Hallo, first of all thank you for following my story and showing such interest in my work. I wanted to clarify that while the gaming part will be important in this story (what with it being in the title) it isn't going to be as intrusive as what you see in The Gamer and so. The will get Classes and Skills but there will be no interface, nothing to mingle with the system.
If you want a guideline for the RPG elements then The Wandering Inn is what I am using to define it. So no missions, inventory, shop, etc.
More feelings ahead.
She was up in a second, fatigue and fright were forgotten by the sudden revelation. Walking up to her brother, she plucked the twig from between his fingers and watched the colour drain from it, going back to being but a frail piece of wood. Her grip broke it down to pieces as frustration reared its head, she used both hands to split in two and threw the splinters that remained far into the woods. She looked down at him and stared at his lost face. The gloom practically seeped from him, like a dry and cruel wind that takes the breath away and with it their resolution.
Whereas she was fire, tongues of anger rolled from her as she thought about their situation, they spread like whips that lashed at the world. She hated not being able to see her parents, her friends, hated having lost everything she had worked for and having to start again on their own. But spite was a powerful thing, it gave her the strength to walk the length, to refuse to keel over.
She looked at him again and put out her hand, he was all she had and she wouldn't allow him to give up. Even if that meant dragging his fat ass through the half dead forest.
"Come on, we still need to find a place to sleep and something to start a fire with,"
"What for? We aren't going home,"
"To stay alive, you idiot. That's why, now get up,"
"But we are dead, sis. That's what all this is about, we are dead,"
He was starting to break down, and he could feel it in his breath, it came cold and short as if every time he let go a piece of him went away. He had been able to stay calm because there was hope of going back, because he ignored the obvious. But now? Thinking that their parents had to go through their deaths, had to plan their funeral, it broke him inside to think about them. Her old face tearing up when she saw what became of them, his father, always stoic and solid as stone crumbling under the grief.
A strangled wail escaped his lips as he thought about their grandmother, she was too old. It would be too much for her, too much for her weary heart. He felt Martina's hands coming to his face, holding his cheeks and forcing him to look up, her eyes were red and squinting and her voice was hoarse, now he realized.
"Do I look dead to you? We are still alive. We are still breathing and we need to keep moving, we need to keep moving to make right by mom and dad. They would cry if they found out we gave up like this, so get up. Get up and help me because I can't do this without you,"
She could feel it now, her words cutting him and doing something, slowly but surely he got up. The wind gave way to a breeze, slow but strong and carrying a warmth that forced her to shut her eyes to avoid crying, he enveloped her in a hug that lifted her from the ground and planted a loud kiss on her head. He put her down and looked at her gratefully, a pained smile on his face that made him look miserable but out of the pit of self-pity. And she guessed that would have to be enough for now.
"You were always the stronger one, sis,"
"One of us needs to be if we are going to live here,"
"I guess you are right sometimes,"
She raised an eyebrow at him but let it rest, she just wanted this day to be over so that she could sleep for a bit. All the emotional bullshit had sapped her batteries far too much and her eyes were already stinging and tired. So she set out to draw the lines that they should follow.
"First we need to find a place to sleep for the day, we don't know where we are and the night might come quickly. Second, see if you can drag that cat so that we can eat it and third we need to make something to cut it up, and make some fire,"
"I have my lighter still, it should last about fifty uses. Lighter and no cigarettes,"
"Then that's one thing less, we just need the tinder then. See if you can move it,"
He strode forward to the fallen beast, unsure of how he was supposed to tackle this task. Move the corpse she said, drag it through the forest she said, he would be lucky if he didn't get a hernia from lifting the damn thing. He grabbed a fistful of its scruff, the fur stretching until it became taut and he tested how much effort it would take. Not feeling much resistance he kept lifting his arm, until its head and front leg were in the air.
Forgoing care, he used both arms to lift its whole bulk from the floor, barely straining to hoist what should be about four hundred kilos of tough muscle and bones, the effort was about as big as cradling a grown dog.
Catching his sister's eyes, he turned around and showed her what he did, holding their dinner like it was a big plushie from a street stall. She patted it in the head like it was their pet and sighed.
"A pity it attacked, it's fur is so soft,"
"That's what you care about?"
"Yes, let's go,"
They could hardly afford wasting time being amazed by how much stronger they were, it was already a fact that they were and if she showed her interest she knew they would go nowhere. He would simply spend the rest of the day trying to find something he couldn't lift off the ground and she wasn't about to entertain his needs to test himself. That was something to do elsewhere, somewhere safe preferably.
So she set the pace, threatening to leave him behind if he kept dallying with the tiger. They moved towards the mountain, having decided to get to a vantage point where they could inspect the whole place and see if there was a smidgen of civilization in this backwards world.
He talked, Nico always loved to talk. He talked about how light a load he was carrying, about how he wanted a smoke and she thought she wouldn't mind having a drink after all this. He spoke as they cut a path through the vast green, trampling on weeds and reeds, breaking branches to make sure the big guy had a clear way.
Without warning something flashed to their right, she turned and looked in the direction where she had felt a presence appear with her Haki. She may not be able to control it yet but it was enough to recognize threats, know when something or, hopefully, someone focused on them. And she had felt it go off, a flash fire that disappeared just as quickly and left her clenching her fists in worry. Whatever it was that had caught her attention was able to hide from her, because even as she focused on the area she felt nothing but insects and birds.
She turned around and spoke with haste.
"We are moving. Drop that and get something to use if we have to fight,"
"What?"
"I felt my Haki go off on something, and it fucking disappeared,"
"Just our luck,"
He shrugged his weight from his shoulders in a second and moved with a pressing need towards one of the healthier trees, he grabbed a thick branch and snapped it clean off the trunk by jumping up and down a few times. Martina looked at him and motioned with her chin for him to lead, her pen already in her hand and without the cap, their preparations were haphazard but the would have to do.
Taking point, he put up with a punishing pace that had him trampling the undergrowth back to the ground, the tangling vines and foot hugging nettles were turned into a green carpet that was plastered against the soil. He had turned around a couple of times, to make sure that he hadn't left her behind in this mad rush, after the fourth time he turned she started shouting at him from time to time.
Her heart was about to beat out of her chest as she kept up with her brother, her blood running cold in her as she felt the flare move from one side to the other, it allowed her to sense it. It would appear in front of them from time to time and she had to shout to get him to veer to the sides and avoid them, they were playing with them. Her face flushed, she could only think about how to escape from the damn place, but the thought left her when she crashed into her bother.
The pain in her nose yanking her back to reality and she was about to shout at him when she saw that what was laid before them was the tiger they had ditched some time ago. A sound on their side had them both readying up for a fight, she could hear wood groaning as Nico hardened the grip on his club and tainted it with his Haki, she did the same for her pen and felt it turn into a part of her. The link was frail, and the colour was slightly off compared to his, but it would have to do.
With her nerves about to be frayed by fear she kept looking around, her Observation doing rounds around them and the action came naturally, and the fact that she found nothing kept setting off alarms in her head until she locked onto something. That same flare of strength appeared again in front of them, just a stone throws away and from the sea of trees walked out a woman. She was tall and with a step that showed confidence and strength, eyes that showed she was having fun as they crinkled a bit and a rifle fastened to her back with its wooden stock peeking over her shoulder.
"Is this the one that we have been running away from?"
He had lowered himself and backed away from the woman before whispering to his sister, she eyed him critically for a second before giving him a grave nod. He understood the feeling, he didn't fancy going into a gunfight with a bloody club. Not one bit. But before either of them could get the courage or the wits to start talking to the woman she took the lead.
"Are you two lost by chance?"
"Yes,"
"And where do you come from then?"
"Dawn Island in the East Blue,"
Martina answered without missing a bit, she had already rehearsed the whole story with Nico. They weren't about to start trusting people everywhere, and they supposed that it would be easier for the both of them to let others hear about a familiar place rather than another world.
"My, my, you have sailed quite the ways to reach North Blue,"
"North Blue?"
The question escaped Nico before he could even think about it.
"Aye, Farra Island in the North Blue. You didn't even know which Blue you were in?"
"No, we didn't. We just woke up in a beach, killed a tiger, and got chased by someone,"
Her amusement did nothing but grow when Martina tried to turn the conversation away from the topic, and if it had a bit of a bite to it then all she could say was that the woman had done everything to earn it.
"Right, well I couldn't just come up to you without knowing if you were dangerous, now could I? I was very scared when I saw people capable of Haki in this little piece of the world,"
"And what do you think about us now?"
She regarded both of them with a smile evident in her eyes as she spoke.
"Well, I trust you enough to tell you my name. I am Itse, Faithful Itse they call me,"
Nico nodded and put a hand to his chest as he presented himself.
"I am Esquirla I. Nicolas and she is my sister, Esquirla A. Martina, we hope that you could help us get settled somewhere?"
"If you leave that club on the floor then I wouldn't mind taking you two with me,"
"Didn't you say you didn't trust us?"
"Sure, but I got your measure now and that gives me some leeway. And no morganeer would question my decision, so that is a plus for you. Well done girl,"
How endearing. Martina thought sourly, she was tired, her legs stinging and spasming from time to time from the marathon the woman had forced the both of them on and that had done nothing to better her mood. Even worse she seemed to have enjoyed the exercise about as much as she had despised it.
But knowing that she could do nothing with this anger of hers she settled with kicking that lump of meat they had killed before, it helped somewhat. Much better than bottling everything up, experience told her it would do nothing but explode later on and make her fuck something up.
"Are you ready, sis?"
"Hm?"
"Just wondering if I can grab it already or if you are going to keep kicking it. Itse is already moving, see,"
And true to his word the damn woman was already leaving them behind and didn't look to be about to worry if they were following her or not. She nodded at him and he put the tiger over his shoulders once more and they both set out into the forest, following that thin back deeper and deeper into the unknown.
Why, she almost felt that she was in a fairy tail.
