The forest grew quieter as Marron and Mokko rolled into Whisperwind.
It wasn't peaceful. In fact, it felt like everybody was watching her.
Even the birds themselves held their song back, waiting for something.
Comfort & Crunch's moss-lined wheels creaked slightly as they followed the winding path toward the thick canopies. Even in the creepy atmosphere, it was beautiful.
There were shafts of green-filtered sunlight streaming between the trees. And behind the various tree trunks, branches, and rooftops...
were the beastkin.
Dozens of eyes tracked their movement in silence. Marron tried not to show how frightened she was, and clutched her food cart's handles a little harder as Mokko pulled it along.
It's going to be okay. She told herself, even if she wasn't sure. If I didn't agree to his challenge, I would've stayed in the same place.
Kael hadn't been exaggerating.
The beasts were extremely wary about her, but they weren't hostile.
Whisperwind's town center wasn't much more than a ring of thatched stalls and timber structures wrapped around a hollowed tree plaza. Nobody had coin purses clinking with gold.
Nobody hawked goods like she was used to back on Earth, where very square foot had to be monetized somehow, or it would be wasted.
Instead, Marron saw slow exchanges.
A foxkin handed dried meats for bark tea.
A badgerkin handed over woven baskets for a bundle of sparkling herbs.
Everyone's conversations were soft, but their eyes were sharp.
Children played in packs instead of by themselves, and even when they ran past her, they were quiet.
A wolfkin mother guided her pup behind her as Marron passed.
A foxkin tending to her bread stall paused mid-knead, expression unreadable.
No one talked to her.
But they watched.
Marron adjusted her grip on the cart's side rail and whispered, "Okay, so… not the warmest welcome."
"Kael did say that you passed his test. Everyone else is a different story." Mokko pointed out.
"Well, they'll get over it once I feed them, right?" she muttered, trying to smile.
Mokko made a low hum of doubt. "Beastkin might want a bit more, but it's a good start."
+
As they parked the cart near the outer circle of town, a pair of older beastkin passed by—a badgerkin and a lanky deerkin. Both eyed Marron without slowing. But when they spotted Mokko standing dutifully beside her, their gazes softened.
"Poor Mokko," one murmured. "Dragged around by a human and her clattering box."
"I thought the Guardians weren't allowed to intervene outside the trials?"
"Maybe the System assigned him for pity."
Their voices weren't cruel, just… curious. Quietly skeptical.
Mokko simply nodded politely and didn't respond. Marron pretended not to hear, but her ears burned.
By afternoon, she gave up trying to sell anything. No one approached the cart. No one complained, but they didn't come close either.
Kael's words came back to her: Some still think surface-dwellers bring only greed and war.
So instead of waiting, she decided to act.
"Come on," she said to Mokko. "We're going to find Lyra."
Mokko blinked. "You think she'll help?"
"I don't know. But Kael said to ask her. Whoever she is, she might not be too bad."
There had been too many wolfkin staring at her, and it had been almost impossible to discern who was doing what.
I should just concentrate on what I can do right now.
Marron knew nobody was going to approach her food cart. But she still needed to eat.
So she looked through her ingredients and saw she had enough potatoes to make herself some duck-fat fries.
It's a little weird cooking for myself in public like this, but...what do I have to lose?
She turned the deep fryer on and decided to make fries the way she wanted for a change.
+
Marron added a little less duck fat, and waited for the familiar crackle and pop before she added the sliced potatoes. The sizzling sound drew in some curious sniffing snouts, and a young wolf pup looked at her mother with begging eyes.
But her mother firmly held her by the paw, with a quick shake of the head.
When Marron looked up from the smell of deep-fried potatoes, she saw a pair of curious yellow eyes staring at her.
Marron gave her a smile, and the wolfkin girl tilted her head to one side. She didn't know how to interpret that, and mouthed: "Sorry, did you want anything?"
The wolfkin girl laughed, and it cut through the tension like a knife through butter. "Yeah, I wanted something to eat!" she called, and approached the cart.
Her hair was pulled back into a messy braid, and had a fruit-stained cloth tied around her waist. She made a show of leaning toward Marron's deep fryer and sniffing. "Mmm. It's such a luxurious scent. I don't think our cooks have ever thought about using duck fat before. Most of them use sunflower."
Tension left Marron's shoulders and she finally relaxed.
"Thank you," she mumbled as she tossed the fries onto a plate. "for not looking at me like I had a disease."
Lyra swiped a fry from the plate and her body shuddered with pleasure. "Delicious! I gotta go, but come find me in the garden, okay? Follow the dirt path out of the town square and hang a left. Can't miss me."
Marron didn't bother to ask any more questions. She was more focused on the directions.
"Okay. I'll close the stall and we'll see you in a bit."
Mokko grunted. "Are you sure you should trust her so quickly?"
Marron shrugged. "I feel like I've been glared at and mentally flayed open. She made me feel normal. I'm taking that as a positive thing."
+
They found Lyra crouched in a shaded garden on the edge of the settlement, coaxing vines up a wooden trellis.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," she said.
"Kael said to ask you," Marron replied. "About… fitting in."
Lyra brushed dirt from her hands and stood. "Word spreads fast here. People know you cooked for Kael. That you came with Mokko. That you're trying."
"They don't look like they know that," Marron muttered.
"They do," Lyra said, shrugging. "But knowing isn't the same as trusting."
There was a beat of silence, broken only by the soft rustle of garden leaves.
"So what now?" Marron asked.
Lyra offered a smile that was more challenge than comfort. "Do some favors. Be useful. Show you're not here to take more than you give."
[Cooking System Update]
Community Goal Added: "Bridge the Divide"
Progress: 0/5 Beastkin Helped
Reward: Reputation + Cart Expansion (Tier 2 Options Unlock)
Note: Whisperwind operates on trade, not coin. Earn trust through action.
Marron groaned softly. "Of course it's a quest."
"What did it say?" Lyra asked.
"Help five beastkin. Get a gold star."
"That sounds about right." Lyra's tone was dry. "We don't do money here. You trade. You help. You make things better, or you're not part of the village."
"Efficient," Marron said. "But not exactly welcoming."
Lyra tilted her head. "Why should we be? You didn't grow up with hungry winters and stolen harvests. You didn't lose half your orchard to snakekin raids and have to replant the next day without knowing if it'd happen again."
And there it was.
The edge beneath the softness, the silence, and the observation.
Marron hesitated. "I don't know everything. But I do know food. And I know what it's like to build something from nothing. So I guess I start there."
"Good." Lyra stepped aside and gestured to the rows of struggling sproutlings. "Then start with this. We need vegetables. Fruits. Anything that'll grow here. This land's rich with game, but poor with roots. The soil's stubborn. It gives meat, not grain."
Marron crouched beside a plot of stunted greens. "You've been trying, though."
"For years." Lyra's voice dipped. "And some of us are sick of waiting. Of needing the snakekin to trade. Or… of stealing from them."
Marron looked up. "That's why the clans hate each other."
Lyra's eyes flicked away. "They don't share meat. We don't share fruit. The raids started as desperation. Then became tradition. Now it's just habit. Everyone thinks they're owed."
Marron brushed dirt from one of the stalks, feeling the tension in the soil.
"Then maybe I cook something that reminds them what sharing felt like. Something they'll all want. Not because they're hungry, but because they remember."
Lyra glanced at her. "You think food can fix this?"
Marron smiled faintly. "I think food's where healing starts."