When my eyes opened, I saw I was still alone inside the cathedral. I must've fallen asleep, because I was sore from the way I was laying against the statue.
Slowly and very carefully, I got to my feet and stretched my arms over my head, lifting myself to my tippy-toes as I did so. Then a thought came to my mind.
How do I get back to Mac Anu?
I wandered around the inside of the building for a while, searching for any clues that would help me. I didn't find any, though, so I walked out. The long pathway in front of me was empty as I ventured out.
I found myself looking over the side of the stone wall. Below, there was nothing but thin clouds and darkness. I moved away once I started to feel queasy.
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against one of the high sections of the wall. How was I going to get back? I didn't have a menu with the option to return back to t-
If I could've screamed, I definitely would have. Without warning, my vision blackened. I knew I was being taken back to Mac Anu. I just didn't know how it happened.
I opened my eyes just as a large Heavy Axeman walked past me. My body jolted in surprise and I quickly stepped away.
"Get out of the way!" he snapped at me, accessing the keyword screen. I thought about yelling back at him, but I didn't want any unnecessary attention, so I hurried down the steps, leaving the rude player behind.
The town seemed a bit more crowded than it did when Kite and I made our way through it. Surprisingly enough, the only place that seemed to have the least amount of people was the large wooden bridge in the middle of town. So I stayed there, glancing over the railing to look at my reflection in the water below.
I expected to see my familiar short brown hair and hazel eyes, but instead, I stared at my blue eyes and extensive black hair. Although I was used to feeling my hair on my back when I moved, I certainly was not used to seeing it.
"Hey! You look lonely!" a very high-pitched voice shouted. I moved away from the railing to face another Wavemaster who was about my height.
She wore blue and white baggy clothes with a matching hat that covered her short pink hair. I was fascinated with her hat. It was split in two and hung down her sides like elongated rabbit ears.
"I don't have anyone else to play with right now," she whined, reminding me of a lost puppy. "Would you like to go dungeon-crawling with me?"
"Dungeon-crawling?" I repeated. "I don't know what that is."
"Its basically the same thing as going for the Gott Statue in the dungeon," she explained quickly. I noticed that she was a fast talker. "I don't really care for leveling up. I like getting rare items." I swore her character's eyes sparkled at the word "rare."
"Uh, sure," I told her. I figured it wouldn't do any harm, seeing as Kite and BlackRose weren't online and I had nothing better to do.
She smiled widely and I noticed one of her canine teeth was more pointed than the other. I had to admit: some characters were pretty adorable.
"Great!" she said, raising a fist. I kept pace next to her as we walked toward the Chaos Gate. "My name is Mistral, by the way!"
"I'm Rin."
Once we arrived at the swirling circle, being mindful to stay out of everyone's way, Mistral turned toward me with a dissatisfied look on her face. "Stupid CC Corp. needs to fix these member address glitches."
"Just tell me which area you're going to and I'll follow," I lied.
She opened the keyword screen and scrolled through them for a few minutes, softly singing, "It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all…" She then gasped and smiled. "I know the perfect keywords. Indiscreet, Hot-Blooded, Judgment!" I grabbed onto her hat before she warped to the area.
Within seconds, we were taken to almost barren desert. I glanced around, noting how different this area was to the area Tsukiko told me to go to. This one was pretty depressing and I instantly disliked it.
Massive bones of decayed animals sprouted from the sand we walked on. Although it didn't feel like real sand under my feet, it still made the soft crunching noise of real sand when our feet hit it. As I followed Mistral to the dungeon, I also noticed partly-buried structures. I began to wonder what the background story for this area was.
"This is it!" Mistral declared when we arrived at a huge monster's skull. Its mouth was propped open with two long wooden poles and I guessed that was the entrance to the dungeon.
As soon as we walked into its mouth, I wanted to puke. Instead of the dungeon looking like an actual dungeon, it was the inside of the monster's body. Bones and veins stuck out from the fleshy walls and the floor made squishing noises as we walked.
"I guess I should have thought this through better," Mistral mumbled to herself as I tried to ignore how disgusting this place was.
"What do you mean?"
She giggled nervously and glanced at me. "Well, neither of us is really prepared to fight monsters. I haven't been playing this game very long, so I only have four spells to attack with."
I don't even know how to cast spells.
"I have a lot of scrolls, though," she reassured. "You can heal and I'll attack, okay?"
"Uh-"
"We're going to be the best Wavemaster party this game will ever know!"
I didn't want to say anything to disappoint her or to make her suspicious that something wasn't right about me, so I kept quiet. I really wanted to say something, though, when we came to a room with a Chaos Gate in it and Mistral ran straight for it. A cluster of bees appeared in its place. My fingers automatically curled around a staff.
"Rai Rom!" Mistral shouted, raising her staff above her head. Under the bees, a yellow circle formed and lightening flew up from it, striking the bees. The buzzed angrily and slammed down on her. I heard a soft beeping noise coming from her character.
"What is that?" I yelled, slowly starting to panic.
"My health is low!" she cried out. "Heal me!"
You're expecting too much! I don't know how to heal-
"Repth!" I unwillingly yelled. Mistral shined with a white color for half a second and the beeping went away. I had healed her. How, though?
The fight continued like that for about five minutes. While Mistral attacked the bees, I healed her. With every "repth" I shouted, I could feel my energy draining bit by bit. By the time the battle was over, I was panting.
"Hey, are you okay?" Mistral asked, coming closer to me. I nodded as our staffs disappeared.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Was that your first battle?"
"Um, yeah," I lied.
She grinned mischievously. "I took your battle-virginity," she whispered. I couldn't help it. I started laughing and didn't stop for a long time. My eyes even watered up.
Technically, Balmung took my battle-virginity. Oh, man…
"What's so funny?" Mistral asked in between laughs. We had been laughing together for a good three minutes.
"I don't even know," I said, gasping for breath. My stomach muscles were becoming sore. "I guess the way you said that was funny."
I covered my mouth to stifle my laughs as Mistral pushed me forward. My happiness ended quickly, though, when a round item bounced in the corner of the room. I swore I heard someone say, "Bloody egg!" in a weak voice.
"Mistral, what is that?" I asked, moving closer to her character for protection.
We inched closer to it and I saw that it actually was an egg. Mistral lifted a hand and it disappeared into her body.
"That," she said, smirking at me, "is a Bloody Egg. When the Theta server opens, we'll be able to raise Grunties again. This'll come in handy."
Grunties? They sounded gross.
"Raise what?" I asked as we continued on.
"Grunties! They're these little pig-looking animals in The World and they're so cute! Once they grow into adults, you get to ride them around fields!" She reminded me of the first time I ever saw a horse when I was twelve. I was so in love with them for about two years. Thankfully, I grew out of it.
We fought our way through two levels of monsters. By the time we reached the Gott Statue, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was take a bath, go to bed, and wake up in the morning to see this was all a dream. Yet, I knew it wasn't a dream.
"Oh, man," Mistral mumbled in a disappointed tone after she opened the treasure chest. I watched the statue of Vulcan, the fire god, fall and crumble in the hole under where it had floated. "I've had these items before. Do you want them, Rin?"
I shook my head. I didn't want anything I didn't need. "No, but thank you anyway," I told her. She moved away from the chest, her shoulders slumped, and sighed.
"I guess we can go now."
Without another word, we were warped to the entrance of the dungeon, then back to town. It was hard to believe how upset she was over not getting a new item.
"Are you okay?" I asked her when we returned to Mac Anu.
She hesitated before replying. "Yeah," she muttered, "I'm okay. It's just that I love item-hunting and I get so excited over new items." Suddenly, she perked back up to her normal obnoxious self. "But it's okay! I mean, that's the fun of being a rare item collector! You never know what you're going to get!"
Life's like a box of chocolates, I suppose…
"Well, I need to start dinner," she said. She took me by surprise when she raised a hand and patted the top of my head. "I can tell you're going through a lot right now, Rin. I'm pretty good at reading people, even through a game."
Normally I would move away from her touch, but I found it oddly comforting. I was almost sad that she was logging off. I wasn't exactly ready to be alone again.
"I've been told I'm good at giving advice. I know you don't really know me, but if you ever want to talk to someone, I'm here," she said sincerely.
I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I just told her, "Thank you."
"I'll see you later, Rin!"
I wanted to ask her to stay for a few more minutes, but golden rings surrounded her character and she faded away. Once she was gone, I turned to face the rest of the town. It was still pretty crowded, so I pushed my way through the clusters of people until I reached the back alley where I first woke up at.
It felt as if my heart had dropped into my stomach when I saw him sitting against the wall. His arms were wrapped around his legs, pulling them tightly to his chest in a defensive way and his forehead rested on his knees. His wings almost closed around him, forming a shell of some sort. From what I could see, his armor had been altered.
I advanced slowly, keeping my right hand on the stone wall. His warning from before replayed over and over in my head.
"…I will kill you."
"Balmung, it's me. Rin."