Cora walked down the road towards Cochran Town. It was one of the few towns whose name made sense to her. It figured that it was considered one of the 'beginner' towns.
Around her was the bustling beginnings of the day's activity. Wagons loaded with produce and small, noisy animals crowded the road. Some farmers where wheeling their wares in small carts pulled by themselves or draft animals.
Cora reflected that she hadn't really taken seriously those stories Heidi's grandmother told of seeing carts pulled by dogs when she was younger. As far as Cora was aware, dogs were meant to be spoiled and perhaps shown at dog shows. This was a rather eye-opening experience for her.
Some of the animals, she had no frame of reference for. There were lizards in a variety of colors, small horse-like creatures with weirdly jointed limbs as well as the usual regular horses, oxen and donkeys.
Cora cautiously moved to the edge of the road. The animals gave her the willies, and she could have sworn that one of the reptiles had winked at her.
If she hadn't wanted to see if she could get more stones from the mines at Cochran Town, she'd still be happily ensconced Wilderven, stocking up on that weird corn that everyone seemed to like. Cora thought it was pretty, but she had no inclination to ever actually eat it.
"Heading to Cochran Town, miss?" One of the farmers asked as she drew even with their cart.
Cora looked over to see the farmer and his little family walking beside a cart being pulled by a weird cross between a rabbit and a cow. There was a little girl perched on the creature's back, cooing to it as she waved a literal carrot on a stick in front of it.
"Yes, and you?" Cora replied with a smile.
"Yep, Cochran Town for Market Day," the farmer's wife said. She eyed Cora and then shook her head. "Are you perhaps buying instead of selling? You don't seem to be carrying much in the way of storage on you."
"And the stores don't sell storage on Market Day," the little girl chirped. "Da says it's to encourage trade."
"That's right, Lilbelle," the farmer said with a brightening expression. "See, Belle? Told you. Start young, and it sticks better."
"Fine, fine," the farmer's wife murmured as she rolled her eyes. "Lilbelle! Pay attention! Don't let it eat the carrot before we get to our slot!"
"Yes, Mama." Lilbelle sat back a little, raising the carrot just a bit. The strange creature eyed the vegetable before snorting disdainfully. "Don't worry, Parsley. I'll get you plenty of carrots when we get there."
Cora eyed the creature, a little startled when it opened a mouthful of sharp fangs and snagged the bottom half of the carrot. It chewed contentedly.
"Don't worry. I have more carrots," Lilbelle said, reaching into her little apron pocket and pulling out another carrot. She set it on her lap while she waved the rest of the carrot just in front of the creature. "Parsley likes carrots. He's a good ghasten."
The girl's father grinned as they walked along. His wife rolled her eyes but didn't speak. It seemed she was used to their antics. Cora walked along with them, content to watch the dynamics.
She had to admit that the developers had really worked hard on their product. Cora admitted to herself that she had no idea how to make anything electronic happen, and she was sure that she had no clue how to make a program draw a circle, much less the vivid landscape that surrounded her.
"Well, looks like the gates opened earlier today," the farmer said. He nodded towards the distance. "See? The guards are even more chipper than usual."
Cora looked up to see the gates to the town wide open. The walls that surrounded Cochran looked to be twenty feet tall and thick. Even from a distance, you could tell that it was made of roughly hewn blocks of granite, much like the ones she'd mined in Wilderven's mining sector. The sight made her a bit happier.
She was hoping that she could fill her two large sacks with granite blocks. She'd managed to level them up a little bit and now they could hold sixteen blocks a piece at a time. Of course, then they were heavier, weighing roughly the same as a bag of grapefruits, but still manageable.
Cora had some of the gems she'd mined for trade. She still lacked any real amount of currency. Most of the coins she had gotten had been from the beginning village, and even then, she'd spent the bulk of them on cooking implements.
She reflected that she had yet to try using her implements. She'd simply been too busy in the last couple of game weeks. Then Cora paused, both mentally and physically. She counted the game days.
It had been more than a month since she'd started playing in-game. In real life, that translated to two weeks.
"Are you okay?" Lilbelle's question distracted her from her thoughts.
"Oh, yes, just thinking about something," Cora assured the little girl.
"Come in with us," Belle said, giving her husband a mild look that shut him up when he looked to complain.
"Are you sure?" Cora asked.
"I'm more than sure. A stranger, a girl at that? Even if you're one of those weird ones, the guards will give you a hard time. Harder since you're a pretty one," Belle sighed. "I know those guards."
"She's right as always," Belle's husband agreed. He glanced at the cart the creature was pulling. "Just walk a bit closer to us. Not too close to Parsley, though. Ghastens tend to bite when annoyed or irritated or hungry or happy."
"They just bite?" Cora replied with a smile.
"Yep," Belle and Lilbelle chorused with cheerful looks. Even Parsley looked cheerful.
Cora shook her head in response.
*****
The mining office was a huge concern. It also wasn't the only one, but when Cora had asked, this was the one that people had directed her to. She'd heard muttered complaints about others on her way here.
"Horald��s Mining Cooperative" the sign on the front of the building announced. It was even picked out in gold and crushed glittery stone as if afraid that others wouldn't be able to notice it.
Cora looked at it with doubt. In her experience, the more people blew their own horn, the more corroded the horn would be on the inside.
It definitely looked as if this might be one of those concerns, more interested in looks than results. Of course, it might also be one of those who were more than happy to steal results than make any of their own. There was even gold limning the door to the office. Cora couldn't figure out just how no one had made off with it.
That gave her the willies. She'd seen movies with things like that— "Who'd steal MY car?" and other similar statements, and usually the answer would be stupid people who didn't want to live for longer than five minutes of movie-time.
Even as she mentally girded her loins to knock or even open the door, it flew open, and a teen stumped out. At least, Cora thought he was a teen.
He was skinny and smudged with dirt. Even that didn't disguise the youthful curve of his face. Anger was stamped hard on his features, distorting them a bit.
"You'll regret this! I'm telling you!" He whirled around and shouted at the open doorway.
"And I'm telling you that I won't!" Another guy said, standing in the doorway. "Come back when you've got proof, and perhaps Dad will listen to your nonsense!"
"It's not nonsense, and you know it!" The teen screamed back.
Cora blinked and looked around. People were milling around the area, but they weren't paying much attention to the scene occurring other than to pause, glance and then go back to what they were doing. A few were shaking their heads as they continued whatever it was they were doing.
"You just want to steal my find," the teen continued.
"Yeah, I really want a piece of Crazy Town," the man shot back, rolling his eyes before disappearing into the depths of the office.
"I'm not crazy," the teen muttered, kicking at a rock.
It rolled to a stop at Cora's feet. Cora looked from the departing teen's back to the office and back again. She could feel a tingle that told her that something interesting might happen if she talked to the teen instead of going into that overly decorated office.
She could even hear the faint, muted 'ting' of a notification. Cora grinned. She wouldn't mind listening to something crazy right about now.