Watching the way the orc construction crew worked was fascinating. They combined system abilities, earth magic, and old world craftmanship to create something amazing in an unthinkably short amount of time. I sat on a nearby lumber pile, watching the structure being assembled and if I didn’t know any better I’d have thought someone had accidentally hit my eyeballs’ fast forward button. If they kept progressing at this rate, the entire complex would be complete by the time Jasmine arrived. Something in the back of my mind suspected that she had planned it out with exactly that outcome in mind.
“Excuse me,” a relatively short orc called out as he approached my little lumber pile. He was a squat, overly built creature with arms like tree stumps and legs like whiskey barrels. The man wore no armor, but rather the same construction-oriented gear which I’d pegged as that of a foreman of sorts. There were a few orcs that I’d seen walking around the site who wore that uniform, and none of them had been getting their hands dirty. Rather, they were holding scrolls, and blueprints and directing the rest of the crew.
“Excuse me, sir?” he called again, now within my Threat Assessment’s range. “Might you be Master Rockland?”
I raised my eyebrows. Those muscles were definitely not just for show. His Strength and Constitution numbers were so high I couldn’t even fathom what he must be capable of. It really was starting to wear on me that everyone on the planet was so much stronger than I was.
At least Juniper’s weaker than me. I think. To be honest, though, I had no idea how Eidolon power was measured. Their stats could be entirely meaningless, for all I knew. Once again, I found myself recommitting to an even stricter training regimen. For now, though, I simply offered a friendly wave to the incoming orc and smiled without showing my teeth. I didn’t know if the old Earth lore was correct in marking toothy smiles as being an act of aggression for orcs, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“I don’t know about the ‘Master’ part, but yes. My name is Rockland,” I said, slipping down from the woodpile and landing with a barely audible thump. Urz, who was almost right in front of me by then, extended a hand. I took it in mine – no, that’s not quite right. It would be more accurate to say that I put my hand in his oversized catcher’s mitt of a paw, and we shook. His palm was like sandpaper, but his grip was surprisingly gentle.
“It’s a title you may want to get yourself used to, I’m afraid,” he said, sympathetically. “As part owner of the land here, and more importantly as the Matriarch’s mate, ‘Master’ is what everyone both here in the outpost as well as back in the stronghold will call you. Anyway, I don’t mean to bother you. I just wanted to come over and offer my congratulations.”
“That’s very kind of you,” I blushed a little, and rubbed the back of my neck. The orc made an inscrutable face and I decided to change the subject. I dropped my hand and chinned toward the worksite.
“That seems to be coming along nicely. How big is it going to be when you’re done, here?”
He chuckled.
“The work’s never done when you’re a homeowner, lad. But, when construction has finished and she’s move-in ready, we expect the outpost to be large enough to house 50 to 100 people, comfortably.”
“That many?” I asked and let out a low whistle. “It’ll be nice to have the company, I guess.”
Urz paused, a slightly uncomfortable look sneaking up on his face.
“That – uh, that’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I understand this is your home and both you and Matriarch Jasmine are being gracious enough to allow us to stay here with you and work the outpost…but…” he paused again, looking unsure of how to proceed.
“Go ahead,” I said. “Just say what’s bothering you. If I can help, I will.”
He let out a small breath and nodded.
“Thank you. That means a lot. It’s just that the crew have been complaining about how the Plains are…haunted.”
I laughed.
“Is that all?”
He blinked and furrowed his brow, thinking I wasn’t taking him seriously.
“They are convinced of it, Master Rockland. It’s impeding their work. I wanted to speak with you to see if you could address them directly, tell them they are being cowards, that the Plains of Eidolon is just a name and the myths about this place are all unfounded.”
I shook my head sympathetically.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Stoneforge.”
“Master Rockland, I –”
I held up a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be helpful. It’s just that I would be lying to them. The Eidolon are very real. I know two of them personally. One is my best friend, the other is my manicu— you know what, it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that the Plains are haunted by definition, but the Resident Eidolon are all relatively harmless. They’re not looking for any mischief, as far as I can tell.”
He looked at me skeptically.
“You’re saying the ghosts are real.”
“I’m fairly sure they prefer their System given name, but yes.”
“I’m sorry, Master Rockland that is very difficult to believe.”
Just then, Juniper appeared beside me…fading in reverse, from nonexistence into physical reality. Her feet hovered inches from the grass. I patted her on one misty shoulder and smiled at Urz’s panicked face. I thought I might need a little back up so I had sent a message to Juniper, asking her to meet me here.
“Urz, this is my friend, Juniper.”
“Best friend,” she corrected.
“Yes. Best friend, excuse me. Thank you, Juniper.”
Urz stood slack-jawed, staring in disbelief as his skepticism began to crumble around him. He kept looking from Juniper, to me, and back again, his mouth moving as though he were trying to form words but finding that he had none to give. After a few awkward moments of us just standing around looking at each other, Juniper interrupted the silence.
“Rocky, I think I might have broke him.”
I grinned. Urz cleared his throat, attempting to compose himself.
“I, uh…I’m sorry about that Miss. You just gave me a bit of a fright is all.”
“I’m used to it,” Juniper shrugged.
“Still, I do apologize. To you, as well, Master Rockland. I doubted your words. It was disrespectful of me.”
I stepped over to him and, as he was likely the only orc I’d ever meet who was short enough for me to actually do this, I put a hand on his shoulder. I mean…if you have a once in a lifetime shot at something, you take it. No matter how small the gesture.
“Forget about it,” I said. “I already have. Now, I have some ideas I’d like to talk to you about regarding the Eidolon and the future of the Plains.”
No sooner had I finished the sentence than a system alert popped into view.
I just shook my head and tried to remind myself to open that loot box, later. Then, Juniper, Urz and I chatted about my ideas as we walked toward the construction site. I was going to have him give us a tour of the outpost so that I could get Juniper in view of as many orcs as possible. I reasoned that if they could see her and how non-threatening she was, it might allay some of their fears surrounding the Eidolon in general. But more than that, I really just wanted to pick Urz’s brain on the plan that had been forming in my head since I first laid eyes on the construction site.
It was evening when Jasmine arrived, escorted by a troop of warrior class orcs – and unless my eyes deceived me, one of those warriors was none other than Shrek himself. I groaned. Why the hell was he here? A glance at my mini map showed that his icon had gone from red to gray, however, so at the very least he didn’t have any current hostile intent toward me.
“Hurray for small victories, I guess,” I grumbled to myself.
“Is that her?” Juniper asked, pointing out a tall orc woman in the front of their formation. The woman was impressive, to be sure, but she was no Jasmine.
“Nope. Trust me, you’ll know her when you see her. She’s somewhere in the middle of the formation.”
“How do you know?”
“A husband just knows,” I shrugged.
She gave me a dubious look from the corner of her eye. I smiled. She was right to be skeptical – the only reason I knew Jasmine’s location in the formation was my mini map. Her green icon was the single splash of color in an otherwise gray mass moving slowly but steadily in our direction.
I smiled. My new wife, it seemed, was a slave to appearances. That was fine. It gave me time to check the system notification that had just arrived, anyway.
Well, now. That was interesting. I swiped the notification away, however, as a wall of seven-to-eight-foot-tall orcs marched to a halt in front of me. I felt a familiar surge of energy, and every orc in the contingent dropped to a knee. All but one, right smack in the middle of them. Jasmine stood there, an absolute vision in the daylight. I had only ever seen her by dim firelight in her city home. But now, she had traded the fur robes for formal orc armor. The sun glinted off her golden, spiked pauldron and bracers. Her long dark hair emerged in a flowing ponytail from the back of a golden helm. Her aura flowed off of her in rainbow hues that flickered and sparkled in the sunlight. I felt a lump form in my throat.
“Wow,” Juniper whispered. “I can see why you married her.”
Jasmine strode toward us until there were mere feet between us. She let her aura fade. Even the limited amount she had used was enough pressure to push an entire squad of orcs to one knee – as they rose, many of them looked at Juniper and me as if we had just descended from the moon.
“You’ll have to excuse them,” Jasmine said, having caught me glancing at her troops. “They have never seen anyone who could stay upright in my presence…much less two of you.” She turned her gaze to Juniper, who gave her a small curtsy.
“Jasmine, I’d like to introduce you to my best friend, Juniper. Juniper, this is my wife…Jasmine, Matriarch of Clan Irontusk.”
“Just Jasmine is fine, dear,” she said to Juniper. “No need for friends to be so formal.”
I leaned to the side to peek at her detachment of orc warriors, all clad in armor and standing at full attention and then slowly straightened my posture back to an upright position. I felt a grin tugging at the corners of my mouth.
“Hush, you,” Jasmine chided me.
I held up my hands in surrender.
“Whatever you say, your…Matriarch…ness. I’m sorry, I don’t know the right honorific for Matriarchs.”
Jasmine laughed and took off her helmet.
“How do you do that? It’s only been a day. I shouldn’t have missed your irreverence this much, already,” she said.
“I just happen to be a very smooth operator, I guess.”
Juniper snorted. Then her eyes went wide, and she clasped her hands to her mouth. She looked at Jasmine, who returned her gaze…and then both women began to laugh.
“You know, this would be a very heartfelt and tender moment of feminine bonding, if you two were laughing with me rather than at me.”
They paused, then laughed harder.
“Come, Juniper. Let’s go have a look around, shall we?” Jasmine said, after a few moments of breath-catching and tear-wiping. They both glanced at me, grinned, and left me standing there as they walked toward the outpost, giggling and gossiping as they went. I just stood there, straight faced as Jasmine’s entourage followed them. The mocking smile on Shrek’s face as he passed me by was evident, even as he tried to maintain decorum in the ranks. I shook my head and followed behind, dejected and plotting my revenge. The clapback would be scathing.
But as I looked ahead, watching Jasmine and Juniper getting along, the cadre of orcs following them, I softened a little. I thought of Urz and Moira and the handful of construction workers I’d met while touring the worksite earlier. I thought of Seredh, and even The System. This world had given me a chance at a new life, and what lay before me was the beginning of a new family. As the sun set behind the mountain tops that served as a backdrop to Irontusk Outpost in the foothills of the Plains of Eidolon, I smiled.
“Hey, wait for me!”