The True Endgame

"It"s worth becoming like a corgi," Fenrir says to Bonekraka. The orc burps and raises a hand for Fenrir so that they may fist-b.u.mp one another.

"Hey! You guys ate without us! Come on, we spent all that time getting enough stuff for a fire!" Oleander shouts, dropping the wood gathered in his arms on top of Bonekraka"s stomach. This causes the orc to burp again.

Behind the two bloated men lie crab carca.s.ses picked clean of meat. There"s still a pile of sixteen legs and three claws which have yet to be deprived of their meat, but that doesn"t matter to the two who have been gathering materials for a fire while the others ate.

Serra stands next to Fenrir with a very unimpressed look on her face. It"s similar to when she was pretending to be upset about Oleander"s flirting with him, but this time she doesn"t drop the expression after a few seconds. She"s actually bothered this time. Fenrir feels like he"s being scolded without her saying even a single word.

It doesn"t take Fenrir long to realize why she would be upset. After what he said about having a crab dinner under moonlight with her, he"d be upset if he was in her shoes. It"s not like he wasn"t looking forward to eating with her. However, when faced with delicious crab and a feral appet.i.te, it was simply too hard to wait.

"... my bad. Sorry, I screwed up," Fenrir apologizes. "I"ll make it up to you two by making the fire, alright?"

"I"m definitely not making it," Oleander says, voice full of annoyed sa.s.s.

Serra drops the wood and other materials in her arms onto Fenrir, pouts, and walks off with Oleander.

Fenrir looks at Bonekraka. Bonekraka immediately looks away.

That"s about right. Brushing the materials off of himself, Fenrir gets up, gathers all of the wood and other materials by himself, and starts building a large enough bonfire to cook the crab legs in.

Given how ma.s.sive the crab legs are, the two smallest party members were only barely able to collect enough wood for Fenrir to make a large enough fire. At least he doesn"t have to worry about a firepit since they"re on the beach.

A few minutes later and Fenrir has got the bonfire all set up. He"s gone for making it wide instead of tall so that they can lay the legs down on top of it, but even so, only a few of the legs are actually going to fit on it. Then again, Oleander and Serra are both small, so he doubts they need to eat much in the first place.

He"s just worried about Oleander and Serra, mainly Serra. He hates that he"s already done something wrong to his new friend after just a few hours of knowing her. Who would want to stay friends with somebody who screws up that quickly? Well, it wouldn"t be the first time something like this has happened. All he can do now is try and apologize some more before she believes he"s even worse.

Fenrir turns around to call to the two and b.u.mps right into Serra.

"Sorry! Didn"t know you were standing right there. You alright?" Fenrir asks. Great, first he ate without her, and now he"s almost knocked her over!

Serra looks down during her response, "I – I"m sorry. I… was mad you ate without us, but I didn"t even help during the fight, so… I"m sor—"

She feels a large, warm hand come to rest on top of her head. A blush immediately takes to her face as she looks up at Fenrir with quivering eyes.

"No, you don"t have anything to apologize for. I was the one who proposed a crab dinner under moonlight," he wants to cringe just from thinking about it, "so I shouldn"t have eaten without you. I"m sorry."

Serra can feel her heart fluttering within her chest. It"s an uncomfortable feeling, but not an entirely unpleasant one. "Thanks… but I still didn"t help in the fi—"

"I told you I"d be here to protect you if it ever comes to that, didn"t I? I"m a man of my word, so you shouldn"t be apologizing for me keeping my vow."

That fluttering sensation is growing even more uncomfortable. Her face is burning red and she can"t even find the strength to look him in the eyes right now.

"I"ve got to go apologize to Olly, and then I"ll be back and start the fire. Stay put and I"ll have some nice crab legs ready for you two in no time!" Fenrir says with a wide smile and a thumbs-up. All Serra manages to reply with is a nervous nod. His smile disappears as soon as she can"t see him anymore. With a racing heart, he can"t stop thinking about what he just said. Was his apology good enough? Should he have let her apologize even though he doesn"t believe she should? He doesn"t know.

Fenrir runs over to where Oleander is still pouting at. However, as soon as he gets close, Oleander turns around with a teasing grin. "You sure made setting up that flag for you easy! I had a feeling you and Boney were going to eat, but I didn"t know you"d eat that much!" Oleander says.

"Wait, what?" Fenrir asks.

"Oh, nothing! Don"t worry about it. Is the fire ready?"

Fenrir eyes the suspicious boy. "Yeah... just need to start it."

"Perfect! Alright, let"s head back." Oleander looks suspiciously pleased about something. He holds his hands together behind his back as he walks, and there"s a little skip in his step. He"s even whistling! Fenrir tries figuring out what Oleander was talking about, but he isn"t able to figure it out by the time they reach Serra and the bonfire.

Serra"s face is still red when he gets back. Fortunately for her, he doesn"t seem to notice and gets right to work starting the fire. He does it the same way that he first did to cook the fish he caught earlier, but this time, he"s able to produce a lump of coal faster than before by a couple of minutes! He a.s.sumes there must be some sort of fire-starting skill. Even the lump of coal is larger and hotter than the first time!

Placing the lump in some tinder, he catches the tinder aflame before setting it inside of the bonfire. The fire spreads slower than before—he a.s.sumes it is because of more moisture in the air and not all of the gathered firewood being completely dry—but it engulfs the bonfire before long. "How much do you two think you can eat?" Fenrir asks, standing next to the pile of crab legs.

"How much is in each leg?" Oleander asks.

"About… not sure, but I want to say more than fifteen pounds in each leg," Fenrir answers.

Oleander and Serra look at each other and then back at Fenrir.

"Do either of us look like we could even eat more than a couple of pounds? Besides, no matter how rare crab is now, I doubt it"s good enough to just eat several straight pounds of it unless you"re a ravenous dog or a dumb orc," Oleander explains.

Fenrir can"t find a flaw in that logic. Just one of these legs would be enough to feed a family of four for a meal in reality. He looks over the pile of legs. What the heck are they supposed to do with all of these legs? Crab is something that is supposed to be eaten quickly after being killed as they develop dangerous bacteria much more quickly than most seafood. Well, maybe the game doesn"t make food rot over time? Regardless, he places a single leg of crab over the fire. There"s enough meat in there for both of the hungry party members to share. "I"ll eat whatever is left," he says.

The sh.e.l.l protecting the leg is charred before long, and since neither Oleander nor Serra is worried about the meat within being completely cooked since it"s fresh seafood, Fenrir pulls the leg out of the fire and lets them get to work on it. While he may have eaten during their absence, he also found a couple of large, broken clamsh.e.l.ls that he washed off in the water for them to use as plates.

"See, Serra? Even dogs can be thoughtful when they"re not selfishly stuffing their faces!" Oleander teases. Fenrir wants to flick a sh.e.l.l at Oleander, but when he hears Serra giggle, he lets the temptation pa.s.s without acting on it.

In the end, Fenrir manages to eat just a little bit more. He eats as much as they"ve left in the leg as he can, but when there"s still too much leftover, he throws the leg on top of Bonekraka to let him eat it. Bonekraka makes an annoyed grunt when the leg falls on top of his bloated stomach. Though, that doesn"t stop him from digging into the leg to pull out the rest of its meat.

Oleander leaves Fenrir and Serra alone after a few minutes to go and bother Bonekraka.

The wolf and the girl sit side by side right near the edge of where water meets sand. Cool, salty seawater occasionally brushes against their exposed feet. For two people that have never visited an ocean before in reality, the scent and sounds of it cause them to eat in silence so that they may fully enjoy the beauty of nature. It may just be a game, but this is real to them. Right here, right now, nothing else matters

"Isn"t it beautiful? This is the kind of thing you only get to see in old videos now. Just imagine what else there is in this world that we"ll get to experience. Fishing, walking on a beach, letting the ocean waves. .h.i.t your feet, a sky full of stars - I never thought I would get to experience any of this," Fenrir says.

Serra looks down with a smile. This world truly is something. "I wish... I could live here. I want to stay immersed forever," she says.

"Too bad I don"t think uploading our consciousnesses to computers is a thing yet, but my uncle says it"s being worked on."

"Tell him to tell them to work faster," she says in a playfully bossy tone. He"s not sure he"d be able to take her seriously if she ever actually tries to be bossy just from how soft and cute her voice is.

"I"ll pa.s.s on the message," he says with a chuckle. "Hey uhh, how often are you on?"
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"I don"t really... do anything," she sounds embarra.s.sed, "so I can be on as much as you want me to be."

"I know that feeling. Olly has school and Bone has... work, so I usually just log on when they"re free, but if you want then we can hang out together before they get online." He"s trying to ignore the fluttering of his heart from her saying that she"d be on as much as he wants. This girl is too good to be true.

Serra nods her head, looking away to hide her smile.

"Hopefully we can find a safe spot to wake from, maybe a village further down the coast," he says, looking down the coast.

"How can - how can I know when you"re online?" she asks.

"Do you have Fiscord? We have a server on there that we talk through. I can invite you to it, or you can just message me directly on there."

Serra nods her head. She doesn"t technically have it, but she will have it.

"That"ll work then. My thing on there is," he freezes. He really, really doesn"t want to say this, but going and making a brand new account would be a major pain. He looks at her and sees her looking at him with expectant eyes. "My name on there is uhhh, TheMe-- TheMemeStruggle #6043," he says in a hushed voice, not able to look her in the eyes as he says it.

He hears a stifled snicker followed by an "Alright, I"ll add you later."

This is why he"s single.