“Hey, do you know where Ren and Nicole are?” Luka asked Iop, the village baker and current villager running World Walker Park’s newest food booth.

Churros were quickly becoming a fan favorite due to their cinnamon sugar coating. As logistics would have it, cinnamon wasn’t the easiest spice to procure in these parts. It was cheap, but also underutilized—criminally so, in Luka’s opinion. And thus, the park’s newest booth was opened, proudly selling the Earthen food, churros.

Iop looked up from the frying oil, quiet pops and sizzles lost against the backdrop of talking guests waiting in line. The baker utilized the “spiral” method of making churros. Instead of several long lines of dough, she pressed a singular large spiral from the custom-made star dispenser. The massive churro took up the whole frying pan and soon crisped up golden brown. Iop then removed it, chopped it into portions, and tossed them all in cinnamon sweetness.

“By the carousel, I think,” she said to Luka. “Why? Are they in trouble?”

“Nope,” Luka said with a smile. “Just need to talk to them. How’s it going here?”

“My back’s hurting!” Iop loudly declared, laughing as she put a hand on her waist. She craned her back, sending cracks down her spine. “I’m a baker, for gods’ sake. My back hasn’t hurt since I was a wee apprentice.”

Luka studied the woman, finding her words did not match her happy tone. “If you’re in pain, I can send someone else to fill—”

“No! Don’t send anyone else. Pain’s a good thing to us orcs. It means we’re not acting complacent in our craft. Trust me, these churros have already taught me a lot about fried dessert items. I’ve never been one for using oil, but here we are with these delicious beauties!” Iop held a churro out to the next guest in line, eagerly accepting payment for the item.

Luka’s eyes wandered to the stuffed lockbox. Iop wasn’t sorting the payments, instead, she just thrust the coinage in without a care in the world. Which may have been a problem if it was any other booth. But churros were cheap and sold at a denomination that didn’t require change.

Money in this world was strange. Utilizing precious metals was one thing, but without bills amounting to sequentially larger amounts, most people simply paid with exact cash—or coinage, in this case.

“Okay, well,” Luka hesitated. “Just don’t overwork yourself. I’ll make sure to send someone over in a few hours to relieve you. Just wave someone from the village down if you need a break sooner.”

Iop gave him a winning smirk, returning to her duties.

Walking through the park, Luka stopped at several more booths to check-in. He did repairs as he went, fixing splintering tabletops or uneven bench legs.

How is there already this much wear? he asked himself as he inscribed durability runes everywhere—literally. The rocky paths he walked on, the booths he visited, the tented umbrellas hung over the picnic tables.

Sol was right. Using my magic to inscribe large areas is as easy as inscribing a singular item. I guess I should start adding maintenance glyph clusters to everything.

Luka stepped up to Momma Nan’s booth. Today, the village elder was selling knickknacks whittled from wood. They were replicas of the carousel’s dire-beast mounts.

“Hey there, how’s it going? Need anything?”

“Fine, fine,” the woman said coarsely.

Luka pursed his lips. “Are you sure?”

Momma Nan glared up at him, her hands clasped firmly in front of her body on the head of her cane. She was sitting, but her skirt completely hid the chair she sat on, giving her the illusion that her cane was holding her upright.

“Can’t you see I’m busy, boy?”

Luka slowly looked around. The booth was empty beside a few curious guests inspecting the wooden toys. “Real busy,” he flatly said.

“Real busy,” the elder echoed.

Previously, Momma Nan had made a bet with several of the other villagers about selling the most items. Luka wondered if there was another bet going on.

He tested the waters. “I don’t think these toys are selling all that well. What do you think of overhauling the booth with Earthen toys?”

Momma Nan’s eyes went wide before she quickly averted them. She tapped her finger on her cane. “Yes, I think that would do nicely.”

Luka chuckled. “I’ll talk to Tram, then. Do you know where she is?”

“Sneerhome with Ginna.”

“Ginna?” Luka remembered the timid orc well. She was World Walker Park’s new head of security. “What’re they doing in Sneerhome?”

“Blackmailing a local gang.”

Luka didn’t miss the couple browsing the toys nearby glance up… then slowly walk away. He sighed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Remember that invisible spy from the other night? She’s forcing his gang to come work for us.” Momma Nan scoffed. “For what it’s worth, I think this is a bad idea. That boy was a troublemaker before he left the village, and surely, he’s worse now.”

“Batty Barns?” Luka asked, remembering the invisible poncho wearer’s leader’s name. Vaguely, he remembered the man held a connection to the village, but Tram told him not to worry about it, so he hadn’t—at all, in fact.

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

“The very same. Got himself a petty crime gang and now Tram’s hiring him out.”

“I thought you said something about blackmail.”

Nan raised an eyebrow. “How do you think she’s going to hire him?”

Luka considered that but gritted his teeth and said, “You know what? I’m not going to think about it.”

“Good man,” she said with a laugh.

***

Luka found Nicole and Ren sitting by the carousel in the shade. Since school was over for the kids, most spent their time in or by the lake. But not these two. After Goddess Tippy’s arrival, subsequent candy delivery, and sudden disappearance, Ren and Nicole followed Luka away from the water. But when he started doing “boring” work for the park, they promptly left him to do their own thing.

That thing was, apparently, drawing.

Ren, of course, was drawing pictures in a journal of the dishes he would eventually be selling at his restaurants. There were multiple angles of grilled meats, smashburgers, pizza, and even a basket of churros. His drawings were crude and scratchy, as if he drew each dish in the time it took for a single cycle of the carousel to end.

Nicole, likewise, drew in a journal. But she took her time, carefully shading her drawings with a gentle touch. She worked on a realistic portrait of her doll, Mr. Sticky. For a kid, the drawing was amazing. Layers of detail clung to the page, exemplifying Mr. Sticky’s wood grain texture and natural luster. As she drew, she hummed quietly to herself—but when Luka approached, she stopped.

“Why’d you stop—” Ren cut himself off, finding a shadow looming over him. “L-Luka! When did you get here?”

“Just now.” The World Walker watched the little orc cover his drawings with his hands and forearms, his green skin turning a shade red. “Don’t be embarrassed—I couldn’t draw when I was your age.”

Ren went still. “What do you mean ‘couldn’t draw?’ I don’t want you to steal my menu ideas.”

Luka squinted at the kid. “Uh-huh, sure.” He sat beside them. “Are you two okay?”

Nicole shifted through her pocket, removing a piece of divine candy. As if specially tailored for a dryad, the candy was covered in rich moss and a caramel drizzle. As she popped it into her mouth, it simply melted away as it dissolved into sugary goodness.

Smiling, Luka said, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’”

Ren made a face. “I already ate all of mine…”

“Maybe pray to the goddess for more?” Luka shrugged. “Or maybe not. Tram got mad at me for paying attention to greedy things.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you both about earlier with Tippy—”

“Goddess Tippy,” Nicole corrected.

“Right—Goddess Tippy.” Luka held out his ringed hand. “She gave me this, an artifact—”

“What’s it do?” Ren asked.

“Not telling—”

“Oh, come on!”

“Please tell us?”

Luka sighed. “No. Just… I can’t. People are going to want to steal it as it is. If they find out what it does, more people are going to want to steal it.”

Ren glared suspiciously. “So, it does do something?”

“Of course it does, it’s an artifact.”

Ren continued to glare suspiciously. “So, it does do something amazing?”

Luka hesitated. “Yes…”

“Will it help with my recipes?” When Luka didn’t answer right away, Ren thrust out his finger. “It does! Doesn’t it!? Give it here, I’ll keep it safe.”

The little orc reached for it, but Luka just extended his hand into the air. Ren glared. “Not fair,” he snapped, “I’m short—how am I supposed to get it?”

“You’re not?” Luka said. “It’s mine, remember? Tippy gave it—”

“Goddess Tippy,” Nicole corrected.

Ren sat down. “Fine. Just… you’ll help me with recipes, right?”

“I will,” Luka confirmed. “But I need you two to keep the ring a secret, okay? Very few people know about it.”

“But everyone knows the Goddess gave us candy. All the other kids ran around the park telling everyone,” Nicole said.

“Right—but apparently, they haven’t told anyone about the ring. So, either they don’t know about it since they were near the water and not at the table, or they understand to keep it a secret.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Thank you, Nicole.” They both looked at Ren.

“What?” he asked. When both continued to stare, he raised his hands. “Okay, fine, fine. I’ll keep it a secret, too.”

“Good kids!” Luka patted Ren on the head. When the boy hmphed and crossed his arms, Luka chuckled and turned his attention to the little dryad. “You like drawing?”

“Mmmhmm!” she hummed, wiggling her pencil at her depiction of Mr. Sticky.

“Can I see what you’ve been working on?”

Nicole hesitated but eventually relented. She passed over her journal. Luka slowly went through the pages, finding multiple amazing sketches. A flower on one page, a drawing of Ren on the next. One page even held a picture of him riding on the back of Leo.

But on one of the more recent pages, Luka stopped and stared. It was a picture of a beast of sorts. But where slender legs meant for powerful bursts of speed for capturing prey were supposed to be, he instead found fat, stubby limbs. Where vicious fangs were supposed to sit, instead, he found a bright smile. And where a lithe torso was supposed to stretch into a flute tail, only a pot belly and fluff were found.

“You’re drawing stuffed animals?” Luka asked, flipping to the next page where another cartoonized beast was drawn.

“Stuffed what?” Nicole asked. “I was just drawing what I thought some cute creatures would look like.”

“Cute?” Ren asked, looking revolted. “You call the legendary creatures ‘cute?’”

“Well, yeah…”

Luka looked up. “Legendary creatures?”

“From the myths and legends…” Nicole explained. “My mother used to tell me their stories before I’d go to sleep.”

Ren turned thoughtful. “Same for me.”

An idea formed in the back of Luka’s mind. Whittled wooden dire-wolves and emus weren’t selling? Well, he’d already told Momma Nan he was going to overhaul the toy booth. And, since this was World Walker Park, after all, it made sense to adopt Earth’s toys. Stuffed animals, to be precise.

“Hey Nicole, would you be interested in a job for the park? We need a new toy line, and I think your cute legendary creatures could be a hit if we turned them into dolls.”

“Don’t do it, Nicole!” Ren suddenly shouted. “He’s trying to get you to work for free! Don’t do it!”

“Not for free—” Luka quickly clarified. “But I don’t know what I’d pay you with, if I’m being honest.”

Nicole ignored the boy. Her eyes were sparkling. “You want to make my drawings into dolls?”

“Not just any dolls—dolls from Earth.”

“Okay, I’ll do it!” she declared.

“Alright, great—”

“For one-hundred gold pieces and not a copper less!”

Luka suddenly felt the vein in his temple throb. “You’ve been spending too much time with Ren,” he muttered darkly.