Chapter Eleven

Zarathel's POV(still):

For the second time in an hour, my mouth fell open. "A Maker?" Dreya nodded sadly. "Why didn't you tell us before?" I felt a little put out that she hadn't.

Dreya glanced up. "I wasn't sure how you'd react, and if you'd be mad or not. It was never our intent to trap people in the game, honest. We made it to be a new type, virtual gaming. It was only supposed to look more real. But something happened, a glitch. The monsters became real, and when you played, you were stuck. We're not sure exactly what went wrong. I think that one of the monsters, Kuhz'rod the Emperor Abomination, did something. He has magical capabilities. Most of the monsters do. He's in every single game. He changes his form and his name, but he's the same monster. Since you're all on the same game, he'll probably be one monster but appear differently to each of you."

Dantenar seemed stunned by this. Finally, she managed, "What was your real name?"

Dreya shrugged. "I think it was Madalyn. It's been so long that I've forgotten."

Dantenar buried her face in Kile's shoulder, and Aileen patted her shoulder comfortingly. Kile looked at Dreya and seemed sad. "You've been trapped here even longer than me. And you didn't even have anyone to talk to, you were a computer controlled character. I feel sorry for you. Do you know what happened to our bodies? Are we still sitting at our computers?"

Dreya frowned. "I don't know. Probably not anymore, since the game became real to you and all that, but you might've been. I don't even know what happened to me."

Jaron, who hadn't said anything or even looked surprised at Dreya's statement, was still petting Juute. I folded my arms. "Jaron." He looked up. "What's with you?"

He kept petting Juute, who was now stretching leisurely. "I had my suspicions, and they've just been confirmed. That's all."

Dantenar sat straight. "Why didn't you say anything?" She looked vaguely insulted.

Jaron smiled slightly. "I wasn't sure. It's not you or anyone else," he said quietly. Dantenar just humphed. I hid a grin behind my hand. Not only was it obvious that Jaron liked Dantenar, but it was obvious that she liked him. Although how they managed not to notice was beyond me.

Kile, who was looking over Dantenar's head at me, looked at Jaron, then Dantenar, then looked at me and raised his eyebrow. I nodded slightly. He grinned. I knew it, he mouthed. Dreya was watching the whole thing with interest. Kile looked at her and frowned suddenly. "You say you helped design the game?" Dreya nodded, obviously confused. "How old are you?"

Dreya laughed. "At the time, I was twenty-three. Now, I'm probably closer to thirty, if you age in the game. If not, I'm still the same age, I think."

Dantenar's face got sympathetic. "You've been in the game for the past seven years?"

Dreya nodded. "Yes, I have. There were four of us Makers, and when the game was finally finished, we decided to test it out. Kuhz'rod the Emperor Abomination, though, had become real somehow, I'm still not sure how, and he trapped us in here and bound us to certain phrases and actions. Whenever someone knew came in, I wanted to warn them so badly, but I couldn't. The game wouldn't let me. Then, multiple people started entering the same game. I'd never heard of five people in the game at once, never seen it, so it surprised me. I thought that probably Kuhz'rod was trying to gain more power, and the only way he can do that is by...killing the Gamers.

"Gamers," Dreya went on, "are what we Makers called the people who played the game. Besides me, there's Zim, Torvus and Bartleby. We've been trying to figure out how to leave the game for years. Even though we couldn't talk to Gamers, we could talk to other Makers. I think that if you manage to best Kuhz'rod, then the game will let you, I mean us, leave. But so far, he's killed everyone who's managed to get down that far. This is the first time the game's become real. Usually it's only on level fifty-three."

I sat back. "So if we defeat the Emperor Abomination, then we get to leave, right?" Dreya nodded. "So what happens when we get back to the real world? Will we remember anything, or ever meet the other Gamers again? Will Dantenar and I lose Kile again?"

Dreya shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Jaron had looked up when I'd spoken, and now he finally had a question. "What will happen to us if our bodies have been in comas and they finally just took us off life-support? Do we still get to come back or are we stuck here forever?"

Dreya shrugged. "I don't know the answer to that, either. I really am sorry."

Kile shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. This life really isn't so bad, as long as you don't die."

Dreya laughed. "Yes, that would be a problem."

"Making some new friends, Dreya?" A new voice asked. It was Zim, the Gambler. He sold weapons and armor that were magical, but you couldn't be sure what exactly the magical abilities were until you bought them. Hence the name Gambler, because you had to gamble when you bought stuff from him. "It's nice not to be stuck with a few phrases anymore. I was sick of standing in one place, and no one ever visited me except for that one kid that one time. He seemed nice. To bad Kuhz'rod got him."

Dreya and Zim both looked grieved at that. "Maybe we should try to brainstorm some ideas," Dreya said after a few seconds of silence. "Now that we're not bound anymore, we can give them some hints, even if we aren't allowed in the Dungeon. Game rules, you know," she added to us Gamers.

"Good idea." Zim looked at Kile. "You seem to be the leader. Now, just so you know, Kuhz'rod has one weakness: his pride. If you flatter him, he might let his guard down a little. Oh, and there is that one spot above his right eye where his armor is not as strong. If Aileen can manage to hit it with her crossbow, that should weaken him sufficiently so that you can finish him off."

Aileen, who had followed Zim over, looked indignant. "I can hit it, don't worry about that."

Suddenly, Dreya's face got very white. "Wait a minute. How many times did you level up before the game became real to you?"

Dantenar frowned. "Fourteen, I think. I'm really not sure, I didn't keep track."

Aileen nodded. "I think I leveled up about that many times as well."

Kile grinned. "I leveled up a whole lot more than that. I'm not sure exactly how many, but a whole lot. More than a hundred." Dreya looked impressed. "Yeah, six years trapped in a game lets you level up a whole bunch." He wrapped his arm around Dantenar, who had put her head back on his shoulder.

Dantenar's POV:

I still felt sorry for Kile. All by himself for six years! I would've gone crazy. Dreya was also looking sympathetic again. She really was pretty. Although that blue and white dress looked kind of silly, but she couldn't help what she was wearing in the game. She had golden brown hair and brown eyes and a soft, gentle voice. Just like I'd always imagined a healer sounding.

My hair was finally dry, probably because of the basking I'd done in the sun for the past few hours. It felt good to rest up. Suddenly, I felt Kile move. I looked up at him. He was frowning. "Dantenar, what does Zara have?"

Zara looked at me quickly, her eyes a little wary. I raised my eyebrow. Zara nodded grudgingly. I turned back to Kile. "She has Hemophilia. I don't know why I didn't get it, but Zara did. That's why I was so worried about her when that Jackal Fiend Captain slashed her. I wasn't all that worried about the wound, I was more worried about her bleeding to death before we could get her to Dreya."

Dreya sat back on her heels. "I thought so. I noticed that her blood hadn't started to clot at all. Usually it will have some scabbing around the edges but it didn't in Zara's case. But don't worry, I healed her completely. No more Hemophilia. Promise."

My twin's face cleared so fast it made my head spin. She positively beamed at everyone. "I don't have to worry about bleeding to death anymore!" She laughed. Dreya smiled. Looking up at the sky, I noticed that the sun was nearly down. That surprised me. The day had gone faster than I'd thought.

Kile was noticing this as well. "Well, everyone," he said, standing. "we'd better get to bed. We have a long day ahead of us." Jaron stood, then offered his hand to Zarathel, who was sitting near him. She accepted, smiling, and let Jaron pull her to her feet.

"We have to find a place to camp. And we still need fire. Maybe we can borrow some of Dell Arnes'?" Zara stumbled while saying this, and Jaron and Kile both reached for her arms at the same time. She swatted at their hands, and went over to Dell Arnes, said something, then nodded and accepted a torch that Dell handed her. She brought it back triumphantly. "There. Fire."

Dell followed her over. "Wow, it's been a long time since I had somebody to talk to! How are you, Dreya?" By this time, Zim had gone back over to his post to talk to Rollo the Minstrel, and now Gimbo Tel was starting to amble his way over.

Dreya grinned at Dell. "Just fine, thanks. Much better now that I'm able to talk and not just repeat programmed phrases. Do you know how sick I got of saying "Hello!"?" She rolled her eyes. Kile smiled into his hand. I got the distinct impression that he didn't want to offend her.

Gimbo Tel arrived and talked in a surprisingly clear voice, considering he usually just said something along the lines of "bleah" whenever you talked to him during the game. "Dell, Dreya. These must be the most recent batch, eh?" The other two nodded. Gimbo turned and offered me his hand. "Nice to meet you."

I shook his hand. His grip was firm and not at all gross, even though he was a Shambling Dead. "Nice to meet you, too, sir."

Gimbo laughed. "Oh, just call me Gimbo. Or Mr. Tel, although that sounds terribly stuffy. I hate sir." He made a face. "My kids used to call me sir."

Zara looked shocked. "You have kids?"

Gimbo nodded sadly. "Yes, at least I did. As best I can remember, my name was Ross and I had a wife named Iris, and three kids named Kile, Zarathel and Dantenar. Funny, you and your sister look just like I remember them."

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A/N: Wow! So that's where they're dad disappeared to! Sorry if this chapter is a little weird, but I had sudden inspiration and used it. But now you people come in! How will Kile, Dantenar and Zara react to this news? And what happened to Iris?

Oh, and I figured out that I've been spelling Dell Arnes' name wrong. Two 'L's, not one. Sorry.