“You two are such good people,” Came the withered voice of the farmer. Daryl smiled down at her as she stood up slowly. She pulled out a long whistle and blew inside it letting out a squeal that was like that of a pig.

The piglike balls of farmers ran up to the gate and hopped up and down talking in some language neither Cindy or Daryl could understand. She pulled out the massive eggs, peppers, and dung handing it out like candy to all the workers one at a time. It took awhile with her slow movements. “Here you go dearies,” Came the musical tones of the head farmer.

Watching in fascination the pig people approached a corner of the lot and started with the first step. They threw down a pile of dung packing it in. Then the peppers came and they all squealed as they pulped the peppers mixing it in. Lastly they took the eggs and cracked them into the pile of compost.

They danced once more and pulled out pitchforks and began tossing the mess around the farm as it splat wetly on the ground. Plops filled the air as the compost pile slowly shrank into nothing. Cindy and Daryl looked on in fascination as the ground rumbled and changed. Plants sprouted higher, furrows grew deeper, and it even seemed like more sunshine poured down on the whole farm.

Soon enough it was all over and the whole group of pig men danced in celebration. Their twirling square dance didn’t even seem practiced as much as it seemed natural. Cindy clapped her hands to the invisible beat and hopped from foot to foot, obviously wanting to dance with them all.

The farmer turned back to them and smiled, “With this help I can shave a whole day off of growing your supplies and even grow another type of crop for you at the same time. There are some other upgrades I am looking to do if you’re interested?”

Daryl took a knee and looked at the woman. “What kind of upgrades?”

“Well, I can build a honey farm, a bug nursery, and a chicken egg farm. It would all help you make more potions of all kinds, traps, poisoned meat, and special ammo. I even hear some gear can be made from a whole spread of things. Very useful for hunters like you two.” She moved back to her wicker rocking chair and took her time sitting down gently.

Cindy looked on with wide happy eyes, “We could really help these people. Do you think the other people in the village could use help like this? What if the blacksmith needs some help?”

Daryl stroked his chin, “How about we split up and see what kind of village upgrades we can manage. I know you want to be as prepared as possible before we go and fight more monsters on our own. Where do you want to cover?”

“I’ll head to the restaurant and guild hall. Why don’t you hit the blacksmith and inn. Those seem to be the most important parts of town.” Cindy mirrored her father with touching her chin, mimicking to seem more mature.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ok Badger, sounds like a good spread of people. All of them provide us bonuses. I’m surprised this wasn’t all posted at the hunter’s guild or quest boards though.” Daryl was a little confused that this was done differently.

“It takes some tennies and special papers to use those two resources that is hard to come by. Something about guild bylaws and the importance of keeping things uniform. I find it silly,” Said the old farmer.

Everyone nodded and spread out heading different directions through the city.

Daryl watched Cindy disappear in the crowds, her small stature making her vanish into thin air. He headed to the blacksmith that was coming to be the person he visited most in the town. The smith waved at him from afar and Daryl took his customary seat in front of the shop.

“What can I do for you Dad,” Said the smith.

“I asked you to call me Daryl…” He said dejectedly. “Anyways, ‘Cinderflame’ and I are looking around town for people that need help outside the guild for upgrades to their places of business.”

“Well, Daryl.” The smith stretched his arms and sighed, “I’m looking for some rare metals and coals. However they aren’t near us at all. You’d have to take a two day trip to gather it all. It would be a pretty dangerous thing to do.”

“What would that help you do?” Daryl asked propping his own chin up with a fist.

“It could make me a new anvil and I’ll be able to make another tier of equipment. That and use less materials in the future.” The smith smiled up at Daryl, “I’ll also throw in some tennies as well if you can do it. Since it would cost a bit for camp equipment.”

Daryl nodded as his mind was filled with a prompt for the quest. It required heading to a quarry a day away to gather coals and metals. Twenty pieces of each. “I’ll have to get a mining pick I guess.”

Standing up he brushed off his backside and headed towards the giant’s inn. The large building was looming in the distance. Daryl did find it slightly annoying to walk through the crowds as dragging his feet wasn’t something that he would usually do. More than one apology was muttered as he brushed against a couple people with the side of his foot by accident.

…

Cindy was standing at the restaurant looking around and wondering who she should talk to. All the workers were those adorable pig people with their spade noses and little hoofed feet. “I guess, I’ll ask the server?” Cindy wasn’t sure but screwed up her confidence and marched forward.

The same lady that made her that strange concoction of food noticed Cindy and walked forward crossing her hands over her apron and smiling, her tusks protruding. “Hello, are you eating here today? Where is that giant fella?”

“W-we were looking around town,” Stuttered Cindy before she cleared her throat, “We want to offer help to everyone that might not be able to use the guild to help update their places of business.”

“Well that sure is sweet dear,” She closed her eyes and snuffled her nose in thought. “We can do with some new ingredients to make some new fresh dishes. If you could capture us a Grand Chickeedo. Not slay, capture and send it to us. I would appreciate it.”

Cindy smiled up at the woman and nodded furiously. “We can do that. But what is a Grand Chickeedo?”

…

Daryl waited for Cindy near the entrance of the guild hall. The assumption that Cindy was inside asking around was definitely in his mind as he leaned against the great bone walls. His daughter skipped out and looked up and held her arms up just like she did as a much younger child. He scooped her up.

Once she was sitting in his palm and they were as close to face to face as possible they shared a warm smile between them. “So, what do we have to do?” Daryl asked.

Cindy nodded and began, “Well the guild is ok with us doing this. We are supposed to be helping the community anyways. They don’t need anything as they can use the quest boards. The restaurant does need a captured Grand Chickeedo.”

“The blacksmith needs coals and metal from a quarry a day away. We will have to travel for a few days.”

They nodded to one another. “Dad, I think we should do these. We are here to make the world a better place.”

Daryl rubbed her side with his thumb gently. “I’m so proud of you Badger.”