Chapter 9: Sweet Clover
Cora stared at the field in front of her. It was a thing of beauty. The clovers waved in the slight wind, their red, white tipped heads making it seem like a lake with ripples. The sweet scent spiraled upwards, and bees had appeared, traveling from flower to flower.
While she knew that it wasn't going to take long to grow the field, she was still surprised. Her visit to Andrea had only taken a couple of hours, three if she counted the detour to order the capsules.
Cora sighed, ignoring the memory of buying the capsules. Most of the associates at the store had been smarmy, self-assured idiots who were sure that a young black woman couldn't afford anything in their store, not even the cheapest of earbuds. It had been the newbie who'd sold her the capsules and gotten the commission. Cora had left him with her card. If he called, she'd be happy to help him start an investment account.
That had probably also been how she'd fallen into Gerald's trap. Cora knew she had anger impulse issues, but until Gerald, she never knew that they could be dangerous. At most in the past, she'd merely bought things she didn't need to prove a point, but she'd abandoned that behavior after Heidi talked her into the same college as her and Lorenz. Cora had thought that she'd kept a low profile but obviously not.
At least Gerald had slipped up before the marriage certificate had finished printing. Extricating herself from him had been an eye-opener. She'd no idea how deep his claws had pierced into her life, but pulling them out had given her the tools to repair the unknown leaks and faults in her security systems. All told, the entire fiasco had cost her a couple of million so far, and she still had to go to his trials in a couple of months.
She hadn't been the first girl he'd targeted, but she was the one who'd nailed him. He shouldn't have gotten greedy was her thought on the matter. Cora reflected that her Great Aunts would have torn him limb from limb if they were still around. Her Great Aunt Jerry had had her for most of elementary school, and her Great Aunt Addy had stepped in for the second part of middle through high school. Great Aunt Addy had been enthused that she was going to school with Heidi and Lorenz. It had been an aneurysm that took her and a car accident like her grandparents that got Great Aunt Jerry.
Cora dismissed the gloomy thoughts. Instead, she started walking towards the field she'd first met the warcorn herd. She wondered just how they were going to harvest the clover. According to her research, clover was a sort of mat plant. While she'd planted them in orderly rows, there were no signs of that demarcation now that the plants were fully grown. If doing it herself, she had no clue where to even start.
Reaching the barrier, she paused for a moment, cautiously looking around. The field was a waving sea of green grasses. The forests rimming it seemed dark and foreboding.
Cora summoned up her inventory and pulled out the broken horn. Unlike most players, she didn't use her inventory that much. She was sure that would change when she got to a higher level. Right now, the gunny sacks were all she really needed, and the forums didn't even mention them anywhere. Cora had checked while the sales associate had arranged for the installation team for the capsules she'd ordered.
She examined the horn. Unlike what she'd thought it wasn't smooth but rough like sandpaper. There were little hooks every so often with bits of blood still dotting them. The very tip was broken off, and she had that piece as well in her inventory. When she'd first stowed it, it had been in one piece, but the little tip had broken off when she showed it to Blue. Blue had been suitably impressed, saying that it could be fashioned into a horn by the right artisan.
The little tip was extremely sharp. She'd nearly sliced her fingers when she picked it up and had still sustained a -5 health on touching it. It nearly glowed in her inventory, taking up one of the precious twenty spaces there.
Cora gingerly held the horn to her mouth and blew. The sound that emerged from the wider end was beyond what should have been capable from such a slender instrument. She staggered back, eyes wide. The sound rippled over the grass, causing an actual visible wave before shivering the trees around the wide meadow.
There was a sudden, answering trumpet of noise. Cora stared at the horn in her hand and shook her head. She stowed it away, deciding to improve her analysis skill. It had popped up on her skill list when she'd been looking for the gunny sacks. If she'd never checked her status screens for information on her title, she wouldn't have known it even existed.
As she listened to the approaching thunder of hooves, she reflected that she needed to devote a few hours to research. The quick searches she'd managed between all the other things she'd been doing lately had only scratched the surface of the questions she had. Cora really needed Lorenz to apply his research skills, if only because she was at a loss as to where to start.
Her lips curved up into a little smile at that thought. She knew Andrea well. Andrea liked trying new things; she only needed an excuse. She could see her bullying her son into the capsule. Lorenz would do it if only to make sure she wasn't running around in skimpy warrior women wear. Cora still remembered his outraged look when he found his mother playing Fields of War with an avatar that looked like her but wore what looked like metal floss and palm-sized scraps of cloth.
The warcorn herd approached, Fralen leading like the previous time. If anyone had ever asked Cora about unicorns before this, she would have parroted the usual white hide, golden horn that dominated that particular mythological landscape. She most definitely wouldn't have come up with the tiger striped or sun dappled hides before her, muscles rippling under hides of a multitude of colors, none of them white. The horns were long, curved things of beauty from afar, but as the herd approached, the rough edges became clearer. The younger ones in the back had horns that glistened dangerously in the early afternoon light, but she couldn't tell if it was because they were metallic in some way or wet.
"You have clover to be harvested," Fralen asked as he paced forward. The rest of the herd had stopped a few yards away, milling around the meadow as they snatched mouthfuls of grass. "We are willing to harvest this clover for you for in return for the clover and the payment of a fee."
"Oh," Cora said, relieved. She then nervously wiped her palms on her pants. "How much do you want to harvest the clover? I don't have much money."
"We would pay you, silly mayor," Fralen said with a snort. He glanced back towards the herd and made a sharp jerk with his head. Three warcorns trotted forward, one of them the mare of before with the packs and the others two younger warcorns if Cora was going by size. "Mieala, Lian and Schim will go with you to harvest the clover."
"Nice to meet you," Cora said with a nervous nod of her head.
A green head popped up from amongst the packs on Mieala's back. Its owner glanced warily from Fralen to Cora before ducking back down.
"That is Kai. It was brought to my attention that perhaps you don't know how to make seeds from your harvests," Fralen said. He sighed. "Kai will show you how to do so."
"Okay," Cora agreed. She eyed her four visitors before turning towards the barrier. She bit her lip. "Um, how do I get you inside the barrier?"
"Just say that you're granting us trade access," the male warcorn, Schim said. His tone was exactly that of a sulky teenager. It was just a bit incongruent coming from a brown, dark green tiger striped unicorn with a spiky horn.
"Schim," scolded Lian. "Be nice, or I'm telling your father next I see him!"
Cora turned towards the barrier, hurriedly repeating the words suggested. She'd been around enough guys like Schim to know how this might play out.
A few hours later, she was waving goodbye to Kai, internally complaining that she'd rather keep the little goblin. Kai had been everything efficient and scolding in the nature of farming. What took her hours, took him mere minutes. The tools had practically hummed in his hands, and she'd even tried bribing him with tool ownership to get him to stay. Instead, she'd had to endure the warcorns' amused stares as he definitively turned her down.
Kai belonged to a tribe that was pledged somehow to Fralen's herd. If Cora was figuring correctly, his ancestors had once tended the stables in Wilderven and had decamped with the herds when the town was destroyed. She still had no idea how the town had turned into the decrepit ruin it was currently. She just knew that it was her job to eventually resurrect it.
The clovers had netted her another fifty experience points. That had been a surprise. Kai had been the one who'd cheerfully harvested it after all. Lian had explained that farming was one of those occupations that were different in how it distributed experience. Just because she didn't harvest, didn't mean that Cora wasn't going to get any experience at all. It was just because crops didn't give out experience until they were harvested.
She'd also mentioned that farming simple crops were something foals did their first few weeks of life, a simple task of planting seeds into simply dug holes. Cora thought that there was something in that information that she needed to take note of, but she was also rather distracted by Kai showing her the process of making seeds. It was fairly simple, utilizing a box amongst the tools that she thought was for keeping them in after use.
Kai had even suggested that she plant the sorghum next since it was easier to harvest than the clover. Then he and the warcorns had trotted back towards the herd.
Blue had shown up mid-harvest, lounging in her favorite tree. The warcorns had given no notice to his presence other than Schim's tail swishing around more aggressively.
"I haven't seen goblins in a long while," Blue finally remarked after they were gone and Cora was halfway through sowing the field with corn. "I had thought they moved to the Low Lands."
Cora paused, looking up at where the leopard lounged in the tree. She dropped the handful of corn kernels in her hand back into the bag and dusted off her hands.
"What is this Low Lands you keep talking about? I've never heard of it," she said
Blue looked thoughtful. She sat up on her branch, staring up through the leaves. Then she looked down at Cora.
"I guess you would call it a beginning area?" Blue said with a questioning look. "It's where the weird two-leggers were all dumped because it's the most forgiving. Most there aren't too high levelled, so hopefully you'll last past the infant stages?"
Blue flowed down the tree trunk to the ground. She paused to turn and rake her claws down the tree's trunk. Then Blue purred in satisfaction as she examined her claws.
"What do you mean 'the infant stages?'" Cora asked as Blue sauntered past her.
"Would answer but that is so much explaining to do," Blue tossed over her shoulder. "I really should be fortified for such deep discussion."
Cora turned to follow Blue's progress, her foot hitting the sack. Bright yellow kernels spilled out onto the ground. Cora paused to scoop them up, and when she stood up, Blue was nowhere to be seen.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Tashady
Tashady Argh! Had to go write down how leveling works before I got too far ahead of myself. Math is not my friend...
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone