It was a bit like awaking from a slumber with a vivid dream. The only difference was the FIVR set on my head. Man, I felt old with all my muscles sore. Maybe the entire running around and sightseeing was my new virtual fitness center. The manual said something about nerve and muscle stimulation. A six-pack from gaming would be perfect. Some lobbyists should probably warm up their buddies in congress for an outcry against healthy gamer hardware.

I wasn’t hungry and just needed to pee. Only slightly more than two hours did I spent in Karma. The time compression was neat. Two hours in game was only one hour in real life.

“Moogle! Set alarm: 1pm.” Better not be late for the meeting with Christa.

“Alarm set.”

“Let’s take a look if I can find something interesting.” I wasn’t expecting too much. But there were only scraps of new information in the Net and most things I was more or less aware of. Complaints about the NPCs being too lifelike were simply retarded.

The fanatics were probably still playing and would pull an all-nighter to get an assumed head start.

Damn, real life felt now so boring. I had to login again and was so glad that I took two weeks leave from work starting tomorrow.

“Moogle! Reset alarm.”

“Alarm disabled.”

***

"Oh boy, it is so unbelievable fantastic and great." I was back in Karma and felt totally excited again. There was still more than enough time to go over to Christa’s camp. That’s why I sat down besides the next tree.

‘Main Menu.’ Various things weren’t to my liking and I used the next minutes to browse through the settings. The message priority was odd. It should be fine now after my fiddling.

The date and time was now visible as well and I integrated a standard health and mana bar instead of this epileptic seizure causing info pop-ups. The messenger was interesting but not useful. Who should I talk to or write without friends in Karma? I planed to spend a lot of time in this game. Sooner or later interesting people would inevitably pop up.

Through my menus I could see Christa moving stuff in her camp. I guess I could help her to relieve my upcoming boredom.

“Hey Christa, need a hand?” She was twice my size so I hoped she wasn’t expecting a giant’s strength right from the get-go.

“CB, you are early. Wasn’t expecting you to be that eager. I like your attitude. There is nothing more to prepare. While I get our ride ready you check if all the tents are closed.” She went to the city gate.

I finished my check within 5 minutes. With nothing else to do I enjoyed the sun and waited for Christa to return.

It didn’t take to long and I saw her with two animals, huge birds. An ostrich would probably look small in comparison.

“Are you ready CB?”

“Yeah…? Christa, what are those?”

“What do you mean, those? Jess and Less are our mounts. Minker birds are perfect as a fast transport? Never seen one?” She was now in front of me.

“No, I haven’t. I thought we’d take a cart or horses.”

“Way to slow, CB. And horses are expensive and useless in the south. Those two darlings are not as easily scared by monsters, are faster and they are very intelligent. Aren’t those two cuties?”

“Well… Maybe…” I was more than hesitant to trust a terror bird in disguise.

“Down ladies!” Both sat down obediently. The birds seemed to be well trained.

“Jess will be yours for today. She is easy to handle even without much skill.”

I have seen living ostriches in zoos but compared to these giant of a bird it was like seeing a skinny chicken next to your thanksgiving turkey. The Minker bird was not fat, but massive and felt muscular below their gray and brown plumage. The legs were impressive and seemed to be made for speed. I didn’t want to get hit either by one of those or the gigantic beak, whose form reminded me of a vulture. Jess and Less weren’t vegans.

“Hey birdy, birdy. You are a nice girl aren’t you?” I wasn’t always great with animals and this bird scared me a bit. I had nothing to lose and it was only a game. That’s what I thought when I went to Jess.

My ride cocked her head and looked me in the eyes. I tried to pet her but she was faster. With a quick movement she took my whole head in her beak. I was fucked and I felt my second death was near. My hands weren’t strong enough to free me from these clamps.

“Jess, do you like CB?”

“Coo!” My potential killer seemed to answer and was running her big, raspy tongue across my face and other parts of my head. The hammering with my fists was still ignored.

“Get off him, Jess. You both can play in the evening.” My head was free and I started breathing again. My sleeve was used as towel to wipe my face. I was panting and looked accusing at Christa. This woman just snickered and mounted Less. Both birds were fully saddled.

“You must be kidding me, don’t you? If she does that when she likes someone, am I going to be dinner?” I was still stunned by my mounts action.

“Calm down and grow a pair. Jess would spit out your clothes and other indigestible parts by now if she wouldn’t like you. It is actually quite rare that a Minker bird likes someone on first sight. Those guys are tamed but are predators nevertheless.” She grabbed Less’ reins.

“Less, up!”

“CB, man up and jump on. I didn’t think you are a total wimp. You are alive and not hurt, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t argue with that. Jess was still eyeing me but did not move. With a sigh I climbed on Jess’ saddle.

“Jess, up!” She almost jumped up when I gave the command.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Fluffy.” Her feathers felt great and were really soft. The saddle was also very comfortable.

“Coo! Coo!”

“Yeah, I know. You are a clever girl.” Now my petting did not end with me eyes starring down a throat.

“See, nothing happened. Like I said, it’s easy to move with those two. “Up” and “Down” should be clear by now. Besides this there is “Yiep” for forward and “Hoo” for slowing down. “Stop” means stop. So don’t try it during full speed. You’re going to fly without the need for magic!”

“Yes, understood. Seems easy enough.” It seemed like child’s play.

“We’ll start slow for the next minutes and pick up speed when you got a better feeling for Jess. The trip will take almost two hours. Follow my lead and hold tight!”

“Less, yiep!”

“Jess, yiep!”

Christa said that we would start slow. We had a different definition of the word. That’s what I thought when we started of with easily 20 km/h. Compared to the next level it was not fast.

“Are you ok, CB?”

“I’m all right. It’s swaying less than I thought it would. Jess is really a cool mount!”

“Coo!” Was the bird some attention grabber?

“Very good. We’ll speed up now to the usual traveling pace. The gait will not change too much, but the length and the frequency of the steps will. Use the reins carefully for steering if you have to. Otherwise leave it alone; Jess will follow Less anyway.”

“Less, yiep yiep!”

“Jess, yiep yiep!”

“Wohoo!” That was fast. I automatically leaned forward. The wind stung my eyes. It was bearable and I could still see the road and Christa. I wasn’t sure how fast we were going, but between 50 km/h to 60 km/h seemed realistic.

Without anything to do I opened the map to see what I would uncover on our trip. It wasn’t much. The road and nothing else was visible. We were heading east in a pretty much straight line. I didn’t see animals or monsters on the way. In the MMORPG I remembered mobs were running around simply everywhere, aside from safety zones like cities. Christa should know the reason.

Ding

You have obtained the skill Riding.

After more than one hour of our bird cruise I received a system message. My ass hurt. I had to check my new skill.

Riding Lvl 1 (Novice)

You won’t fall off your mount instantly. Your rear and thighs may hurt mildly less after hours off riding.

Agility and Stamina are slightly raised by Riding.

Was the system bullying me? My thoughts were part of the skill information. That was unsettling.

We were riding through hills and I could see snow covered mountains in the distance. I was more than glad that our destination was soon in sight. The changing scenery swept part of my boredom away as well.

“Hoo!”

Christa was slowing down Less and Jess followed suit. At a fork we left the main road and followed an expanded trail.

“How are your legs doing? We are almost there. Too bad the last part of the way to the mining camp isn’t warded and protected anymore. We should be fine, but sometimes a Great Beast leaves its territory. The small fry are no issue for a Minker bird. The big mountain bruisers are.”

“I’m good. My butt feels a bit battered but not too bad.” Just in this moment I saw a shadow and something big was jumping from a tree in our direction. Once again the reaction time of the birds was astonishing. With an elegant sidestep to the left and right respectively Jess and Less evaded the ambush.

I turned my head and saw a striped wolf with metallic looking spikes on its back.

Needle Wolf

“Jess, stay put. Less, attack!”

Christa was now clad in armor with a tower shield on her left arm and a war hammer in her right hand. Less picked up speed and changed directions at random. After I saw the first spike fly in their direction I knew why. Christa deflected that attack apparently without much effort.

Less was running now at full speed and it seemed a collision was unavoidable. If I had to guess the weight of our almost 4 meter tall mounts, I would say about half a ton. The wolf was huge but more compact. That monster looked heavier. Physics would devastate both on impact.

Yet again I forgot about the unnatural nimbleness of the birds. In the last second the wolf tried to jump Less, but she evaded to the left again. Christa hammered down on the beast at full speed. There was not much left of the head of the monster.

“Those little fucks still haven’t learned their lesson. CB, come over. Less, down.” Christa jumped down and was slightly kicking the remains of the Needle Wolf.  She removed armor and weaponry and was back in her leather working outfit.

“Jess, down.” I climbed down as well and was studying the big wolf.

“Looks nasty.”

“The spikes are poisonous. The wolf is not really strong but can be a real pain if you’re surprised by its ability.”

Christa pulled the corpse away from the trail, cut a branch of a tree and nailed the wolf on it.

“Why are you doing this? Isn’t it heavy?” It seemed odd.

“It’s for the idiots of its pack and no, for me it’s not heavy. Maybe they will now look for another territory. Who knows? A Needle Wolf is only a threat for someone as weak as you, CB. Even Less and Jess can handle one. It’s still a nuisance.”

We were going back to our birds.

“Come on, CB. There are only about 10 minutes left. Than you can rest your behind when we work the mines. Haha.”