The guards wouldn’t let me through.

I had made it to the border in under an hour. A feat I was proud of myself for accomplishing, but the stupid border guards wouldn’t let me through.

“Why can’t I pass?” I demanded

The two guards were wearing blue tunics over shiny steel armor. Each was armed with a sword on their hip and a lance in their hands. A loaded crossbow was propped against the hut behind either of them.

“You do not have the proper credentials.” The guards said at the same time. They even had the same voice.

“How do I get the proper credentials?” I demanded

The guards just stared at me.

I wanted to scream. I had to get into the next zone, but I didn’t know how. I could turn around and go ask the Chief back at the outpost, but that would add at least four more hours to my trip. I didn’t want to waste that much time.

I stepped forward and both lances were pointed at my neck.

“Player, you do not have the proper credentials to enter the next zone. Please acquire the proper credentials before attempting to cross the border.”

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“AH!” I screamed at them as I turned away. I looked around. The huts had two large rocks on the outside and the trees after that. Behind the outposts, the zone was nothing but grass. It wouldn’t be difficult to find the road again once I was on the other side.

I headed into the trees. Once I was out of sight of the guard post, I angled towards the net zone. If I couldn’t cross at the road, I would just go around.

The border was easy to spot. It was where the trees ended and the grass started. I took off at a slow jog. It was the best I could do with all the down branches and vines. I was excited. I was about to start the next leg of my journey.

I reached the last tree, but a low branch swung into my path. The knots of the tree swirled into a face.

“Player, you do not have the proper credentials to enter the next zone. Please acquire the proper credentials before attempting to cross the border.” The tree’s voice was low and deep.

“AH!” I screamed at the tree. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t know what the proper credentials were. I thought about attacking the tree, but the branch was a lot thicker than my sword could cut in one swipe and I was pretty sure that it had more branches than I could cut. Add in that there was a tree bigger than I could wrap my arms around every five feet at the border and I was pretty sure, I would have to take on an army of trees to get across.

I turned back to the road. I hated to give up, but without knowing what the proper credentials were, there was no way across. I was going to have to go back to the outpost.

Once I go to the road I started running. I wasn’t going to waste four hours to figure out how to cross the border. I would run the whole way, do whatever it was that I had to do and get back in less than four hours.

I took my sword sheath off of my hip and gripped it in my hand so I could run faster. Having the sword in my hand let me feel like I was charging towards something. I picked up my pace. I wasn’t going to let this slow me down.