Taking Some Time
© 2021 by Walter Reimer

Thumbnail art by  dragonmelde, color by  marmelmm


Aka, neither she nor Meredith thought that the final level would be easy, but the game was proving to be almost maddening in its efforts to keep them from the goal.

The cannibal village remained an obstacle, and Varan was getting rather tired of being rendered insensible and then cooked. Meredith, having had more free time than she’d had, had supplied her with updated modules to show her progress with the villages around the valley. None of the six places explored, though, offered much in the way of clues of how to get past the elephants, and nothing in Varan’s spell repertoire seemed to work.

With her ship under repair, Varan had spare time, and was preparing to spend at least part of a day in the game.

The module finished loading, and the vir stepped into the room.

The village that had avoided being attacked by the simple expedient of giving the elephants any unwary travelers that came their way appeared to be the most likely place to start. It had an interesting name, so the mage and the paladin took the road that led to Mausheim.

As the name, drawn from an archaic Terran dialect, implied, the village’s inhabitants were all mice. They tended fields and herds, and made a variety of cheeses from cow’s milk. There was no sign of any branch of the Temple of the Divine Source.

Which briefly puzzled Varan before she realized that sequestering and bewitching travelers for milk would cut into the number of tributes they could give the elephants.

As Varan and Meredith entered the village, one of the inhabitants left their blacksmith shop and approached them, a hammer in his paw. “Welcome to Mausheim,” he said. “Strangers, are you?”

Varan tried a simple cantrip. “No, we’re friends.”

The smith blinked, twice, and smiled. “Well, that’s great to hear. I thought I knew everyone who lived here. Can I help you?”

“Have you had any trouble with the elephants?”

“Pfft, that crew,” and the smith gave a dismissive flip of one paw. “They act all scared around us, and no one knows why. They’re perfectly happy to collect tributes from us, though.”

“How do y – we manage to not end up with our brains flat?” Varan asked.

The mouse laughed. “Oh, that’s simple,” and after shouldering his hammer he went back to his shop and promptly closed and locked the door.

“So far, so good,” Varan murmured, using a Terran expression as she saved the game at that point. She had succeeded in determining that the mice did have something that kept the elephants from victimizing them; now, they had to figure out what that might be.

Preferably before the cantrip wore off. They had already had to conduct a fighting retreat from Mausheim once.

She kept her eyes open for anything that might be useful, because this was one of the rare times they had been in the village for more than a few moments. The vir noticed that every one of the villagers – including the smith she’d talked to – was wearing a hat, and the main street of the village sported two competing shops that sold headwear.

The bell over the door jingled merrily and the shopkeeper, a slightly stout older femme, came out from behind the counter and bustled forward. She was wearing a close-fitting embroidered cap on her head, from which her ears stuck out. “Hello, and welcome to Harriet’s Hattery!” she said in a cheery but quavering voice.

“We would like to purchase two hats, please,” Varan said.

“Of course, of course,” the mouse enthused. “You two take a look around. Prices are listed,” and she went back to her counter.

“Thank you,” and Varan began to look at the racks of hats on display. She reached toward one, and turned to the mouse. “May I - ?”

“Oh yes! Feel free to try them on.”

Varan took down one that was labeled a ‘Homburg,’ and noted that it was actually made of decorated cloth overlying a thin and flexible layer of metal.

The vir considered this for a moment, before putting the hat on and studying her image in a nearby mirror. The ‘Homburg’ made her look taller, but she put it back on the shelf as it didn’t match the colors of her wizard’s robes.

Eventually she purchased two hats, broad-brimmed affairs that she hoped would have some utility even if they didn’t work against the intellivore elephants, and saved the game again after leaving the shop.

Shutting down the game simulation, Varan left the room to check her correspondence and take a short break before testing her theory.