“The trumpets are sounding! The trumpets are sounding!”

Chaele Barrens looked up from whatever she’d been doing when she heard the excited cries of the townsfolk, sounding off the alarm that the trumpets were sounding. She got up. Great, now what? Some big world problem for her to figure out, no doubt.

“Kodish!” she called. “Get over here. It’s gonna be a party!”

Kodish lumbered over from a different area, one with a lot more pigs. It took him fifteen minutes, and by then, he was already a bit ahead of her. He cried out, “Chaele! Did you hear? There’s a WAR!”

“Which one?” Chaele asked, already looking around for her backpack. Once she found it, she started adding some supplies. There wasn’t much room. She could fit maybe sixteen different things. She knew how to stack efficiently.

She wasn’t ready for meat, so she stuck in five stale breads, bottled waters, and a couple of rounds of ammo for her flimsy, dull, gray bow. She’d want to replace that soon.

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Kodish was swinging a giant, chipped axe to and fro. “I dunno. Think someone let a dragon loose. But don’t worry, we’re not gonna mess with him, don’t think so anyway. We get to do other stuff.”

“Like what?” Chaele asked. She slung the pack over her shoulder, thought about putting on shoes, and decided that could wait.

“Do we get to take out some ogres? Henchmen?”

“Wha?” Kodish shook his head and pointed at the gates. “We get to collect berries, o’ course.”

“I thought—-”

“We get some copper,” he said.

“We’re champions of the last war,” Chaele said. “Why in the world would we collect berries? Let’s do something else. There’s gotta be some dragon eggs to smash, or hell, I’ll even rescue some kids from caves.”

Kodish gave a slow shake of his big, orcish head. “This is all there is. If we get the berries, maybe we can go after pirates next. Not sure. I didn’t want to find the war guide that tells me what we’ll do after. You?”

“No,” she sighed. “Too much work. Well, we best get started. Those berries won’t pick themselves. How many?”

Kodish checked the board listing nearby, then hollered, “Eight!”

“Eight berries?” Chaele repeated, weary of this already. “Do we get credit for each other’s?”

Cheerful as ever, Kodish told her, “Nope. Eight each.”