Treegiraffe2's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The groan in the dark field decided it. Treegiraffe2 slammed the greenhouse door and ran the plans through her head. The town could feed people now. It could not house them. She had no cottages yet. Anyone she welcomed would stand in the open when night came, and the monsters would take them. "We build homes next," she told Shroom and Skibble the next morning. "Real ones. Enough for the first players who come." She marked out the town square and paced the ground around it. Skibble hauled oak and stone. Shroom laid a wheat-run line to keep the food flowing while they built. But the ground fought her. She sketched one cottage, then a second, then lost track of walls and rooflines. By noon she had two crooked frames and no doors. "I can farm," she said. "I can't design a whole street." A blocky figure crossed the field toward them. Dark green helmet, bars across the face so she couldn't see his eyes. Tan shirt with gold thread, silver cuffs on his wrists. He walked the length of her crooked frames without a word, then knelt and pressed his hand to the dirt. "Foundation's uneven," he said. "That's why your walls lean." Treegiraffe2 straightened. "Who are you?" "Rarity. I build homes." He tilted the helmet at her sketches. "You've got good bones and no plan. I can fix that before dark." She hesitated. She didn't know him. But the sun was already sliding, and the field held nothing safe. "Then show me," she said. Rarity worked fast. He leveled the ground first, then raised a cottage with round windows and a small tower, ivy dropping from the roof. Treegiraffe2 followed his moves and built the next beside it, one with a tiny balcony spilling flowers. Skibble framed a third into a low hill. Shroom set lanterns inside each, behind glass, so the light stayed in and did not leak into the dark. "Light inside pulls no monsters," Rarity said. "Doors shut tight. That's the rule." They raised five cottages before the sun touched the wheat. Each had round windows, a solid door, and roses climbing the walls. Treegiraffe2 walked through the last one and shut its door. It held. No gaps. No open glow. A player could sleep here and wake up whole. She stepped back into the square as the first stars came out. Five cottages stood dark and safe around her. "Now I can invite people," she said. "They'll have somewhere to sleep." Rarity looked at the town square, still bare dirt at its center. "You've got beds," he said. "But nothing to bring people together once they're here. A town's not a town without a heart." Treegiraffe2 turned to the empty middle of the square. He was right. She had homes now. She had no reason yet for anyone to stay.