"Can I ask just why I couldn't get Sala to take me to the forest's edge?" Cora asked Ufgar as they walked along a worn path.
Unlike the road she'd taken from the teleporter, this one was made of simple clay bricks set in a pattern that prevented slippage. Unfortunately, the bricks were set to prevent Ufgar-sized people from falling, not Cora-sized. She kept having to skip to avoid falling.
"Well, the letter says she's broody," Ufgar said as if that explained everything.
"What does that mean?" Cora asked, skirting around a fallen log. She followed it to its source, a giant tree that would take at least five of her with arms outstretched to encircle. From the remnants of bark and leaves, the log had started life as a branch.
"Means she's expecting in a few weeks or so," Ufgar shrugged. He sighed. "Means I'll be an uncle. What a pain."
Cora glanced at him. The town guard was frowning, kicking at stones as he walked along, looking like a moody little boy. Cora suddenly stopped and really looked at Ufgar and then thought about Ufkim.
"Ufkim's your dad, isn't he?" She asked, glancing back the way they'd come. The town was still visible in the distance.
"Well, yeah, that's why I'm a town guard," Ufgar said. "Sala married the mayor, so she's his assistant. Wasn't Mom happy about that," he muttered, shifting his shoulders.
Cora readjusted the sack she had slung over her shoulder. She'd also been able to trade a few nuggets of ore for some rope, nails and a hammer. For some reason, putting that into her empty small sack had made it bulge in a way that the ores, crystals and plants hadn't. Ufkim, who'd accompanied her to the town entrance had remarked that it was because they were mostly finished goods.
She hoped she didn't need a wagon if she wanted to transport doors. Cora knew that she wasn't able to create those herself, not to mention actual furniture. Repairing the few bits she'd found was one thing; doing it from scratch was an entirely different situation.
"Oy! Stupid human! You coming?" Ufgar said, noticing that she wasn't trailing behind him.
"Yes, yes," Cora called back, hurrying after him.
"What's your name anyways? I can't keep calling you 'stupid human' all the time." Ufgar made an unhappy noise deep in his throat that sounded like a cross between a hum and a grunt. "I'd get you confused if any others showed up."
"My name's Cora," Cora said, glancing around the forest as they walked. It was silent and darker as they walked.
"Huh. Name's Ufgar, but you knew that already," Ufgar said. He paused and glanced around, his eyes narrowing. "Looking for trouble?" He bellowed at the woods.
Cora started as sounds of several somethings running away was heard. She tried to peer through the trees to no avail.
"I didn't see anything," Cora complained.
Ufgar turned to look at her, surprised. Then he transferred his gaze to just above her head, squinting a little. His eyes widened just a bit.
"Why are you a mayor when you're not even level ten?" Ufgar asked. "You can't even turn on your teleportation circle for a return trip until then."
"So everyone keeps telling me," Cora replied glumly. If she hadn't needed to get away from Wilderven for a while, she doubted that she would have chosen to leave without a sure way to return. "I'm trying to level as fast as I can."
"You really are the epitome of a stupid human, but why come here to trade?" Ufgar started walking again. Then he paused. "Are you one of those weird two-leggers there's all those rumors about?"
"Probably," Cora sighed. She'd learned over the last few days that that's what all the non-human characters she'd been meeting called the players.
"That explains it a bit then," Ufgar said with a nod of his head. He turned his head and growled, setting off another series of rustlings in the underbrush. "Stupid critters," he muttered. "So, you're really the mayor of Wilderven?"
"Yep," Cora said cheerfully. She decided to not worry about whatever was following them until she had to. Ufgar was proving to be a helpful traveling companion.
"Mayors are rare, you know. Or maybe you didn't, seeing as you're the one of Wilderven of all places," Ufgar said. "If Sala hadn't married that idiot, I'd be stuck being mayor in a year or two."
"Why 'stuck?' It doesn't seem that bad so far," Cora asked.
"That's because you're trying to level up. Planting and mining and fishing and the like, right?" Ufgar paused to kick a log out of the way. It went skittering into the underbrush until it slammed into a nearby tree trunk.
Cora looked up into the tree's branches. They didn't even shiver from the impact. Then she hastened to catch up to Ufgar who'd already walked on.
"I haven't been fishing," Cora said.
"Oh? Is the lake okay? I heard that there's a lake connected to the Greater Channels there. One of the reasons," he added after a moment.
"One of the reasons for what?" Cora asked. She had a feeling that if she kept her questions simple, she'd learn something. Except for Nate, Heidi and Lorenz, she didn't know any other players and the forums weren't conducive to research. "Is it related to why it's so destroyed?"
Ufgar came to a stop and looked at her.
"You really don't know anything, do you?" Ufgar leaned towards her, causing her to take a step back. "How old do you think I am?"
"Um, twenty? Maybe?" Cora ventured.
"Twenty? I'd be an old man by twenty." Ufgar abruptly sat down on a nearby log. "Well, maybe not an old man, but not a guard by any means. Look, here, little human. Orcs age a bit faster and slower than humans."
"How can you be faster and slower?" Cora asked. "That makes no sense whatsoever."
"Orcs don't cook long, and they ripen faster," Ufgar thumped himself on his chest. "I'll be ten this coming winter. Sala's nearly fifteen herself. A little late maybe to be broody," he added with a chuckle. "Don't tell her I said that."
"You can't be ten," Cora argued. "You're bigger than me!"
"That's what I mean. We live to about two hundred, but childhood? Not a real option," Ufgar said. He jerked his head back in the direction of the town. "Did you see a lot of kids when you were there? Any?"
Cora thought back and then shook her head. She hadn't really noticed any children running around.
"That's because we're not kids long. At most, just four or five years or so, and then off to training for whatever you want to do for now," Ufgar said. He took out a knife and broke off a piece of wood from the log he was sitting on. "We last long, so you don't stay in the same job long. Well, except for Mayor," he said, smoothly peeling off a long piece of wood.
"Why Mayor?" Cora asked, trying to digest the information. She still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that Ufgar was younger than her.
"Once you're Mayor, you're always the Mayor," Ufgar said. "Unless you find someone else who wants to be Mayor, of course. You can transfer the title to another person if they're willing but who'd do that? Mayors are chosen by the world after all."
"I was chosen by dragons," Cora argued.
"Did you fulfil a quest or something?" Ufgar asked, looking up. Even without looking, his hands still busily worked, forming a small round shape.
"Well, I rescued a baby dragon from being killed," Cora admitted, "and I found a helmet of some sort."
"There you have it," Ufgar said with a nod. "Now I know why my Pa wanted me to bring you to the Wilderven border. He figured you might have questions."
Cora wanted to argue, but she did have questions. She had so many questions that she had no idea how to start. Blue didn't answer questions, or if she deigned to, it was an oblique, not-answer given. She was afraid to ask Nate because he'd ask questions of his own, and that was a road she didn't want to travel down. Heidi and Lorenz were newer to the game than she was and not likely to know anything useful.
"Why would rescuing a baby dragon mean I could be a Mayor of anywhere?" Cora finally asked, watching as a little animal took shape under Ufgar's fingers.
"Dragons are big things," Ufgar said and then laughed. "Look, everything has potential, right? That's how you gain experience when you do things. You're absorbing the potential." Ufgar paused and examined his carving critically. Then he tossed it to Cora. "Not good enough for Peila," he explained.
Cora caught the little animal carving. A chipmunk was nibbling on a seed. There wasn't any coloring, but it was clearly a chipmunk and not some sort of ground squirrel. Cora shrugged and stowed it away in the small sack with the water berry seedlings.
"Potential is generated just by living or doing. Sometimes, it's the world's way of rewarding us for creating something good," Ufgar said, ripping up another piece of wood and starting another carving.
"Now dragons? Dragons have mad loads of potential. That's why you get so much experience if you make one drop a level." Ufgar paused and looked at Cora. "However, by the time you're able to do that, it's probably just enough to give you a level of your own at best. Dragons are hard to kill. Now, if it's a baby dragon that's still a hatchling," Ufgar let the sentence trail off.
"I think Sycamore's still a hatchling," Cora said slowly.
"Ah," Ufgar's mood turned solemn. "Then it's a good thing and more that you did. Look, hatchlings don't stray far from the main nests, though of course, some do. Killing a hatchling," Ufgar paused and then huffed out a breath.
"Look, shaving a level off an adult dragon? That's mad experience right there," Ufgar resumed carving his new statuette. "Killing a hatchling is a totally different thing. Every level from nine to one will give you double the experience of the previous, and that last final level? Level 0? That extinguishes the dragon forever, and the experience is massive."
"What do you mean by that?" Cora asked, feeling her heart tense up. "It would kill her permanently?"
"Yep," Ufgar replied. His hands stilled for a moment. "The fact that you saved the dragon instead of killing it while it's vulnerable shows strength of character. You need that to be a Mayor. Sure, there are bad ones who get the position through unfair means, but they never last that long. Someone always shows up to oust them, sometimes in painful ways, but those who are chosen? You're stuck."
"I can't be stuck," Cora cried. "I haven't even done anything yet."
"Your town's probably still empty. I mean, this is the first time I've heard that Wilderven had a mayor, and I'm a town guard. I usually hear everything first," Ufgar said. His fingers flew, and a veritable snowstorm of sawdust and shavings cascaded to the ground. "Ah, this is perfect for Peila," he said, holding up the finished piece.
Cora caught her breath. The chipmunk this time was still nibbling on a seed. Only this time, you could tell that it was a pine nut caught between its little paws. The cheeks were puffed out, and if not for the fact that it was all done from one piece of wood, you would have thought it was about to drop the nut and scurry away.
"It's beautiful," Cora breathed.
"Might be hope for you yet, human," Ufgar said, coming to his feet. He brushed off the bottoms of his pants.
"Since you're the mayor of an empty town, you'll have to recruit people to join you," Ufgar said. He ambled along, examining his carving with a pleased smile.
"How do I recruit people?" Cora asked, following in his wake.
"Just ask around while you travel," Ufgar said. He paused at a stone plinth.
It sat beside the road inconspicuously. Weather and time had worn it down to a simple spire of stone. On one side of it was the forest that they had been walking through and on the other was an expanse of meadow before ending at another forest a mile away.
"Well, would you like to join my town?" Cora ventured.
Ufgar laughed.
"Well, let's see what Peila says. A town without any of my family in it would be great for a few years or so," Ufgar said good naturedly. Then he glanced at Cora speculatively. "However, I'm not going to guard an empty town. Come back to ask when you have a few more people than you do now. I might even be an uncle by then!"
Cora sighed as the orc turned and walked away. She had a feel for him now. He would have been a good fit for her little town except that he was right. Why have a town guard when there was nothing for him to guard. Then she thought of the little statue in her sack.
"What about as a woodcarver?" She called to his back.
Ufgar paused.
"Woodcarvers need people who supply wood and people who buy wood carvings," he called back before continuing on his way.
"But it wasn't a 'no,'" she reminded herself as she turned away and started the long walk back to Wilderven.