2.


"This is absolutely crazy."

Hank stared at the dice in his hands, then threw it upon the forest floor. The dice disappeared after Hank noted the dots on it. "Eight. I'm walking way too far ahead of you, Bobby. We have to be careful." Hank started to walk.

Bobby took out a list from beneath his tunic. "It's okay. I think I have Glide spell to help me. I'll cast it on me and then I'll have an extra turn at the dice." As he spoke he took out a scroll and cracked open its seal. Something whispered around his ankles and he watched as the dice in his hand disappeared. Then another set of dice appeared. He threw it onto the ground. "Ten! Now we're closer."

Bobby followed Hank as they inched closer and closer to each other. They were in a forest, the forest where they had just played the game. It was distressing; they had to throw for the amount of moves they had to do every time. Even stranger was the fact that some unseen barrier would prevent them from running away.

"Now I know how does a puppet feel," Hank muttered as they both came to a stop. "Did you have any idea how we ended up in the game instead of playing it?"

"I told you I don't know!" Bobby replied as dice appeared in his palm. "What I know is we have to play to get out of here."

"Where did you order this, anyway?"

"The usual place!"

"Not somewhere shady or strange?"

"Roll your dice; it'll disappear if you don't," Bobby reminded him. Hank fumbled with the dice and rolled out five. They both walked several steps more forward, coming closer to a fork of a road ahead. They could see nothing but more trees lumbering in the background.

"So far nothing has happened." Hank moved his head side to side until it produced a cracking sound. "Ah, God. That's a relief."

"Do you think this is real?" Bobby asked. "I mean, of course they look real, but is it possible we are really in the game or are we just dreaming?"

"I think not." Hank's voice suddenly became hushed and Bobby gave him a questioning glare. Instead of answering Hank nodded to the fork.

There stood three of the most ugliest creatures both of them had ever seen, short and still. "Orcs," Bobby whispered. But they seemed to be two-dimensional. "Am I seeing things or are those orcs made of paper?"

Hank squinted, trying to move a bit closer but the invisible barrier was resilient. That was enough, though. "Curious. But you are right, my friend," Hank went on as he took out his axe and shield. "They are made of paper."

A loud crack, whip-like but sharper, sounded above them. They both looked and saw the air above them was shimmering and alive with energy. Darkness spiralled from its centre and began forming shapes, unclear at first.

"Oh, no." Bobby took out his staff. "Now what?"


Ray was the first who noticed it. He called out to Logan who happened to pass outside.

"The hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the game board! It has shining words on it!"

"Oh really? And I'm wearing mascara today. Do you like it, Ray?" Logan fluttered his eyes girlishly and walked away.

Ray stared angrily at the short man. Then he returned to the game board. It was normal. But he did see something shone atop the game board.

"Humph. Maybe it was my energy sparks," Ray muttered. His mutation - wave-absorbing abilities - probably had something to do with it. Something caught his eye and he reached out his hand to grab it. When it passed the game board Ray sensed something that made his hands break out in goose bumps. He pulled away quickly. Then he noticed he had something in his hand. He opened his palm and there lay a grim figure of a wizard clad in long cloth and holding a long staff.

"Neat." He admired the figure for a while, then placed the piece upon the game board.


"That wasn't bad."

Hank ran the back of his hand on his forehead, smearing away the dark green liquid that was orc's blood. "Yeah. I think I'm getting quite efficient with these." He lifted up the axe and the shield, still green from the blood.

"So, we have to read the words before we move forward," Bobby said, checking his staff for any cracks. None. The staff was quite light but unexpectedly tough. "Do you think if we didn't read it we could have passed around them anyway?"

Hank shook his head. "Most unlikely. We'd be stuck there forever if we didn't read it at the first time. I guess we have no choice but to go with the flow. And besides," Hank rose and walked about their rest area (it appeared soon after they had defeated the orcs), "so far things are going great."

"Yep," Bobby agreed. "It's much better than the paper-pencil version."

"But I still wonder how did we become the game itself. Is this part of the game? Is the latest edition supposed to work like this? If it doesn't, then what happened, really?"

Bobby could only shrugged. "Tell you the truth, I don't even finish the guide in the game."

"Whatever," Hank imitated his shrug. "I say let's get on with this. This seems fun enough. How many gold you get from that orc?"

"There's no gold, only some robe and a healing potion."

"I got myself a nice orc-skin armour," Hank said, lifting up his loot. "And a few gold coins."

Bobby's eyes went wide. "Lemme see! Lemme see!"

Just as Hank was about to open his pouch there was a bright light coming from where the road forked into two. Several frightening but familiar screams were heard and a nice, loud boom ended whatever that was.

The two stared at each other. "Who could that be?" Hank asked. Bobby shook his head as sounds of footsteps became nearer and nearer to where they rested.

Who could that be? Wait and see!