22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cody
Instead of going into his cottage to check on his houseguests, Cody decided to go fishing to work on his friendship quest for Bob.
He was also worried Nyrah would be awake and he did not feel ready to deal with her.
Even though he’d talked to Morgan, he wasn’t feeling great about having two ladies stay at his place.
He headed down to the shed to get his fishing gear and then went to fish off the end of the dock.
After the first five casts with no bites, Cody started hoping for a System Notification giving him another one of those stupid songs. He wanted to skip ahead to the next time he’d get to see Morgan.
He cast out again, but he felt eyes on the back of his head.
He turned to see Nyrah wearing little pink shorts and a white frilly blouse, walking down the dock towards him.
At his request, she had put her magic necklace back on, so she appeared perfectly human.
She held a plate out in front of her with a sandwich on it, as if it was a grand platter in a king’s hall.
“I made you lunch, Cody Hampshire.” She did a little curtsey and bowed her head, offering up the sandwich.
“Uh, thanks.” He was hungry. “Gimme a sec.”
He reeled in his line and set down his fishing rod on the dock before taking the plate from her. Nyrah straightened out of her curtsey, grinning up at him. He was about to take his first bite when he was interrupted by a notification.
[Congratulations! You have completed your first Friendship Level with Resident Nyrah Rose! Only four more to go until Romance is Unlocked!]
Cody did not like the sound of that. Friendship Leveling, sure. That was fine. But this was the first Friend to have the option for Romance, besides Morgan who jumped right to it. He wasn’t entirely sure what would happen if he unlocked Romance with Nyrah, but he didn’t like the sound of it at all.
“Nope. No. No way.” He set the sandwich back down on the plate and held it out to Nyrah. “I’m not taking this. Uh…control-alt-delete? Please? And thank you?”
He wasn’t sure who he was even talking to. Temica? Henry the parrot? He had no idea. But he’d have to think about that another time, because right now he had a lovesick nekofae to deal with.
Nyrah’s bottom lip trembled as her eyes began to fill with tears. And she was refusing to take back the sandwich, her arms held stiffly at her sides with her hands in fists. He held it out towards her more forcefully and she grumpily snatched it from him.
“None of this being nice to me stuff,” Cody said sternly. “I have a girlfriend. You can stay at my cottage until we figure stuff out with Temica and find a way to send you home, but you stay away from me. Do you understand?”
She nodded as a single tear ran down her cheek. “B-but…I don’t want to go home.”
“You can’t stay here forever.”
“W-why not?”
“Because this is my house, the house I plan to have a family in one day. You can’t live here indefinitely.”
“Isn’t this what Temica wants? Yana said she talked to you this morning. You told her that Temica wants us to fight and not love each other. To…to create chaos.”
Cody sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Then I think our main focus needs to be getting rid of Temica.”
“How?” Nyrah asked. “She is an all-powerful goddess witch-lady with a mysterious chicken!”
“Is she?” Cody asked, not bothering to touch that chicken comment. “Because someone I know thinks she’s bluffing.”
“Who?”
“Uh, the demon sentient knife who is attached to my soul.” It actually felt nice to explain it to someone. He had been so close to saying something to Morgan. But Nyrah was from Velasarin. She’d understand.
Sure enough, Nyrah nodded knowingly. “The cook at the Rose Temple orphanage I grew up in had a demon sentient spatula attached to her soul. I am so sorry. It must be difficult.”
“Sometimes it is, yeah.” He felt that weird ache in his heart, the one that told him he missed Knife’s presence, missed his friend’s presence, even if Knife was a jerk most of the time.
“And your knife thinks Temica is bluffing about being a goddess?” Nyrah asked. “And that her chicken is powerless?”
“My knife had no opinions about her, uh…chicken,” Cody said and sat down on the edge of the dock.
“You know that isn’t a chicken, right? It’s a bird called a parrot.
I don’t think you have them in Velasarin, so I can see why you’d be confused, but we have them here, on Earth.
The albino thing is a bit unusual, but Henry is definitely a parrot. ”
Nyrah sat down on the edge of the dock, too, but kept a respectable distance. “But it’s a white bird, of course it is a chicken.”
All the live chickens he’d ever come across in Velasarin had been the pure white variety, so he could see why Nyrah was confused but…chickens and parrots, even if both were white, looked completely different. But they had much more important things to discuss.
“Let’s forget about Henry for the time being,” Cody suggested. “My knife thinks Temica is bluffing and that she’s not an all-powerful goddess. He thinks she’s a Chaos Demon. Does that help at all if we’re trying to get rid of her?”
Nyrah looked up into the clear blue sky, blinking a few times. “If Temica is all-powerful, does that mean she could be listening in on what’s happening, right now?”
“Fuck. You’re right.”
“Unless, of course, she is indeed a Chaos Demon with limitations. A Chaos Demon can only feed off of chaos, so only really sees things when they are…chaotic.”
“You know about this stuff?”
“My lessons at the Rose Temple included demonology, as well as studies in other evil beings and monsters, self-defense, hunting, tracking, calligraphy, and cooking,” Nyrah said matter-of-factly.
“That kind of education could be very useful.”
“I would like you to use me, Cody Hampshire.”
Cody huffed. “Don’t say shit like that. Keep it professional.”
“I will…try.”
“So, anyway, how do we figure out what Temica is? Goddess? Witch? Chaos Demon? Something else entirely?” Cody asked. “Is there some sort of test we can do?”
“If there is a test, it was not covered in my studies. I am sorry I have already failed you.”
“So…we don’t know what she is or how to get rid of her. Great.”
“What do you propose we do?”
“The only other option I have to end all of this is to finish the Cottage Country game. I have no idea if that will fix things or make Temica leave, but it’s all I can think of at the moment.”
Completing the game would mean fulfilling Nyrah’s Friendship Levels and possibly her Romance Levels, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.
In most games you only married one person, and you could choose who you Romanced.
But he had played a few cozy life sims where you could marry more than one character.
He was really hoping it was not that kind of game, or at least, that it wasn’t mandatory to marry more than one person.
“So many assumptions and unanswered questions…” Nyrah was looking down into the murky lake water, her brow creased in thought. “There is one other option, Cody Hampshire.”
“And that is?”
She looked up at him, hope in her eyes. “We simply live our lives, chaos-free. And Temica gets bored of our peaceful existence and eventually leaves.”
“Right. That would involve you backing off with all this ‘true love’ stuff. You good with that?”
Nyrah looked back into the water and didn’t give an answer.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Cody got up and grabbed his fishing stuff, heading back to the cottage to make his own sandwich for lunch.
Cody Hampshire Player Stats
Friendship Moments: William: 4/5, Gracie: 2/5, Nyrah: 1/5
Full Friendship: Doris
Romance Moments: Morgan: 3/10
Relationship Status: Definitely in a Relationship with Morgan and No One Else