Five people walked into a city's gates, all cheerful despite being tired. The first was obviously a warrior, her shining armor reflecting her bright red hair beautifully. Directly behind her seemed to be an archer, tall and slim. His bright green hair went past his shoulders, and hurt the eyes of anyone who looked at it for too long a time. Behind the first two walked what seemed to be a priest and a thief. The priest was, strangely enough, a dark elf, but the color of her skin along with her dark green hair and soft green eyes appealed to those who looked her way with a sense of calm. On the other hand, the thief who walked beside her filled others with energy. Her ponytailed blonde hair bounced and her green eyes sparkled, giving those she passed a spring in their steps. Finally, a little cat-girl whose exact class was unknown trailed a bit behind. The girl was obviously younger, probably in her early teens, and had all of the visible personality traits associated with bright, sweet, happy young girls, as shown in the way she skipped and twirled along behind her group. Every so often, she broke into singing a wordless tune that made those walking by slow their paces; a song made up of la's and da's and ba's and ah's and oh's and an entire assortment of sounds that don't mean anything at all.

Some of the braver individuals on the street to following behind the group, listening to the strange music coming from the cat-girl's mouth. They followed as if sleepwalking. Sometimes, the individual's group members would try to hold that person back at first, but eventually they too succumbed to the lows and highs of the melody.

The procession walked through the city, passing the Adventurer's Guild, and gathering many more sheep as a result. By the time they reached the NPC shops, the crowd had become one hundred strong. The five entered one of the shops. First the warrior, then the archer. Then the priest and the thief. Finally, the little cat girl was the last to go in. Before closing the door, she paused, and turned so that the ending of the song could be heard. As the last note hung in the air, the girl winked at her audience before shutting the door. Those outside all blinked as one. The spell broken, they returned to their teams, or their homes, or the cups of tea in that café on third street.

"Wow! We're so rich," I sang loudly. Every so often I turned a cartwheel, getting a little more experience for Gymnastics.

The five of us strolled out of the NPC shop, where we had just handed in the required items for several 'Mob Quests', as the others had told me a few weeks before.

"Mob is actually short for mobile objects, a term used frequently in games, especially combat games like this," Peony explained.

I understand, now. My subconscious wants me to be a better, more lighthearted person, so it's using the premise of a 'game' to get me used to talking with others, and to take out my stress on monsters... Fine then, let's play. That was what I had thought at the time. I often had arguments with myself like this, especially when I started having repeated dreams. It usually felt, in my dreams, like I had my own Jiminy Cricket, living inside my head that came out only when I slept. Then, after a few nights of that, my dreams would go back to 'normal'.

Except… I was getting a little worried, to be honest. These 'Second Life' dreams hadn't just been going on for a week. Or two weeks, either. No, I'd been having continuous dreams for two weeks now. I was seriously starting to freak out!

Still… I had to admit that it was nice, to be able to speak to others about anything or nothing at all. To be free to eat jelly at every meal and not weird people out… Yes, to be honest with myself, I rather enjoyed these dreams, and everything in them.

Scratch that, 'almost 'everything. I thought as a certain orange salamander crawled over me.

Yes, Ella's egg had hatched into a salamander. On one hand, Ella loved Ember (the name she gave the fire-breathing creature) to death. In combat, the two seemed to work as one. You wouldn't think a lizard would be a good match for a thief, but apparently it worked!

On the other hand, the thing kind of scared me. I'm not usually afraid of animals, but there was something about that unblinking gaze that gave me the chills.

"Hey guys? I've gotta log off now," Peony announced once we got back to the inn we were staying at. "I'll be on again in a while." She disappeared. Greenie and Ella looked at their virtual clock.

"I have to get to work."

"Oh! Me too!" The two followed suit. Scarlet eyed me uneasily.

"I'm not logging off, but… is it okay if I go solo for a bit? I'm going to try to find someone…"

"Sure," I agreed readily. "I'll just go train for a bit, k? You just go find your boyfriend."

"Thanks- wait, how did you..?!" I grinned at Scarlet's response before using Acrobatics to leap onto the nearest shop's roof.

"Later!" I called in parting before taking off.

Why is it so dark?

I slowly came to in a dark room. The smell of dust filled my nostrils. As I tried to adjust my position, I found myself bound at my wrists and ankles, and lying on a very cold, hard floor.

Last thing I can remember is leaving Scarlet, and heading for the city gates. I dropped down into the alley, and then..?

But then what had happened? I wasn't too worried about having died, since I only had two sets of daggers, my throwing stars, and Artemis in my inventory, in case something like this happened.

But this wasn't the rebirth point. As my cat eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, I noticed that I seemed to be in a cage of sorts, with jail-style iron bars and sliding door, held shut by a padlock. The little light that I could detect came from far down a hall, and flickered.

Not one to waste time, I tested the ropes binding my wrists. Whoever had tied me up either had little knot-tying experience, or fat fingers or something, because it only took a few minutes of wriggling to free my hands.

Now with a much wider range of motion, I patted myself down. Whoever had brought me here, had also taken my inventory pouch. However, if I was lucky, they hadn't taken my-

Yes! My stiletto knives are still here! I kept this pair of super-thin daggers on me at all times. They had various uses, ranging from cutting bread, to spreading jam, to playing with mobs, to breaking out of jail cells. Where did I keep them? I'm not gonna tell you that!

I carefully listened to the tumblers, moving the thinner of the knives around the padlock's interior.

Click

I was free! I opened the door slowly, trying to make it squeak as little as possible. Once I had the bare minimum of clearance, I slipped out.

Edging down the hall toward the light, I was all too aware of how my breathing echoed around the room, as well as how, if I needed to, I would have nowhere to hide. To me, my footsteps bore the likeness of a giant's. Any moment, someone would come around the corner, and I would have only my two seven-inch daggers to defend myself with. For all I knew, I could have been taken by rapists.

Wait a second. Can I get raped in a dream?

I shook my head. It was only a dream, so I shouldn't have been so afraid, right?

Finally, I reached the end of the hall, where the corridor took a sharp right turn. The source of light was coming from that direction as well, so I made sure no shadows were walking toward me before slowly peeking around the corner.

A warrior sat in a chair, leaned up against the wall, and just past him I spied a set of stairs. Soft sighing sounds could be heard coming from beneath his tilted hat. As I crept closer, I could identify how his armor was for a level a bit under mine.

Turning away from the sleeping guy, I examined the place I was in more thoroughly with the help of the torch. I was definitely underground, since the walls, the floor and the ceiling were all made of stone. Even the stairs were carved rock. In the corner was a wooden cabinet, which I immediately opened. Inside I found.

Five maps, each seeming to be one of a different continent, and much more detailed than the system maps

Four not-so-light bags of something that jingled (wonder what those could be?)

Three long ropes

Two dirty rags

And a partridge in a pear tree~

No, it was just my inventory pouch. Which may or may not have had an actual partridge inside of it since I hadn't yet hatched the egg I'd gotten from that boss… Oh well. I leaned into the cabinet. I slung my pouch around my waist, and held the ropes and rags in my arms. I left the heavy sacks for the time being. Finally, I had a very clear image of what I was going to do next. Grinning, I turned back to face the still-sleeping guard.

Oh yeah, this'll be fuuuun!

Eight people walked steadily down the dimly-lit stairs. They were not hurried, but in a collective bad mood nonetheless. One of the three females in the group opened her mouth to voice complaint.

"How stupid can you all be? How did you think we were going to deliver the ransom note… If we couldn't give it to any of her teammates in the first place?!"

"Would you just stop, Amber? You've been telling us off for the past half hour," one of the younger-looking males groaned. "We get it, we goofed. It won't be a problem, though, since we've still got the kid. We'll just keep her here until her team comes back, and until then we can just taking turns watching her."

"Yeah, Rex is right," one of the other girls piped up. "How were we supposed to know that they would all up and vanish?"

"Fine…" Amber sighed. "Teri, Palea, you girls come with me. We'll need to figure out the best way to get the ransom note to any one of the girl's team members."

"What about Draco, Onyx, Mimu, and I?" Rex asked.

"Decide amongst yourselves who's going to watch the girl next. Then, work out a rotation schedule."

"Yes, ma'am!" The four saluted jokingly, an attempt to lighten the mood.

See, all nine of them were friends in the real world, and had wanted to form a team together in Second Life. However, the limit for teams was six players, making it so that they couldn't all be in one team. So they decided that they would not only reject the team system, but Second Life in general. Yes, they were rebelling against the game, while playing the game. But how? By becoming criminals of course! Yes, they were criminals in a variety of ways. They stole, they killed. But the method they were using to become famous was kidnapping weak team members, preventing them from dying, and ransoming them back to their teammates. Surprisingly, it worked very well. So far, they'd pulled it off successfully about ten times, and this cat-girl would make the eleventh.

Amber sighed again, rubbing her pointed ears in frustration. "This is pretty stressful," she lamented to Teri and Palea, both of whom she'd known since they were all babies. The two girls nodded their heads sympathetically.

"Yeah. Almost makes me wish-"

"Holy S #%!" A loud cry from downstairs cut off whatever Teri was about to say. The girls raced to see what had happened to the boys. What they found when they reached the bottom… Both shocked and amused them at once.

Stego was burly. Often, he was mistaken as a man ten years older than himself. He was nearly seven feet tall, with a beard to boot.

And currently, he was hogtied, somehow hung from the ceiling, and gagged. He had tears in his eyes, completing the out-of-place-ness of it all. The girls could only stare silently at the man, until the sight finally kicked in.

"The girl… the girl did this!"

"She took the maps!"

"She must be headed for the nearest city! Come on, if we go now, we can catch her!"

"Mmph! Mm!"

"Right, we gotta untie Stego first."

After their task was completed, the nine companions rushed away and out of their base. Little did they know that they had no hope of finding the escaped girl because-

"I'm right here~!" I said as I unequipped Artemis. Really, that bow was so handy. Grinning, I strolled up to the cabinet. Laughing a little at my own ingenuity, I reached for the bags-

So because those people left, you find it just that you may take their property?

"Wah!" I whirled around in surprise- I didn't think there would be anyone else around, but the room was as empty as before. "You- I remember your voice! I heard you a few weeks ago, when we were fighting those pokemon on the first day of these weird dreams!"

...You do not enjoy the game?

"Eh, it's interesting, I suppose, but I didn't exactly choose to 'play' this game."

Then why would you hack in if you did not want to play the game? Explain.

"What? I'm not a hacker," I protested. "Who are you? Why can't I see you? Where are you, anyway?"

It was a long time before I heard a response.

I am in Termina. Go there, and I will answer the other of your two questions.

"Wait! Termina? Isn't that from Legend of Zelda?! Isn't Link dead in that game?!"

For now, I would suggest going up the mountain. That should help you get your bearings. Goodbye for now, Gataki.

"Mountain? What mountain?" I called into the empty silence. I didn't get an answer

"Well, fine then," I muttered as I walked up the stairs. "I'll find this mountain, sure, because obviously, I'll know which mountain I should climb. It's not like Peony told me there are hundreds of mountains on the Western Continent, no, of course not." Grunting, I paused my rant to pull open the heavy door that probably went outside. It was a good thing, I thought, that the inventory pouch took away the weight of the items put in.

"And where am I? Am I even on the Western Continent? Am I anywhere close to a… mount… Well, that answers that last question." How did my opening a door answer my question? Maybe the fact that the view I got when I opened the door was of a vast mountain range? Yeah, that might be it.

Climb a mountain, huh? Alright, well if I had to pick just one… I scanned the scenery, looking for… There! I began making my way toward the mountain.

The tallest mountain.

Trying to climb the tallest mountain out of a range of mountains? Worst. Idea. ever. By the time I got to the top, I was walking on all fours…

I think… my legs… are dead…

Groaning audibly, I pulled myself over the last ledge. Finally at the top, I collapsed to the ground. It took me a full ten minutes to gather enough strength to reach into my pouch and eat a mantou.

"Ah… much better. Now how am I supposed to get my bearings again? There are too many clouds in the way!"

Yes. I had climbed that far. When I looked at the time, it showed I'd been climbing for the past four hours… Oops.

"Well, now that I'm up here- oh!" I'd turned around, and was immediately met with the sight of towering stone tablets. How had I not noticed those before..? As I got closer, I noticed there were inscriptions on each of them.

Bring peace to the warrior

Return and speak

Where the sun rises

The red-maned one will save you

Lantis Ilanyushenlin

A fall from a great height

Lives a cursed king

When I read the tablets in the order they were… I got nothing. Well, I'll write it down with the other helpful hints Peony gave me last week. I'll figure it out later.

Done with that, I opened the stolen map of the Western Continent.

"Hm… there should be a mountain village somewhere around here, right?"

I made my way toward the dot on the map, killing a few mobs along the way.

Gataki has reached Level 49

Level 49, that's nice- Wait a second! Isn't that one level away from 50?! I thought back to the previous day's training session, in which Scarlet had happily announced her ascension to level 30, making her the highest-leveled in the group.

Huh… I wonder how many players there would be at this level? Does that mean I'm at a much higher level than most others? Could I kill other players, too? I researched MMORPGs a bit last week, and the blogs said there's a thing called PKing… I kinda wanna try it.

My train of thought was cut off, as the village suddenly came into view. Happily, I ran toward the gates. On the trip, I had exhausted most of my food supply, so stocking up would have to be the first item on my list.

Walking out of the food shop, I suddenly felt extremely tired, and decided to simply sit in an outdoor café for a bit.

"One cup of milk and a plate of cookies, please," I asked the waitress. Seemingly enamored by my sweet grin, she told me the cookies were on the house. Sweet.

Mm… What's in these cookies? I'll have to bring Ella here sometime if I can.

"I give up! Can we just eat lunch now?"

I was on the last of the cookies when a familiar group of players sat at the table behind me, tired. Sipping my drink, I leaned back to listen better.

"It really was a bad idea after all, trying to hold people ransom. If we're going to do it, we should have at least gotten our levels higher. After lunch, we need to train."

"Yeah! I heard that there's one dungeon in a valley just north of here…"

"Great! Let's go there after we eat!"

When the waitress came back, I was grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

"Can I buy two more plates of cookies?

A half hour of waiting later, I had a bag full of cookies, and was ready to take a little revenge on the dinosaur-themed group that had kidnapped me. Oh, you didn't notice? Rex? Palea? Stego? I'm willing to bet the other names were based off of different dinos, too.

I followed the group out into the dungeon they were talking about. As I followed them in, I defeated whatever monsters they missed. Since there were nine of them, we were able to get through quickly, and soon we were in the deepest part of Shadow Valley.

I observed them quietly, standing by as they defeated one boss together, and then another. Finally, they began to head back towards me. Silently, I notched an arrow, and pulled Artemis taut. I released, and the sharp stick flew through the air, and found its target. I grinned as the group immediately raised their guards.

Oh, yeah. Shots fired.

So heeeey, you guys! Um, I'm really sorry about not updating last week. I had the chapter and everything, but…

Scarlet: But PMG was so depressed over her friend asking her crush to homecoming that she threw a tantrum and did schoolwork all week.

Scarleeeeet!

Greenie: And then she became all hyper and happy for an hour when someone started following the story, and someone else followed and favorited. Then she suddenly became super motivated, got all her work done, and posted the chapter. PMG, are you bipolar?

No...

Greenie: Yeah, sure. Anyway, now that you've posted this chapter, say what you wanted to say.

Okay. I'm going to be looking for OCs that will come up in later chapters. I only need a few, but they'd be nice to have. So if any of the 12-ish people who've been reading want to throw me a character profile, outline, or even and idea, please put it in the comments.

Well, that's about it. I don't own Half Prince, because if I did Sunshine and Kenshin probably would have died as well as Celestial. (fans of the NPCs please don't kill me)

Gataki: Hold on a second! You still haven't explained why I had to get kidnapped!

*runs away from Fairsky and Cold Fox as well as Gataki and assorted fans*