Fairy Tale

A Short Story By Kal Ancalas

This story is dedicated to a very special friend of mine- a friend who stayed with me through much of my career on Maple, a friend who has supported me through thick and thin, and a truly excellent individual.

Words cannot possibly do justice to the spirit of this person, but I leave this story as a testament to her friendship, and hope that wherever she is right now, I wish her the best in her life.

It's been so long ago since we first met, and yet I remember it like it was yesterday.

I can still hear your voice, feel your touch, reassuring me, telling me that everything would be all right.

Dear lord, I feel so silly standing here and thinking you're here with me, but I can't help it. I know you wouldn't have taken much stock in that sort of thing, though. You believed in fate, of simply accepting your destiny without a second thought.

Sometimes, I wonder if things would have been different if you hadn't left.

The dusty stone of the Perion cliffsides stares back at me, bringing solace where there was none before. As I look at it, I remember the memories, and I see your face.

I think back to when we first met, when I first laid eyes on the person that was you.

You introduced yourself, and I did the same, only the warm summer air separating us. I could feel your eyes on me, judging me in those few moments.

In those few moments, I could tell you were different.

You didn't step away and ignore me as though I were part of the landscape. You didn't immediately call all your friends to harass me until I left out of desperation. You didn't call me an ass for intruding into your territory, though I sometimes feel I deserved it.

To this day, I still don't know why you touched my hand and said hello.

We stayed together, killing those fire boars like posessed maniacs. Every time I pulled back my arms for another shot, I could almost feel your hands on mine, guiding my arrows ceaselessly, perfectly.

...I'm sorry, I'm being cheesy again. I don't know why.

It was, quite frankly, the best day of my life, and not just because I was at least a hundred thousand mesos richer by day's end.

Every time I looked at you, I knew that I had met someone I could trust- someone that I could confide in, someone to turn me away from the cruel realities of the world.

You were always there with a kind word when I got hit, a witty remark when I scored a critical strike. You talked with me, laughed with me, cried with me. You made me more than just another person, hidden behind the safety of my outermost facial expressions.

You made me feel...human.

That was something I knew no one else could ever do, no matter how hard I wanted to believe otherwise.

We parted at the end of the day, you as happy and carefree as ever, and I with a void in my heart. I knew that tomorrow you would be gone, another part of the countless masses upon the world that I lived in, and I would cease to be once more.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw you in Perion the next day, casually shooting the boars with as much ease as the day I had first met you.

You seemed happy to see me, though sometimes I wonder if that was a mask over the true face you possessed.

Of all the memories I could have remembered- a potion here, an ore there- I remember you, ever there, always caring. You held maps for me, saving me endless hours of inevitable trouble- you offered me items when I needed them, gave me advice on where and what to train on- always I wondered, how could I ever survive without you?

I still ask myself that to this day, even though you're no longer there to answer.

When I was with you, the days folded seamlessly into one another, never seeming to begin or end at any one point- indeed, I wished they could go on forever.

As days blended into weeks, and weeks became months, I noticed that you- regardless of what I tried to tell myself- were changing. No longer were you a part of the world around you- you seemed too strong, too beautiful, and just too damned good for the earth all at once. You were becoming great, greater than I could ever hope to imagine.

Through it all, though, you refused to desert me. Sometimes, I feared that one day I would wake up and realize that you had left me for dead in the world- but you continued to stand by my side, hold my hand as I struggled to survive in the world you had long since left.

One of my memories- I still cherish it to this day- is the day you broke the barrier I could only imagine beyond my wildest dreams. You had done it, ascended to the third tier, become a Ranger- that which I could only gaze up at in awe. You were no longer simply a friend, a companion- you were my Athena, my Artemis to rever for all eternity.

I remember you'd invited me to El Nath to celebrate, and as I stood there with my plain coat, pants, and gnarled Maple Soul Searcher in the icy wind, I watched you slay innumerable beasts with that grand technique, Strafe. Arrows flew from your wrists like lightning as you cut through them, refusing to let them even touch you.

Innocence had metamorphosed into perfection that cold morning, and I was its sole witness.

I remember saying that I'd catch up to you someday, though we both knew it was a half-hearted jest- I knew I could never reach your level of beauty, strength, and cold proficiency- not even until the end of time.

And as you continued to awe the world with your skill, I knew that we would someday drift apart- even as I tried to relive the halcyon days of Perion with you under the icy clouds of the Snowfield, I realized that this could never come to be.

You knew it as well. You tried to console me, to your credit. You maintained that we'd been friends from the start, and we sure as hell weren't going to stop now. I replied to your words as calmly as I could- yes, yes, we were friends- but even so, it was a thin lie that was quickly falling apart in both of us. You began to distance yourself from me, breaking away further and further- and I realized I was no longer a companion, but a burden. You had others to see, more to do- and I could not stop that.

No matter how much I needed you, I knew that I could no longer be a part of your life.

And so, we parted.

It's been two years since, and I have seen no trace of you- nothing except your parting words to me: "I'll think of you always."

Is that another lie- another lie in the life that you've been living with me?

Yet, I cannot feel bitterness towards you. You alone gave me hope, granted me solace in a world where others would leave me for dead. I remember that as I stand here today, knowing that you made me what I am.

I know that you'd be happy to see me like this. You always used to joke about me never getting up to your level- but here I am, warts, Dark Arund, and all. It's quite funny, in a way.

In a past life, I would have given the world for this- but the world I once knew is no longer what it is now.

If I close my eyes, I can almost see you once more, playing and joking in the valley without a care in the world, your hand clasped in mine, never to let go.

Three years ago, I would have said "I love you", and you would have heard me- and we would have stayed together until the end of time.

But after all, in my heart, I know it's just a fairy tale.

All sap merits an explanation, and I believe this story is no exception.

As you have read above, this short drabble has been based on true experiences with a friend of mine- a very special friend, to be exact. Her in-game character was named CrimsonGrace, and it goes without saying that she inspired the character of Grace Raizen in Revolt of the Archers.

In real life, Revolt, and this story, I met Grace in early 2004 at the Dangerous Valley. The scene where Zeraion first meets Grace is probably the only part of the story that is canon- I did meet her there, in my late thirties, hunting fire boars, exactly as described in the story. The only difference between the two is that Grace was a hunter, same as me- in Revolt, she's a mage. The only reason I made her a magician was that there were way too many effing bowmen in the story already, what with the Devil Children and all.

As I've said, Grace wasn't your typical, sassy "get the hell out of my spot u nub" player. She was, truly, a unique individual- I don't think people like her appear more than once out of every 10,000 Maplers. When I first met her, she came off as the typical high school teenager girl- she used emoticons, was cheerful, and was a great person in general. Incidentally, when I referred to her as Grace, she did actually tell me to call her Gracie, a line which I paid homage to in Revolt. I think she thought I was older than I really was because of my vocabulary (I was barely 12 at the time.)

In any case, we became fast friends, and I soon realized my first guess was way off. Grace was not in high school, nor anywhere close- she was actually more than twice (!!) my age. Though I never explicitly asked her age, I eventually learned she was in her mid-late twenties. She apparently worked as a programmer and coder on the other side of North America (she lived somewhere around Oregon or Washington- I think she mentioned having to go to work in Seattle once), playing Maple in her spare time.

The examples of stories I could tell about Grace could fill ten encyclopedias and still have room left over for a magazine, so here is a classic example to illustrate her personality: We were training at Fire Boars (both being in our early forties) until all of a sudden a level 50-ish ice wizard came down and started ruining our fun. Being that he could totally OHKO the damn things and we couldn't, I was all for CC'ing my arse out of there as quickly as possible. Instead, Grace went totally out on that poor SOB. She cursed at him for the better part of 10 minutes (I can't repeat what she said- it would cause both your eardrums and your computer screen to spatially collapse) before starting to rain Double Shot on him like an effing toro. Needless to say, he wasn't coming back any time soon.

Yep. Fun times, those.

So where does Grace using "forbidden magic" fit in with all this? Well, I'm getting to that. Everything was going fine until I was about level 46-ish, and she had just leveled up to 47. I said good night to her and went to bed for the night; when I woke up roughly eight and a half hours later, I was more than a little surprised to find out she was now level 51.

Of course, I was suspicious, but I figured this was just one of those "stayed up all night and partied with friends" deals, so I said nothing. I have to admit, she looked damn good in a gown and Olympus. We chatted together for a while (while I got totally pwnd by her damage) and then it was night again; once more, I bid her good night and headed off to bed.

If the first incident seemed surprising, you can imagine my reaction when I logged on and saw that she was level 71 (!!!).

Well,that was a bit far-fetched, so I questioned her directly. Her excuse was that her younger brother had recently come home from boot camp and played for her all night. Now, I know what you're all thinking, and I was thinking the same thing myself at the time- even if her brother was Kevin Mitnick in disguise, there is no effing way one can go from level 51-71 overnight.

I would have questioned her further, but as you've seen from the anecdote mentioned further up, it's better not to ask too many questions where Gracie's concerned- so I shut up, and life returned to being (fairly) normal. We still hung out together, though it was more of a whisper chat deal than actually being together in person- while I was still training my fat Piette pants off in the Burnt Lands, she was knocking heads off Yetis and Pepes in El Nath.

The next part of this story comes in early 2005, about a year after we first met. I was in my late fifties at the time (leveling was an ass with middle school), and Gracie was (surprise, surprise) in her early eighties. She contacted me through chat one day and told me she was going to start a guild, and ordered me to go to Orbis pronto.

I go'ed, and TheVarden was born.

As you can tell from the title- we were all a bunch of Eragon freaks. We named our ranks after characters in the Inheritance trilogy; Gracie and her close friends were Saphira and Arya, respectively. I was a Ra'zac.

Somehow, I managed to survive with Gracie's friends for another half a year or so. Let me tell you- these people were in their twenties, and they showed it. For one thing, they didn't use chatspeak (not often, anyway), but the things they talked about- let me refer to another example. One day, Gracie came on guild chat to tell us about the vacation she'd had in Mexico recently. More specifically: she and her brother hitched a ferry ride down to Guadalajara, then had about eleven tequilas at once and passed out. The brilliant part of this is that I'm not even kidding- I truly wish you'd been there. It was definitely a nice change from the usual bad stream of 'your mom' insults that guilds regularly trade. They did figure out I was 13 at one point (Gracie told them), but for whatever reason (probably because I was smart enough to shut up) I stayed on as loyal Ra'zac.

This continued on for some time, until in mid-2005- at which point Gracie started to degenerate, both mentally and physically. I'd heard several exploits of hers in the past, of course- but I naturally assumed it was nothing more than alcohol and grown-up stupidity. What I didn't know (and later found out) was that Gracie had been taking drugs for some time, mostly pot but (rumored, though it was strongly hinted at) meth, also known as methamphetamine.

I'm not writing this as a don't-do-drugs sort of spot- you probably get enough of that at school. However, I'm simply going to say that the effect that stuff can have is- in a word- scary. There were times at which Gracie no longer seemed to be herself- it was as though a demon had taken over her body (cliche, but that's the only way I can describe it). She no longer joked or told stories anymore- about the most meaningful thing she said during mid-2005 was "f--k off", and she would often curse out against people (me included) for no reason. Sometimes, I'd log off as soon as she came on, simply because I didn't know what the flying hell she was going to do. I don't expect to change anyone's views because of this paragraph, but I just want everyone to see that this stuff isn't like buying a box of Pixy Stix at the nearest Drug Fair. It can seriously screw up your life, and the lives of those around you. Trust me on this.

With a guild leader like that, it wasn't long before the population of TheVarden had dwindled to virtually nothing. One day in June, I think, Gracie came on- we were the only two left in the guild at that point who were actually active.

CrimsonGrace: hey Pheonix
ZerPheonix74: hey gracie
CrimsonGrace:...why the hell are you still here?
CrimsonGrace: Leave this guild Pheonix...it's completely f-cked up now
CrimsonGrace: there isnt anyone left
CrimsonGrace: just go
ZerPheonix74: meh
ZerPheonix74: ill stay here
ZerPheonix74: not really much else for me to do anyway.
CrimsonGrace: heh
CrimsonGrace: thanks pheonix
ZerPheonix74: np

Yes, that was the actual dialogue, more or less. It's scary how I still remember it after all this time.

We hung on for another month together before she quit. She didn't leave a note, or anything like that- I just woke up one day, and realized TheVarden was no longer in existence. It was time to find myself a new guild.

About two months after this, I found that CrimsonGrace had returned from the dead- well, sort of. It turned out that although the character was still in operation, Gracie was gone. She'd given her account to her brother (you know, the one supposedly responsible for the 20-level skip described above). He asked us (by us, I mean me and some of Gracie's old friends) to call him Silas. By all accounts, Silas was a great person, though he never really was quite as social as his sister.

(There is, however, one story I remember about Silas. Once, he kept logging off and on, off and on, for at least six times in a row. It drove the rest of us crazy, so I finally had to ask what was up. His response: "My son needs to learn the power button on the computer is not a toy.")

After a while, Silas left as well, and I was left to my own devices. I did eventually become a Ranger. Gracie would have been proud.

The story would normally end here, but there is one worthy footnote I should add: I did see Gracie once more.

In early 2007, about 3 years after I'd first met her, I was training at the godawful Forest of Dead Trees, about level 74-75 at the time (I don't remember which). All of a sudden, I received a note: CrimsonGrace had logged in.

Seeing that CrimsonGrace hadn't logged in for the past 14 months or so, I didn't know what to do. I think I sat there for a minute before I realized I was being eaten by zombies and got to safety.

Once having done that, I called CrimsonGrace on Maple Messenger.

ZerPheonix74: hey
ZerPheonix74: Gracie
ZerPheonix74: that you?
CrimsonGrace:...?
CrimsonGrace: who are you?
CrimsonGrace: oh my god
CrimsonGrace: Pheonix
ZerPheonix74: heh
ZerPheonix74: yeah
CrimsonGrace: omg
CrimsonGrace: i can't believe you still play
ZerPheonix74: well
ZerPheonix74: i've had a lot of free time lately
ZerPheonix74: lv 74 now :D
CrimsonGrace: yeah i see that :P
ZerPheonix74: you've been off for quite a while
CrimsonGrace: yeah...i know
CrimsonGrace: well
CrimsonGrace: it was really nice to see you again Pheonix
ZerPheonix74: you too :D
CrimsonGrace: heh
CrimsonGrace: you've been a good friend Pheonix
ZerPheonix74: ty
CrimsonGrace: cya Pheonix
ZerPheonix74: cya

She then left the chatroom, and that was the last time I ever saw Gracie again.

A week later, I wrote chapter 5 of Revolt of the Archers.

Dedicated to CrimsonGrace, the best friend anyone could ever hope to have on Bera, or anywhere in the world for that matter.
Disclaimer: I do not own the song "Tong Hua (Fairy Tale)" by Guang Liang (Michael Wong).

I've forgotten how long it's been
since I last listened to you

Telling me your favorite story
I thought for a long time…
I began to realize:
Is there something I've done wrong?

You said to me, your eyes full of tears;
"The fairy tales are full of lies…
I could never be your princess,"
If only you realized
ever since you said "I love you"
The stars in my sky have shined bright

I want to become
that angel in your fairy tales
Spread out both my hands
let them become wings to protect you
You must believe...
believe that we can be like those in a fairy tale
with beautiful happiness in our ending

You cried to me, your eyes full of tears:
"Those stories are all cruel lies;
I can never be your princess,"
Maybe you never realized
that ever since you said "I love you"
The stars in my sky have shined bright

I want to become…

The angel in your fairy tales
Spread out my hands,
let them become wings to protect you…
You must believe...
believe that we can be like those in a fairy tale,
with beautiful happiness in our ending

I want to become…
The angel in your fairy tales
Spread out my hands
let them become the wings to protect you
You must believe...
believe that we can be like those in the fairy tale
with beautiful happiness in our ending

I will become
Your angel in your fairy tales
Spread out my hands
become the wings to protect you
You must believe...
believe that we can live in a fairytale
with our perfect, happy ending

Let's write our ending together…