Ten high quality stilt homes are suspended above a lake, connected to each other by a wooden walkway that shoots off from the front doors of each house that converge into a central platform. Between two houses, a walkway extending from the central platform leads off into the edge of the lake and a subsequent forest.
In the first quarter of the exit walkway is a pseudo gate. The ‘gate’ is actually a cube frame of logs with pulleys to pull that section of the walkway up into the air, completely detaching from the rest of the walkway.
The gate is never actually used and can be pulled up and dropped down from both sides. When you try to walk through the wooden frame you have to pay a toll to the fairy that protects the homes even if you live there.
The nine people living here excluding me, were complete strangers when we first met. I made friends with a few of them over time and together we are complete idiots who cause a lot of destruction.
As a group me and my friends leave to just have fun. Walking up to the exit we are stopped by the fairy. We have to pay with these digital, thick, octagonal blue coins. The further we plan to adventure away from the houses the higher the cost.
In our minds eyes we are given a map, badly drawn by the fairy. The map is made up of hexagonal shapes that doesn't give us a very good idea of distance only having the cost of being teleported there for reference.
To earn these virtual coins we complete quests for the fairy. The reward is always more than the cost of leaving. The quest we choose to do is stop a crazy rogue wizard in the forest from causing more problems.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Accepting the task from the fairy we are teleported a few metres away from the wizard. He spots us and jumps into a hollow fallen over log. He has to squirm a bit to get his full body into it. His dark blue robes and pointy hat decorated with stars seem stain, dirt, and tear resistant.
We offer him a trade of his magic for his freedom. He agrees and gives us his magic, his body turns into mist and scatters in the wind. One of my friends is panicking thinking we killed him. We did, but me and the others lied to them about the wizards fate.
We have to head back on foot. On the way we mess around with our magic, someone managing to make an illusion of a car over the top of a wild bull. We anger the bull and lead it back to the lake.
Once there we blind it, hide, and it having lost us decides to take its anger out on the closest thing, the houses. It charges across the walkway at full speed aiming to take out the houses. The fairy sees a car driving at full speed straight towards it and panics.
The fairy couldn't pull the walkway up in time so the bull charged straight through, its horns catching and going straight through the wooden support frame and rope. The walkway gate drops into the water with a crash.
The bull doesn't stop until it's gone through an entire stilt house and smashed through the other side, falling down into the water.
The fairy spots us spying from the trees and takes away all the money we made from the mission and the cost of repairs. The walkway and house rebuilt itself, pieces floating up and pulling itself back together until it looks as good as new.
While the fairy was fixing everything we snuck past, hopping over the hole in the walkway and running back to one of our homes, locking the door behind us.