Chapter Thirty-Eight
Cody watched in awe as Yana ate lunch. She could pack in an insane amount of food: three burgers, two hot dogs, four baskets of fries, and a slice of cherry pie to finish it off. Doris was giving her weird looks, but Yana didn’t seem to notice.
Yana dabbed her lips with her napkin before looking across the table at Cody. “That was very good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You’ve been getting enough to eat back at the cottage, right?”
It felt like he had been buying an insane amount of groceries lately, but he had chalked that up to the fact that he was buying for four people instead of one now. He had the money, so he didn’t care that much, but Yana’s appetite was certainly noticed by Doris, and a few others who were eating at the diner.
“Yes, thank you,” Yana said. “Perhaps I could find employment, so I can help with buying food.”
“No, you’re good. I got it covered. Besides, you don’t have an ID or social insurance number or any of the stuff you’d need to legally get a job.”
Yana’s face fell and she looked down at her empty dishes. “Oh. I see.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Cody got up, and Yana followed him over to the cash register at the front counter. Just as Cody was settling the bill with Doris, grey clouds rolled in. The gentle pitter-patter of raindrops began to hit the windows of the diner.
“Huh,” Cody said. “Today would have been a good day to drive into town, instead of walking.”
“Oh, dear, you walked here?” Doris asked. “All the way from Grandpa Sam’s cottage?”
Cody shrugged. “It’s not that far. And it’s barely raining.” He turned to Yana: “You’re fine to walk back, right?”
“Yes, it’s fine,” Yana said. “It’s just rain.”
“At least take this.” Doris walked out from behind the counter and grabbed an umbrella off a rack near the front door. “It’s a community umbrella. Just bring it back next time you’re in town.”
Cody thanked her for the umbrella and checked with Yana one last time, before stepping out into the rain. He popped open the blue umbrella and was happy to see it was an extra big one. Still, Yana had to huddle in close to benefit from it.
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she bumped into his shoulder.
“It’s fine.” He didn’t mind. It was just Yana, after all. Even if Nyrah always included her in her relationship propositions, he could tell Yana had zero interest in him and was just humoring her friend. Or…he was pretty sure that was the case. You know, if he also ignored the fact that she was a Romance option in the game.
He half expected Knife to jump in with some words of wisdom. Or something completely useless and annoying. But once again, he had to remind himself that Knife was officially gone.
Yana bumped into him again, and he was about ninety-percent certain it was because she was getting rained on and wanted shelter under the umbrella, and not because she was trying to get extra close. She was so quiet and stoic most of the time it was hard to get a read on her, but yeah…he was like…eighty-five percent certain she did not have a crush on him. Two women vying for his heart was enough.
They walked briskly through town, quickly arriving at the dirt road that led to the cottages. And then lightning lit up the sky, followed by the rumble of thunder, and the rain really started pouring down. It was coming in at a slant, and it wasn’t long before their jeans were soaked through. Cody’s socks squished in his shoes with every step. Yep, today would have been a good day to bring the car.
He was just about to ask Yana if she wanted to make a run for it, when he heard his phone ringing. He handed the umbrella to Yana so he could fish it out of his pocket. He saw it was Morgan calling and immediately answered. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Are you home?” Morgan hurriedly asked.
“I’m on my way home, why?”
“Gracie ran off again. She might be headed to the workshop. Doug is about to leave and drive over, but if you make it there before him, can you look for Gracie?”
“Of course. We’ll be there in like five minutes.”
“Thank you. Call me as soon as you find her!”
“Will do. And she’ll be fine, okay? We’re going to go get her right now.”
They quickly swapped ‘I love yous’ before he hung up and pocketed his phone.
Cody turned to Yana. “Gracie ran off. You good if we run the rest of the way home? Morgan wants us to check the workshop.”
“Sure.” Yana pulled the umbrella shut and gave him a nod before taking off running.
Yana kept a steady lead, running with long, practiced strides. He watched as she rounded the bend that led to Grandpa Sam’s workshop in the woods, but before he could make it there, she was already on her way back, breathing heavily and shaking her head.
Under any other circumstance, it would have been really hard to ignore the way her white T-shirt was clinging to her modest-sized chest. The thin fabric was soaked and had become near translucent, revealing that she was not wearing a bra. Cody quickly focused on her face.
“She’s not in there,” Yana said.
“Cottage.” Cody nodded to the cottage and they rushed inside. It was empty, except for a very confused and sleepy Nyrah in the guestroom.
“What’s happening?” Nyrah asked.
“Gracie’s missing,” Cody explained. “But just stay put. We have it covered.”
“Where else could she be?” Yana asked.
Before he could answer her, Doug’s black pickup truck pulled into the driveway.
“Shit.” Cody rushed out, meeting him in the rain. “She’s not in the workshop or the cottage. Maybe she’s still on her way over?”
“What do you mean she’s not here?” Doug shouted. He stalked off to the workshop, Cody and Yana following close behind. The giant ginger man flung the door open so hard Cody thought he was going to rip it off the hinges. Judging by the way Doug immediately slammed the door shut, Gracie had not snuck in while they were in the cottage. Doug ran a hand over his face, wiping away the rain. He was clearly having a dad-breakdown.
“Anywhere else you want us to run and check?” Cody asked.
“Fuck! I don’t know!”
“Okay, man,” Cody said slowly. “Let’s calm down and try to think things through.”
“GRACIE!” Doug shouted and started jogging into the woods.
“He did not calm down and stop to think things through,” Yana said.
“No, he didn’t.”
Cody followed just behind Doug, but took a moment to send off a quick text to Morgan. He didn’t want to worry her, but he also knew she’d be wondering why he hadn’t texted her back yet.
“Gracie!” Yana called into the woods, echoing Doug. “Gracie, where are you?”
Cody did the same, but then lightning struck—literally and figuratively. The light lit up the forest, followed by the boom of thunder, and Cody stopped short and brought up his Map. Yana noticed he had stopped and turned to him. “What are you doing?”
“I have a Map as part of this game,” Cody explained. “All the Residents who I need to become Friends with show up on my Map, including Gracie.”
“Oh! Perfect!” Yana said and waited expectantly.
Cody quickly found the glowing green dot that represented Gracie. She was in the forest that was in the opposite direction, between Cody’s cottage and Doug’s. “You’re faster than me. Go catch up to Doug, tell him he’s going the wrong way.”
Yana nodded and sped off, quickly returning with Doug.
“You know where she is?” Doug asked.
“Back this way. The forested part between our cottages that runs along the lake,” Cody said. He kept the Map up as he set off running, with Yana and Doug following just behind him. Gracie’s dot wasn’t moving. Cody wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign, and he didn’t think that information would help Doug calm down, so he kept it to himself.
There were a few cottages between Doug’s place and Cody’s, but they were all closer to the road, with a thick stretch of forest between them and the lake. Cody started down the narrow dirt trail, but as he assessed his map, he realized Gracie had veered off the beaten path at some point. Cody turned sharply towards the lake. His phone kept dinging with new text messages and started ringing, but he assumed it was Morgan. He’d call her as soon as they found Gracie.
“Where are you going?” Doug shouted. “I think we should stay on the trail. Gracie would follow the path.”
“You sure about that?” Cody called over his shoulder.
She wasn’t his kid and he didn’t know her very well, but if she was wily enough to evade her babysitter and run off on the regular, that didn’t sound like the kind of kid who stuck to the path. Besides, Cody had his Map. He would have no way of explaining how he pinpointed Gracie’s exact location, but finding her was far more important. She still hadn’t moved.
They were closing in on her now. Thunder rumbled in the sky and Cody quickened his pace, shoving aside a prickly bush—and there she was, on the ground. She was crouching with her back to them, and she whipped her head around in surprise. Cody let out a sigh of relief as Doug rushed forward and knelt next to his kid. Doug grabbed her by the shoulders and started looking her over, as if searching for any injuries. A notification popped up as Cody watched Doug. The guy seemed to be walking a fine line between relief that his daughter was okay, and anger that she had run off again.
“Gracie? Are you okay?” Doug said, still checking her over.
Gracie stood up, breaking free from her dad. “I’m fine! I need to collect the Droppies! They only respawn when it rains!”
Her father looked bewildered and Cody felt like he really needed to have a chat with this kid.
“Enough.” Doug grabbed Gracie and hoisted her into his arms but she immediately started wiggling, trying to break free.
“But the Droppies!” Gracie shouted.
“You are freezing!” Doug told her sternly. “We are going home and getting warmed up and you are grounded until you’re eighteen.”
“No! Daddy! I need them!”
Cody looked to where Gracie had been crouched, and saw a few tiny, blue gems in the shape of raindrops. “How many do you need, Gracie?”
“Do not play along,” Doug snapped.
“I need two hundred!” Gracie said. Tears began to stream down her face, mixing with the rainwater, her bottom lip quivering. “G-grandpa Sam said—he said—I need to do the blueprints—”
“Grandpa Sam is gone, Gracie,” Doug said, his voice taking on a much gentler tone. He started walking away, but Gracie started crying even harder and pounded her little fists on her father’s sturdy shoulder.
“He’s not! He’s not gone! It’s not the same as mommy!” she shouted.
“I’ll get them for you,” Cody said to Gracie. “All two hundred. Okay?”
“I said don’t.” Doug spun around to face Cody. “Thank you for your help finding her, but she does not need to be encouraged with these…these childish delusions. Grandpa Sam died. He is not coming back. She needs to accept that. And she needs to stop running away.”
Doug turned back around and started marching back to Cody’s cottage, where he had parked his truck. Gracie was looking over his shoulder, still crying. She looked Cody right in the eyes and mouthed the word ‘please’. That was a full-throttle yank on the heartstrings. Cody gave her a nod, a silent promise that he would collect as many of these little raindrop things as he could.
He immediately knelt and scooped a couple out of the mud. They were small, only about the size of his thumbnail. He put them in his Inventory and then brought them up on his game screen and learned that they were called Droppies, just like Gracie had said.
Cody picked up another one and showed it to Yana. “We need to find more of these. Gracie said they only respawn when it rains and she needs two hundred. I have no idea how many she already has, but I’m assuming not many since Doug doesn’t seem to let her go foraging all that much, especially in the rain.”
“Why does she need them?” Yana asked.
“I have no idea. I’m going to need to talk to Morgan about it.” He remembered his phone and pulled it out. “Just give me a sec to text Morgan real quick.”
He didn’t want to get stuck on the phone, especially when he had a couple hundred tiny gems to search for. He sent a text and told her he’d explain more when he saw her later that night.
Yana and Cody began their search as the rain continued to fall and the sky rumbled. It was slow, tedious work. The gems stood out, bright blue amongst all the brown and green, but they were tiny. Every time Yana had at least five, she handed them over to Cody so he could add them to his Inventory.
They searched and searched. The rain slowly came to an end, but cold drops of water fell from the tree branches as they traipsed around the forest, looking for the tiny Droppies. The air was thick and humid, and the sky was still clouded over, which was not helping the soaked clothing situation. Yana handed Cody her latest batch, and it brought their total up to one-hundred-and-eighty-nine out of two hundred.
His phone had pinged with several more messages from Morgan, but he didn’t look at any of them. Gracie was fine. Doug had probably called Morgan by now and explained the whole thing. But it was remembering the way Gracie was crying that kept tugging on Cody’s heartstrings. The way she wanted her father, or anyone, to believe her.
“Just eleven more,” Cody said. He looked over at Yana to give her an encouraging smile and noticed steam coming off of her body. “Yana, you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ve just started warming myself up with my elven [Life-Force]. But you are a human. You can’t dry off like this. We should head back.”
“I’m fine and we’re still short a few Droppies.”
“The sun is setting and you’re going to get cold. Besides, I think we’ve collected enough.”
“We need eleven more.”
Cody knelt to fish one out of the mud. As he stood, Yana lightly grasped his shoulder, as if trying to guide him back to the cottage. “Gracie already had some. Combined with hers, there will probably be two hundred.”
“We don’t know how many she has.” Cody slipped free from Yana’s grasp, his eyes on the ground, searching for more glimmers of blue.
“Cody…it’s no longer raining and it will be evening soon. We should go home.”
Cody kept searching for another ten minutes before finally realizing Yana was right. There was no more rain and the forest was growing dark. He took out his phone to use as a flashlight, but it was no help. He couldn't find any more Droppies. He only managed to get one-hundred-and-ninety. It wasn’t enough. He had failed. It was an empty, cold feeling, settling in his chest.
Cody looked over at Yana. “What if she’s right?”
“Right about what?”
“Grandpa Sam. What if he’s not dead?”
Yana took a few steps closer, giving him a small smile. “She’s just a child.”
“But she’s clearly connected to…something. Something fucking weird is going on here.”
“She could be connected, but—”
“I never got to say goodbye,” Cody said. “I hadn’t come up here to see Grandpa Sam in years. He was my only family and I just…didn’t bother.”
It felt like the weight of everything came crashing down on his shoulders all at once. Losing Grandpa Sam and the guilt he felt for never visiting, being isekai’d to Velasarin, coming back only to deal with even more game bullshit. The recurring nightmares. The rift between Morgan and Nyrah. Temica and her stupid parrot. Losing Knife. And now…this. Whatever this was, with Gracie.
Cody sat down on the muddy forest floor, feeling like he was being physically shoved to the ground. He let his head fall into his hands, breathing deeply, heart racing. Yana was next to him in an instant. He felt her hand rest on his back, hesitant at first, but then more sure. He could feel the warmth of her palm through his soaked T-shirt. A moment passed, and then she was hugging him from where she sat next to him. He let himself melt into her.
Everything had been moving so fast it felt nice to just take a moment, even if it was to sit in the mud and be hugged by Yana of all people. She was a very good hugger, and he could feel the heat from her elven-magic warming him up. After a few more minutes, and several more calming breaths, Cody felt ready to leave the comfort of Yana’s embrace.
“Thanks. I, uh…I think I needed that,” he said. “We should—”
“Cody? Are you okay?” Yana had stood up and was looking down at him as he acknowledged the latest notification.
Cody hesitated, unsure if he should tell Yana he just earned another level with her. Although, she’d find out eventually, since she was already keeping track. But he hadn’t said anything funny. She hadn’t laughed. This already happened once today for seemingly no reason, while walking to Bob’s Bait and Tackle.
Yana was holding her hand out to help him up, so he took it, and let her pull him back to his feet. He stood there a moment, face to face with Yana, trying to figure out what was going on with the Friendship Levels. Her eyes glanced down to his mouth and she licked her lips. Her cheeks were flushed pink. She leaned in, and Cody felt frozen inside his confusion. Her lips brushed against his, barely making contact. But then the warning signals finally went off in his head and he took several steps back, holding his arms out to keep her back.
“Yana…” he said, as his brain finally caught up, “your Friendship isn't leveling up because I make you laugh.”
She stayed rooted to the spot, clasping her hands in front of her, and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…I don’t know what came over me.”
Cody swallowed, unsure what to say. Unsure what to make of this. It was one thing to have Nyrah constantly confessing her love to him and it was easy for him to dismiss her as being absurd, but this felt different. He was beginning to realize it was because he actually liked Yana. She hadn’t been pushy and loud and demanding. She’d just been there, being kind and supportive for her troubled friend, and being a constant presence around the cottage. And he liked her presence. And the game, Nyrah, and even Knife, had been hinting at the direction of his love life and the possibility of letting more than one person into his heart. It was the same sort of thing that happened in all of Grandpa Sam’s beastkin romance novels: a harem.
He wasn’t really sure what was going to happen once he reached Romance for all three women—if he was just going to pick one to marry, or if the game expected him to marry them all. Up until now, he was dead set on marrying Morgan and only Morgan. But this was the first time that the second option actually seemed like it could happen; looking at Yana as she stood in the dying light of day as she watched him, expectantly, waiting for him to say something. He felt a pang of guilt for Morgan. He wasn’t going to act on anything right now. He definitely needed to talk to her about this. And if she thought this was a bad idea, he’d bury these new and confusing feelings.
“I think…” Yana said after he took too long to reply. “I think I earn a Friendship Level every time I…fall for you more. It’s every time you do something that makes me think…” She paused, seeming to collect herself. “Every time you do something that makes me think you might like me back or that we might have a future together.”
Cody couldn’t help but laugh softly. “I think I was just figuring out the same thing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I think we both have some figuring out to do. And I need to talk to Morgan before we…” His eyes went to her lips and she clearly noticed.
Cody must have winced, because Yana immediately asked what happened.
“We just hit your fifth and final Friendship Level,” he explained.
“Oh…” she said, her eyes downcast. “So, does that mean we are ‘officially’ Friends now?”
“Yeah…” Cody realized he wanted to talk to Morgan before telling Yana about the Romance Levelling stuff. “We’re officially Friends now.”
Current Inventory Total: 1,385
Friendship Moments: Doris: 5/5, William: 5/5, Gracie: 3/5, Lexi: 3/5, Bob: 1/5, Nyrah: 4/5, Yana: 5/5, Doug: 2/5
Romance Moments: Morgan:7/10, Yana: 0/10
Relationship Status: Things are Getting…Complicated.