meeting new people

zero held Lola's hand leading her past the fence, before pointing along the wall.

"the house along the wall is mostly just the field works.

there's a total of 23."

he said smiling.

he pointed to a home that appeared to be built out of rocks.

"that's my brother's house, he built his home with mud consolidant, and rock's.

I am gonna let you meet him later right now.

his taking care of the crops.

we try diving the work up, the only expectation is if someone has a recent death.

are childbirth, no one wants to miss that." he said.

walking past his brother's house, with a smile.

Lola tilted her head.

"you have a brother?

how many other siblings do you have?" she asked tail swings back and forth as she walked with him. zero looked back at he

" 3. 2 brothers and one sister." he said.

"my second brother is a part of the guards."

Lola nodded looking at all the houses they passed following the dirt path.

they hadn't walked far, but she saw a good sized field.

is this where they grew their crops?

zero let her hand go walking over to the field leaving her standing slightly behind him.

he cupped his hands together around his mouth yelling "don't over water the crops you'll deal with the angry mob this time."

Lola lowered her brows before seeing a figure out in the descent pop out against the long cron field.

the figure yelled back. "zero you idiot!" it sounds like another man. it should have been zeros brother, zero did say his brother was working out there.

an older man with white hair walked up behind zero, slapping him and upside the head.

the older man was short with a long white beard, he had horns like a goat.

"zero stop disturbing the works.

we have a group of youngsters working out there." he said. zero laughed looking back at the short man.

"sorry Jason." he said before pointing "Lola this is Jason Jason this is Lola.

she's gonna be working with us out in the fields within the next month, she new here." he said

Jason looked over at her, she was young looking.

"she to small and weak for field work." he said walking closer to Lola.

Lola shook her head, did he just call her weak!?

Jason stopped snorting "what do you know about crops?" he asked.

Lola stepped away from him, "I know you need to water them....and.." she said trying to think.

the old man slammed his foot.

"and you single Handley killed the crops with that one second of doubt! you have to be on your toes!" he said.

zero rolled his eyes "Jason we just come to say hi...this is getting old."

he said letting out a sigh of annoyance.

Jason gave him a mean look, "with a poor harvest like a few years ago we could lose people." he said

zero nodded before admitting, "I know...we don't want that to happen again.

we lost a lot of good people."

he said gently looking down.

Lola leaned over "wait what happened?"

she asked.

Jason looked over at her before closing his eyes.

zero looked down before hearing Jason answer. " there was a bad flood and we lost most of our crops... we could only save a little bit. the chief did everything she could, we all did everything we could.

our efforts we're in vain tho.

we only had enough food for 40 people...our town has 130 people..

we did everything we could.

We tried hunting more, trading....but we couldn't make it through winter.

we lost many due to starvation, I lost my only daughter due to starvation.

many lost loved ones, we went from having 130 people to 90." he said looking back up at her.

"this work may seem small to some...but we are in charge of something bigger than you can imagine."

Lola looked at Jason with wide eyes, feeling shocked.

Jason looked away "Iam going to make sure everything is good in the field." he said starting to walk away.

Lola nodded gently feeling saddened from the information, did zero lose anyone?

zero looked at her seeing her lost in thought.

zero grabbed her hand "come on, let's go somewhere a bit more upbeat." he said putting on a smile.

he gently pulled her leading her away from the field walking along before taking a turn following the dirt path pointing to the right. "that's where the castle is.

it's technically not a castle, even tho it seems small apparently there's rumors of an underground system."

he said scratching his face.

Lola tilted her head in confusion "what!?

she said. zero shrugged "it's a rumor I don't know if it's true, but I've heard it from a few people. my brother won't tell me so...I think it's a lie." he said gently.

Lola nodded softly not talking.

zero smiled before spinning around in circles as they entered what looked like a ring of shops.

"these are some of the shops,

you can come here for anything you need and, furniture." he said before pointing to the left.

"the rest of the house are back behind the shops.

our town is pretty small, but really weird compared to other small towns."

he said

a soft female voice called out,

"zero!?

zero did you find a mate?" a female ran over dressed in a hide shirt and shorts.

zero pinned his ears back shaking his head "no she's new and am showing her around." he said.

Lola glanced at the female, she stood at the same height Lola was.

5'1. she had feathers in her bright green and pink hair.

she smiled looking at Lola reaching out her hand.

"hi am Valentina the love Bird." she said

Lola gently grabbed her hand shaking it softly.

Valentina smiles "welcome to the north, you're welcome to stop by my shop anytime.

I sell things I found while flying around."

Lola eyes lights up with a shocked voice.

"you can fly! I wanna see!" she said

clenching her fist to her side in excitement.

people turned their heads looking at Lola confused.

Lola blushed scratching her head "sorry that was a stupid out Burst." she said softly.

Valentina smiles "it's okay, you're just excited.

normally people aren't that excited about a lovebird." she said giggling.

Lola felt a little less embarrassed nodding her head.

Valentina looked at zero "my nest just hatched I have new babies to tend to, y'all feel free to stop by the shop anytime." she said waving as she walked away.

Lola waved back along with zero, he tilted his head smiling.

"she's a sweetheart, anytime she sees anyone new are a baby she has to meet them.

also you have never seen a lovebird?" he asked.

Lola shook her head, she had seen images of love birds but never one in real life.

this world was so different she couldn't help but to be a little excited and, ask lots of questions.

Lola jumped hearing growling behind her,

she turned to see the short dirty blonde man from yesterday.

his dog ears were pinned back teeth exposed.

Lola stepped behind zero hissing back at him.

zero snorted pinning his ears back snapping "stop being a mean idiot John! this is why people avoid you!" he snorted.

John growled at zero, "she's a stranger who could be dangerous!"

zero rolled his eyes "I took her to meet the chief. she cleared Lola."

he said shaking his head.

"do you not trust the chief?" zero said sarcastically.

John snorted lowering his stance still growling teeth exposed.

zero leaned closer " don't try me." he said pinning his ears back standing taller.

Lola yelled ears pinned back "stop please!" she cried out. people were staring at them watching.

a voice called out with authority.

"hey! you two better stop right now before I beat both your asses!"

a talk man with brown and white hair stepped out of the crowd.

he had markings that appeared to be higher grade clothes, and had on a black shirt with long blue jeans.

zero looked over "brother!"