It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in May, and the lush green forest surrounding us was teeming with life, adorned with explosions of flowers that covered the trees around the cabin. Sitting on those wooden benches in the shadow, we kept chatting and working on the song, sipping juice, and indulging in fruits, but we made little progress. It surprised me how much effort goes into creating a single song. When fatigue set in and no new ideas emerged, we decided to visit Matt at the hospital.
Before we left, I set my mobile phone to vibrate regularly, now every seven minutes, to remind me to cast my illusion spells. They now lasted a couple of minutes longer, and the three boys watched with fascination as my horns, wings, and claws disappeared into the air as I cast my spells.
Of course, I had to endure some horn touching as they didn't want to believe that an illusion could be that good, even though I continued to tell them that it was a low-level illusion. The ability to make something invisible, a thing that you could touch but not see, fascinated them.
Once their curiosity was satisfied, we set ourselves on the way. I drove my bike in front of their jeep along the forest road, keeping the jeep in the rearview mirror. However, once on the highway, I lost them after a couple of maneuvers without even realizing it. Instead of slowing down, I then decided to drive to the hospital and wait for them there. Unwittingly, I had about ten minutes to chat with Matt before they arrived, but I refrained from talking about our relationship, and I was happy to see that he did not push forward on this subject.
As I bravely stood on a chair and talked with him, the door opened suddenly.
“Wow, we thought we'd find you kissing here!” - Tom said as a greeting when he entered the room and then added – “Matt, you should have seen her eagerness to come here; she was racing like crazy! We lost her after ten seconds on the highway!”
I rolled my eyes but did not inform them that we were not a couple anymore. If Matt did not do it, why should I? Besides, I liked the situation as it was now, with the boys thinking that I was Matt's girlfriend. They were behaving as good friends with me, not courting me, and I didn't want to change that.
Matt only shrugged innocently, offering no further explanation. Instead, he informed us that he would be able to go home this week. That was great news!
We immediately decided to meet at his home once he was discharged. He explained that he might need another operation later on to remove some or all of the implants in his bones, but that would be evaluated at a later time. That was the not-so-great news.
While his mobility was still somewhat restricted, he could already move and take a few steps with support. It was painful to witness this situation, knowing that a simple spell from White Flower would have been enough to heal him! Healing magic is such a wonderful thing! Instead, he had to spend most of the day in bed, risking further muscle atrophy.
His left hand remained in a cast and would continue to be so for some time, but that didn't dampen his optimism and joy at the prospect of finally being able to go home.
We chatted for more than an hour, and Hew even played back the recording of our new song to hear his feedback on it, but after that, we had to let him rest.
As we left the room, we decided to call it a day and go home; we were all tired. Since Mike's house was in the direction of the forest, while Hew and Tom lived on the opposite side of town, I suggested that Mike come with me and spare Hew the detour.
Mike's initial reaction was to decline, explaining that he had no helmet. However, I had a helmet that I received from Gonzo and wasn't using. I pulled out the helmet from my inventory and handed it to him while Hew and Tom looked on, amused. Hew even questioned Mike about whether he was really going with me, and Tom yelled encouraging words.
I readied the bike and started the engine. "Well, what are you waiting for?" I asked Mike.
He climbed awkwardly behind me, and I showed him where to rest his feet.
"I can walk home, really; there's no need..." he said, ready to jump down from the bike.
"Oh, come on, keep cool! We'll be there in a minute," I replied.
"That's what I'm afraid of!" he countered, and I had to chuckle.
I hadn't thought about it before, but feeling him behind me as he awkwardly tried to embrace me without really embracing me, I realized that taking a passenger on a bike is a much more intimate situation than in a car. Well, it was not unpleasant to feel him behind me, but neither particularly pleasant; it did not trigger any deep feelings.
"Don't be afraid to hold tight," I told him, sensing his stress.
As he pushed himself closer, he wondered, feeling my wings pressed between the two of us. "Is there no problem if I press your wings like this?"
I chuckled. "Don't worry, you cannot harm them. Ready?"
"Uhm... OK..."
I started the bike and drove graciously out of the parking with Hew's jeep in tow. We took the right fork, and they took the left, and I waved to the boys.
Mike was still not very enthusiastic about the ride, and that amused me even more. On one side, it was fun to push him out of his comfort zone; on the other side, I was curious to see how he would react. He was a bit of an unknown to me, being the taciturn of the group. The interactions with Hew and Tom were clearer, and I knew very well where I stood, but with the introverted Mike, I was mostly guessing. He was always there, but that was all I knew about him, and maybe this was a good opportunity to know him better.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
As I drove very peacefully for about a minute, I felt him relaxing.
"Are you OK? Everything's fine with you?" I asked.
"It's great!" he said. "It is not so bad as I thought!"
I chuckled. "Cool, hold tight!" I said and pushed the acceleration. The bike roared, the front wheel raised for a couple of seconds in the air, and I felt my hair waving in the wind while his hands clasped my belly desperately.
Was I mean? Well, maybe a little. I did not do any spectacular stunts, as I did have that fragile package with me – him - but the bike meandered now its way through the easy Sunday traffic like a knife through butter.
After about five minutes of driving, as I stopped at a traffic light, I asked him.
"How do you feel? OK?"
If, at first, his hands were totally cramped, now he was a bit more relaxed.
"Ahm, getting a little better. I hope this is no reason to push it harder now?" he cautiously wondered.
I chuckled. "No. Fancy we go up the fortress hill and have a cake or a juice up there?"
The almost two-century-old fortress on the small hill dominating the district was one of the town's attraction points and had at least ten to fifteen different small restaurants and cafeterias with a great view around it.
"Oh, it's a pity we did not take Tom and Hew with us!" he protested.
"Well, it is no big detour for us, and I really could enjoy a drink!"
I had not planned this before; I just got the idea when I saw the fortress when I was waiting at that traffic light. As the light turned green, I started slowly and took the right lane to go towards the hill.
"Would the guys not be angry with us if we go there without them?" he wondered.
"But, of course," I said. "That's why we'll send them a selfie with us two enjoying drinking something there. This will teach them to let us go alone!"
I think he chuckled, but at least he did not protest any more.
Soon after, seated on the terrace of a small cafeteria, we enjoyed the sunset: the sun touching the horizon, the sky, and the few clouds now colored in an incendiary red. The color reflected on the myriad of roofs and trees aligned along the intricate streets.
I turned and looked at him, maybe for the first time, really looking at him. He was about my height, corpulent, but not really the fat type. His hands were small and smooth, and his hair had a dirty yellow-brownish color. He was sporting a shady mustache that seemed a touch more yellow than his hair, dividing his round face above his rather thin lips.
As I met his shady blue eyes, I smiled, asking myself how to start the conversation. After a couple of awkward seconds, he saved me by initiating the conversation. After talking about some generalities, I began asking questions and learned that he had been in a Catholic school for the first four years, and his parents were relatively devout Catholics.
“Now I am confused,” I said. “How can you accept me, being a demon, when you are religious?”
He chuckled. “You are not the devil; I know this...”
I interrupted him. “How can you know this?”
He shrugged. “I know it from how you behave, from what you do and have done. The fact that you have taken over one character from the game does not make you a devil. We must understand how that was possible and what kind of phenomenon made it possible. All this magic must have a physical explanation, either a level of technology that we do not understand or some hidden faculties that become unveiled.”
“Technology? Hidden faculties?”
He smiled. “Well, technology can look like magic if you do not understand how it works. Humans have always shown some hidden faculties; think of some cases of telekinesis.”
“But those were never reproduced in a lab under a controlled situation!” - I protested.
“True, but still, that might be the explanation.”
“And me being summoned as a demon? Does that not clarify things?”
“On the contrary, that might be again a link to the game's world that manifests in reality. I guess we did somehow implement that game's world. I think it was a wonder created by many minds playing the game, and you are but a victim of that creation!”
“This is how you think of it?”
He nodded.
“There might be more victims,” he said. "Look at what happened in Bounty County. People who could not control their game characters are my explanation for that disaster!”
I raised a brow. “So you do not believe the official explanation?”
He shook his head. “Who does?” he shrugged. “The official explanation is to give people reassurance that the government is in control, but I think they do not understand what happened.”
We continued to chat until it got dark, and then I drove him home.
I made the mistake of talking with him and lingering a bit longer in front of his house, and a little djini incarnated as a ten-year-old came out of the house like a whirlwind.
“Yeaaah, Mike's new girlfriend has a bike!” - the little djini yelled.
Mike tried to correct her: “She's not my girlfriend, she's Lores! Lores, meet Sandra, my little sister!”
She rolled her eyes. “She's a girl, and she's your friend! So she's your girlfriend! I want on the bike! I want on the bike!”
“Hi Sandra!” - I said
Mike's mother appeared in the doorframe: “Sandra, come back in immediately! You should be in bed by now!”
“Please, take me for a round, please, please, please!?” she looked at me with her best puppy eyes, and I found it suddenly very difficult to resist her pleas.
“Hello, Mrs. Miller,” I said. “I'll take her for just a little round. Is this okay, Mrs. Miller?”
She rolled her eyes.
“You shouldn't accept anything she asks, but ok... However, are you feeling confident enough on that engine, and can you take care of my little Sandra? Sandra, don't jump suddenly, do you hear me? Lores, just let her sit there, and that's all?”
“If you take me for a round, I'll pardon you!” - the little girl whispered to me.
I raised a brow. I did not know I had committed something to have to be pardoned.
“Of course, Mrs. Miller, of course!” - I said.
I took the little girl in the air, placed her in front of me between my arms, and started the bike. We moved slowly, then a bit faster. We made a five-minute tour through the neighborhood. She giggled almost all the time.
“And what do you pardon me from? What did I do?” - I wondered.
“Because of that night when you slept with Mike, I got my first bad mark in school! You caused that! And now, this year, I will not be the first in the class! I'll fail because of you!”
“Oh, no! I'm sorry about that, but just so you know, I did not really sleep with Mike then; we just fought against hypothermia! It had snowed up there in the mountain, and we could not leave the cabin; that's why we had to stay!”
She glanced at me with an all-knowing smile.
“Yeah, sure!” – and rolled her eyes.
As soon as we arrived back in front of the house, I was invited for dinner without the right to refuse. Then, I was almost kidnapped and forced to go to bed in the room adjacent to Sandra's. "Who would, in their right mind, let a girl go to sleep alone in a cabin in the woods?" Mrs. Miller muttered.
At least before going to bed, I could exercise my new transformation spells on some beetles I found in front of the window, trying to escape. All I could do was change the color of their wings. If I tried anything deeper, I just got some unsavory beetle juice.
Running out of victims to experiment with, I went to bed ruminating about what I had talked about with Mike. Could it be as simple as he had stated it? The game world becoming real!? But how? This did not fit with Cala's or White Flower's memory, but one could say that being inside the system, you could not have realized the transformation.
If that world is now real, where is it? I knew it was real, but where could it be? A different dimension?