The Misadventures of Kayla Foster

Chapter 18

  Walking out of the tent, Kayla was glad to finally be able to enter the city of Raven Wood. She wanted to head to their campsite first and set up their tent, then she needed to go to the SAO guild hall and have her monthly evaluation. She was hoping that she would get a bonus for all her hard work that she had been doing. Plus, she was kind of interested to see what type of quests Raven Wood had.

  The walk-through Raven Wood was overwhelming for Kayla. There were people everywhere she looked. She could understand that the large town would be crowded because of the faire but to her there were a ridiculous amount of people in the streets. 'If I don't stick close to Thorn, I may get lost in this sea of people.' Kayla thought. Thorn, unlike Kayla, didn't seem to have a problem with the massive crowd. But then again, Thorn seemed to have a force field that repelled everyone in his path. All the people who saw him immediately made way for him.

  The town itself was only a five-mile circumference. That, of course, didn't include the miles of farmland that surrounded the town, just what was enclosed in the town walls. The streets were all paved with cobblestone and were wide enough to allow three carriages to stand side by side of each other. Kayla had read that medieval towns and cities on earth had been cramped, dirty and crime riddled. She didn't know about the crime part, but she was pleased to see that the town was clean and spacious.

  It took two hours to walk from the eastern gate to the western gate. It was a hassle with all the people but finally Thorn and Kayla arrived at the edge of the faire grounds. Looking at their paperwork, they found that they were assigned to camping lot number 2715. It took them another 45 minutes to find the lot but once they did, Kayla was very pleased with what they were given.

  The lot was larger than the others but that was because there was a large tree and a stream going through the middle of it. Kayla saw that there were remnants of a stone fire pit and decided that was a good place to start setting up camp. She asked Thorn to rebuild the fire pit while she set up the tent.

  She had originally thought to only set up the tent and leave it empty while they were gone but she saw that there were guards making rounds every 15 minutes. So, she felt that it was safe to set up the entire camp for the long haul. It didn't take her long to get two cots set up, so she left the tent to come and help Thorn, but it seemed that he was already done with his project and was chopping dead limbs to make firewood.

  Kayla moved her attention to the rebuilt stone fire pit. She decided to set up a fire spit and a grate underneath it. She had never brought out the spit until now because she didn't see the need to when she could just use a pot or a smaller grate. It took her a minute to get it set up but once she did, she tested it to make sure that it was steady. After she was done with the spit, she set up a larger grate that attached to the spit. She stood back and admired her handy work.

  "That should do nicely. Thorn, are you almost done with chopping firewood? I need to go to the guild hall and have my monthly evaluation."

  "This amount will suffice for now. Let's go."

  It took a while, but they were eventually able to get to the SAO guild hall. It was not very crowded, which Kayla found odd, but it meant that Kayla was able to be seen quickly to have her evaluation. Once done, she was content with her results. All of the quest givers had nice things to say about her and the fact that she helped in the fight with the rock troll gave her a wonderful score. She got a bonus of 150 silver and gave Thorn a huge smile when she returned to the place where he was waiting.

  "I take it you received a good score."

  "Yup! I even got a bonus. Let's look at the quests later. I'm in the mood to go shopping." Kayla skipped out of the guild hall with Thorn following behind her shaking his head at her antics.