Today is Day 8 of NaNoWriMo! Nothing else to report on that. I'm really hoping I do better when it comes to writing than yesterday.
My total for day 7 of NaNoWriMo was 1,622 words. It was a rough day for writing. I went to a local horse rescue and helped out, watched what I could of blizz con before my interet acted up, and the sene I was trying to write just refused to work with me. This next installment will proably be boring for most of you and I'm sorry about that. I just need to push through this part and get you guys to the fun stuff.
All passages were in order from yesterday's post, so here's what I wrote:
"Sounds like you live outside of town," Rial observed.
Rinneth nodded. "I live in Xilo."
Rial whistled low. "That's quite the trek. We'll have to keep that in mind."
"I'll remind you if you forget," she said as she sat down on a couch. "So what is today's game plan?"
"We thought it be best to get you some better gear," Vamir said. "Vesser said he and Thuldren helped you obtain a new set for your beast tamer class, but it's not up to part to arena rank yet. Is that the class you're going to focus on?"
She nodded. "It's my preferred class. My rogue class is after that."
"I think we'd rather you run beast master anyways," I said. "You've proven to be formidable with it, even with gear disparities. We could use that on this team."
She relaxed on the couch. "Good, 'cause I'm running it whether you like it or not."
We chuckled with amusement. I enjoyed how relaxed she was around us. This was going to be a good team match. I had been a while since we had such cohesion.
"I do want to make it clear, even though I'm doing PvP with you guys, I'm not going to give up PvE," Rinneth said. "If I'm in the middle of something PvE related, and you want to do a last minute PvP related objective, don't expect me to drop what I'm doing."
Vamir nodded. "We thought as much, and we wouldn't ask that of you."
"Course, we be happy to learn more about da PvE side, if ye be willin' to teach us," Thuldren said.
Rinneth smirked. "I think that can be arranged."
I picked up a gaming helmet and tossed it to her. "Let's jump into it then." I looked at Ramos. "We have an extra helmet if you want to do your own thing."
He nodded. "Thanks."
"You could group with Erin and get that quest line going," Rinneth suggested.
Ramos sighed. "Fine. I'll group with the brat."
She snickered and placed the game helmet on her head. I found the dynamics between these two. I'd have to keep an eye on it.
Picking up my preferred helmet, I sat down on the same couch as Rinneth, but on the opposite side. The others put their helmets on and I was sure not to lag behind. Once logged in, I briefly looked around my inn room before trotting out the door in search of everyone. I caught a glimpse of Rinneth leaving the inn for the outside and picked up my pace to catch up with her, but when I made it outside, she was nowhere in sight. Where did she go? Since we were here to work as a team, she shouldn't have wandered far.
I crashed to the ground when something jumped on me, and then groaned when Rinneth and Thuldren started laughing. Rinneth's Calacour purred happily as he continued to stand on me.
"Told you he'd fall for it," she said.
"Aye, lass, ye did," Thuldren agreed.
"Ha, ha, you two," I said. "Now would you please get this creature off me?"
Rinneth snapped her fingers and her pet walked over to her looking for affection, which she happily gave him. I had learned a lot about the dynamics of a beast tamer and pet in the past twenty-four hours thanks to her. Part of the mechanics of the game for this hero class required a good bond between player and beast. Ideally a tamer had a good or excellent relationship with all their pets, but because she had only chosen to tame two types of creatures, she was able to utilize an ability that allowed her to give a dominance characteristic to one of each style of beast. This beast, then was able to keep all other tamed creatures of the same time under Rinneth's control as if she had excellent relationships with them all.
I stood up and dusted dirt off my armor only to be nearly knocked over again when Rinneth's Calacour came back over and full body rubbed me. The cat-like creature had also taken quite the liking to me, coming handy in a few of the battlegrounds we had done.
My menu pinged with a party invite from Vamir and I quickly accepted so we could get moving with the battles. We needed to get Rinneth as many battle points as possible to get her some gear that would keep her safer against players in ranked matches. We'd struggle when we got to that point, but as long as we kept at it, we'd be able to invest in some ranked gear for her.
"We ready to queue up for something?" I asked.
"Um, not yet," Rinneth said as she looked at her menu. "Do you guys mind if I go see my friend Erin real quick? He says he has something for me that I'm going to really want."
"I don't mind," I said.
Thuldren shook his head. "Nor I."
"We don't either," Vamir said for him and Rial.
"Thanks, I'll be right back," she said as she took off in a full out sprint, her Calacour quick to catch up.
"Wait, we can come with you!" I yelled after her as she ran off.
Thuldren sighed. "Impatient lass she be. Let's hurry on after her."
I agreed and the two of us took off after her. She ran through a bizarre, several courtyards, and into a busy harbor. Thuldren grumbled to himself about her being in too much of a rush.
"She may want to get to working on her gear as fast as possible," I suggested. "She had decent gear to start, but we all know it's not going to be good enough in rank and it'll take a while before she has the proper gear."
"Aye, I know, but the lass is going to kill herself if she don't slow down. We knew what we was getting' into when we signed her on," Thuldren complained.
"Or maybe whatever her friend has, has her really excited," I suggested.
He nodded. "Maybe."
We finally caught up to our female teammate in time for see her sneaking up on her friend who was sitting on a stack of crates, completely oblivious. The two of us tried to stay out of sight and keep our amusement down as she climbed up the crates and crouched down behind him. She remained silent as he looked around the harbor for her, and when he still was unable to sense her behind him she motioned for her Calacour to walk up to him. This took him by surprise and he looked for her more. When he couldn't see her in front of him he slowly turned around. The two of us roared with laughter when he yelled in fright and fell off the crate.
Rinneth grinned wickedly. "You still have a lot of practice my elven friend."
"Half elven, thank you," he retorted as he got to his feet and dusted himself off.
I was surprised by how prideful he sounded with those words. Not many openly admitted their half racial heritage.
"So, what do you have for me?" Rinneth asked him.
It was Erin's turn to smile and he pulled out a scroll from a bag. "I found what you were looking for."
Her eyes lit up in a way I thought I'd never see in a person and she eagerly took the scroll from and broke the wax seal. "This is it! Erin, you're the best!" She tossed him a bag of gold. "Here's the payment I promised."
"You don't have to pay me, Rin," he said. "I did it because it helped me practice."
"Take the money, Erin," she said. "You deserve it. This map is worth a lot, so you might as well get some sort of cut since you're not putting it on the auction house."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "All right."
"You don't think the lad is smitten with her, do you?" Thuldren whispered.
I shrugged in response. The kids seemed young, maybe in his early twenties, if that. And from what I knew, she spent a lot of time helping him out in this game, and just being an overall nice friend to him. If he knew she was a Halfling as well, then he may hold onto that connection with everything he had.
"Well, I gotta go," she told him.
"PvP stuff?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, but I still plan to do those dungeons with you later."
He smiled. "Great."
"And you might get an invite from Ramos to help him with some quests," she said. "If he sucks up his pride."
"Why doesn't he like me?" Erin asked.
"Don't take it personally. He generally doesn't like many people."
"How did you become friends with him?"
"Ramos works for my father. We’re not really friends."
"He acts like you two are."
"He likes to pretend we are, but we're not. I don't trust him enough to call him a friend."
"Well, you always have me!"
She lightly pushed him. "I know. I'll talk to you later."
He waved good-bye and then disappeared into the crowd of people in the harbor. Does she really not see Ramos as a friend? In the last twenty-four hours she had only ever mentioned him and Erin. It was as if she didn't have any friends outside the two of them. With the way her father acted I couldn't see how it wouldn't be the case. But if that were true, and she didn't even think Ramos a friend, that made Erin her only friend, and that was depressing to think about.