Return to the Valley From Whence You Came

‘Going home’ was a lot easier said than done, Daffodil realized. Somehow, in the past thirty minutes, even more people had logged onto the server. Why were they all congregating in Caspia? Didn’t they have anywhere else they could go other than the main square?

Daffodil needed to find a way to get through the huge crowd without anyone talking to him. In the past, it had been a breeze; whenever a player would try to talk to Daffodil, he’d just ignore them and start sprinting. Now that he was an NPC, however, Daffodil felt compelled to talk to players. There were about three lines of dialogue that he would shout out when a player got close enough to him. He was fine unless a player said something back to him—it had taken Daffodil a few minutes to realize what the player said was one of the two dialogue options that would show up whenever he had interacted with NPCs while playing the game, and he guessed the world was vocalizing them for him—because then a cut scene would activate and he’d be at their mercy until they exited it.

Daffodil longed for a cloak he could pull over himself; he couldn’t help but feel like the botanist tag over his head was a beacon beckoning players over to him. His only saving grace was that most players didn’t have any interest in plants, instead opting to talk to blacksmiths and armorers.

Looking at the wall behind him, Daffodil entertained the idea of scaling it and jumping across the roofs to avoid any player interactions. It lasted for less than a minute before he remembered how abysmal all of his physical stats were. With his luck, he would get just high enough that the fall would be lethal. Daffodil knew NPCs in WanderQuest didn’t suffer from permadeath, but he really didn’t want to test that out for himself.

Peeking his head out from the alley, Daffodil spotted a gap along the buildings with no players. He didn’t know how long it would stay empty, but if he could run quickly enough he could get through before anyone was able to approach him.

Before he could lose his nerve, Daffodil sprinted along the route he’d planned. As he ran, he chanted a steady string of “Fudge, fudge, fudge, fudge.” Being able to say whatever he wanted was a clear indication that he was far enough away from a player. He was just about to reach the outskirts of the city when the final “fudge” died in his throat. Eyes going wide, Daffodil looked around to find the player so he could avoid them. The player was on the opposite side of the street and not even looking in his direction.

Daffodil had to bite down on his tongue to keep from calling out his second dialogue option Daffodil’s my name, plants are my game!—and Daffodil was definitely going to kill Ymara for forcing him to say that with a straight face—but he managed to exit the city undetected.

Daffodil’s stamina bar hovered in his vision, but he didn’t stop running until it was completely depleted. Hunched over with his hands on his knees, he took in a few deep breaths until his stamina bar had finished filling up and the burn in his lungs had receded the tiniest bit. Then, he was running again.

Daffodil reached his valley faster than ever before. Only once he’d climbed the hill and landed in the meadow he left wild did he allow himself to stop. Collapsing to the ground, Daffodil kept trying to force oxygen into his spasming lungs. It was hard—he’d never run that hard for that long, especially in this body which was worse than his original one in every physical way—but finally he managed to get his breathing under control. Even after his breathing had evened out, though, Daffodil found himself unable to move. It was like someone had draped a blanket of iron over his body and now his limbs were so heavy he couldn’t lift them. Daffodil sighed and decided to keep lying on the grass until he was fully recovered.

Despite the horrible news he’d just learned, Daffodil felt at peace lying in the grass. He watched the clouds lazily drift across the sky as he tried to come up with increasingly ridiculous guesses at what the shapes could be. He felt a pang in his chest, knowing this was something Asterion would love to do.

After a few more minutes, a shadow passed over his face. At first, Daffodil thought it was a really low hanging cloud. It was white and fluffy, but he quickly realized it couldn’t be a cloud as it was only a foot away from him. Finding the strength to roll over on his side, Daffodil came face to face with a giant white wolf.

Daffodil was on his feet in a matter of seconds. That might have been a mistake as it brought him to the realization that the wolf was almost as tall as him. Its eyes were a piercing gold color, and Daffodil could spot a row of razor sharp teeth.

“Nice doggy,” Daffodil said in a quiet voice, holding his hand out in what he desperately hoped was a placating gesture. In the blink of an eye, the wolf pounced, knocking Daffodil to the ground.

Not many things scared Daffodil. Sure, he was scared of the monsters in WanderQuest, but he felt that was just common sense; in his opinion, he wasn’t the crazy one when he saw players throw themselves at a creature twice their size that made Cthulhu seem tame. Right now, however, as he laid beneath the crushing paws of a giant wolf, Daffodil was downright terrified.

The wolf opened its maw, and Daffodil found himself praying to every god he knew, which meant Ymara and no one else. Then the wolf licked his face.

“Huh?” Daffodil said, not at all processing what had just happened. It was definitely the wrong move as wolf slobber dripped into his mouth. Daffodil jerked up involuntarily as he tried to spit it out and the wolf moved to allow it. When he saw how gentle the wolf was being, he reached a hesitant hand toward it. The wolf immediately nuzzled it and Daffodil continued petting.

Oh, Daffodil realized. He wants to play. Daffodil kept petting and the wolf howled happily. As it tilted its head back, Daffodil got a glimpse of a collar around its throat.

“Snowball, is that you?” Daffodil asked. The wolf perked up when it heard its name and barked in reply. Snowball had been one of Daffodil’s pets when he played WanderQuest, and he sighed in relief to see his Animal Handling skill was fully active.

Getting to his feet, Daffodil opened his inventory and tapped one of the sticks the player had sold him. It appeared in his right hand and he waved it in front of Snowball’s snout for a few seconds before chucking it as far as he could. Snowball eagerly bounded after it, eliciting a small chuckle from Daffodil.

Then, Daffodil heard it. It was a voice he’d never heard before, but he couldn’t help but feel like it was something familiar. The voice was clearly male although decently high-pitched, and he could feel the emotion in it as it said one word. “Daffodil?”