About an hour after Ben had shown me to the guest house I was staying in I heard a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

"Hello, Jameson sir. It's Ben. I'm here to bring you to the Dining Hall or I can bring dinner directly to you if you want."

Hmm well, it couldn't hurt to socialize a bit and I want to ask Dob and Lob about their current housing situation so I should go.

"The Dining Hall sounds great! Do you mind if we pick up my two friends first though?"

"Ah yes of course", Ben looks slightly embarrassed, I imagined from assuming that Dob and Lob were my assistants.

Ben led me to two houses that were about the same size as mine.

So I guess Dob and Lob did get their own houses. I bet they must be really happy about that.

Ben knocked on their doors and asked them the same question about whether they'd like to come to the Dining Hall or not.

"Is that a yes to the Dining Hall? Oh ok. I'll take that as a yes then. Ok then follow me."

Heh. He must've been confused when he got a thumbs up in response instead of speech.

I then saw Dob emerge from the house, looking around for me. His eyes locked onto me and he came over and stood next to me.

I then watched him ask Lob the same question but this time he told Lob to give him a thumbs up for the Dining Hall and a thumbs down for bringing the dinner to him. Evidently, Lob also chose to come to the Dining Hall as he also emerged from his house and came over to where Dob and I were standing.

"So are you guys ready to go?", Ben asked.

"Yup", I responded as Dob and Lob gave Ben a thumbs up.

"Okay great just follow me and we'll be there in no time."

True to his words we arrived at the so-called Dining Hall a few minutes later. It was somewhat off to the side of the main path which explained why we hadn't noticed it when we walked through Yarthaw. It was the biggest building I'd seen in Yarthaw so far, and it seemed like the whole village was there. People, old and young streamed into the building through the open set of double doors that led inside the Dining Hall.

"Wow is everyone from the village here?

"Yup. This is where everyone eats all their meals every day. It helps to keep the community close together when we all eat together."

That makes sense. It reminds me of the dinners I used to have with my family although those never really seemed to bring us closer.

We waited for the stream of people to subside and then entered through the set of doors. I noticed it was basically just a room full of tables and chairs with a buffet off to the side where people got their food.

After we entered I noticed that a large portion of the people previously eating and chatting were now looking at us. Ben noticed this and turned to face the crowd.

"Hello, friends! These three are just here to check on some things. They're really nice and there's nothing to worry about. So please continue enjoying your dinner!"

Ben's short speech caused most people to turn back to what they were doing but I noticed a few people still looking at us. Some looked slightly fearful while others just seemed to be curious.

I guess I would also be curious if I was living in a small village practically in the middle of nowhere and some strangers showed up.

I decided to just ignore the prying eyes and got in line at the buffet to get my dinner. Dob and Lob got in line behind me and they were then followed by Ben. As I moved through the buffet it was tough to decide what to get since there were so many options. I eventually settled on just getting some basic stuff. I got some kind of meat that looked nice and some greens. I also ended up snagging some of that fruit I'd had before that tasted like mango.

Ah great! They have the mango fruit thing! Woo!

I had to actively resist the urge to sink my teeth into the fruit before I'd even sat down at a table.

First impressions matter. You can't just eat it in line. That would be bad manners and you don't want these people's first memory of you being bad or impolite so you can do it. Resist the mango-like fruit!

After getting through the buffet I had a good assortment of things on my plate that I couldn't wait to try and then subsequently devour. I asked Ben if he wanted to sit with us and he happily agreed. So we found a table and started chowing down on our food.

Of course, I first ate the mango-like fruit and quickly found myself wondering where it'd gone only to realize that I'd eaten it all. I then moved on to the meat and other stuff. It was very good and I wondered how the other people in the Dining Hall were even talking when they had this delicious food in front of them.

I guess they're used to it after having it for so long.

After I finished everything on my plate I started to talk to Ben who like the other people of Yarthaw, seemed to be able to pace himself.

"So how long have you been running Yarthaw?"

"Ever since the previous leader stepped down. It'd always been my dream to ascend to greater heights than a farmer and I got that opportunity then. It's been about 8 years since I stepped into this position and I've loved every moment of it", Ben responded, smiling.

"Ah well, that's great! I'm glad to hear it."

We then talked some more before calling it a night. Ben offered to lead us back to our temporary houses but I'd memorized the way to mine and I knew that Dob and Lob could find their way back from my house.

So with my stomach full of delicious food and my eyes drooping slightly I got undressed and then climbed into the bed which turned out to be pretty comfy as I found myself drifting off to sleep rather quickly.