Chapter 18: War

Jennifer shook so badly that she could barely hold her mop. She led her group to take up a position near the back of the line on one side. The group arranged themselves in a diamond formation with Sarah in front, Kevin on the right, Soup Bowl on the left, and Jennifer in the back. The pets were scattered close by with the exception of the chickens, who had formed their own diamond shape.

Jennifer kept trying to take deep breaths, but panic kept breaking through. If the fight did not begin soon, she feared she would run in the other direction. Looking around, the reaction was not unusual. There was a divide in their army. It took several short heartbeats to understand why. Parallels were excited; fragments were afraid. There was no raid alert. The fragments that were choosing to fight knew that if they fell, they might never get back up. The parallels would return no matter what.

The mayor stood front and center. Jennifer’s gaze shifted between him and the farthest point of the bridge. The warlord himself led the invading group over the bridge. She selected the warlord as a target, but the only thing that was stopping her from firing her dark blast was that he was out of range.

Oddly enough, the warlord walked down the bridge holding a banner instead of running. One slow step at a time, he held his banner high as he approached. But by the way he moved, it looked like he did not want to be there. Before, he would walk around with his head held high, looking down on everyone around him. Now, his shoulders sloped and his eyes looked down.

Every member of the warlord’s army wore white arm or leg bands. Some even had bands around their heads. When the invaders got closer, Jennifer realized there were red stains on the white bands. Staring at the banner she understood it was not a mark of intimidation. The mental shock hit hard, and she dropped both her jaw and her mop. The banner was a sign of desperation and a mark of surrender. A white flag.

Some people groaned with disappointment, while others sighed with relief. Everyone rushed forward to help.

The warlords leading the army were taken to the town hall, and Jennifer’s group turned into healers. When she had time, she made tea and healing potions. Jennifer considered returning to her café to get more of the drinks. The shelves in her café’s kitchen were stocked with healing teas, though those were weaker. Her potions healed most fragments by half, but her teas helped by giving a regeneration buff. Anyone who drank would have hit points recover at a faster rate than normal.

For parallels, the results were far more random. Her personal potions healed them completely or did almost nothing. Someone told her that the healing potions would heal five hundred points of health, while her teas healed about half but over half a minute. Her potions would always do the same, but not everyone had the same health pool. The higher the level, the larger the pool.

Warriors who were left behind with the lowest health pool were the ones Jennifer’s team did triage on. When a bluebird landed on Jennifer’s shoulder with a message for her to meet the mayor at city hall, she was worried what else could happen. Something important enough to summon her would suggest someone was hurt.

The sky turned silver as she left her team, who continued tending to the remaining wounded lined up in rows on the ground. One glance up at the sky cleared her hazy mind. A dark and ominous countdown clock hung in the sky. What was going to happen in forty-eight hours?

No greeting came from the mayor’s lips as she entered city hall. In a flat tone, he said, “The warlord and his armies were beaten by a single raid boss.”

The female dinosaur added, “Whatever was attacking us did not trigger the normal options. When you take a town or city, there is an option to convert or raise. To take it or burn it to the ground.”

The warlord’s voice was low and full with emotions as he gripped his rocket hammer. “I always choose to convert and add the conquered city to my territory. That thing just beat my armies and left the cities to burn, not taking the raising option. He left the resources, the non-combatants, but no way to use the stockpiles. The fragments didn’t have the script. They just fled.”

“Why did you call me?” Jennifer felt like the odd one out in a room full of fighters.

“You came up with the plan to beat the last raid boss on the fly. We need someone to come up with a plan.” The mayor's face looked grim. “And we need a plan in less than forty-eight hours.”

“Have you tried not fighting?” It was the option she wanted most. “You know a battle not fought cannot be lost?” She shrugged.

They were not amused.

The head warlord roared, “I told you asking fragments for help was useless.”

“We are going to need a bigger army.” The triceratops ignored his leader’s outburst.

Jennifer stared at the ground. The thought of putting anyone in danger turned her stomach, but she had given her word. “I can get you an army,” she murmured.

“How?” asked the mayor without hesitation.

Jennifer shuffled her feet. “Letters of recommendation from the mayor, a business owner, and a parallel.”

“Well, we have a mayor and a group of parallels.” The warlord beamed and rubbed his hands together.

In spite of herself, Jennifer looked him in the eye with a smile, then looked down. “With the timer, that means this is a raid. Will fragments respawn?” The last word hurt coming out of her throat.

The others looked at one another then at the mayor.

The female dinosaur asked the mayor, “You’ve been playing the longest. Have you ever done a silver raid?”

“Why do you think he’s been here the longest? I just got the ten-year badge,” the dinosaur in the wizard hat replied.

“I stopped counting,” said the mayor. “But no, I’ve never been in a silver raid. I’m playing the role of a mayor, not an adventurer.”

By the huff in the mayor’s voice, Jennifer felt every fiber of her being telling her that the mayor was lying, but decided not to press the subject. “So, do we know if fragments respawn?” She asked the question again, the final word came smoothly from her. While she still did not know the process, after going into the tree it was easier to understand such words.. She needed an answer.

The mayor spoke slowly and deliberately. “The strongest raids I’ve been in have had raid-specific rules, ‘fragments respawn’ was a case-by-case basis. Judging by the fragments that came here after the last battles, I would assume they will respawn.”

“From the number of cities that fell and how many are left, I am assuming fragments will not,” said the warlord, glaring at the mayor.

“So, a chance, at best.” Jennifer looked down, trying to think of a way to keep her promise without endangering the goblins. “Okay, a chance is a chance. It will be up to them if they join. Mr. Mayor, you'll need to come with me to make the offer.”

“I’m needed here to prepare the defense. There’s no way I can go.” The mayor raised his voice as he stood. He was clearly looking for support from the others as he glanced around. The knuckles of his hands went white while leaving the table.

Jennifer raised a finger pointing at the ceiling and narrowed her eyes. “The mayor needs to be the one to make the offer.”

“Look, there are things I’m going to be needed for here.” The mayor crossed his arms and scowled.

The leader of the dinosaurs looked at the mayor in confusion. “Like what? We’re the warlords here. We can set up the defense.”

“And we can organize the lines of parallels and set up fallback points,” the female dinosaur added while eyeing the mayor.

“But we need more bodies to fill the line,” said the triceratops.

“I can cast fireball.” The wizard lizard’s comment made it clear that he was not the brains of the team.

The mayor rubbed his forehead. “I’ll set up a town buff for the raid, then follow Jennifer to this”—he paused for a moment before adding—“army.”

Seeing the opportunity, Jennifer added, “I’m also going to need more metal and healing moss.”

The mayor rolled his eyes. “I’ll spend more town points on fetch quests as well.”

An hour later, the mayor met Jennifer at the town’s gate on the road that led to Bishop’s University. The mayor wore an oilskin hooded cape, a belt with a lot of pouches, his normal bone bead chest piece, and a walking stick.

“Where is your top hat, and coat? You have gear for traveling only?” Jennifer tilted her head slightly. So far, she only had her school uniform and starting gear.

“I have one hundred twenty-seven sets of gear for nearly any occasion.”

“And you only ever wear one outfit in town?”

“When you have the perfect outfit, why bother.”

Jennifer's lips tightened, and her eyes narrowed on the mayor. “Where do you even store it all?”

The mayor smiled and handed Jennifer a pouch for her belt. She took the pouch. After adding it to her belt, her menus posted an alert that her storage space had increased. Checking her inventory, she had gone from twenty slots to thirty. An additional four stacks of fifty steel ingots. She never paid much attention to her inventory, preferring to keep it as clean and empty as possible. Her mop and a few odds and ends were the only constants.

The mayor kept up beside her as they walked to the university. Not wanting to endure the trek in silence, Jennifer said, “So, this will be your first silver raid.”

“Yes. The highest I’ve ever done was against a living, moving castle made out of flaming squids. It was more of a puzzle raid than a combat raid, but the reward was unlocking a prestige class. Of course, I took the mayor class.” A slight smile crept across the mayor’s face.

“So, Jim the Electric Mayor?” Jennifer felt it was a good question.

The mayor chuckled. “Electric, Invulnerable Mayor.”

The mayor trailed off, Jennifer added “And?”

The mayor gave her a side-long look. “Cheese maker.”

Jennifer stopped in her tracks. “Cheese maker?” Her jaw hung open before adding, “That means you have four main power trees, right?”

The mayor waved his hand, urging her to keep moving. “Well, three and a half. When I level up, I get the leveling options as if I have three power trees.”

“I thought parallels only got two power trees and then optional power sets?” She took a few large steps to close the gap between them as they walked.

“We start with two, then we can unlock others. It’s difficult, but it’s doable.”

“How did you unlock Cheese maker?”

“By making a lot of cheese. The things you do when you’re young and want to impress a girl.”

“You became a cheese maker to impress a girl? Did it work?” Jennifer could not imagine being impressed by that.

“That’s how I met Belle. And now I’m a grandparent, so I would count that as a win.” The mayor looked up with a dreamy expression on his face.

The two continued their small talk as they walked to the university.

When the two reached the main gates, the mayor asked, “So, an army of students. I vaguely remember something about people who enlisted getting the chance to get an education too. Yes, I think I could work with this. So, where are these students? In the dorms?”

“They have an encampment in one of the quads. I’m hoping this time I get to have some of that deep-fried rabbit.” She licked her lips just thinking about it.

When they turned the last corner before the encampment, the mayor yelled, “Look out! There are goblins,” and turned on his buffs.

“Yup.” Jennifer walked past the mayor, waving cheerfully at a few of the goblins she recognized.

“Your army is an army of goblins?” The mayor looked aghast. “You want me to give a bunch of goblins letters of reference to get into the university? In exchange for fighting?”

“Only if they agree to it.”

“This was a waste of time.” Anger ripped through the mayor’s voice. “They’re less than people, and only good for dulling weapons!”

Jennifer’s hand shot out so fast, neither could stop it. The mayor stumbled backward as a handprint outlined on the side of his face. “Are you a beggar or a chooser?” She raised her voice. “They have the same feelings as you or I. They have their own wants and needs. They want to get into the university just as much as I do. The world can only be made better with education for all.”

“The world can be made better by exterminating all goblins. No man would willingly fight next to one, and we cannot beat the green off their skin,” said the mayor coldly.

She felt her face growing hot. “Do you want allies or enemies? How many times have you fought goblins, yet they’re still here?”

“No matter how many rat traps there are, there will always be rats.” The mayor was practically spitting his words out.

Woozle appeared next to Jennifer. Where he had come from, she did not know, but his engines revved in aggravation.

“With education, they will add their own knowledge to ours and everyone will learn more.” She glanced in her menus and prepared to queue up her skeletons for a fight.

The train whistled in the distance and the two glared at one another. It felt like a warning somehow.

The mayor’s face went red. With a twitch of his hand, he moved towards Jennifer. But before he took a full step, a pie slammed into his face stopping him in his tracks.

The pie stayed in place for a few heartbeats before it fell to the ground in a whipped cream mess. When he blinked, Jennifer bent over in uncontrolled laughing.

Between laughs, the elderly goblin Jennifer had previously met walked over to the mayor. Reaching up, and standing on his toes, a swipe of his finger, he wiped off the cream. “Banana cream pie, best aggression stopper.”

A goblin speaking English caused the mayor to blink faster. “You speak our language?”

“Yes. How many languages do you speak?” While highly accented, the intelligence in the goblin’s voice was unmistakable.

“I don’t want you in my town’s army,” the mayor blurted.

“It’s okay. We will watch your town burn. The commodore will crush you.” The goblin shrugged and half grinned.

The mayor’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know about the raid?”

The goblin’s smile widened, but he did not answer.

The mayor looked sideways at the goblin and chewed his lip. “What do you think our chances are?”

“Without Goblin, bad. With Goblin, not as bad.”

“That good, eh?” The mayor sighed and looked down. “How much to join?”

The goblins' eyes narrowed. “School.”

“No.” The word shot out of the mayor.

The goblin’s smile returned. “No goblin.”

Jennifer looked down at her familiar and mouthed the word, ‘rabbit.’ Woozle nodded and bounded off. Jennifer returned her attention to the mayor and the goblin, trying to judge the chances that the pair would come to blows. The mayor wiped away the remaining mess on his face, as the two continued to speak to each other. She did not have the experience to know if these two were arguing or negotiating, but with nothing to add to the conversation, she slowly edged away. Her aim was to help the goblins start packing up. They would either need to leave town, or find a new place where they would not be bothered. She wondered if they might like swamp land. If the town did fall, she would like to move into their camp.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Sometime later, Jennifer had a plate of deep-fried rabbit in her lap. She watched the goblins take down their tents, as she happily ate her food. Woozle was on at least his fourth. Half an hour later, the entire camp was packed up and the goblins were off to Hogback. Not all goblins followed the trail to town. Groups of four to six left in other directions. The ones that left either refused to meet Jennifer's eyes or glared at her with such vigor it made her giant intimidation look weak.

The only remaining creature in the quad was the beefalo with sunglasses. Jennifer walked slowly over to the creature and hugged its side. “We’ll be back.” A noise like an accented happy moo came out of the cow hybrid.

She contemplated staying and waiting for the battle to be complete before returning to the town. Thinking of the battle made her skin go cold. She was not a fighter. She just wanted to be a student. The places her mind went when thinking about the upcoming battle were places she did not want her mind going. She forced the thoughts out of her mind, squeezed her eyelids as tight as she could, and took in a deep breath.

A few things happened over the course of just a small handful of heartbeats. The mayor and the goblin shook hands. The goblin town started towards Hogsback. Finally, Jennifer received enough experience to level up. Joining the walk back to town, Jennifer looked at her leveling options. She received three power options with simple choices. She took Summon Large Undead, raising the limit of her crafted potions from four to eight, and a power called Boom Shield.

Summon Large Undead: You are now able to summon one large skeleton. This power does stack with other skeletons. When in doubt, go big or go home.

Looking over the stats, she could have her normal three skeletons or one large skeleton. Jennifer sighed. She needed to go back to the land of the dead to find something large she could summon.

Boom Shield: When the force field is removed by force, the shield will cause knock back damage around the one that was protected by the shield. You take this down, you go down.

With her final power option, she chose Crafter, which was the next power after Mending in the generic power tree she took so long ago.

All the powers she selected were powers unlocked at level eleven, and she felt this was a clean simple level up. She did not have to weigh her options, coupled with the simple choices, she was happy. Looking at Woozle, he was the size of a mini pony before, but now he was a regular size one. She missed having a small ball of purring fluff riding in her hood. She wondered if she got a backpack, would he willingly ride in it.

She walked silently next to the mayor on the way back to town. Bisow was trailing behind. The sunglasses made him stand out.

With every step she took, her legs felt weaker. She was sweating more, and needed to calm her breathing as the green army moved. She focused on not panicking as they approached the wall.

Jim waved his hand and the gate opened. Goblins walked through head held high. Apprehension turned to surprise and curiosity at the line of people winding around the town square. At the end of the line stood three robed people standing before a sword in a stone. The next person in line walked up to the sword in the stone, gripping the hilt of the sword. Even from a distance, Jennifer could see the bunching muscles on the person’s arms ripple as he pulled the sword from the stone.

“What is your name, chosen one?” asked one of the robed people loud enough for the cheering crowd to hear.

“Umm, Hamill Gastly,” said the man holding the sword.

“As was prophesied, Hamill Gastly is the chosen one who pulled the sword from the stone. Next!”

The next person in line was clearly a wizard, wearing a blue pointed hat, matching robes, and a long white beard. This time, a staff appeared in the stone.

Jennifer turned with head tilted toward the mayor who seemed to find something interesting off in the distance.

“Have you heard of the king under the mountain?” the mayor asked sheepishly.

“I’ve heard of the chosen one. It’s been done.” She paused to look at the long line of people. “It’s been done a lot.”

“Yeah, well, as mayor I got to choose the name of the buff. Everyone wants to be the chosen one. Everyone wants to be the hero in their own story, right?”

“You have people lining up to be the chosen one in the battle to save the town. That’s not a bad idea.” She wanted to chastise the mayor, but a good idea was a good idea.

Goblins joined the line of people waiting to be one of the many potential chosen ones. While no one interacted with the goblins, no one started any trouble with them either. People were, however, crossing the street and keeping their distance.

“Okay, let’s see how they’re setting up the defense.” The mayor waved for Jennifer to follow.

She was underwhelmed by her first time in the mayor’s office. A desk, the town flag, a window, and a picture of a woman in a green military uniform standing in front of an old school military ambulance. The map on the mayor’s desk had little potions at small barricades with marginal sized arrows scattered all over its surface. Points to stand and fight, fallback points, and healing points. There was a legend at the bottom of the map to decode the colors and make deciphering easy.

The people around the map were silent. Icons moved around. The looks on their faces were somber and deep in thought.

The setup confused Jennifer. “Why not just carry a healing potion and drink it as needed rather than having healing stations like water stations during a marathon?”

The triceratops answered her question. “Have you ever tried to drink something while fighting? It’s a good way to get stabbed more.”

Jennifer squinted at the triceratops, who was the only one in the room she had to look up at. “I use a diamond formation. The person needing healing gets behind me for a potion.”

“Me getting behind anyone just puts a target on the one in front of me.”

“So, you want your hands free for fighting.” Jennifer’s mind raced as she talked, trying to think of ways to deliver a hands free healing potion.

“Do you have a helmet I can see for a quick sec?” The smile on her face was somewhere between this-is-a-bad-idea and this-is-the-greatest-idea-ever.

The triceratops man took a custom black and gold helmet out of his inventory and handed it to Jennifer.

Just by looking at the helmet, she knew it was made by a master, it had a purple label on the inside saying as such. “Be right back.” She left the room and used her crafting skill to make simple potion holders on each side of the helmet with a tube.

Once finished, she walked back into the mayor’s office. The mayor, the old goblin, who arrived when she was crafting, the leader of the dinosaurs, and his lovely dinosaur planner were all arguing about the placement of barricades. Jennifer felt the triceratops’s eyes following her as she walked up to him, hiding the helmet behind her. She was really trying to hide her smile.

“So, I made you a thing,” she said.

“What did you do?” he asked as his eyes narrowed.

She took the helmet out from behind her.

“Where I came from, this is called a drinking hat.” She was proud of her little creation. She put two of her potions in the waiting receptacles. “Hands free, and ready for use when you need it.”

The mayor was face palming, the elder goblin was staring open mouthed, and the dinosaur leader looked confused.

“Goblin want to know how many metal hats you have. How many potions you have?” He was the first to speak, but before Jennifer could answer him, the dinosaur warlord spoke. “She can carry a max of four. Normally, she only has access to three due to trades.”

Jennifer looked at the warlord with a side eye. “How did you know that?”

The warlord’s smile widened. “Some people know who to ask the right questions to.” His tone mocked Jennifer, as she processed what he had said.

With tension building in the room, Jim attempted an obvious de-escalation. “The corporation is good, but sometimes they sell information too. The cows are always watching.”

Stunned at these revelations, the only thing Jennifer could say was, “Oh.” She did not know how to process that. She trusted Sarah, but how many of the people wearing sunglasses were watching her? How much did they know? The gears of her mind spun faster with each heartbeat. What does the corporation do? Do they have a headquarters? Do they accept Sociology students as interns for summer break? Is it all one corporation, or just a few working together? What would their lunch room look like, would it be just a large salad bar?

“Jennifer, are you not paying attention? The goblins will be here soon. Can your party go out and hunt with the goblins? The town is going to need food supplies.”

The mayor’s voice shocked Jennifer back to the task at hand. She checked her menus. Sarah was in town, Kevin was in the town square, and Soup Bowl’s name was grayed out, meaning he was in another world. She sent a blue bird to all of them so they would meet in front of her café.

“Well, Woozle will enjoy going for a hunt, but we’re missing a member of the party.” The words were in the air for a moment. She looked at the goblin. When she sent an invite to him, she received an error message.

Invalid target.

“Will you join my party, Goblin?” While she would not be able to see him or his status in her menu, she could have him around.

The old goblin nodded once before answering. “Goblins come to town. Set up camp. Prepare for fight. Goblin go with giant. Get big food.” He added a smile and rubbed his stomach.

Jennifer left the meeting with her green friend, leaving the rest of the strategy meeting to the mayor and the warlord.

It was not long before they were outside the city, following behind the goblin. Jennifer had no idea what the goblin was watching out for, but he looked like he knew what he was doing.

Woozle was beside the elderly goblin, periodically pausing to sniff the ground. She knew him well enough to know he was not finding anything.

Kevin was at the back of the group. Once or twice he had given Jennifer a polite bark when she had turned the wrong way. Even with the two navigations on, she still sometimes got lost. She did not know why, but it was happening less and less often. She would give him scratches behind the ear when he helped her stay on the right path.

Sarah was in front of Jennifer but behind the goblin. She was in the suit she wore for combat.

Jennifer’s mind wandered back to the warlord knowing about her potion limit. Her heart was beating faster than it should. Jennifer needed to know but could not bring herself to ask. Would asking betray Sarah’s trust? How could it not? Others in sunglasses that may have known too.

“Did you tell Export du Universal about my powers?” She had not meant to say it aloud, the words coming out unintentionally. Sarah turned around, then all eyes turned to Jennifer.

Sarah straightened her back. Jennifer could not see if Sarah’s eyes were darting around the group or not behind her dark sunglasses, but her head movement suggested it. Jennifer looked into the large dark sunglasses of her friend, waiting for the answer.

“No, I did not.” Sarah was looking straight at Jennifer when she spoke, but something was off about her friend. Her body language told Jennifer there was more to it.

“But?”

Sarah could not meet Jennifer’s eyes and was looking down. “We do not sell information on people we team with or people we have deals with. The main export for the company is information. One of us did sell that information.”

“Goblin think. Company not bad. Company in system. Goblin make deal to not sell where Goblin is.” The goblin moved to Sarah’s side. He patted her side. “Goblin speak with non-goblin thanks to company.” The goblin pulled out a plain circular copper amulet from under his shirt.

Sarah was unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “I was the one that made that deal. We hope to help the goblins in spite of them not being in the system. If they could communicate better, they would be accepted.”

Something itched in Jennifer’s mind. She thought back to the night when she was cleaning the stables. She wanted to reject the system. She was going to go to school to help fix another system. Sociology was the study of society, by following this field she would answer questions like, what binds people together? Why do people work together? How to enable other people to work to better everyone rather than only themselves? The system in this world was what bound people. They were all people playing by rules set forth by the Dev. She was part of the system too; the same system that let her look into her menus. Her attention was drawn to her anadromous power, the one that allowed her recall items. It was in the system, but she knew it was not from the system. Jennifer had an image of an old man in her head. Something itched in her mind. How do people live here, but live outside the rules?

The words pop into her head, she mimicked the old man’s words. “Why do goblins not have names?” The words came slowly because she was unsure why that question was so important to her. “Is it because if you had names, the system would be able to track you?” The information was there, but something was not connecting for her.

“Goblin reject system. Dev came after Goblin. Goblin refuse Dev. Dev told all to hunt Goblin.” Notes of sadness rang in his voice.

“You reject the system, so you’re treated badly? Did you do anything wrong?” Jennifer could not see how rejecting the system would cause them to be hunted.

Sarah’s voice wavered as she spoke. “The corporation thinks the Dev needs to maintain control. We don’t know why. When coming here, those in the corporation receive a choice. Accept the system or-” Her voice broke, unable to speak the alternative.

“Those who reject the system are punished by the system.” Those simple words should not have gone together so easily, but they did. Her menus were always on hand. Even wishing that she could reject them too, there was no way to go back. In her own world, she had a menu in her pocket that was always able to bring her information just like now. That hand held menu connected her with the world by text or voice, played music, and allowed her to look up information faster than learning it herself.

“Goblin sees goblin mark. Hunt this way.”

Jennifer could not meet anyone’s eyes. It hurt her to be touched in memories. Such conveniences allowed so much control. With the connection of that device, she was submitting to having something that could track her every movement. Here, by interacting with the system, they could track her every moment. It would be much harder here to disconnect.

“Goblin who protect my heart is ahead.” He pointed down the wide path the group was walking on.

Moments later, another elderly goblin embraced their group’s goblin. The two spoke in their language.

Jennifer moved up beside Sarah. “I’m-” Jennifer cut Sarah off before she could continue. “I know trust is a hard thing.” Sarah wrapped Jennifer in her arms in a bear hug. Sarah was one of Jennifer’s first friends here, but she never noticed the height difference between them.

“Are you taller than me?” Jennifer asked before breaking the hug.

“Well, yes, but only by a few fingers.” Sarah’s head tilted to one side. “Did you never notice? I was a bit surprised you never asked if I was a half giant like you.”

Jennifer looked Sarah up and down. “I mean, yes, I should’ve thought of that.”

A loud warning bark came from Kevin. His goblin moved from a bored posture in the saddle to holding her weapon pointing up and her other hand on a saddle horn.

The elderly goblin that was guiding the group shushed Kevin. “Goblin who test Goblin is ahead. They found food.”

Leading the group around a bending turn was a team of goblins working on a hairy beast that made Jennifer look tiny. The creature was no longer in a state that could be described as living. The creature was laid on its side in front of the group.

Woozle said with amazement, “That’s a mammoth.”

“I call dibs on the bones.” Jennifer’s hand shot like a rocket into the air.

“Goblin use bones.” While his words were not a question, the raised eyebrow on the goblin told her it was.

Both Kevin and Woozle were running around the massive deposit of meat and bones. They would approach the fallen animal, sniff it, then run.

Jennifer took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was used to the power by now, but it was still not one she would have chosen.

“Summon Undead.” When she opened her eyes, undead Kevin sat on his hind legs in front of Jennifer wagging his tail.

“Goblin willing to make deal,” his words came slowly.

She looked around the group. The goblins working on the mammoth were slicing off portions of meat. They were collecting the cut portions in baskets. This mammoth had four tusks but was missing the crystal fur she remembered seeing on the mural. The elderly goblin, who protected their goblin guide’s heart, was speaking in a way that said he was in charge.

“What kind of deal?” Jennifer asked the goblin.

“You no do that to Goblin. Goblin give giants fur and bones. One time.” His words came out at a slow, deliberate pace.

She thought this offer over. Reviewing the situation, the goblin did not want her to use summon undead on any goblins. If she agreed she would be limiting herself, but she had a supply of human bones. It was only a day trip at most for her to get more. Jennifer dropped to one knee in order to shake the elder’s hand. “I will never use the bones of goblins.”

After finishing the shake, the old one shouted to the other goblins. They shouted back. Sarah shrugged in Jennifer’s direction while Jennifer found a very interesting tree to look at. Not looking at the goblins working on the remains of the animal.

Before leaving the area, the only remains of the mammoth were its fur and bones.

Jennifer never paid much attention to her inventory space, which had never been full. After pulling out many flowers, some moss, a few interesting rocks, and several other things she had forgotten were in her inventory, she had freed up enough space for the mammoth, leaving her space registered as full.

She tried to use Summon Large Undead, but the mammoth was listed as enormous.

She promised herself she would find a place to store it when she returned home. It took up too much space in her inventory to carry it around everywhere.

The group returned to town and received some experience points for an unmarked quest to bring back meat. Coming back to town they passed groups of four to ten goblins.

The goblins were coming into town in small groups with grim looks on their faces. No one challenged the goblins as they came in. Jennifer watched the goblins with curiosity. The goblins were never idle. They were either helping the wounded who came across the bridge, building defensive emplacements, or working on weapons.

Jennifer’s group disbanded with each going back to their own tasks. She returned to her café. She wished it was not empty, but it could not run without her. Her blue skeleton was at a table. He was flipping a set of five separate coins, which was something he made a habit of. Her other skeleton stood idle next to a doorway. She had not de-summoned the undead Kevin, who was acting more and more like the living Kevin with every summons. She decided to let him stay out and do his own thing.

Her eyes fell on their new addition, and she moved a chair so she could sit by it. Woozle was sniffing the treasure chest when she asked, “So, you’re a mimic?” Woozle moved into an attack pose with his fur raised. But after a glance at Jennifer, he returned to sniffing.

“What are you going to do with me?” The sadness in the mimic’s voice broke Jennifer’s heart. Sadness was not something anyone should have. The amount of sadness the mimic spoke with could break some peoples’ spirits from hearing it.

“What do you want to do?”

“I do not want to fight.”

Woozle rubbed his head on the newcomer. “Well, mimic, you are lucky. This kid avoids fights. She is a good one, too. She will help you find a new partner, or she will let you stay here.” Woozle moved to circle the Mimic. “Wait, I thought mimics were sticky?”

Jennifer watched as the mimic answered the question. “If I’m stressed or hungry, I am sticky. I am able to control it to a degree or else your head would be attached to me. Whatever gets stuck to me I’m able to capture with my tongue. The barbarian used me to lure enemies too big for him to handle.”

“This is a pet café. You can stay here for as long as you like. If you get stressed or hungry, you come into the back. If you are out here, you may get a few people trying to give you pets. If you need something, let me know. The chickens are not food. I’m sure they will be back soon.”

“Okay.”

Jennifer was unsure how to take the mimic response. “It’s been a day. I am going to go up to bed. Before I go, is there anything you need or want?”

“No, I will be okay.”

She gave the mimic a hug, before she went up to her room. She had a large bed to sleep in, that was delivered days ago. Woozle also had a large bed to sleep in but he never slept in his own bed.

As she started to drift off to sleep, he asked, “What are you going to do with the mammoth, kid?”

“I have no idea. If you have one, go for it.” Her last words as she entered her dreams.