Grimhai opened the schoolhouse doors with a flourish. Guin flinched from the strength of the sunlight. It was now roughly noon in the real world and four in the afternoon in-game. Her stomach grumbled. Apparently, the first thing she needed to do was log off and find lunch. After she ate and checked her messages, she logged back in and found her way to the Church of The Lady.
She had remembered seeing it earlier. The tall building stood out pretty well, its bright red doors drawing the eye compared to the other buildings around it, which were all painted in pale or dark colors.
Pushing the doors open, the first thing that struck her was the heavy presence of incense. The next was the architecture, the stained-glass windows, the murals; the place was a work of art, from the door to the pulpit, and she was certain that the rest of the building beyond the main chapel would be the same.
There were a handful of people praying in the pews. There was a group of men talking over to the side, one of whom was wearing a white alb with a patterned red and gold stole. Judging that to be the man whom she needed to find, Guin walked over to the group.
“E-Excuse me?” Guin said, tilting her head to the side.
The pastor — whom she judged to be human — looked at her with surprise, then with warmth. He lifted his hands and placed them together in front of his face with a small bow. “Good afternoon, my child. Welcome to the Imperial Church of The Lady. The Lady welcomes all into her grace. How can I be of service to you this day?” Guin stared at him. Something about him... There was something in the man’s aura that struck her as odd. “Child?” the pastor asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you well? Are you in need of healing?”
“Ah — no,” she answered, as she felt her neck hairs stand at his touch. Pushing his hand away, she asked, “Are you Pastor Jormund?”
The pastor smiled. “Indeed I am.”
Guin shuffled through her pack and pulled out the letter. “Teacher Grimhai sent me here, asking me to deliver this letter to you,” she said, handing it to him..
“Ho-ho,” he went, taking the letter from her gingerly. “Grimhai, is it?” He read the letter before looking down at her again. “So you are a new student at the School of Good Books, then! I see! It just so happens that I need someone to deliver a package for me! There is an old widow down by the village farms who requested a prayer shawl to be made. It was finished just yesterday. Would you be willing to deliver it? I’ll give you a token in exchange.”
You have been offered a quest!
At the request of Teacher Grimhai, Pastor Jormund of the Imperial Church of The Lady has asked you to deliver a package to an old widow.
This quest is OPTIONAL.
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“I’ll do it,” Guin said, giving the verbal command. Accepting the package, she slid it into her bag.
“Thank you!” replied the pastor. “The widow’s name is Alta Noin. If you go to the community barn on the eastern road, take the first left off that main road. You should see her little cabin overlooking the fields about one minute down that path.”
“Okay!” And turning, she went out the doors of the church.
As soon as her feet touched the dirt, she began to run back toward the stable where she had met Giran Rune. She looked for the pretty white stallion, but he was nowhere to be found. She left the stables and, following the pastor’s instructions, she slowed when she found herself in a very familiar place. She stopped walking, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end again. The scene was right out of the image on the card Gomi had given her. A solitary cottage sat quietly against the backdrop of the forest, with a wheat field spread out before it.
She went to the cottage and knocked on the door.
“Hello?” She called, standing on her tiptoes, trying to look through the little window at the top of the door. “Mrs. Noin?” She knocked again. No answer. Hmm.
Guin looked around her. There was no one on the roads — not even spirits — and the air was oddly still.
Guin walked around the house. Should she call someone to check if the woman was okay? Was there something else that she was supposed to do first? Was this one of those quests that had more than one stage to it? But it was a tutorial quest... You really need to stop underestimating things, Guin.
A sharp sound came from the bushes by the forest’s edge. Guin looked over and tried to find the source, trying to trace who or what was making the noise. Biting her lip, she looked in her bag for ideas.
The bags in TheirWorld functioned much as they did in every other MMORPG she had ever played: there was a weight limit and a space limit, but the bags themselves always seemed to defy any science. Of course, Guin was just starting so all she had in her bag was some bread, water, and the quest items. Her heart sank as she realized that she had no weapons at all. If something attacked her here, what would she do?
Oh, suck it up! This is the tutorial, idiot, she scolded, shaking her head. Eyeing the bushes warily, she returned to the cottage door and knocked again. “Mrs. Noin? Hello? Pastor Jormund sent me to deliver a package!”
The bushes shook again, and Guin’s heart went cold. Balling her hands into fists, she slowly stepped over to the bushes. “H-Hello?” she asked the foliage.
Her heart nearly stopped when a small-and-fuzzy something leaped out from the bushes. Guin fell backward onto the ground with a shriek as it hit her chest. She smacked at it to push it off of her, but she missed as it hopped over her head and to the ground again. Scuffling away as fast as she could, nearly in tears from fright, she reached for a stick on the side of the road. Pointing her pitiful ‘weapon’ at it, she calmed down enough to see what it was that had attacked her.
Stolen story; please report.
Small, beady-eyed, and the color of an orange creamsicle bar, the baby fox stared at her with as much apparent fear and confusion as she imagined it was getting from her. Its tiny chest was rising and falling like a hummingbird’s wings as it stood defensively, ready to pounce again. The two held their staring contest for at least a minute until Guin’s annoyance and anger boiled up, and she threw the stick at the ground.
“Yah!” she half-shouted, half-cried at it as it crouched and looked at her in alarm. “What were you thinking? If I had a weapon, I would have killed you, stupid thing!” The little fox’s eyes were wide, and it began to shiver.
Taking a deep breath and putting a hand to her face, she calmed down enough to allow the tension to ebb and her shoulders to sag. “Get out of here before someone with an actual weapon comes along. Go. Git! Shoo!” She waved it away.
The little fox, however, just stared at her. Guin tilted her head. Is it a spirit? She wondered. Somehow it looked like the little thing was about to cry, and guilt crept through her.
Kneeling, she held her hand out to it. “Yeah, yeah. I’m not gonna hurt you; don’t look so scared.”
It stared at her hand, then glanced at her. Hesitantly, it took a step toward her, nose twitching, smelling the air. Guin smiled. Watching her carefully, the baby fox sniffed at her fingers.
The door of the cottage rattled. The little fox lifted its head in alarm, ears and eyes pointed toward the noise. A little old lady emerged, asking, “Hello? Is someone out here?”
The kit took off back towards the woods in a shot, leaving Guin on the ground, alone. She stood and brushed the dirt off her knees and her butt.
“Mrs. Noin?” Guin jogged over to the old lady.
“Eh?” The gleeful smile on her face lifted all the wrinkles on her face as she leaned in with a hand around her ear. “Did you say something?” she asked. Her voice was soft as her smile was gentle. “I’m sorry, dearie, I’m a little hard of hearing.”
“Are you Mrs. Noin? Mrs. Alta Noin?” Guin said, speaking a little slower and more clearly.
Still giving her a wonderful smile, the woman nodded. “Yes,” she said.
Smiling herself, Guin reached into her bag and pulled out the package that the pastor had given her. She pointed to it and said, “This was sent by Pastor Jormund!”
“Oh!” replied Mrs. Noin. “How nice of Pastor Jormund. Thank him for me. And you, dearie, why don’t you come in and have a cup of tea before you leave?” The old lady gingerly took the package from Guin’s hands and motioned for her to go inside.
“Ah,” Guin hesitated but gave in as the old woman insisted.
Quest Updated!
At the request of Teacher Grimhai, Pastor Jormund of the Imperial Church of The Lady has asked you to deliver a package to an old widow.
You have delivered the package as promised. Return to Pastor Jormund for your reward.
This quest is OPTIONAL.
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Guin waved the window away as she followed Mrs. Noin inside. The house was warm, quaint, and clean. It was filled with trinkets that looked of little value but were well cared for. “Jormund is a nice boy. But I remember when he first came to this town; oh, what a troublesome child he was!” Mrs. Noin’s smile was fond as she set about to minding the cooking fire on the hearth.
After hanging a kettle over the fire, she pulled out a set of pretty clay cups and filled a teapot with some herbs. “I worked for his mother back then. A sweet, headstrong child he was. It’s good that he grew into himself so quickly. I do wish he would find a wife and settle down, though. It makes me happy that he still thinks enough of me to send me things, but I worry he has too much free time.”
She cleaned up the counters she was working on as she chatted away. “He and my husband never saw eye-to-eye. Of course, they wouldn’t, you know. His mother was the same way. Headstrong. She was always trying to convert my husband to her faith. Jormund’s mother was a Paladin of the Inner Sanctum, you see. A great woman in the eyes of the church, and my husband was — well, as he was.”
“What did your husband do?” Guin asked in a loud, slow voice.
The old woman looked at her with shining eyes. “He was a great man. A great man...” she brought the tray with the teapot and cups and set it on the table near Guin. “Sit, child, sit!” the woman urged. Guin did as she was told. “Are you a religious person, child? Do you follow our dear Lady?”
“N-Not really...” Guin answered. “I was just doing errands for people in town.”
“I see...” Mrs. Noin pondered. “Then, do you know of the keeper of the woods? The great Dragon King of the Mist Moon?”
A bit taken aback, Guin said, “I’ve heard the name.”
“So you have! Just the name, then?” Mrs. Noin seemed troubled as she spoke, but it quickly seemed to turn to pride. “So you have. Well. You are at an age where you are still exploring the world. You’ll settle down one day, I’m sure! You would be surprised to know, then, that my husband was a beloved servant of the great Dragon King!”
“A servant of the Dragon King?”
“Yes!” she said. The kettle began to whistle, and the old lady took it from the hearth and poured the boiling water into the teapot to let it steep for a few minutes before pouring the tea into the cups. “Now, I wouldn’t say anything to Jormund about the matter. How often did he come to this house, trying to convert my husband and calling him a heretic? My husband was a sweet man; he never frowned on my faith, even though I followed a different god. He never once tried to force Jormund to accept him... perhaps that was why we could live in peace here, despite everything.”
Mrs. Noin handed Guin a cup of tea and sat down herself. She took her own cup and leaned back in silence. Guin fiddled with the cup in her hands, the tea still too hot to drink.
“What does it mean to be a servant of the Dragon King?” Guin asked, but the old woman was staring off into the distance. Following her line of sight, it was then that Guin noticed a portrait of a man and woman — she assumed Mrs. Noin and her husband — on their wedding day. The woman was dressed all in white, with pink flowers in her hair. She was lovely, with blonde hair falling just to her shoulders. The man wasn’t to be called handsome, with a thick brow, small uneven eyes, a slightly bulbous nose, and a heavy-set jaw, but there was something undeniably attractive about him in that picture. His formal wear could have been considered normal, except he seemed to be wearing a cloak of blue and white scales over one shoulder.
It was interesting. Guin glanced around the room. She was slowly starting to understand what she had read about the importance of talking to people in town and developing relationships with them. She was getting the feeling that simply talking to this woman had shown her a path to two different classes she could choose to pursue. Someone had suggested that every NPC in the game world was connected to at least one class. Since every NPC in the game had, at the very least, the ability to take apprentices and pass on their own profession, this made sense.
That said, it seemed like the NPCs who gave quests unrelated to their own professions were the ones people really needed to pay attention to.
The two drank their tea in silence, and then Guin said, “Mrs. Noin, I’ll need to be going now, but thank you for the tea!” The woman said nothing, did nothing. She just sat and stared at the picture with a wistful smile and glistening, watery eyes. Ah, Guin thought as she placed the teacup on the tray and backed away slowly. Lost in memories, she’s forgotten that I’m even here. “Goodbye,” she said and went out the door unnoticed.