After convincing Whinging Thom to change his rantings which would have anyone interested in the hiring fair going to Hag’s the following day, Proctor and I regrouped in the inn. Helpfully, the inn rented a room to Proctor as well, so that was another two coins gone.
We spent a few hours in the evening reviewing the “tool” ratings I’d encountered up to that point. There was a storage function to some of the text accessed in my vision. Would you call it cloud storage? I suppose it qualified, and it was handy to have. We both agreed I’d have to find better talent to ensure we could get Moonlight finishing toward the top of the table in League 17.
I wasn’t even sure what the rules were regarding wins, and losses for the team, how many points are awarded for wins, for instance? I remember in pro baseball back in my version of the world, they used a “games back” method of standings where the first place team was ‘at par’ (for lack of a better term off the top of my head), and all teams behind the front runner were said to be ‘x’ number of “games back” or “games behind” the leader. Would the System be using a similar model?
Proctor wasn’t concerned with it in that moment. He was more worried about appeasing the locals.
“We need to speak with this Judith person,” Proctor said.
“The Mayor?” I said. “You think she’d have a problem with us hiring people to protect the village?”
“The funny thing with people in charge,” Proctor said, “is they like to be consulted.”
“Consulted about what?”
Proctor gave a bit of chuckle. “Everything,” he said. “There’s the council as well.”
“The council?” I said. “You’re assuming Moonlight has a village council?”
“There’s a Mayor,” Proctor said. “For sure they have a council. They had the idea to place someone in charge, to enact some form of bureaucracy. It stands to reason there’d be tentacles.”
Something told me Proctor had once been a victim of red tape.
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
“Before we go to Hag’s, we stop, and invite the mayor, and any councilors interested in taking part,” Proctor said.
“Assuming there are any councilors in the first place,” I said.
“Sure.”
We broke off to retire for the night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anywhere to put Flint’s horse after paying those thugs the previous afternoon, so the best I could do was have the creature hitched in front of the inn in hopes no one would interfere.
Happily, when I rose the following morning, the horse was still there, and Nimothy had seen to providing food and water. Then he suggested a stable master at the edge of town who could house the horse for one currency a week. I gave a coin to a young woman who’d said she was going out that way to take the horse with her.
When Proctor and I walked from the inn through the many rows of huts toward Hag’s, we never did run into the village’s mayor, nor anyone purporting to be a village councilor. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at Hag’s, and there Judith, and three councilors were waiting for us in front of the old woman’s stone dwelling.
Aubrey, Zane, and Chai were already milling about gathering footage. Aubrey had a handheld microphone, and spoke in front of Zane’s phone while Proctor and I shook hands with Judith, and the councilors comprised of a woman, and two men.
“We’re here in front of Hag Warren’s house where Moonlight’s new baseball team owner, Adam Bridger, has arrived to conduct a series of interviews seeking to hire security people hoping to prevent monster attacks on the village,” Aubrey announced. “Along with Adam are village officials, the Mayor Judith Jorn, councilors Viv Rix, George Flock, Brunth Dorman, and another man as yet unnamed.”
Having overheard Aubrey’s commentary, Proctor broke from speaking with the village people (har har) to introduce himself to her and her crew.
“I’m Proctor,” he said to Aubrey, Zane, and Chai. It appeared Zane had continued to film as they spoke. “I’m here to help Adam run the team.”
“Oh, wow,” Aubrey said. “Like franchise vice president or something?”
I’d heard her ask the question, and excused myself from speaking with the village people (can’t help myself, he he) to try and answer.
“I’m not sure of his title,” I said to Aubrey. Then I turned toward Proctor. “What do we call you?” I asked.
Proctor shrugged. “It’s up to you,” he said.
“Vice President seems a bit lower than what I’d had in mind,” I said.
“Lower?” Aubrey said. “You’re the owner, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “Proctor’s going to play a big part, obviously. I don’t know, Club President maybe?”
“It’s something to talk about,” Proctor said. “Let’s worry about what’s happening right now.”
Of course, I’d done the requisite baseball scouting stat check on the two councilors.
George Flock
[Tools:
Hitting 20
Power 20
Fielding 25
Throwing 25
Running 20
OFP = 22]
Brunth Dorman
[Tools:
Hitting 25
Power 35
Fielding 20
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Throwing 25
Running 30
OFP = 27]
Even at such a low rating as 35, Brunth’s Power rating caught my eye when compared to others I’d seen. I tucked that in my back pocket for the time being.
Hag, this woman I’d heard so much about but had yet to meet, emerged from her hovel. She looked almost exactly like what I’d pictured. Scraggly gray hair, bunched and tied, a black sack cinched at the waist. Her skin was weather beaten, and deeply wrinkled. If you’d told me she had children named Hansel and Gretel imprisoned inside her hut, I’d have believed you.
She walked down the muddy hill in front of her place holding a wooden board of hors d’oeuvres.
“Please,” Hag said to me, pressing the board of small treats into my chest, “eat my loaf.”
Proctor reached for one of them. “What is this?” Proctor said, taking a treat in hand.
“‘Tis oat loaf,” Hag said. “‘Tis good.”
Aubrey made a cringe face when I glanced over at her. But, I felt compelled to accept one of these things given how insistent Hag had been.
I slid one of the items off the board, and Hag turned her attention to Mayor Judith and the councilors. All of them politely declined her offer. Not a good sign.
Proctor put the whole bit of oat loaf in his mouth at once. His eyes grew two sizes. He chomped up and down a few times, and he swallowed the whole thing.
“Good,” he managed to choke out. But he said it in a way where you knew he meant the opposite.
Aubrey and Zane watched me with smiles on their faces. As if watching a rookie go through some painful rite of passage. Determined to prove everyone wrong, I bit into the morsel of oat loaf, swished it around a few times, and gulped.
Hag watched my expression like a chef eyeing a food critic. She squinted, and her head bobbed with every chew.
You want to know something? These people in my midst are a bunch of wimps. Oat loaf was perfectly… bland. Er, bland-ish. It tasted like a mixture of bran muffin, and focaccia bread, with a dash of flavor mixed in best described as the embodiment of vacuum cleaner hose smell.
Basically, it wasn’t the nightmare these soft moderns had led me to believe.
“Nice,” I said, and fine maybe that was a bit exaggerated, but I was being polite.
“Have another,” Hag said, again shoving the bread board at me.
I held up my hands. “I’m still full from breakfast,” I said. “Please forgive me.”
Her clenched jaw told me she wasn’t buying it, but she ambled off toward her hut while the rest of us fell in behind.
“You handled that well,” Aubrey said, and she gave me a bit of an elbow poke in the ribs.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I said.
Aubrey laughed. “You’re such a bad liar,” she said.
“Seriously,” I said. “You all made it sound like it was the worst thing ever.”
Just as we’d all begun trudging up towards Hag’s hut, Dillard strolled up from behind. He had a young man trailing back a few yards from him.
“‘Tis the hiring fair, here and now?” Dillard said. “Inside Hag’s?”
“She’s been nice enough to play host,” I said. “Are you coming for an interview?”
“To fight the thunders, you fool?” Dillard said. “Never. This is my friend though, he’s moron enough.” He pointed to the young man behind him.
I shook the young man’s hand. He introduced himself as Zwick Rice.
Yep, stat check.
[Tools:
Hitting 30
Power 30
Fielding 25
Throwing 20
Running 25
OFP = 26]
Mayor Judith Jorn heard the man, and turned around. She was a slight woman in her 50s with brittle orange hair. She smiled at the young guy.
“Zwick,” she said with pure warmth. “Was hoping you’d come.”
“You know each other?” I said.
“Quite well,” said the Mayor. “He’s an experienced hunter, aren’t you Zwick?”
“Aye,” said the young man with a nod.
“Are ya coming, or aren’t ya?” Hag shouted at all of us. “I’ve set up the table.”
When we walked to the top of the incline about to enter Hag’s hut, I could see from this vantage point, quite a large throng of villagers were on their way. It looked like we were going to host quite a popular affair.
Inside Hag’s home, she had a long oak table (yep, assuming oak once again!) near her back wall facing out to the wider room. There were two wooden stools ten feet out from the table. Presumably this is where the interviewees would sit. There were a line of chairs on the opposite side of the table next to the wall, i.e. where the interviewers would sit, like we were panelists on American Idol or something. I wondered which one of us would turn out to be Simon.
Hag’s hut was larger than a lot of others in the village, and she had multiple rooms sectioned off with stones spackled together with hardened mud, or maybe it was clay. I drove a bus for a living, I couldn’t tell you anything about construction, let alone medieval construction. Anyway, this main room was plenty for our purposes. I thanked Hag for having us. She merely nodded, and went back to rinsing something in a pot of water at a wooden stand along another wall.
Zwick placed his bottom on a stool, and his knees pushed upward near his chin. Hag noticed this right away, and quickly fetched a taller chair with an actual chair back from another room. Much better. Dillard sat to the young man’s left.
Myself, Proctor, and the village people (okay, yes this is now excessive) took our chairs behind the long table. Aubrey, Zane, and Chai hovered off to the side.
I motioned toward Dillard. “What are you, his lawyer or something?” I said it in a joking tone, but Dillard responded with a frown. I could tell he didn’t understand. Not worth elaborating.
“Right,” Judith said, “shall we get started?”
I’ll admit I felt a bit slighted. Too much ego on my part? Perhaps, but I did feel I should be the one in charge of the hiring fair. I told myself not to read too much into it.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
“Okay,” Mayor Judith said, “who’d like to go first?”
No, I couldn’t help it. I had to step in and assert my authority then and there.
“Sorry,” I said. A weak way to start, I’ll grant you. “I must insist on leading things here.”
You should’ve seen the scowl this brought to Judith Jorn’s face. “Beg your pardon.”
Her councilors wore sneers, but thankfully Proctor’s facial expression was more of the encouraging variety.
“I’m in charge of the team,” I said. “It’s going to be my franchise.”
I could see Aubrey and the crew’s expressions. They were loving this already.
“Your point, young man?” Judith said to me.
“My point,” I said, “is I’ll be in charge of this session. If you don’t mind.”
The lady scoffed. “Well,” she said, “aren’t we self assured?”
“I appreciate your being here,” I said. “All of you. I want the village’s input. This team will represent all of us.”
“I don’t even understand this thing, this… base… ball,” Judith said. “But, it’s something some voice from on high has threatened us with. Something we’ve been told to submit to, or face ultimate destruction.”
Up to that point I hadn’t realized how the System had spoken to the people living in this stone age reality. They didn’t exactly sugar coat things.
“It’s something called ‘The System’,” I said. “It’s the one that’s really in charge. I’m just here to oversee the baseball team. I guess it’s on their behalf if you really think about it.”
“And if we don’t listen to you?” Said one of the councilors, I believe it was that Brunth character. “What will happen to us?”
“We should keep in mind, Adam wants us to do well. Both as a team, and as a village,” Proctor said.
“I do too,” Aubrey added in. “That’s also why we’re here.”
“It’s why we’re all here,” I said. “We didn’t have a say either. The System took us from our world, and put us here. They put me in charge of the baseball team… why? I don’t know. You’d have to ask them.”
“We still don’t know where you’re from,” Judith said. “What world are you talking about? There is only ours.”
Before I could even launch into an explanation, Proctor cut me off.
“We should really focus on the task at hand,” Proctor said. “We have this gentlemen here. I’m certain I can hear folks outside queuing up as well for an interview for these security positions.”
It was a welcome refocusing of things. This is why I knew it was important to have Proctor around. And, it was true, we could hear the din of the crowd forming outside Hag’s walls. Whinging Thom had done his job.