Cora would have to admit that she was a bit peeved. The bidding on her ultra-sized dollhouse was getting a bit out of control. Every time she upped her bid, another entity would almost immediately counter her.
She grabbed an apple and bit down as ferociously as she could, slowly chewing the crispy sweet flesh. There was an interesting tickle at the back of her throat as she swallowed. When she looked down, she blinked to find a faint flame glowing where she'd bitten.
"Is that a fire apple?" Heidi asked in a gasp, leaning forward.
She started rummaging through the enormous fruit bowl. Despite her predations, it was still full of fruit. Cora ignored Heidi's muttered exclamations, pulling up her screen and tapping on a contact.
"Cora?" Kathleen's voice echoed tinnily, sounding nearly as frustrated as she was. "What's the matter?"
"I found the most perfect thing, and someone keeps bidding against me!" Cora snarled, sending out another bid.
"Seriously? Me, too! I found this enormous dollhouse keep that's just perfect! I can imagine Leen cooking in the little kitchen and everything and someone keeps bidding against me!" Kathleen's voice rose indignantly. "And they did it again!" There was a muffled smack.
Cora paused. Then she looked at the image of the keep reflected in the window. The auction house's internals were very good; there was a full 360 degree tour of the dollhouse. Cora hurriedly navigated to find a kitchen, waiting to be fully kitted out but complete with stone stoves, enormous fireplaces and spits.
"Um, Kathleen? Where is this auction?" Cora asked as she judiciously bidded again, only upping her bid by a mere ten gold coins.
"Oh, it's in this mining town. Juniper had to come for some quest and dragged me along. They have the most interesting stuff!"
Cora glanced at Heidi whose shoulders had guiltily hunched. She had a sudden premonition.
"Wait!? Are you bidding against me?" Kathleen asked even as the current bid jumped up ten gold coins.
"Stop bidding! That's me!" Cora exclaimed.
"What room are you in? I'm coming to you," Kathleen said. There was a muffled, meatier smack followed by a pained exclamation. "You didn't tell me Cora was here!'
"How was I supposed to—," cut off as Kathleen disconnected the audio chat.
Cora smacked the button to send out another bid. After what seemed like an eternity, the gavel finally came down in her favor.
"For what you just paid for that, you could have hired a TOWN of artisans to come and build your ents a little town of their own." Heidi looked away and bit into another peach as Cora glared at her.
"How dare they try to take my dollhouse away," Cora snarled. Then she paused. "My guardhouse keep thingie for my grass ents away," she amended and then glared at Heidi. "It was Kathleen bidding against me! You didn't say that you had helpers on this quest!"
"Then what would have been the point of coming?" Heidi argued.
Cora ignored her, staring at the small bedraggled group of players smiling and rejoicing in a corner of the auction. If she'd been any lower, she wouldn't have been able to see them. They were tucked into a tricky corner where they had a bare glimpse of the stage, and from what Cora could tell, only the rooms at her height and higher would be able to see the group if they cared to look.
If she wasn't mistaken, they were the previous owners of her little keep. One of them was staring at the keep as it was carefully kept away by the auctioneers, seemingly muttering to himself. Cora felt her lips curve in a smile.
There was a knock on the door. Cora crossed over and opened it to see Kathleen standing there, nearly vibrating with excitement. Behind her, Juniper lurked, rubbing the back of her head.
"You could have given me a concussion," Juniper groused.
"You have to have a brain for that," Kathleen replied, walking into the room. "So, did you get it?"
"We got it!" Cora said, nearly vibrating herself. "It's so cute, and I think I know who put it up for auction."
Kathleen sucked in a cold breath. Her eyes started shining. She and Cora exchanged similar looks.
"That means more than just the keep!" Cora exclaimed.
"An entire ent village," Kathleen breathed. "Oooh, with little ents in dresses and little pants and shirts…"
"Oh, and little ent greengrocers and little ent town guards," Cora continued.
"If you were trying for nonchalance, then no. Nope, didn't work at all," Heidi mumbled, standing up. She watched as another item was placed on the stage. "How many more items until that stupid bracelet?"
"We're still trying to up the price beforehand?" Juniper asked, turning to Heidi. She accepted the peach Heidi held out.
"It might be harder since these two," Heidi gestured at Cora and Kathleen who were busily making lists using the back of one of the menus off of the fruit table, "have now made themselves known as friends."
"And friends don't usually bid against friends," Juniper finished with a sigh. Then she shrugged. "At least you've a master thief on your side?"
"There is that," Heidi agreed.
Cora and Kathleen exchanged wary glances. Then they turned as one to look at Heidi and Juniper who were munching on peaches.
"They don't look like criminal masterminds, do they?" Cora muttered.
"More like rich girls with nothing better to do," Kathleen agreed. "Are we going to get caught up in this?"
"No, because we're going to go con—um, wrangle ourselves what looks like a creation guild," Cora firmly said. She opened the door to the auction pod.
"Try not to spend our money," Kathleen said, walking through the door. "I've finally found something worthwhile to blow it on, after all."
Cora giggled. She tended not to spend anything at all in the game, and Kathleen kept making money despite her best intentions. It was like her luck followed her into the game.
Cora still remembered Nate wandering around, dazed, muttering about his buddy Kathleen inheriting some distant relative's money because she was the only one in her family who didn't have a job. That Kathleen was only sixteen at the time hadn't been relevant.
She was the pampered baby of her family, and overnight, she became the main breadwinner. The relative had invested in a lot of things with an eye for annuities and dividends.
The sheer amount of money that came in every month was shocking. It didn't help that Kathleen turned into a shopaholic under stressful conditions.
And suddenly supporting her entire family was a huge amount of stress for someone who hadn't even graduated high school. Plus, it was set up so that Kathleen's signature was needed for every withdrawal.
Cora was surprised Kathleen hadn't bought a hidden getaway somewhere and holed up until her eighteenth birthday.
Still, after Kathleen joined Wilderven and took over as her major domo, all things ent started to dominate. She was just as fevered in her adoration of the small, growing grass ent community as Cora was.
Now as they shared similar smiles, Cora could tell that Kathleen's only stress at the moment was in trying to come up with ways to coax the newly found guild into Wilderven's borders.