wait here.”

Grarl said, “Wait, I have a gem we might be able to sell. I got it off the orc I killed a few days ago.” He pulled the green stone out of his pocket and showed them in his open palm. Masin came forward to get a closer look.

Masin said, “Mate, if you let me sell that little beauty, I will get about 100gp for it.”

Grarl said, “Looks like we have enough after all.”