Chapter 64 (2/2)

“But for right now,” He continued, looking around. “...I haven’t seen this many people in… what feels like forever. I kinda just want to see the city. If it’s not too much trouble, how about we meet back here tomorrow morning, and you can show me what living here is like?”

Tessa’s face fell slightly, but she maintained her smile and nodded. “Yea, sure. You should be safe inside the city. But my apartment is #576, if you get cold and…. uh, need a bed.”

After she had left, Randidly found himself a bench and read through the packet. After reading the entire thing, he rubbed his neck and looked around.

Honestly, it was very similar to the way Donnyton operated, just on a much larger scale. There were a lot of large, short term projects and every day new jobs would be announced for different times. People would go and work, and receive food or tokens.

Randidly was also curious about whether the ‘government’ was making any moves to find a gold coin and found a Newbie Village. He assumed they had to be, and they should have enough strength to do so after 5 weeks. It was only a matter of time before this place became a village too. And with the huge population, it would gather SP extremely quickly. The pamphlet said the population was around 15 thousand here, but Randidly had no doubt that it had grown precipitously since the pamphlet was made. He wouldn’t be shocked if it was more like 50 thousand now.

But for now, Randidly wanted to do several things. Meet more people, and gather information on Franksburg. And the easiest way to do that…

Randidly stood and walked around, heading for a Job Cryer, to find a job for the night.

*****

Karen frowned down at her two children, Nathan and Kiersty. They stood guiltily in front of her, their faces smudged with soot.

“Where have you two been? And how did you get so dirty? Did you wander over by the forge again?”

Both children shook their heads, but kicked the ground, remaining silent. Karen upped the voltage on her glare.

Eventually, Kiersty mumbled something.

“What was that?” Karen said.

“We were taking care of a special tree for the Ghosthound.”

“You were… what?” Karen asked skeptically. Then she snorted. “A special tree, huh? Where is it? Let’s see how special it really is.”

Karen had been expecting her overly curious twins to take her to an old log from a long dead fire, but to her surprise, they led her behind the farms, passed the area where the domesticated wolverines were raised, into a small clearing, hidden by low hill that should really just be called a mound.

There, standing in the middle of the clearing, was sure enough, a tree. Its bark was black and seemed to be covered and soot, and there were no leaves on it, but it had a trunk and branches, just like a normal tree.

The thing was only about as tall as her chest, and was swaying lightly in the breeze, moving side to side. Karen reached out and touched the bark, and sure enough, her fingers came away covered in soot. The tree began to sway more rapidly, buffeted by the wind.

Karen let out a relieved smile. At least it was just a tree, even if it was a scrawny, weird one. But then Karen froze.

There was no wind. There hand been no wind this entire time. Karen stumbled backwards, afraid, and almost tripped over her children, who were standing behind her, arms raised, swaying side to side.

Karen looked from the children to the tree. The children moved left, and the tree mirrored them. They moved right, and it followed.

“What… what are you doing, honey?” Karen gasped.

Nathan turned and said matter of factly. “Dancing. The Tree likes it when you dance with it.”

****

An hour later, after taking Nathan and Kiersty home, Karen returned to the clearing and the weird tree with Mrs. Hamilton in tow. To Karen’s surprise, Mrs. Hamilton insisted they wait, and the portly boy who ran the Classer compound came down to meet them.

The three of them proceeded to the clearing and stared at the tree a while.

“So…” Daniel coughed impatiently. “What is this about?”

“Apparently the Ghosthound gave two children a seed. And it grew into a dancing tree.” Mrs. Hamilton remarked with a bemused expression. “Do you know how to make it…?”

Karen just shrugged helplessly. “You just… dance…. I guess?”

Daniel snorted and stepped forward, up in front of the tree. Then he began to perform the robot, doing a surprisingly good job. Mrs. Hamilton chuckled amused.

“Oh shut up, I just-” But then they both stopped, shocked. The tree, jerky and slow at first, but then with increasing proficiency, imitated him, doing the robot.

“Well, fuck.” Mrs. Hamilton said, her eyes wide.