Chapter 2: Don't feed the Porings!

A massive landscape of green greets Alaylle as she awkwardly leaves Prontera from the west gate. Alaylle quietly thinks to herself, 'I-It's so green!... It's so different from the city!' and then has to quickly get out of the way of an adventurer running into Prontera's gate. 'And yet... also very similiar...' Alaylle thinks rather dryly, but can't hold the sarcastic mood for long and just bursts into giggles. She shakes her head and starts her walk to Geffen.

While walking away from Prontera, Alaylle casually pulls the map out of her pocket and takes a look, only to stop dead in her tracks. The "map" as Alaylle's father would call it, seemed to be a strange mass of squiggles and circles, looking more like doodlings than a map. "Th-this is... Daaaaaaddy! H-how am I supposed to find my way to Geffen with this?"

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Meanwhile, back at Alaylle's house...
"Achooo! Ungh..." Alaylle's father quickly covers his mouth as he sneezes.

"Dear... feather dusters aren't brooms or hammers... you use them gently, or you'll stir the dust everywhere" Alaylle's mother says while grinning and dusting off a windowsill. "Perhaps someone was talking about you behind your back?"

"Nahh... I'm off today, and besides, I do my job well, unless some adventurer wants to get greedy… Did I tell you about that time when someone barged into the armory wanting me to pound 15 Eluniums into one thing? I broke his armor out of spite." Alaylle's father says while trying to use the feather duster gently-and fails miserably at it. "Bah... I don't know how Alaylle manages to do this everyday..."

"Speaking of Alaylle, where is she today?"

"Uhh... doing something fun, I'm sure!"

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"Oh, this is so not fun..." sighs Alaylle as she walks farther west of Prontera towards the Culvert entrance.

'Ehh? Why are so many people over there?' Alaylle quickly walks over to the Culvert entrance... Lots of adventurers talking with a guard, and a Kafra lady! 'Oh! I bet she'd know how to get to Geffen with this thing!' "Uhmm... Excuse me... Excuse me!"

The Kapra lady smiles over at Alaylle, "Welcome! The Kafra Corporation wil-hey... what's a city girl like you doing out here? It's a bit dangerous, you know..."

"Aahh, umm... I was wondering... could you help me figure out this map to Geffen?" Alaylle asks hesitantly while showing her the "map".

The Kafra lady laughs as she looks at the "map". "Who drew this, your little brother? Well, it seems these little wave lines are water-and these upside-down "V"s are hills. Hmm... just follow the straight lines!"

"Oh! Thank you so much!" Alaylle smiles happily and quickly runs off to make up for her lost time, only to hear the most peculiar sound as she leaves the crowd of people...

Bloop, bloop, bloop

"Eehh?... What's that sound?" Alaylle quickly stops and looks around for the source of the strange noise. Spotting something pink and gelatin-like, she walks over to it to get a better look-and frightens terribly once it starts hopping towards her. "Kyaaaaaaahh! It's a pink-monster-thingy!" Alaylle startles so much that an apple falls from her basket and onto the ground.

Poring thought process 2000:
New item detected: Stone
Edible? Yes
Commence absorption
New item detected: Jellopy
Edible? Yes
Commence absorption
New item detected: Human Female
Edible? No
Scanning other targets...
New item seen: Apple
Edible? Very Yes
Eat it NOW, fool!
Commence fast absorption
vvv

Alaylle watches in surprise as the Poring zips over to the apple and gulps it down whole. "Gosh... hungry little thingie aren't you?" She fishes in her basket and pulls out an apple, setting it next to the Poring.

Doing what comes naturally to the little kleptomaniac, the Poring quickly snatches up the apple and then looks up at Alaylle.

Alaylle smiles happily at the Poring and kneels down to get a better look at it. "Aww... you're kinda cute... but I don't know what in the world you are... I've never seen your picture in any animal books that I've looked in..."

The Poring spits out a piece of paper at Alaylle and then looks down at it.

"Eww… spitting is a bad habi-huh? What's this?" Alaylle reaches over to pick up the piece of paper and then looks at it. "Aahh... this picture... it's of you, isn't it? Oh! And there's a word here... Poring?" Alaylle looks down at the Poring. "So that's what you are, huh? A Poring?"

The Poring nods and then happily starts hopping off.

"Ohh! Bye bye Poring!" Alaylle waves happily, stands up and looks around... only to see four Porings looking at her. "Aahh... more Porings! Hello!"

Poring thought-process '95:
Scanning target...
-Human female
Edible? No
Continue scan...
-Basket
Edible? No
Relevant information from memory:
Basket contains apples.
Log: 1 minute, 16.05 seconds ago: Human female fed apple from the basket to foreign Poring.
Commence attack on basket!
vvv

Alaylle eeps as all four Porings suddenly jump at her basket. She quickly lifts it up into the air out of the Porings' reach. "N-no! Bad Porings! These are mine! Please... these are my lunch!" She quickly tries to get away from the Porings, but they keep hopping after her and trying to hop into her to jostle an apple out of the basket.

Alaylle keeps running west, but slowly manages to squeeze out an idea. She takes an apple out of her basket and throws it as far east as she can. "There! Go get that apple!"

The Porings, following natural instinct, (and refusing to upgrade to 2000 or :3 (pronounced "Colon 3") quickly all change course to get the first bite out of the newly dropped apple.

Alaylle quickly stops running once she notices that the Porings have stopped following her. "Whew... that was close!... I guess I shouldn't feed the Porings... it seems to give them the wrong idea..." Alaylle smiles awkwardly and takes out her map as she catches her breath. "Let's see... Oohh... I'm quite a bit closer now! Umm... there should be a lot of water... here!"

Alaylle steps into the region known as Rocker Coast...

End of Chapter 2
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Chapter 3 Preview!

sounds of horrid violin screeching

Alaylle: "Kyaahh... what's with this terrible sound? My poor ears..."
"I hope I can get out of here without losing my hearing!"

In the next Chapter! "Rocking Around the Coast!"

Alaylle: "These Rockers... are just so out of tune!"
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