Morning came entirely to early. I have never been accused of being a morning person. In fact I can not name a single gamer I have known, to be one also. Night owls the lot of us. Made me wonder if it was genetic. As I rolled out of bed, quite literally unfortunately. It took me a bit to figure out which limbs were legs, and which were arms. I groggily stumbled around the unfamiliar room. Trying to figure out who's house I had woken up in.

I worked hard to get the brain juices flowing, I needed coffee. Growning up mostly in the southwest, coffee was just warm leaf juice to me. Until I went to college in Washington state. They have so many coffee huts, it’s disconcerting. Finding so many flavors you could add, to leaf juice. I became addicted. For the rest of my life after leaving Washington, I could never find a decent cup of coffee.

While my brain tried to fuddle its way to wakefulness, my body started to come around. It had been twenty years since i served in the military. Thankfully being able to go on autopilot was a learned skill. While I had served in the military for three different wars. The Airforce for the most part isn’t a front lines type service. I had been stationed at forward locations, well within missle range. Thankfully I was not within bullet range.

That doesn’t mean repetitive manual labor was not involved. When I was young I didn’t even think about it. As I got older i found that the repetitive action of my job, had caused major back issues. As time went by it got worse, and worse.

So the fact I could walk without my telltale slight limp…was confusing. It’s what finally woke me up fully. The absence of expected pain is about as astonishing as new pain. I hesitantly started bending this way, and that. Literally searching for the pain i had lived with for so long. I couldn’t find it. The pain was gone, I could bend over to touch my toes. It had been so long since I could do this, I almost wept.

I stepped out of the building looking around, realizing finally where I was. I don’t know if it was the magic causing me to be normal again. Or if it was sleeping in the barracks. Whichever it was, I would fight to keep feeling this way. The soldiers kept circling the perimeter. It made me wonder where these troops had come from. Were they real people transported here? Or like in our games were they NPC's. Constructs created just to fill a single role.

I walked over to Corporal Hennings. He noticed me immediately coming to attention. “Hello there Corporal Hennings. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?” He relaxed slightly. “You may ask anything you like, sir. I might not be able to answer though.” I thought of how to broach such a delicate topic. I was curious, but didn’t want to come off as an asshole. “When you arrived here, umm where did you come from…before?” He thought about it for a second, than responded. “I was in training.” Well that solved a whole lot of nothing. So I tried from a different direction. “Oh ok, so where did you grew up?” He looked confused. “Home.” He responded.

OK so either he was an idiot, or couldn’t explain such a concept. Since he was army…ish, I wasn’t surprised by either. Trying to get on to a safer topic, didn’t want his brain to explode. “If we find refuges or civilians in need. Would you be able to protect them here?” He immediately responded. “Yes sir, it is our charge.” Ok that answered most of my questions for now. “Anything to report?” He stiffened up again. “No sir, all is calm.” I nodded replying. “Carry on.”

I looked around the area, other than the soldiers there was no other movement. I did catch a whiff of the tanners building. So I had to assume either Katie, or Erica was busy. I really did not want to come any closer to the smell if I could help it. I decided to check on the smithy.

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I entered the cave mouth hearing the telltale tink, tink, tink sounds. Keith was definitely busy. Made me a little depressed thinking of the little I had done with my own profession. But mine required finished products, add to that Adien still had all my enchanting sand. I opened the smithy door allowing a huge sweltering release of air to engulf me. There in the murky darkness was Keith banging away at a piece of metal. I had no idea what he was making, but I could see he noticed me. He placed the piece on a brazer, walking towards me. “Sup bro.” He said as he got closer. “What ya working on?” I responded. He grinned an evil grin. “Full plate armor, it’s only copper right now, but im almost ready to try bronze.”

I blinked in surprise. “Wow nice job, let me know when your gear is done. I’ll enchant it.” He waved that response off. “Naw not yet, copper is still a low level metal. Wait until it’s mithril, or a higher type. I’m going to be focusing on leveling up my blacksmithing skill as fast as I can. I need decent armor. Your able to heal me sure. But the pain from taking damage is too high with the basic gear I have.” I was not happy about this line of thought at first. But he did have a point. I would be a major asshole if I tried forcing him to take that kind of risk, without proper preparation.

I diplomatically responded, at least tried to be “I understand dude. I’m going to be going into town today, i’ll be looking for anyone caught unaware. It’s only been, what two days? It seems so long ago. But ya only two days since the emissaries message. I don’t think it will be post apocalyptic yet. But we did find monsters close by here. Who knows what it will be like for those without powers in the town?”

He nodded replying. “Most of what we faced was pretty weaksauce. But regular people against magic… I don’t even want to consider it. You stay safe out there, but don’t go alone.” I smiled “Yes mom.” He half heartedly swiped at me as I pulled away. He returned to the forge already getting back into the zone. I had not seen Aiden so I had to assume he was busy training his new profession also. That left the girls. Ughh that meant I had to enter the nasty smell zone.

The closer I walked towards the tanner the worse the smell grew. I used a bubble spell just to hopefully protect my nose. Thankfully it worked. I had a small pocket of fresh air around me. I entered the tanner building. There in the back were Katie, and Erica. They were using long poles to dip, and dunk lengths of material.

I hoped whatever was in that nasty soap, would eventually become leather. They did not have happy looks on their faces. What i could see of their faces over the face masks they wore. As soon as they noticed me they turned my way. Most women could convey whole laundry lists of words with glares alone. The glares pointed at me right now could heat a skyscraper. I stopped in my tracks saying. “What? I didn’t do anything.”

They glanced at each other having whole conversations with just that one second glance. They both lifted the pieces they had onto a drying rack. They turned to me starting to shoo me out.

All of us exited the tanner. They removed their face masks breathing deeply. Erica turned to Katie saying. “OK fuck that, you can use that place all you want. I’m not going back in. I could barely breath.” Katie was wiping tears from her eyes, nodding. “Ya I didn’t expect it to be that bad. The games never worked like that. I think leather working is out for me also. I’ll be happy to wear it, but not make it.” I sighed internally. I knew better than to do so outloud around two pissed off woman.

Remembering why I came over in the first place. “I’m heading into town to search for anyone not able to cope with the change. I’ve already discussed it with Keith. But he’s focusing on getting better armor. So i’m asking if either of you two, would like to join me?” I could see the denial in their faces, but before they refused i continued. “I don’t want to put us in danger, but I can’t imagine regular people are doing well with magical beasts of legend popping up all over.”

That comment caused quite a reaction from both ladies. Katie said. “Oh shit, I never even thought of that. I’ve just been so caught up in everything we have been doing.” Erica nodded. “Same here, we could be helping so many people. We just sort of forgot.” I raised both my hands saying. “I’m not trying to guilt shame either of you. I’m just saying I also, just thought of it. It’s the right thing to do, even if it might be later than when we should have gone”