They followed Pete into a field filled with plants that came up to his waist. Each green plant was covered with yellow flowers, his nose filled with a sweet syrupy, sharp scent. Kit had been so taken by the sea of yellow he hadn’t realised that Pete had brought them over to a small group of people.
Five heads were turned towards their group when they arrived. “Honey you found some more people to help!” A sweet soft voice floated over to Kit. The owner of the voice was an older woman with grey streaks in her hair.
Pete nodded. “This is Kit and Peaches.” Pete pointed to each of them in turn. “The lovely lady who just spoke is my wife Vivian and the young man standing next to her is Lindor’s older brother Truffles. The rest of these ruffians are Lindor’s friends, Bear, Bunny, and Star.”
Kit recognised the last three youths, they were the same ones he had met at the Spartan Fire quest board. He waved in recognition. Kit turned his eyes towards Truffles, he and Lindor looked almost like twins except for their height. The only way to tell them apart was that Truffles was a head shorter than Lindor.
“Well it’s almost time.” Pete looked up to the sky, Kit followed his gaze to see the sun was almost at its peak for the day. Kit was amazed it was only around lunch time. He felt like it should be closer to night time. Then again, he wasn’t surprised at his misinterpretation of time, he’d had an action packed morning.
All eyes around Kit dropped down to the ground after Pete spoke. It was only Peaches and himself that were at a loss, Peaches shrugged his shoulders then followed the party’s example. Kit started searching the floor of the field.
A small fluffy black and white creature that resembled a guinea pig scurried along the ground. Kit eyes beamed with happiness at the cute little fellow. He squatted down on the ground and coaxed it to come close. To his delight the little fluff ball ran straight into his waiting hands.
“Don’t play with it Kit, kill it!” Lindor looked at Kit like he had two heads. Kit looked at the small fluffy creature in his hand. This was the rodent that they had to kill? But it was so freaking cute! Kit didn’t think he could kill such a cute creature.
As he was petting its soft fur, a sharp pain arose from the hand cupping the creature. Kit looked down to see blood spilling from two rows of teeth marks.
- 10 damage.
Damn it, these things had sharp teeth. Kit reflexively dropped the creature. A shovel flew past his face and landed smack bang on the tiny creature he had just dropped. “Just hit them like this.” Lindor flicked the shovel and the dead guinea pig plopped to the ground. Blood was smeared on the blade of the shovel.
Kit didn’t know how to feel for a moment. The cute rodent was a pile of squished fur and blood. Squeaks started to frantically fill the air around them. “Here they come!” Lindor voice had a air of anticipation.
The ground that had been bare of creatures just moments before was now filled with beady eyed fluffy creatures. Red pupils glowed and focused on their group. Kit quickly changed his mind about them being cute.
He lifted his shovel ready to smash down on their heads. The rodents ran towards their small group. Kit swung down at the closest rodents to surround him. Soon dull thuds rang along with screeches of anger.
Sweat beaded on Kit’s head. He could feel it trickle down his face. Kit’s arm was on auto pilot swing up, swing down. Kit didn’t know how many times he smashed his shovel. Soon a pile of dead rodents were at his feet. As Kit’s arm was starting to ache Peaches made his way over to him.
“I have enough magica regenerated to raise these rodents. Do you want me to kill them all now or would you like to keep going with the shovel?”
“Seriously do you even have to ask. Peaches I will name my next creation after you if you kill these feisty buggers now!” Kit looked at Peaches like he was his saviour. Peaches chuckled at Kit, then held his hands out to the side of his body.
Kit watched as the familiar red swirls leap out of Peaches hands then darted towards the dead rodents. In no time at all the animals were covered in red. Black smoke started to enter their tiny mouths.
Soon twitching rodents started to attack their brethren. Kit sunk his shovel into the ground then rested his chin against the top to watch the show. Soon a plague of rodents stood obediently behind Peaches. None of the rodents remained alive. Kit gave Peaches a thumbs up.
He watched as the red coating the rodents returned to Peaches. Rodents dropped like flies before his eyes. Kit walked over to the closest rodent to see what they would drop upon death. A small fluffy pelt appeared in Kit’s hand.
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Ding!
[CAL]
Quest complete: Farmer Pete’s rodent problem, common.
Rewards: 100 EXP, 10 bronze crowns, - 10 reputation points with farmer Pete (Necromancer in party).
Peaches and Kit started to collect the fallen pelts. Kit only stopped when he noticed his surroundings were silent, besides the sounds of him and Peaches picking up the pelts. Kit turned to see why the others weren’t joining in grabbing the spoils.
Fierce eyes from Pete, Vivian and Truffles were directed at Peaches. Kit blinked at the intensity of there gaze, what the hell was going on?
“You’re a necromancer! Filthy corrupted blood beast! Get off my property now!” Pete pointed sharply with his hand towards Peaches. Kit gaped in shock. What the hell was with this fierce change in attitude.
Peaches had just solved their vermin problem in record time as far as Kit was concerned. They should be thanking the man profusely, not staring at him with hateful eyes. Kit felt his anger bubble at his friend’s treatment.
“Are you serious Pete, Peaches just wiped out most of the rodents by himself. Why are you not thanking him instead of running him off?” Kit could hear the anger in his tone. He wasn’t impressed with this farmer right now.
“Kit, I will give you some advice. Necromancers are treacherous people, he might seem friendly now, but he will turn his back on you on an instant if it will help him raise his power. That’s all these fucking filthy pieces of shit care about.”
Pete glared at Peaches, if looks could Kill Peaches would be dead right now. “These abominations have wiped out entire villages just to raise their power. The reason it is still alive right now is because he did help. I can’t guarantee I can hold myself back for long, so it needs to leave now!”
Lindor walked over and stood in front of Kit and Peaches after his dad spoke. “Dad, what the hell? Peaches is Kit’s friend. I believe Kit wouldn’t make friends with a monstrous person. Why are you behaving like this?”
Vivian became flustered when Lindor came closer to Peaches. “Lindor come back over here quickly.”
Lindor firmly shook his head. “Mom, you too? I am disappointed in my family for the first time today.” Lindor turned to look at Peaches. “Sorry about my family, don’t listen to them, ok? Follow me and I will take you back to the village.” Lindor face was flushed in embarrassment.
Kit’s mood had soured at these people’s behaviour. He didn’t even want the milk anymore. Kit pulled Peaches along behind Lindor. Kit slowed down his pace so he could talk to Peaches without Lindor overhearing them.
“Shit Peaches I’m sorry I didn’t think anything like that would happen. Are you ok?” Kit ran worried eyes over his friend. To Kit’s surprise Peaches had a soft smile on his face.
“I’m fine this is a normal occurrence for me. When I picked the necromancer character to play, I already knew there would be some difficulties. Honestly though, I wasn’t prepared for the hostility when I first started playing. Over time I got used to it.”
Kit frowned, this was not ok! He had experience himself at being ostracised because of something he couldn’t help. He felt a rush of empathy for his friend. It wasn’t something that was easy to deal with and it sucked that it was something they had to get used to. But then again did anyone really get used to having abuse hurled at them?
Kit himself knew he just masked the hurt he received from others harsh words. Why was it them that had to get used to it though? Others should be more responsible for their actions and be mindful of their words.
A tug in his heart towards his friend almost brought a tear to his eye. Kit now felt that Peaches was firmly a part of his weirdo group now. He would have to remember to take better care of his friend in the future.
Then Kit remembered that Peaches was a player. He might already have a bunch of people he played with. He asked Peaches if he had a regular team.
“I did start off playing with a group of friends at first, but they found the prejudice against necromancers too hard to deal with, so they slowly stopped playing together with me a long time ago.” A sad smile graced Peaches handsome face.
Kit felt his heart soften at the hurt look. “That’s rough. Peaches don’t worry about those people, they can’t be your real friends then anyway. Going through hard times together is part of being a comrade. At least you have Mars, Twix and myself now, we won’t leave you just because people are ignorant!”
Peaches gloomy small smile turned into a pleased grin. “Thanks Kit that means a lot to me.” Kit knew that feeling of finding someone that was willing to support you. He flashed back to the first time he met Mars. A mirroring happy smile graced Kit’s face. It was nice to have real friends.
“What do you want to do now that you won’t be able to obtain some milk? Do you want to try to visit some other farms while we are here to secure some?” Peaches inquired.
“No, I only decided to stop into the farm because it was right in front of me. I can slowly inquire about a milk supplier later.” Kit rubbed his chin in thought. Now that he had seen a working farm, he had the idea to visit a few to see if they had anything interesting that he could utilise. Maybe he could also find someone willing to work on his farm at the same time?
Lindor pulled him from his thoughts as they reached the barn. “Kit do you still want some milk before you leave? You can take as much as you like from the tank.” Kit could see the nervous tension radiating from the youth.
He smiled at Lindor to break the tension. It wasn’t Lindor’s fault that his parents were aggressive towards Peaches. “No I’ll leave the milk. I don’t think I could look at it with out getting angry.” Lindor’s face dropped.
A soft voice left Lindor’s mouth. “Sorry Kit and Peaches. I understand if you don’t want to see me again in the future.” Kit eyebrows shot to his hair line in surprise. Ahh, had he made Lindor feel bad with his words. He was just being honest, he didn’t take into account how that would affect Lindor.
Fuck he was a hypocrite! He had literally just been thinking people should watch their words. “Lindor, I’m sorry that was a careless remark. I would be happy if you still came to see me. You stood up to your parents for us. That is a hard thing to do for anyone, we are very grateful for your words of support.”
Lindor beamed at Kit. “That’s great! I will be heading back to Spartan Fire soon with Bear, Bunny and Star. Do you want to travel back together?” Kit couldn’t refuse the eager man. “Ok, I just have to visit a culinary guild first. Do you know where one is?”
“Yes!”