"Huuaaaaa..."

I broke out of my daze with a yawn. It was definitely too hot. The blazing summer breeze was dancing around me as if to mock my efforts.

"That´s what you get for trying to be different!~" I heard it hiss.

I tried to retort but my mouth was dry and I was out of water, the future looked grim indeed. There was nothing in sight wherever I looked, well nothing besides stones, sand and my own footprints indicating that I had been walking in circles. Sure enough I was still in the DryDry desert. There was no sign of life around.

"You will dry here~

you will die here~

too dry, you die!"

Not that I was actually concentrating on anything in particular. I, after all, had no sense of direction whatsoever. After getting over the fact that I had found my own footprints, again, I decided to go into a different random direction. A futile struggle, really, after all I was out of water in a desert with nothing in sight for the next few kilometers.

I nodded in approval of my discovery. The solution should have been obvious from the start! If there was no way to get out of this oven I just had to sit it out until I died and resurrected in the Beginnercity. My mind made up I dived into the sand and started making a sandangel. I rather enjoyed the feeling of the cool sand on my sun burnt skin. < I should have done that from the start.>

Building a castle turned out to be a more difficult task than I would have expected. Not only was the sand in the DryDry desert ... well dry, so it didn´t stick together properly, the wind kept destroying what little I achieved. Thus I tried to reinforce the sandy walls with the stones that littered the area. Luckily the DryDry desert wasn´t an ordinary desert. There were patches of obsidian black stones all over the place. These shiny black stones were perfectly circular and were a stark contrast to the sky blue sand, which was piled up by the smoldering desert wind, forming almost oceanic seeming dunes. The glaring sun, reflective stones and bright blue sand created a picture of perfect harmony. Blinding harmony. Also known as SandMirror the entire area was too bright for most people´s eyes to bear. A human, so it was said, would go blind after a single week in the SandMirror.

I, however, was relieved by the fact I was surrounded by beautiful materials I could use for the construction. So I replicated a castle I had seen in reality before. There was a magnificent wall surrounding a vaguely square shaped building. The most eye catching feature of the castle was its tower. This part was completely unlike a sandcastle, to my dismay. After the wind had ripped every last grain of sand from the lofty construction the piled up stones stood naked like a skeleton that had lost its flesh. Stacking up the round stones had been one hell of a difficult task as they always seemed to roll away. Stubborn person that I am, of course I kept fighting the stones until the skeletal tower was erected. I liked the tower. Although my sandcastle didn´t even resemble the model I had in mind I still liked it.

I smiled in glee as I was about to finish my project and thus triumph over the breeze that had incessantly annoyed me for the past 2 hours. I searched for a big stone to use as my castle gate. After a while I found the perfect gate. It was a fist sized red stone and was supposed to give my castle a royal touch. At this point I really should have started to wonder what a red stone was doing in a world of black and blue but... blame it on the heat, the thirst or plain stupidity... I didn´t notice the stone was out of place. Crawling my way over to the stone, too exhausted to stand, I took the stone and placed it. Not.

I lamented in my mind.

As I was sucked into the sand my frustration grew. It was always like this. Whenever I found something I enjoyed in this game something annoying would happen to prevent me from having fun!

Watching the sand around me rise higher and higher I threw a longing look at my castle.

Yes, by then I had already forgotten the original purpose of building the castle in the first place. I hated to leave things unfinished so with the last ounce of strength I could muster I threw the gate towards my castle in an attempt to complete it.

Before I could see the completion or more likely destruction of my castle, however, I was swallowed by the desert while hearing the wind chuckle for the last time. At this point I was ready to return to the city when...

Splash!

I facepalmed then stared at the muddy water longingly. Dignity warred thirst with thirst winning. After replenishing my water supply, still coughing up the dirty water I had nearly choked on, I scanned my surroundings with big eyes. I was in a tunnel with stony walls and a low sand ceiling, not that I understood how the crumbly dry sand managed to form a solid ceiling that didn´t plummet down. Said ceiling was just high enough for my head to brush it while walking. I had to bend down a bit to walk comfortably. The tunnel itself was illuminated by dim light that broke through the sand and bathed everything in shades of blue. I touched a wall to confirm a rising suspicion. Obsidian. AHAAA! Or not. I was no stone expert but I figured my Minecraft days had taught me a thing or two.

Clearly this tunnel had been built by intelligent people. They created smooth walls infused with magic for protection. I could feel the tingling sensation of an enchantment on the wall and the golden runes were also somewhat of a giveaway. I revised my opinion of the game. Maybe this place wasn´t so bad after all! There could be a treasure! Despite my newfound excitement I still couldn´t suppress a shiver. It was as cold as a night in the desert down here! Maybe this tunnel is the reason why the desert sand was cool to the touch...

Choosing a path at random I made my way through the tunnel. Whenever I reached a fork I simply took the right turn. Drawing a map would probably have helped me navigate in this maze but I never bothered buying paper and a pen so I just kept walking. Always going right was the best maze tactic I knew so I stuck with it. However, for some reason my perfect plan to find the exit or treasure didn´t work.

Soon I felt like I was descending into a lower level. The light source switched after an hour of walking from random streams of light that passed through the ceiling to torches on the wall. The atmosphere changed completely with the lights. A rune engraved blue lit tunnel was more mysterious so I regretted leaving it behind. The new area had a friendlier feel to it. I was overcome with joy and anxiety at the same time. The Sand had been telling me horror stories all this time and I wasn´t too sure whether I wanted to find out who or rather what had inspired them. I certainly didn´t trust the friendly atmosphere this place exuded. Nevertheless my curiosity won against any instinct of self preservation. Torches meant people so I took a moment to listen for voices or steps or anything at all. When I didn´t hear anything for at least five minutes I followed the torched path passing countless dark tunnels, completely abandoning my initial maze tactic.

I did my best to be stealthy. The rustling of my clothes and the crunching sand destroyed my ninja delusions quickly so I opted for a more casual approach. Whenever I came upon a fork in the road, only one path was lit. So of course I followed the torches with no means of lighting the tunnel on my own. My adventurous spirit drove me to creep up on the dark tunnels and pass them in the most imaginative ways I could find. I crawled on the floor, sprinted, jumped, climbed around the doorway... and fell down during that particular endeavor. I had fun in my own way. Thoughts of the desert and my near death experience all but forgotten.

I soon reached a gigantic hall. The hall was at least as big as a sports field and about 4 stories high. Especially the height startled me. I didn´t realize until then that I was so far from the surface. The slight slope had mislead me into thinking I was 10 meters beneath the desert, at most.

The hall was clad in similar runes as the tunnel I had come through, though these runes seemed to tell a story. There were shapes I recognized. People, horses dragons. Horned people? Maybe demons but I could be wrong as I had never seen one before. As I slowly walked along the wall I came to a stop in front of an especially big rune. Fire, water, swords and arrows whizzed in and out of existence as a great war took place in front of my eyes. The participants however were barely recognizable as silhouettes. There must have been thousands of fighters.

I strained my eyes, trying to see more than these vague outlines and unconsciously stepped closer to the rune. As if in reaction to my approach the pictures changed. The runes seemed to zoom in on two fighters. They had thrown themselves into the enemy lines with reckless abandon. Fighting back to back without even looking at each others movements. They were simply in perfect sync. One of them was a mage, the other an archer. I almost couldn´t believe it. How can two nonmelees like them fight in the midst the enemies ranks? How weren´t they dead yet? I watched them for what felt like minutes but, judging by my flashing energy bar, must have been hours.

I saw it all. Their haughty attitude that led them into this position crumbled and gave way to despair. As they grew more frantic and exhausted, I could see openings in their formation forming. Predictably they had no way to last the endless onslaught of enemies. All too soon their struggle came to an end.

It was a suicide attack. The mage blew them up.

An onslaught of questions assaulted me but I was too tired to answer them all. What I wanted to know above all were the names of these suicidal fools. Who were they? What did they fight for? Who won the war?

My low energy bar forced me on my knees. I slowly munched on some stale bread. When I was ready to look at the other moving runes I couldn´t help but throw another look at the tragic fools. But what I saw wasn´t the battle scene from before. The runes now formed writing. I quickly scanned the text. Encouraged by the mysterious atmosphere, beautiful runic writing and my overzealous imagination I started reading aloud, dramatizing every word like a storyteller.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Hear my plea!

Heroes of the past!

Your destiny is not fulfilled.

Villains of the future!

A dream, barred by the remnants of the past.

Forget what you believed and open your eyes!"

And so I did.

__________________________________

I stared at the lustrous furniture of the Temple of Rebirth´s sanctum. I had only been here once before but undoubtedly this was the sanctum with its golden mirrors, gigantic windows that revealed a view of the clouds from above and the ever changing painting of a tree. Right now it looked like a palm tree for some reason. There was no door and the ceiling gave off a red glow. I knew I could change the color at will.

This was the character creation stage.

before I could finish the thought I found something odd. There was a crystal ball in front of me. I could have sworn it wasn´t there when I checked out the room a few seconds ago. Intrigued I took a step towards it and reached out with my left hand. To my surprise it flew towards my outstretched hand.

"Who am I?" strange floating crystalball.

"You can talk?" Me

"Of course why would I not? Nevermind. So who am I?" talking crystal ball.

"hmmm... I don´t know but I could give you a name if you don´t have one!"

"No I think..." cautious crystal ball.

"Alright its decided! Your name is SparkleFly!" nodding me.

"SparkelFly?!? No! What kind of awful namingsense-" panicked crystal ball.

"So SparkelFly, do you know why we are here?" I wanted to get to the point.

"I thought you knew! And stop interrupting me. My name is most definitely not SparkelFly."

I was stumped. Why was it so angry? It didn´t have a name so I went through the trouble of thinking of an awe inspiring name. Well, everyone´s a critic.

"What I know is, that we are in the sacrosanct of the Temple of Rebirth. This is the place where stray souls get bodies. I already have a body though."

I looked in the gold mirror just to make sure.< Body? Check!> That left only one other person. A bodyless person currently in the form of a floating SparkelFly. I was getting excited. Character creation was fun and I kind of wanted to see what I could create this time around.

"You don´t have a body. I don´t know what lead to this development but I think we should create a body for you. So Fly what do you want to be? A beast, a plant, a gust of wind? You could also go with something boring like an elf or dwarf."

Yes in this game people could not play human. When I found out I could only silently applaud the creators. This revelation called forth a shitstorm of never before seen magnitude but I ,contrary to the masses, was delighted. The game was more interesting this way!

While I was pondering fun possibilities for my new friend he just stared at me. Or at least that´s what it felt like. Have you ever had a chrystal ball stare at you? A peculiar feeling indeed.

"What is it? Cat got your tongue?"

"No it´s just... I .. I never thought I would get a chance to... you know... get a body" deeply moved Sparkel.

"So what have you been doing until now?"

"I don´t want to talk about it."

His tone grew colder with every word. Sensing a landmine I backed of. His lifestory was none of my business after all. Even if I enjoyed messing with him it wasn´t to that extend.

"Ok, back on topic. What do you want to be? Who do you want to be? What are your dreams your fears your wishes?"

I started to dramatize everything I said and threw my arms around like an idiot. Sparkel took his time thinking while I simply wandered around the luxurious room. The tree painting had become a cactus for some reason... I gave it an irritated look. This weird picture... during my creation process I was so fascinated with it I tried to pry it off the wall and the malevolent thing nearly electrocuted me for it.

I was somehow sure the picture could read thoughts too, but had nothing to back that up with. During my own creation process, well after the almost execution by lightning, I had a long chat with the thing. Whenever I said something it would switch to a different tree. I would then try to decipher what message it was trying to convey. Little hints like the colors of the leafs, their size or animals that appeared sporadically with a new tree would be used for this reason.

I thought with a chuckle.

At the end of last times chat, which of course did not end because I wanted it to, no I had fun so of course the evil game butted in to end my fun , I even got a title and a skill. It´s pretty much the only skill I had right now and simply allowed me to talk to all kinds of inanimate objects. The thing is.. I couldn´t turn it off.

Finally Fly came to a decision, which was no decision at all... really. What kind of stray soul that has wished for a body enough to become all emotional about it could be so indecisive?

"I want to be male, strong, able to fly, handsome... I guess that sums it up." contemplative Fly.

I sighed and then went through the races with lightning speed. SparkelFly seemed unable to browse the selection so I narrowed it down.

Just when I had decided on a course of action I remembered the runes and the two idiot fighters.

Thus I played around with different races for a while.

With a flash of electricity my masterpiece came to life. Literally. He opened his eyes to his new form and stared long and hard at his reflection in the mirror. He was naked, two meters tall with tanned skin and lean muscles. Light blue hair fell to his back and bluish transparent wings as large as him decorated his back. As he opened and folded them a single feather came loose and floated through the air. I caught it and touched it. Contrary to my expectations it was hard as stone. On SparkelFlys head a silver crown rested. It was astonishing. The crown was no crown at all. I had arranged the horns to look like an intricate web of silver with the occasional vertical spike. The voluminous blue hair hid the horncrowns connection with Fly´s head perfectly. He looked majestic. The thing that took me the longest to create however was his face. Usually when creating a character you would be able to take your own face as the base and change things from there. I didn´t want him to look like me though so I spent quite some time there. He was handsome though. I was proud of his eyes. I managed to give them a blue shine with specks of silver.

Fly started flexing his muscles, striking all kinds of embarrassing poses, smiled scowled and opened his mouth to reveal sharp predator like teeth. He looked idiotic and I couldn´t suppress the laughter.

As he inspected himself I calmed myself down from the fits of laughter and raised my voice again.

"Are you satisfied?"

He was startled for a moment then turned to look at me as if he had totally forgotten I was even here in the first place. I was still holding the feather from before and twirled it in my right hand. I anticipated his reply. Although I could already see the look of wonder and amazement in his eyes.

"Thank you." A deep manly voice resounded.

This sincere reply caught me off guard. I had wanted to tease him a bit. I smiled, then laughed and he laughed too, about nothing in particular and everything at once. It was a simple happy laugh that lasted what felt like moments but could also have been hours. I could see us becoming friends in the future.

"You need a name. Now you are no longer a SparkelFly." I said full of vigor. How could I let my masterpiece walk around with a dumb name like that? We exchanged looks but he didn´t seem to have any ideas.

"Any wishes? Do you want something with meaning or maybe a name that just sounds good?" The lack of initiative on his part had been bothering me so I just dragged him into my pace.

"Blue.." he said while looking at his hair then looked outside the mega window overlooking a landscape of clouds.

"I am BlueSky." He said with finality. < Well, that was unexpected... too bad I wanted to name him Wish.>

"BlueSky it is then." I said mentally applauding him for his uncreative name. Even the Sparkel one had been better than that. I entered the name into the creation menu and thus finished the process.

Lightning again enveloped the room but this time when it faded I found myself staring at the runes in the DryDry deserts underground labyrinth again.

"Seriously what´s up with the random teleportation?" I basically screamed.

"Owww... could you not shout into my ear?" an equally peeved voice returned.

I turned around to see BlueSky standing next to me, taking in his surroundings. He was still naked.

I could only watch him with a pity filled gaze.

"What is it?" BlueSky

"Oh, I was just thinking that we ought to find you some clothes."Me

Finally becoming aware of his situation he covered himself, or tried to. It looked hilarious. A two meter man with somewhat royal appearance blushing like a young maiden and trying to block my view. I literally rolled on the floor while laughing. Ironically enough there were always clothes of all sizes in the sanctum for the newly created bodies. I was simply too forgetful to get him some before finishing the process of creation. When I realized it I exploded into laughter once more. Of course I didn´t tell him of my blunder as some things are better left unsaid.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Author´s note

Please tell me about any mistakes you may find! I´m not a native english speaker and I would like to improve =D

Thanks for reading~