Continuing the search for my first quest, and something to eat, I go to sneak back around the front of the tavern. The pigperson is standing out front, arms folded on top of their pot-belly. They're looking away from me, towards the bend in the middle of town, so I duck behind the building again. Don't want to get caught next to my little indiscretion if they come investigate round here, especially after my Oscar winning performance in there. I hate that I can never go back in, the food smells so good. I decide to wander up the hillside a bit to avoid being spotted, and to see if I missed any inns tucked down a side street.

Huffing the air like a bloodhound, my empty bladder grateful and my empty stomach growling, my exploration is far from exhaustive, but I am starting to get exhausted.

Wandering about all day in the blistering sun. Running, hiding, getting my ass kicked... nothing to eat for several days on top of that. Not to mention the emotional roller coaster. At least I've kept hydrated, but what good is water when you're running on empty. I might be able to point and grunt my way through ordering something, but I've got no money to pay with. I consider trying to trade my phone for food, but it won't last long after being turned back on. There's no signal anyway. Plus... I think back to why I've got it turned off to begin with.

I heave sigh upon sigh while investigating the backroads.

The scent of cooking is starting to pop up more regularly as people must be prepping for dinner.

I end up back on the street where I met the beastgirl.

My heart pangs at her remembrance.

Why do I care about someone I just met?

Why was she so scared of me, then so willing to help?

I hope she's okay...

...

THAT'S IT!!!

Maybe I was meant to help her escape?

Not just hide in a corner and get beaten up.

I kick myself for not realising sooner.

This isn't a game. There's not going to be anything convenient like an Adventurer's Guild to just sign up at and get started. No one has big glowing icons over their heads to indicate Quest Giver. What was I thinking?!.

"There's not even a HUD!"

The last thought verbalising involuntarily, but it was obvious really. This couldn't be a game world. VR isn't that good yet. There is magic though, I mean what with all the fantasy creatures, or at least there might be, so there could still be hidden game mechanics at play too. Like a stats and abilities system or something. I haven't found an interface for anything yet, but I'd still basically be in the intro sequence at this point, right? Gotta get through this first quest, rescue the beastgirl, recruit my first companion, then I'd get access to the skill tree. Then I'd probably enter the tutorial phase/training arc. Okay, we got a working hypothesis again, let's go with that.

I spend some time working out an intial search area based off what happened while I was with the beastgirl. I'm sort of in the South East-East part of town now, and we wormed our way up the mountainside to the South-South West corner in our attempt to flee from the Orc. She was coming down hill when I met her here before, and I haven't found any businesses around this bit, so I assume she must live in the South-South East area. Wait, the beastman dragged her off back down the slope, so that would be North? Putting them in the South West? But, that was the only way out of our hiding spot, so he'd have taken her back across this way after, right? Why would he take her to her house? She was running from them too. She was scared of me at first, but then when she saw the Orc she was down right petrified. Does that mean show was kidnapped by them?!. SHE COULD BE ANYWHERE THEN!!!

I clutch my head, dizzy from the mental orienteering and questioning spiral into uncertainty.

Hang on, no... she recognised them. She knew them. She hugged that goblin. Is she their slave? No, she didn't look that shabby. But they treated her so violently.

Hmm... maybe she just works for them, like a maid or child minder for the grot or something? Then the beastman would be a bodyguard? No, more like a hired goon.

There's no way they're related. Ain't no way a goblin and a beastperson share parents. The goblin could be a baby orc, I guess, but the beastgirl looked nothing like the beastman. And who would treat their sister like that too?!.

I know some of my friends growing up had complex home lives. Like, ever changing step dads, reconstituted families, deadbeat parents, wannabe gangster older brothers, that sorta thing... it's not something you really talk about though, it's not your business, it'd be rude to. There's nothing you can do about it as a kid after all. Who even knows how it works in a fantasy world with multiple sentient species?!. Well, I mean, I'm sure they all get it. It's their world. Their social norms and all that. There's probably some hierarchy of creatures I've no idea about, hence the Orc and goblin seeming above the beastfolk...

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

ANYWAY!!!

Shouting at myself internally for going on yet another tangent, I pull my focus back on track.

Ok, so I gotta find her first.

Find the beastgirl, then what?

Let's go in with a plan this time.

Don't want to freeze up and act a fool like in the tavern, or get another beating.

Err...

My mind draws a blank.

It's so hard to focus, to stay on topic, to think any deeper than the most surface level thoughts. My blood sugar must be super low. I really haven't had energy crashes like this since I was a kid coming down after getting hopped up on suga-

"NO!"

Blurting out my frustration at going straight off course again. I clap my cheeks to try and wake myself up a bit. It stings a little less than last time, but I am instantly more alert.

I need to eat.

I wonder if I could kill two birds with one stone?

If I find where the beastgirl is, I can scout out the building, try to get her attention, and have her bring me some food. She seemed willing to help me before. Maybe I can act out how hungry I am and she'll pass something out to me. Then I'll be more focused, have an idea of the layout, and already be on site to work out her escape.

Got to avoid the others though.

I cannot afford to get attacked again.

Right, so, this is now a reconnaissance mission.

YOUR ORDERS - SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT THEM - ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Make contact with the target, acquire resupply, then plan exit strategy. Do not engage hostiles. Avoid enemy contact at all costs. If extraction is possible, all effort must be made to do so covertly. Do not attract aggressor attention. If escape does not appear viable during initial inspection, rendezvous with asset at alternate location, or make arrangements for secondary attempt at a more convenient point in time when further preparations have been made.

>>> PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: FOOD <<<

>>> MISSION IS A GO <<<

God, I'm glad that's over with.

A plan is a plan.

However painful it was to put together.

If I'm not exactly sure where she is most likely to be, the best I can do is estimate. She was coming down hill towards the town centre when I met her, so let's check up this way first. Simplest answer and all that.

I meander around the area as nonchalantly as possible, trying my best to not look like a peeping tom as I slow my pace here and there to glance through a window or listen for familiar voic...growls? Can't really call them voices when they aren't speaking words or anything. Familiar tones/pitches I suppose? Anyway... My thoughts wander as much as my feet between the buildings. If I were a bit younger I could have probably gotten away with pretending to be a kid, jumping up on walls, putting my face against windows, acting like I'm playing games. Might have even been able to knock on doors while sobbing to go the pity route. Not that it'd have worked beyond getting inside, I couldn't have asked to see who's there. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'd get a look at everyone if they came to see what my crying was about, then just run out again when I've confirmed things.

Kids get it way easier...

Well... I might have died in that beating if I were too little, or just starvation at this point. I wouldn't be able to help the beastgirl either. Hell, the spideress might have thought me snack sized!

I continue, my probably quite poor attempt at subtly, scouting the houses until I'm almost at the top of the hill. Although this side of town is less dilapidated than the lower end, the last few buildings are a bit dingy in comparison to the rest. Thankfully, my worries earlier about having to potentially comb through every point of a compass to find the beastgirl were just me overthinking. I hear the bellowing of the Orc before I even reach the end of the street. The snarling of the beastman and chittering of the goblin reach me as I approach the largest, and really quite a size at that, of the disrepaired dwellings.

I check around me, and slip down the side of the house, unnoticed. It's a wider gap than the one the we tried to escape down earlier, but it's still a bit of a squeeze between the two buildings. I don't dare go past the front in case there's an open window or something, but the sound of the other monsters berating the beastgirl, and her occasional muted sniffling, do seem to be coming from the side farthest away from me. Shimmying as slowly and silently as possible, I make it to the other end without being ambushed. There's nothing but some scrubland and a bit of a craggy rock-face behind the property, so I shouldn't be spotted by a neighbour, but the back of the house opens onto a small yard, with only a rickety fence around it. I duck down and start commando crawling through the undergrowth around the perimeter.

>>> ALPHA DARK ONE – RUNNING SILENT <<<

I shudder at my own cringey thoughts...

No more of that.

This is serious.

I take a long breath to steady myself and continue to creep along the side fence.

I make it to the first corner, obscured by a rather unkempt bush of some kind, and the back door of the house snaps open.

Instinctively I tense up.

The shouting from within growing ever closer.

Closer.

C L O S E R . . .

My lung begin to burn from the need to exhale, aching at their partial capacity.

I can't chance it.

Not yet.

...

A sharp bark cuts off the roaring of the orc, the gibbering of the goblin recedes, and all that remains is the beastgirl softly whimpering. The disgruntled grumbling of the other creatures gradually diminishes into the depths of the house. It doesn't seem like she fought back, so I assume the beastman called a stop to herharassment with that yap before, at least for now.

I take a few short, shallow, silent breaths to sooth my screaming lungs.

They've been browbeating her this entire time?!.

I think of how long I spent chatting with the cellar-spideress, searching the town for a Guild Hall or tavern, and she's been scolded non-stop to trying to save me... I owe her.

I have to help her.

I have to...

G u U r R r G g G g L l L l L e E e E e E ~

...get some food.

I'll owe her again before I even do anything in return.

SHIVER

God, the shade from this bush is kinda chilly.

Wait, why's it so quiet?

Panicked, I squint through the shrubbery again, but my view of the garden is blocked.

I look up.

The beastgirl is...

...is she smiling?!.