"Did you hear about the dragons?" Nate asked, raiding Cora's cookie jar.
Cora jumped, her attention torn from her investment news feed. She glanced at Nate to see him with a huge tumbler full of milk and a plate full of artfully arranged chocolate chip cookies. She raised an eyebrow as he shrugged at her and shoved them into the microwave for a couple of seconds.
"I don't know how you can eat cold cookies," he complained as he sat down on the barstools lining the counter, taking the stool a couple down from Cora.
"I don't eat them anyways. I keep them for you," Cora replied, shutting down her tablet. She stood up and stretched. "What's this about dragons?"
"There's a rumor that dragons were sighted in some mining town," Nate said, dunking a cookie into his tumbler. He shoved it into his mouth with a happy groan. "They smuggled something out is the rumor."
"Dragon smugglers? And you believe that?" Cora asked, lading as much disbelief as she dared into her voice.
"There's stranger things in the world than you'd believe," Nate shot back. He ate another cookie. "Where do you get these? Don't tell me you baked them. I looked. You don't even have baking powder in your cupboards. There's precious little anything there. No wonder you're getting skinny."
"I'm not skinny," Cora said, fleeing to the nearest bathroom. She peered into the mirror. "I have fat! See? Right here," she called back, poking her cheek.
"Cheeks don't count. I bet I can count your ribs," Nate called back.
"Now, you're just being mean," Cora groused. She glanced out the door to see Nate rummaging in her refrigerator. "I eat," she told herself even as she cautiously raised her shirt to check her ribs. She lowered it with a sigh of relief. "You cannot count my ribs."
"Because Heidi fed you last week," Nate said. He pulled out of her refrigerator with two takeout boxes in his hands. "I was just at this place with Heidi, and I told Heidi about this one just last week."
He brandished the two boxes triumphantly before putting them on her counter. Cora exited the bathroom and leaned on its doorframe. Nate paused, looking at the screen on the front of her refrigerator. Cora's eyes widened as she remembered doing a search from there while cooking herself breakfast. Even as Nate's finger came up to call up the screen's status bar and reveal it, she cleared her throat, catching his attention.
"I'd rather talk about mythical dragon smugglers than my eating habits." Cora straightened up, walking back towards the kitchen. "After all, it's a stupid idea at the best of times."
Nate laughed as he opened the boxes and went through their contents. Then he fixed her with a look.
"I've been investigating this Gerald guy. He's no good, and you eat too much takeout. You all do, except maybe Lorenz. I can't see his mom letting him spend that much on food when she loves to cook so much." Nate paused thoughtfully as if struck by a great idea. "I should go visit Lorenz since I'm banished yet again."
"Or maybe you should talk to these other quest takers and get them to stop irritating dragons," Cora suggested. She was fast developing an urge to hunt those people down herself.
Nate used a paper towel to brush cookie crumbs off his plate and into the sink. Then he dumped the contents of one of the takeout boxes on it and shoved it into the microwave. Soon, the delectable scent of lasagna drifted in the air.
"You're helping me eat this," Nate said, pointing at Cora with a fork.
"I have to get back into the game. Unlike some others, I'm not forbidden from playing," Cora protested.
"After your lunch," Nate said firmly, pulling another plate from the cupboards.
Cora sighed and resumed her seat at the counter. She eyed her tablet for a second before giving up the thought. The things she wanted to search up weren't things she wanted Nate to catch wind of.
"What did you mean that I eat too much takeout? I thought you were just complaining that I didn't eat enough."
"You don't know if he has accomplices out there or even just sympathizers. There could be gullible females who think you're just railroading the guy, evidence to the contrary." Nate divided the freshly heated up lasagna. "All it would take is them spiking your food with something, and voila! I'm an orphan without any family."
"You have a mother and father," Cora protested.
"And so do you, but hello? They'd kill us in a heartbeat if they thought they could get their hands on a single red cent," Nate said seriously. "As far as they know, all our cash is still in airtight trusts. This case is going to tell them differently, at least in your case."
Cora picked at her food. The last time her mother thought she had any access to her money, she'd tried setting her up with a guy who made Gerald seem like a preschooler. The memory of Alvin still made her shudder. He'd left her after deciding that Cora's mom had exaggerated things and gone after a clueless glue heiress from Italy instead.
The last she'd heard, the heiress' elder brother had had Alvin sent to prison on some trumped up charge. It most certainly had nothing to do with the little information packet she'd had Nate mail to the man's main place of business while on a vacation in Nice. Cora glanced at the date. Alvin would probably be out in a couple months or so.
"What I'm saying is that you should either learn to cook for yourself, something more than pancakes and the occasional batch of cookies or hire someone. That's all," Nate continued.
Cora sulked as she ate her share of the lasagna. Nate was a great cousin when he wasn't in mother hen mode.
*****
"This place is awesome!" Sycamore caroled, scuttling off the plaza and disappearing amongst a pile of half-collapsed buildings.
"Sorry," Dewalt muttered to Cora before following after her.
"And I wish to ask if you're okay with all of this," Germaine asked, lowering her head to peer at Cora with one great green eye.
"This is fine," Cora replied with amusement.
The dragons had arrived shortly after she logged in, sans Kylen, Enlais and the smuggled out children. Germaine had explained it simply as her not being strong enough to carry all of them. Instead, she'd left them in a grotto a county over.
Cora had to accept it. It was too much to expect Germaine to ferry all of them. Despite her size, taking her, Sycamore and Dewalt to the Conclave had been almost too much for her. At the time, Sycamore and Dewalt had been much smaller than their current pony and large dog size.
The children couldn't possibly be light, even with the talismans that the Horalds had slapped on their backs. They were pieces of mountains after all, meant to find an empty mountain that needed a new Heart. With a high mortality rate, it would be good if even one managed, let alone all three.
Kylen was bringing them to Wildeven. As he'd rather breathlessly explained as they were shoving the children on Germaine's back and a couple of extra packs onto Dewalt, he had a marker he could follow. Plus, he'd been added to her friends list somehow.
Cora vowed that she was going to read the instruction manual at some point. There were so many things she still couldn't figure out. Considering all the things she'd gone through in the game so far, she wasn't sure if she honestly wanted to ask Nate for advice, not even general advice.
As far as Nate knew, she was slogging in a beginner's village somewhere, trying to earn enough levels to advance to the main game. Cora knew from hard won experience that that was because her chat listed her level as 8.
"Thank you for bringing the corn," Cora said, squatting by the small bag that Sycamore had triumphantly placed at her feet when they arrived.
"The little one wanted to do something special for you. I'm not sure that corn seeds actually count," Germaine said doubtfully.
Cora laughed.
"That's in the eye of the beholder. I only have this weird red corn that grows pretty fast, but it's really eye-catching. I don't want to sell it if I can because I trade it with beings here," Cora explained.
"Red corn? Blood corn?" Germaine asked, interest sparking in her eyes.
"So, you've heard of it, too?" Cora asked, looking up from examining the pale yellow kernels.
"I would be willing to trade for some," Germaine said. She looked upwards. "Hmm, how much do you have?"
"I have a sack's worth right now," Cora said, standing up and brushing imaginary dirt off her pants. "Then I also have a harvest to do."
"How about this? I will trade you weight for weight with," Germaine paused and glanced around the destroyed plaza. "I will trade you grains of gold and mana crystals in even amounts."
"Mana crystals?" Cora perked up. She'd seen the item listed as a repair material in some of the buildings. Even City Hall needed mana crystals for some unfathomable reason.
"I do have mana crystals," Germaine said with amusement. She glanced in the direction that Sycamore and Dewalt had departed in and winced. "You don't keep pets, do you?"
"Pets? Um, not yet, I don't think," Cora replied absently, trying to figure out just how much corn she really had.
The sacks didn't weigh that much when they were full, no matter what she'd stuffed into them. The only caveat was the large sack and the granite blocks. Then, the sack would gain a few pounds per block. However, they only held four blocks per load. Cora had a suspicion that the smaller sacks she had would evolve into large sacks after enough usage.
"That's good, then," Germaine muttered.
Cora heard a noise and turned to see Sycamore trotting back, a rabbit in her mouth. Behind her slunk Dewalt. He was sporting a few new scratches and a decidedly surly look.
Sycamore dropped the rabbit at Cora's feet.
"This place is so much fun!" Sycamore announced. She glanced around the plaza. "You still have so much to do. When do the dryads wake up?"
Cora glanced at the glowing green orb. It now covered the entirety of the empty space set aside for it. Blue had assured her that that was for a dryad's grove, but Cora was just happy that it worked. Above it, numbers were going. Cora sighed. The timer had paused when she wasn't in the town, no matter if she was traveling or offline.
She wasn't that happy about that. She was busy trying to gather materials and people, after all. At least it meant that when it finally finished, the dryads wouldn't be here by themselves. It was unsettling enough when she was dropped here, let alone the dryads.
"I think it'll be a few days more, perhaps," Cora replied. She eyed the rabbit. "So, the rabbits were fun?"
"So much fun!" Sycamore agreed, picking up the rabbit and taking it to Germaine. "Look what we caught!"
"I caught. I caught the evil, long eared, rotten," Dewalt's muttering trailed off as he turned to look at the scratches on him. "Just you wait. I'll be back."
"Well, perhaps we should take that to show to your grandmother," Germaine said, making the rabbit vanish.
Watching, Cora thought that maybe dragons had an inventory like the players did. She had certainly never seen them carrying anything.
"Okay," Sycamore agreed, nodding her head. "Bye, Cora! I'll come back to visit!"
"Okay," Cora echoed, trying not to laugh.
Germaine watched as her two charges launched themselves into the air, their wings working hard to gain altitude.
"I'll be back for the corn. I'll bring plenty of crystals and gold," Germaine told Cora before following after her charges.
"Have a safe flight!" Cora called after the departing dragons. She was rewarded by Sycamore's fading giggles as they passed through the barrier surrounding the town.
"You let dragons in?" Blue asked, appearing from City Hall.
"They're friends." Cora turned towards the blue leopard. "Why didn't you come out?"
"They're dragons. Better not to be noticed these days," Blue explained. She flicked her tail. "Though, it's nice that to know that we have some sort of attention. Maybe it'll result in more people coming."
"I'm working on it," Cora protested. "I have five people coming here."
"And how are they to get here?" Blue asked. "It's not like there's a caravan to here." Blue glanced around. "We don't have anything to offer one anyways."
Cora was silent for a moment.
"I can see if there's one that stops closer to here, and then arrange for further transportation." She looked around the plaza at the destroyed buildings surrounding it. "We have something to offer. Not a lot now, but later, perhaps."
Cora walked towards her field, planning on harvesting the corn she was growing.
"Now that's the attitude the mayor of Wildeven should have," Blue muttered, swishing her tail.