Chapter 7: Tears of the Beast
The leaves rustled loudly in his ears as and the branches stroke violently against him. He raised his arms to protect his head, which let his sides open to the violent attack of greenery. Smaller branches snapped and bigger ones broke loudly when he collided with them at great speed. And then, with a loud "thump" he crashed onto the ground which brought his unwanted fall-from-the-sky-and-trough-a-tree experience to an end. Multiple branches fell on top of him and countless leaves sailed leisurely towards the ground. He groaned loudly.
"I admit, that was not one of my brightest ideas", Arashmiel said to himself as he freed himself from the green stuff that tried to bury him, but made no indication that he wanted to stand up. He simply laid there, and while he watched the leaves dance in the wind, his mind began to wander.
After his talk out with Lord Ever in the cell he was more and more inclined to believe, that this was indeed a game no longer. So when he had heard the guards approaching he made up his mind, he had to get out of there. They surely had not been happy when they had heard that he had not only had knocked down two guards, but also had taken a noble hostage. Sure, he could have tried to fight his way out of there, but he had to consider the possibilty that this guards were indeed human beings. They were not a series of 0 and 1. They were alive. And so was he.
He watched his hands. `Fighting, huh?´ He was not sure he could do that even if he wanted to. To end so many lives. He had never killed before, he was just a normal man afterall.
If this was indeed real, than he should avoid fighting as much as possible. In Illyria Online he was strong, really strong. But he was not sure what value it had here. Maybe level 80 here was a lot stronger than the same level in Illyria.
No, that had been a risk he had not been willing to take. So murdering his way out of that cell had been not really an option, so he had done the next best thing, he fled.
He remembered his thoughts when he could hear the heavy footsteps approaching. The cell had only one exit, trough the door, but had he used that, he surely would have ran into the guards. So he had used another way. Magic.
When he saw no other way out of there, he had used [Teleport] to get out of there. He had panicked, and he was not ashamed to admit that. Yes, he was scared and reacted more on instinct than on clear thought. But who could blame him? He was transported into another world, imprisoned and had a horde of angry guards rushing to stop him.
`Magic still works.´ Yes, when he arrived in the throne room, he had quickly checked his skills, but the thoughts of this being no longer a game had pushed away that thought. Even when he had healed Lord Ever´s throat, that was such basic healing, it can hardly be said to be a spell at all, more like a manifestation of his will, channeling positive energy to heal wounds, so subconcious, that only now he realized, what he had done.
Now, that he thought about that, he realized what incredible risk he had taken with teleporting out of there. Sure, teleporting out of the cell was a incredible effective method of getting out of prison, and might be even an impressive one, but using [Teleport] on instinct was a foolish thing to do. Without clear destination he could have ended up anywhere. In the middle of the ocean, high in the sky, on top of an erupting volcano. That he ended up slightly above a tree, combined with his sturdy body and his high hp pool, was actually incredible lucky. More than once he had died because a misshap happend while teleporting. While he was still ingame, that is. Now...well, a lethal misshap could mean game over. He made a note not to take unneccessary risks and only teleport with greatest care.
Speaking of teleportation...Finally he stood up and began dusting himself off, getting rid of leaves and branches. `Where exactly am I?´ He looked around. He seemed to be in some kind of forest. Trees, bushes and other greenery as far as he could see. Birds above the trees expressed their anger about his sudden intrusion and the noise he had made. A little bit of sunshine managed to breach through the thick canopy, giving the forest a somewhat peaceful atmosphere.
He sighed. Yes, he had successfully managed to get out of the cell, well, apart his rather rough landing, but he was not sure if the situation had not maybe turned to the worse. He may have been in a cell, but atleast he was surrounded by humans. Now he might be in the middle of nowhere.
He thought for a moment, then he got an idea. He opened his menu and then the map. He could see his position and a little bit of surrounding area, but everything else was deep black, indicating unexplored terrain. Like that, he could be close to a village and he wouldn´t even know that. He looked at the name of the area, the map read "Dragon Valley", not very promising. He walked a bit and noticed that black parts of the map were disclosed. `Seems like map and minimap are working just fine. I just don´t get what is happening.´ He sighed, and began walking.
-x-
The blue stream sparkled in the sunshine and dabbled peacefully next to him. He did not know how long he had been following it. With absolut no idea where to go he decided that following it seemed as such as a good idea as every other he had so far, beside teleporting and risking to tear himself apart in the process. The birds sang their song full of live, and together with the stillness of the forest and the soothing stream, nature´s orchestra was giving it´s very best. Only one person was here to listen to it. And this one ignored it, just following the stream, deep in thought.
Arashmiel walked and walked and walked, and while he did that, his mind was racing. And then, after a while, he sat himself on the ground and leaned against a tree. It was not really exhaustion that made him do that, but the simple lack of will to continue.
12:48 the clock told him. Hours had passed since he ended here. In this forest, and by extension, in this world. And he was still here. Since his escape he had only one thought in mind: this is real. The small possibilty of this being still a game was dwindling fast and now he seemed that his only option was to accept this being real as an absolut certainty. In the past few hours he had clinged to the idea that this was just an elaborate event, tried time and time again to log out. He took a glance at the top right corner of his HUD. Pending GM ticket. But now, he began to accept what he could deny no longer.
Yes, this was a different world. This was real. He had been kidnapped from everything he knew and loved and was thrown here. And he had no where to go and no way home.
He pulled his legs to his chest, hugged them with his arms, rested his forehead on his knees and, when this realization started to sunk in, he began to cry.
