Nay thought she must be dreaming. Or stuck in a nightmare. One moment she had wandered into what was supposed to be a meeting place for a Korean church only to stumble upon some occult ritual gone wrong and two alien or otherworldly creatures that wanted to kill her. Now, she was inside of a snow storm on what appeared to be a mountain pass while hallucinating text prompts.
Did she want to find shelter from the cold? Hell yes, she did. She mentally clicked on the ‘Y’, and a new prompt appeared.
----------------------------------------
[Quest Accepted!]
[Find Shelter from the Cold]
----------------------------------------
“Is this a nightmare?” she said, teeth chattering. She also discovered that she was naked, which just made the whole situation worse. What happened to her clothes? Before she was sucked into the red door, she was definitely wearing clothes. “This is definitely a nightmare. Please be a nightmare.”
She hugged herself, as the snow and wind battered her bare skin. She could feel herself going numb, the icy cold pressing into her bones. If she didn’t find warmth soon she was going to be turned into a popsicle. “Which way to go?”
Was she supposed to instinctually choose? It was hard to see through the swirling snow and wind.
That’s when something else appeared in her vision like it was part of a HUD from a first-person shooter game. It was a glowing and translucent grid map. There was a glowing white dot. Does that signify my location? she thought. There was a blinking gold dot that appeared to be in the southwest. She didn’t have any better ideas of where to go so this blinking spot on this map she was clearly hallucinating was as good as any. As she mentally accessed the map, she discovered she could zoom in and out, but she could only explore what was shown. The rest was covered in a gray fog. She didn’t have access to it because she hadn’t explored it.
But as she stumbled down the path to the southwest, she noticed the gray fog clearing in that direction on her mini-map as she walked. If she explored in a specific direction it was being added to her mini-map. Still, she didn’t know why it was showing her the blinking spot. Maybe it was because she was in the vicinity of something helpful.
“This is all a hallucination, anyways,” she said, trying to convince herself. “So it’s not like it really matters. Now I better get moving before I freeze to death.”
A glowing purple dot appeared on the map. It was smaller than her own white dot. As she walked it was keeping pace with her. She turned around but couldn’t see anything in the storm. If something was following her she would worry about it when she found warmth. She’d deal with whatever it was after she found a safe place from this storm.
As she stumbled down the snowy mountain pass, the pain she felt on her feet went away as the cold numbed any sort of sensation. She carried on, accepting the fact that she was probably going to die out here. Through the snow and wind she caught glimpses of alpine trees and mountain peaks all around her. She was in the middle of a treacherous mountain range. With the dark color of the sky, she surmised nightfall was approaching, which would probably make everything that much colder. She was wheezing. Snot running out of her nose and the tears running down her cheeks froze upon contact with the frigid air.
She lost track of time, but as she came around a bend she caught glimpses of a cave entrance through the haze of snow. It was an opening in the rocky mountainside and its location corresponded with the blinking gold dot on her mini-map, which also confirmed she was standing in front of it. She trudged towards the cave entrance, which appeared like a dark maw before her, but at least it was shelter of some sort.
She stepped inside and immediately felt a temperature change. The surface of the floor had warmth, and the stone walls were covered in condensation. She was pretty sure it was from the steam that she could feel against her face and body. It was coming from deeper within the cave. She stepped on something sharp and fell against the wall. It was just the uneven and rocky surface of the cave floor. The pain was worse because sensation was returning to her extremities thanks to the warmth.
She crouched there, clutching the warm rock, moisture dripping around her. The howling wind was muffled here, and she took a few moments to catch her breath. Her skin felt like it was being plucked with needles as she warmed, hot blood flowing underneath.
She noticed the purple dot on her mini-map coming into view again. According to the map it was right outside the cave entrance. She turned her head towards the opening of the cave. All she could see was the snowfall. There was no one else there that she could see. Yet she still looked around for something she could use as a weapon in case whatever the purple dot was meant her harm. She had lost her Konosuke knife as well as her taser in the tussle with the monsters and the resulting chaos. She found a hefty rock she could hold in one hand. With it in her hand, she felt some comfort that she wasn’t completely naked.
Well, that wasn’t true. She was still naked. But at least she had something she could use as a weapon.
“Hello?” she yelled at the entrance. “Who’s there?”
The only answer was the howl of the wind cutting through the mountain pass.
She still noticed that the quest was still in her quest log.
----------------------------------------
[Quest Log]
[Find Shelter from the Cold]
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
----------------------------------------
“Alright, then,” she said. “Let’s find the source of the heat. But I wish there was a quest to find some clothes or at least a blanket.” She chuckled to herself, thinking she had gone-half mad, and continued deeper into the cave.
/////////
It was a hot spring.
Nay had walked into a chamber with a natural domed ceiling, finding it after following the steam that floated through the tunnel that took her deeper into the earth. Below were pools of hot water in pockets of the rock. It looked like there were multiple individual tubs to soak in. Nature’s hot tubs. Standing in the large chamber felt like standing in the middle of a sauna. Nay thought of the sauna in her gym where she used to have a membership, but this was better. Way more impressive.
There was a chime in her mind.
----------------------------------------
[Quest Complete!]
[Find Shelter from the Cold Completed!]
[Congratulations!]
[You have been rewarded Vigor Points]
----------------------------------------
The Quest Log section in her HUD was now clear.
She shook her head. “This nightmare just keeps getting stranger.” Was she unconscious and dying in real life? Was her body being dissolved in the belly of the spider and this video-game dream was just her brain’s response to death? The last firing of neurons between the synapses before she succumbs to death? What were Vigor Points? Who knew?
As she approached one of the hot spring pools she paused. She remembered a story about some campers or hikers finding what they thought was a hot spring in Yellowstone. But when one of them entered it he melted. It turned out the pool was a toxic combination of chemical elements that could dissolve matter. And that’s exactly what it had done to him. Was this such a pool? Was it a trap? Just because this was a dream or a nightmare still didn’t mean she wanted to die in the midst of the nightmare.
She inched close to the pool and sat on the side of it, cautious but basking in the warmth. Her shivers had disappeared and she was glad she made it here without her fingers or toes getting frostbitten. She didn’t want to lose bits of her body either. So she was glad she made it out of the blizzard with all her limbs still attached.
Curious, she tossed her rock in the water. Other than a splash, there was no other reaction. She could see it sink to the bottom of the pool. As far as she could tell, it wasn’t dissolving. There were was no violent explosion of matter, like pouring soda over pop rocks. There were hardly any bubbles. The warm water called to her. She couldn’t help but think of the soak sucking out the rest of the cold that had settled and found home in her bones.
She held her hand over the surface of the water, felt the steam rising off the surface and touching her hand. Slowly, she touched the water with the tip of her finger and pulled back. She didn’t feel any pain and her skin didn’t burn or slough off. It had just felt nice. She touched the water again, longer this time. Still no sign of it being a pool of acid. So next she slid her hand in and held it under. No reaction except for the feeling of hot water relaxing her blood flow.
It was safe.
So she spun and bit by bit, lowered herself into the hot spring pool. She groaned in relief as the warm water worked its magic with her body. She sat there like she was soaking in a hot tub, letting the water and warmth heal her body from the effects she had suffered from being naked in the middle of a snow storm. She relaxed.
As she pushed her worries out of her mind for the time being, allowing herself a moment just to be warm, she thought about the HUD system she had been seeing and using in her vision. She realized she could pull it up with just a thought. In the upper right corner was the mini-map. In the bottom left was a symbol she didn’t recognize. It looked like a glyph. When she swept over it with her mind, a menu opened up.
----------------------------------------
[Worldtripper Interface]
[Quest Log]
[Inventory]
[Delicacy Stats]
----------------------------------------
She explored the Quest Log. After finding warmth, the log was empty. She checked her inventory. That too, was empty. So next she looked at the Delicacy Stats screen.
----------------------------------------
[Delicacies: 0/3]
[Delicacy Skill Trees 0/3]
[Marrow Abilities: 0/36]
[Rank: Base]
[Vigor Points to Next Rank: 1%]
----------------------------------------
She felt herself getting sleepy as she contemplated what Delicacies, Marrow Abilities and Vigor Points were. Now that she was safe, warm and comfortable, she let her guard down and dozed off.
Soon she was gently snoring, her head resting on the edge of the natural spring.
/////////
The blinking purple light on her mini-map woke her up. She had no idea how long she was out for. A warning chime sounded off in her mind. Whatever the purple dot was, it was in the hot spring cavern with her. She looked off in the direction indicated on her map, still she couldn’t see anything.
She remembered her rock and felt it at the bottom of the pool with her feet. She used her foot to scoot it closer, then she went under the water and grabbed it with her hand.
She pulled herself out of the pool and stood there naked on the stone floor, water dripping off her body. The rock in her hand.
“I know you’re in here,” she said. “Show yourself!”
There was no answer.
The only sound was her own nervous breathing and the dripping of water. Drip drip drip. She took a step towards the entrance of the chamber, being careful not to slip. There was a flash of movement up ahead. She swore she could see something slither behind one of the large rocks.
“Stop!” she cried out. “This is your last warning! Show yourself and I won’t hurt you!”
Again, no answer.
But she could hear the sound of something sliding across the surface of the cave floor. Something was up ahead behind that large rock.
“Alright, that’s it!”
Nay rushed over, holding the rock over her head. She made it around the side of the rock and stopped in her tracks.
There was a single purple tentacle here, standing on one end like a stalk. It was one of the tentacles she had severed from the creature in the Korean church. One of the appendages of the monster she had cooked up and served in the El Diablo Burrito. It wavered before her. Green protuberances curved off its body like rubber fins. Near the top of the stalk was a single Cyclopean eyeball and below it was a beak.
“Wait no!” Nay heard a voice. The tentacle wavered like it was cowering in fear. The single eyeball blinked frantically. “Please don’t hurt me!”
Nay looked closer and realized the voice came out of the beak on the tentacle.
The tentacle could speak.