Thursday morning arrived with a thunderclap literally jolting me out of bed. I began readying myself for school almost immediately after my feet hit the ground, putting some serious thought into Rachel's suggestion for a break. That was really nuts last night, I had to admit with a bemused look on my face. It would all came down to how rested from the experience we felt after school, I supposed.

“You alive, sport?” my dad called as I came downstairs.

“Yeah?” I said with a isn't-it-obvious tone.

“Just checking. You weren't up at the usual time.” he replied, turning back to his newspaper.

“Huh?” I looked at the clock. There were literally fifteen minutes before the bus showed up. “Huhh?!” I repeated with exasperation, and began rushing around to get ready before heading out the door like a race horse just let loose from the gate. The one thing that stuck in my mind was that the old man just watched me with a hint of amusement as I did so.

“Careful out there!” he said as I flew out of the house.

“Right!” I replied, hurrying off to where the bus stop was.

Apparently Ty was also having an off day today; he was not on the bus when it arrived, and I had the seat to myself for a change. It felt so weird, when I got off the bus at school I actually flicked myself just to make it feel like a more normal day. Then again, who the heck flicks themselves to feel normal... I thought to myself as I walked in the building. Someone slid their arm into mine as I turned the corridor; it was Rachel. I smiled, and she smiled back brightly.

“We're both here at the same time!” she said happily.

“Now that's a nice surprise,” I replied, and she smiled again. A small yawn escaped me, and she slowly nodded in agreement.

“That was rough last night.”

“Like really. I even woke up late somehow.”

“That's not good.”

“Not really.” I had to admit.

“And you did so well with it yesterday; me too, actually, but still.” Rachel noted.

“Weather, maybe.”

“Hmm. Maybe we should give it a break tonight.”

“Or go back to our usual time slots.”

“That'd be a fair compromise.” she agreed.

We reached our lockers, sorting out our morning books almost mechanically before heading in to class. One look at the board told us we were going through a wringer today with the academic side of our lives.

“But anyway; I thought we would end up at the frost place?” Rachel then remarked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah... it should have done that, I thought... well the charm points the way anyway, and there's a wayport nearby, so we should be good.” I said.

“Maybe it's just they send us to towns and stuff that are further ahead,” Rachel thought aloud as she considered her query as well.

“That could be.” I admitted after a moment. “Might also make a bit more sense, too.”

“True.” she nodded. A brief silence ensued, and then I dropped my voice a little.

“Things going okay at home still?”

“Pretty okay.” Rachel smiled back. “I think the details are settled; now it's just getting me moved... again.” she said with a sigh.

“Well at least this time it's not that far.”

“Hmm.” she nodded idly.

Oops. Did I say that wrong? Maybe I should have been more thoughtful about it...

“Ahh... but then...”

“You don't have to worry about it.” she smiled at me.

Yes I do. With that tone and that expression I absolutely do. I thought to myself with a faint panic.

“Sean, really,” she said in a more relaxed tone, taking my hand and squeezing it. “It's okay. You're not wrong. I'm just a little stressed out still.” she told me, and I felt the tension that had been building up inside me evaporate.

“R-right... I want to help, if I can.” I told her, and she smiled again.

“You already are.” she replied, patting my hand as the homeroom bell brought us to order. We turned our attention to the front, and classes began.

***

As usual, our first two classes, English and History, were fairly enjoyable, while Mathematics tortured our brains yet again with formulas that both of us knew we'd never again see in our lives once we walked out of high school, and Science rounded it off with a few interesting things about the environment -- or maybe the two of us were more into it because it focused on a more local environment, the Park, which we were planning on visiting again some time soon.

Anyway. By the time the lunch bell came along the two of us were more than ready to switch off and turn our attention to food. We arranged our desks for our growing lunch group, and then heaved sighs of relief as we set out our own lunches.

“We should definitely go to the Park again this Saturday.” Rachel said as she opened up her bottle of tea.

“For the extra-credit assignment he posted? Sure.” I replied. “And to just hang out and be together.” I added quickly, earning a smile.

“There you go.” she returned.

Bullet: dodged.

“He focused a lot on Pond Lake, didn't he though?” she asked me, and I looked up at the board which had yet to be wiped clean.

“Local aquatic ecosystems...” I read out loud, and she turned back to the board as well.

“Oh there we go!” Rachel said with a pleased tone. “Hmm... but I wanted to focus more on the other animals and stuff...”

“Well, there's nothing that says we can't, and I bet it'd look good if we were expanding our focus,” I remarked.

“True. Let's do that, then. You'll have to bring a camera too, by the way.”

“Ehh? Did I have one?” I suddenly wondered. I mean, sure, phones have cameras, but even after all this time an actual camera still trumps them every time.

“Ooh, I know where we can go tonight instead of Panarena.” Rachel smirked as she registered my words.

“You wouldn't about to be suggesting a camera store like the one at the mall, would you?” I returned with a faint and uneasy grin.

“What's this about the mall?” Ellie said as she and the other two members of our impromptu “gamers club” came in to join us.

“Oh, just something we might need for an extra assignment this weekend.” Rachel said in reply.

“Cool! I have to show up for a couple interviews there after school anyway; I know, Thursday of all days, right?” the blonde girl remarked as the three of them sat down with us. “So why don't we all go together?”

“That's fine,” Andrea nodded.

“Hmm... I guess my father won't mind too much.” Mary agreed.

“Well?” Rachel turned to me. “Don't say no now!” she added with a wink.

“E-ehh...” I stammered. A couple of other students walked past the classroom at that moment, both of them female.

“And she was like -- oh, hey, there's Daniels again with all those chicks.”

“Like really, when did he get so popular?”

“Right? Even the principal's daughter! Maybe we should find out some time...”

Huh...? are there *those* kind of rumors going around? Ah-heh... maybe I should just take the bus home and go to the mall by myself on Friday...

“Heh. Guess we're making you popular.” Ellie remarked with the most pleased grin I'd ever seen on a human being.

“Elisabeth Drew.” Andrea sighed. “If you make him more anxious about deciding he'll say no.”

How right on the money can you get?

“But since your cute girlfriend suggested going in the first place I can't imagine why you'd refuse.” Mary then said with a barely perceptible grin.

“A-ahh... heh-heh...” I stammered out, and then Rachel herself delivered the killing blow. That irrefusable pouting expression unique to all womankind, most potent against male creatures such as myself. “Ah--!! N-n-n-nothing wrong with going to the mall tonight! N-nothing at all!” I hastily yelped out, and quick as a switch her expression changed to a beaming smile.

No immunity, not even a little bit, I inwardly mused, uncertain of whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Why don't we just make a night of it, then? They have that student lounge near the food court, after all. We could help each other with studying and stuff, have some dinner, and then go home to do whatever.” Andrea suggested.

“Hey! Yeah we could!” Ellie jumped on board at once, and Mary nodded.

“That sounds like fun,” she agreed.

“It would make for a nice change after mindlessly charging through monsters all last night,” I admitted, and the others laughed.

“Riiiight?” Andrea sighed wearily. “Mary's health actually went down into the red that one time on the last boss... it was stressing me out.”

“And then Lana almost got one-shot a few times.” Mary reminded her.

“Ugh, that too.” the redhead groaned.

“I -- Lana never went below fifty percent, just so you know.” I retorted at once, and the four of them laughed again.

“Hahh, so bashful.” Ellie quipped.

We continued bantering on like this until lunch was over, after which we went our more or less separate ways to afternoon classes. When those were through, Rachel and I went to pack things away, and then out to the parking lot to meet up with the other three. As we went out the main door we saw Ty walking in; he gave us a wave and continued on his way to the office. We waved back, and resumed our trek to Ellie's car.

“Come to think of it I didn't see him this morning,” Rachel said as we walked along.

“He wasn't on the bus, no... guess he just got here... must've been something serious.” I pondered aloud.

“Hmm.”

“Felt so weird I actually flicked myself on the way in.” I recalled with a bemused look on my face.

“As long as you weren't telling yourself to not beat anyone up.” she remarked.

“Though that's not a bad sort of mantra for school.” I said with an amused grin, and she giggled.

“I guess you're right about that!” she agreed.

“Yo! Lovebirds!” Ellie called out from inside her car. Andrea was in the front seat with her; Mary was seated behind Ellie. I opened the door to let Rachel in on Andrea's side, and then got in when she was safely aboard, shutting the door behind me. “All set?” our driver asked when we had gotten buckled. “Then off we go!”

I wasn't sure what Ellie wanted to be when she got out of school. But judging from her driving skills, I'd have to guess “stuntwoman” or “race-driver”. It took a fair twenty minutes for my family to get to the mall; Ellie was there in less than ten. Once there, she split off for a while to do her interviews, and Andrea went with Mary to look at a bookstore, leaving Rachel and I to check out the camera shop.

The brilliant part of this particular shop was that, like the game store a few sections away, it had a variety of wares and displays spanning from all across the era of photography, organized by decade. So it was part shop, part museum. There were ancient cameras all the way back from the 1840s, film cameras from the early twentieth century, thirty-five millimeter cameras, polaroids and digital cameras from the more modern era, and even some displays of things called “Camera Obscura” that predated the nineteenth century. Of course, it was fascinating to look through all of these, but our more immediate design were the modern devices, which left two choices: neo-digital, or the imagers.

Neo-digital was just an improved version of the older digital cameras from a few decades ago (the details were a bit beyond my understanding, but they produced sharper images and worked better at night-time than their predecessors). The imagers were their main competitor. Not only did they have the clarity-slash-resolution and improved nocturnal imaging of the neo-digital camera, they could also record three-dimensional images and then display them in a holographic-projection as either stills or motion-picture imagery. By the way, imager cameras had been used to help create Panarena, as I understood it.

“Hmm... some tough choices, I see...” Rachel said as she looked them over.

“You'd know better than I do, I guess.” I replied.

“The older digital ones aren't bad. I have a neo-digital myself.” she continued.

“Hmm? Oh, right, like this one here.” I pointed, and she nodded.

“Yep! Same series, different model.”

“Ehh... these prices...”

“These are pretty nice prices actually, all things considered.” Rachel said.

“Hmm... I guess you've seen more shops than I have, after all.” I returned.

“True.” she nodded. “Oh wow, this imager is really cheap!” she suddenly remarked, and she reached out to examine one of the more medium sized devices. It was ten-cen wide, three-cen thick, and five-cen high. Cen, as you might imagine, is short for centimeters. The price was one-hundred and fifty.

“NXI Five-thousand, Model Three-nine-three.” I read from the packaging. “New Experimental Imager?” I wondered aloud.

“Not bad,” Rachel smiled at me. “I've heard about the three-nine-three's from a cousin of mine; she really likes it.

“Hrrmm... if I get it, it'll be scaling back any fancy restaurant dates for a while...” I said to her with a wry grin.

“True...” Rachel remarked with a tone that suggested she was both sad at the prospect but determined to go through with it anyway.

“Hah, I know that tone.” I sighed, and she smirked.

“We'll split it.” she said.

“Heh? Huh? Wha?” I suddenly wondered.

“It'll be our camera! Our little baby imager!” Rachel said as she took it off the rack.

“Hahh... I'm feeling the birth pains already...” I remarked as I pulled out my phone to send her seventy-five.

She nodded as it registered on her phone, and a few moments later we had our purchase. The two of us went to browse the bookstore after that, where Andrea and Mary soon found us. We found ourselves wandering into the fantasy, myth, and folklore section (which had finally, after all these years, separated itself from the science-fiction category), looking around at all the books and stories and such that had inspired the game we had become obsessed with.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“Let's see... 'A Comprehensive Guide to Chinese Myth'...” Andrea softly said as she read one of the titles aloud.

“Very formal.” Mary said. “'Japan: From the Age of Legends to the Age of Samurai'.” she read from another, gazing at it curiously.

“I wonder how many of these the designers of Panarena went through...” Rachel wondered as she examined another on Old Germanic folklore.

“Ellie told me that she read somewhere about the company hiring nearly two-thousand experts on mythology and ancient, medieval, or pre-modern cultures around the world to help create it.” Andrea said, and Mary whistled in awe.

“Now that's dedication.” she exclaimed.

“Wow.” was all that I could think to say.

“And they had just as many if not more than that doing the actual construction and programming, too.” Andrea added.

“That's at least four-thousand people!” Rachel remarked with surprise.

“Now that part I understand.” I remarked. “There can be dozens and even a couple hundred people working on your average game these days; the programming, mechanics, the world-building -- literal and conceptual -- the voice acting, skills, alpha-testers...” I added, shrugging at the end. “It's kind of amazing, really. And kind of sad in some cases.”

“Sad?” Mary wondered.

“Like if a game doesn't really take off, then all that effort by all those people kind of goes to waste.” I said, and the other three nodded in understanding.

“That's true; I never thought about that before.” Mary said.

“Yikes.” Andrea remarked.

“Did you ever play one like that?” Rachel asked me.

“One or two... they were fun concepts, too, but they came out when Void Crisis and Midgard Rings were a huge thing and they all got swept aside.” I replied.

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah.”

“All-righty... I've gotten all the books I really wanted here anyway, and Mary found a couple for herself; should we keep browsing or head for the lounge?” Andrea asked us.

“I'm gonna get a couple of these, first,” Rachel said, selecting the two books that Andrea and Mary had mentioned earlier.

“Sure! We'll wait for you there, then.” Andrea replied, and the two older girls headed off to the lounge first.

“You should get one, too.” Rachel smiled.

“Eh? Hmm...” I paused, wondering to myself. “I feel like the camera is enough for this trip...” I remarked softly, a wry expression on my face.

“Here!” she then said, planting a book in front of my face.

Ireland: Myths and Prehistory, a study by S. Moore.

“Oh cool!” I couldn't help but remark. “Ehh... sure, you're right. I'll get it.” I agreed, and Rachel smiled happily at me.

About an hour after that, Ellie joined us in a slightly exhausted and partly dejected mood. She sat down with us at the circle-booth we had commandeered, and let out a sigh. Andrea gently pushed a soda towards her, and she opened it lethargically.

“Bad interview?” Andrea wondered.

“The first one was okay; the second one went bad. I thought it was going well, and then I made a light joke that didn't go over, and totally felt like I was trying to make up for it the rest of the interview... ugghh, he was dis-gust-ingly stonefaced. I can't believe he runs the Fun Castle Wing of the mall.” Ellie grumbled.

“Oh wow, you actually got an interview with the Phineas Taylor Barnum the Second?” Mary asked with amazement.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess that would be him, wouldn't it...” the reply came. She then sipped on her drink idly for a few moments.

“I think you have a chance.” Mary then said, and Ellie about choked.

“No way!” the blonde girl said as she recovered herself, still coughing.

“But my father said he only personally interviews people he's interested in.” the older girl returned.

“I heard that too,” Andrea nodded.

“Wow,” Rachel remarked.

“My old lady's said something like that a couple times. 'Even if PTB the Second himself interviewed you, you'd never get a circus job!' -- is something she likes to yammer at me now and again.” I added.

“Aww, that's mean!” Andrea said as she tried not to laugh.

“But the point I think is that everyone he interviews gets the job no matter how bad the interview seems to go.” I said, and the other two nodded.

“Exactly.” Mary said.

“Hahh... well then.” Ellie sighed, “I guess there's hope for me yet -- though if that first one goes through, I'm definitely taking it.”

“But if the second one does go through, I'd forget the first. That guy's ahead of the curve in the entertainment business. I heard he even invested in the Dream Machine's development so he could begin work on a virtual arcade coming out next summer.” I suggested with a shrug.

“Hmm?” Ellie remarked as she looked at me inquisitively. “So you do think about real life opportunities now and again.”

“I don't want to hear that from the person who was having a stupidly fun time being a windmill of death last night.” I retorted at once, and Ellie snorted with laughter.

“True!” she agreed.

“But now that we're here in the real world, it's time to enjoy our pizza and focus on homework assignments!” Mary then said to us.

“Somehow those seem mutually exclusive,” Andrea said with a lopsided smile.

“Not for me!” Rachel and I both said at once, and we laughed.

***

Homework was not as bad with the five of us collaborating together to finish it off; by the time seven o'clock rolled around, we had finished it--along with the pizzas--and at seven-ten we finally left the mall so Ellie could drive us all home. On the way, we agreed that we should at least try and find the wayport for the second dungeon, and so by the time eight-thirty came along the five of us were back in Panarena after all.

“Come to think of it, I would have felt guilty leaving this poor guy all alone for another six Panarena days or so...” I remarked as I loaded in near Sallymander.

“That probably would have scarred my conscience a little bit too,” Ari admitted as she joined me.

Our three friends loaded in shortly after we did, and as soon as we had sold off our junk and gotten things repaired at the local traders we made our way east by northeast towards the Frost Dungeon.

The area around here was much more marsh-like than the previous area. It was more temperate in climate, more wet, faintly humid, and the overall atmosphere had a hint of gloom about it. This area, I sensed, had the proper wyrd-ness which had given the marshes their name. Trees with thick trunks and massive roots that rose up and out of the ground to form odd tunnel-like formations at their bases, their canopies all but blotting out the skies above. Birds of the scavenger kind hung about their boughs, gazing idly or with anticipatory glances at the things going on below. Frogs and toads lounged around lazily, their half-closed eyes paying us no mind. In the distance we could see a massive turtle-shell nestled in a marsh-glade; we decided to avoid it at all costs.

There were several strange kinds of gators waiting for us, most of them with strong physical resistance and a couple of them with magical reflects. I could see serpents and other snake-type monsters slithering or even swimming about; I kept a wary eye on these. A few of them did attack us, but we managed to down them pretty quickly. As they changed from normal to elite, I suggested that we try and skirt the area to avoid tangling with another possible field boss. The others agreed; all our attention tonight was focused on finding the dungeon. We had no desire to take up more time with unneeded side-quests.

After at least two hours, we noticed that the terrain we were crossing into was becoming colder. All five of us looked at each other and nodded; we had found the area we were looking for. We gathered around Ariana as she used her far-seeing skills to see what she could see. A few moments later, she alighted on something that could possibly be our dungeon.

Her range for seeing was limited, so we could only just see it, but we could make out the shape of a castle-like structure that seemed to be made out of ice and snow. That's *too* literal, I thought to myself with a grimace. We could see the shapes of monsters and other creatures that pathed around the castle; until we got closer, we wouldn't know exactly what they were, but I was certain that some of them were troll-like and that there were a couple which seemed to be floating, probably wisps of some kind. I mentioned this to the others, and Lizzy agreed.

“They had a special frost-maiden boss in the beta-test one time; those floating things remind me of her.” she remarked.

“Like a cold-banshee?” Maryn wondered.

“Pretty much; cold-banshee, frost-witch, something like that.”

“How far away are we?” Healina asked.

“This is like on the absolute limit of my skill-radius; it's probably a couple game hours away.” Ariana replied.

“Hmm... maybe we could poke around if we get there soon enough... I mean, it'll only have been an hour since we got on in real life, but if we're still feeling penitent about cutting it close last night...?” Maryn said to us with a faint grin.

“Kind of but not really.” Lizzy shrugged.

“I'm good for whatever.” Heali added.

“If Lana goes for it, I'll go, too.” Ari remarked.

“Ehh.” I shrugged. “We'll see when we get there.” I said, pulling up the map.

“Fair enough.” Maryn nodded back.

“Oh, the map updated,” I noticed. “Hmm... 'Valley of Terror-Frost', 'The Icewood', and the 'Frozen Ascent'.”

“All directly in our path,” Lizzy sighed as she examined her own map.

“It'd take too long to go around any of this,” Ariana said as she examined the map I had out. “Might as well travel through them, and at least find a wayport or a safe haven to log out if it takes all our time.”

“And then we'll have Friday night to get it done.” Healina nodded in agreement.

“Sounds good to me.” I said, putting the map away. Lizzy did the same, readying her halberd. The rest of us readied our own weapons, and we resumed our march through the snow-bound region in the Marshes of the Wyrd.

I don't know exactly what I expected to find in the Valley of Terror-Frost. At the very least I figured on spectral-type monsters with ice or other cold-based attacks. And there were a couple of these every now and again to be sure. But I didn't expect the name to be quite so literal. The frost itself would form into an incorporeal being as we passed through, and would then place an immobilizing effect on a couple of us -- a “fear effect”, if you will. Then we would be further ambushed by ice-sprites, winter-themed creatures such as wolves, bears, or even owls, along with the occasional yeti-like beast that just would not stand and fight for anything, preferring to hurl objects at us from a distance and scamper off anytime we got close.

Fortunately, after the first of these little ambushes we wisely decided that Healina should keep up an immunity shield on herself and Maryn, so that no matter who was attacked the two of them could at least keep our attackers from damaging the rest of us right off the bat. And if either of them or both were hit by the terror-frost ambush, they would be unaffected, leaving us free to counterattack much quicker. Healina did need a few moments to free the trapped victim, after all.

Well, these shenanigans continued for about forty minutes or so, and then we finally came to the end of the valley, where we found more shenanigans waiting for us. This time there were three terror-frosts, and one of them was a boss. This one had the unfortunate ability to overcome Healina's immunity spell; fortunately, the monster-algorithm goofed up a bit, and for whatever reason Healina was not targeted by any of the three. At the same time, however, the rest of us were not so lucky. Maryn, Lizzy, Ariana, and I watched helplessly -- and with great amusement -- as Healina ran around trying to avoid being attacked while she summoned minion after minion to aid her.

After about five minutes (more or less), she had finally conjured enough to keep the attackers occupied, and at last she was able to free Maryn and Ariana. Then she got targeted again, and the whole scene basically replayed itself while Ari and Maryn scampered around to keep the aggro off of her. It settled down a lot quicker this time, and finally she was able to free Lizzy and myself, whereupon the two of us very irritably dove in to the melee and began thrashing our attackers with a will. It took us nearly twenty minutes more, but at last we finished off the boss fight in the valley, and after getting our victory rewards we continued on without even looking back at the place. Inwardly I made a mental note to keep an eye out for other places like it.

Then we got to the Icewood. As you might imagine, this place was fairly self-explanatory. All the trees, bushes, and lesser plants in the area were quite frosted. The monsters here ranged from crystal elk to frosted wood-demons, along with another incorporeal monster, shiver-maidens. They were hauntingly beautiful creatures (literally) that hovered a few inches off of the ground; they would summon ice-spirits and ice-sprites to aid them as they cast ice-bolts at us. There was always the faint sound of bells whenever they approached, so they weren't exactly ambushers in any sense of the word. A ghostly, muted wail would come from their lips at times; we quickly learned that this was a cold spell which could rapidly drain our health.

After the first few fights in the Icewood we became very wary, almost paranoid, of being attacked. Ariana then wondered if we could circumvent fighting the monsters in this part of the area by climbing into the tree-tops and jumping through their boughs like a squirrel to reach the other side.

“Anything would be better than trying to stay on top of that health-drain,” Healina said quite eagerly.

“Once you get your skills a bit higher, something like that should be no problem.” Lizzy told her. “And besides, you already have some great HoTs that kept us up through the fight.”

“Yeah, just barely,” our Sea Elf grumbled.

As I half-listened to them going on back and forth about it, I decided to see if Ari's idea would work. I walked over to a nearby pine, probably one of the easiest trees to climb in any reality, and began my ascent. It lasted maybe ten seconds before a pair of menacing eyes opened up and looked directly at me. With a scream I kicked off and landed on the snow with a thump. The others turned at once, seeing the docile pine tree suddenly come alive.

“Oh, snap...!!” Lizzy remarked, and the others backed up a pace as I scrambled to my feet. Then I saw it. I had accidentally woken a field boss.

King of the Icewood.

“Ahh--!!” I stammered, watching as the eyes fixated on us.

“I guess climbing trees is out...” Ariana squeaked softly.

“No kidding!” Lizzy returned.

“Here it comes!” Maryn said, stepping forth as she tapped her shield in challenge.

“Here we go...!” I muttered, taking out my daggers.

Now, this guy had a lot of attacks that were kind of similar to many other attacks by tree-type monsters in other games. Dropping bee's nests (frozen hornets, in this case), trying to halt our moving around with roots, and even trying to outright stomp on us (two of its bigger roots served as feet or legs). But there were a few new ones on me; for one thing, it could shoot frosted pine-needles at us. Also, it had two branches that were effectively arms, and it used these to try and swat at us or grab us. Ariana got seized at one point, and it began literally squeezing the life out of her.

A switch flipped in my brain.

Without even really thinking about it I activated flame damage on my daggers, and began slicing and stabbing the arm that held her like a mad-person. An incoherent yell raged out of my body the whole duration of the attack. Just as her health was in the low red it finally let go, and I ceased my attack to go and catch her. She landed safely in my arms, and Healina quickly shot her with major heals while Maryn and Lizzy grabbed our enemy's attention once more.

“Whew!” Healina sighed with relief. “That was too close!” she remarked as Ariana pressed her lips against mine. I returned her kiss fervently, my mind still racing with fury about almost losing her.

I mean, okay, sure, it's a game; if you die, you don't really die. You just go back to a wayport or a rezz point or something. I know that. I know it. No one knows it better than me. But reason and emotion hardly go hand-in-hand.

Our lips parted, and she smiled at me. I helped her to her feet as Healina turned back to aiding the other two, and she let out a sigh of relief.

“This virtual reality stuff really does mess with your head, you know?” she said gently, trying to calm herself down. “I thought for some reason I actually was going to die.”

“I know,” I returned just as softly. “You okay?”

“I'm recovered enough to get back at that nasty tree.” Ari said with a determined grin, which I returned.

“Same here. Let's go, partner.” I said to her, and she nodded. I took out my bow this time as she raised her staff, and we rejoined the attack.

After that we managed to figure out what precipitated each major attack of the boss, and so avoided any more hair-raising incidents during the fight. When he reached fifty-percent health, he summoned a wave of minions, mostly frosted wood-demons but also a few crystal elk, which we kept busy with until they were all gone. We then proceeded to literally burn down his health from there, and when he was down the five of us sat together in a back-to-back circle for a few minutes to recuperate.

“Oh, look, a resource cache,” Lizzy said after a while.

“Nice.” Healina returned tiredly.

“Rare and unique ingredients for potion crafters and smiths--very nice.” the blonde girl corrected.

“Sure.” the platinum-haired girl smiled back.

“Maybe everything else will leave us alone from now on,” Maryn said as she got into position to get up.

“That would be nice,” Lizzy grunted as she stood up, “But unlikely.”

“You never know.” Healina remarked, getting up with Maryn. I sprang up next, helping Ari to her feet, and we reoriented ourselves to head towards the dungeon.

“True. You never do know in this game.” Lizzy agreed. “Heck, you can't even climb a dang tree,” she quipped airily, and my face scrunched up into a wry expression.

“Oh, shut up,” I muttered under my breath, and Ari giggled.

We resumed our trek. In the wake of the boss' defeat, the creatures of the Icewood did actually give us a wide berth. I suppose it could have been part of their programming, giving the players a certain window of time to pass through unmolested until the boss regenerated for the next party. Whatever the reason it was a welcome reprieve. And then we got to the Frozen Ascent.

Again, literal. This was a massive flight of stairs that led up to what we could now see was more of an ice palace than a castle. And the stairs -- if you guessed they were covered in ice, you guessed correctly. There were ice-soldiers and ice-knights lining their sides, and with Ariana's far-seeing we could see a few of the yeti monsters further ahead, along with more shiver-maidens and a couple of walking trees.

“Lovely.” Maryn sighed, and then looked over towards the left. “Oh hey! A wayport!” she then said, and the five of us immediately rushed over towards it, then stowed ourselves away in an empty structure nearby. Sallymander then finally reappeared, bringing a bundle of herbs and plants in its mouth.

“About time you turned back up!” Lizzy said scoldingly. Sallymander merely flicked its tongue, setting its burden down before us.

“Let's see here,” Ariana said as she picked them up. “Properties: high frost-resistance to frost-immunity; excellent to outstanding flame damage with bonus damage-over-time effects; and slip-resistance... slip resistance?” she suddenly wondered, and then all five of us looked over towards the stairs with dismay.

“You're kidding.” Lizzy said flatly.

“They're actually made of ice and not just covered in it,” Maryn remarked with a hint of amazement.

“Whew!” Healina shook her head. “Good save, Sally.” she said to our pet, who flicked its tongue contentedly.

“I think we should save this shenanigan for tomorrow... after we get some potions crafted.” I then said.

“Good idea.” Maryn agreed.

“We accomplished our main objective for the night anyway; finding the place.” Lizzy nodded.

“I'll log in early tomorrow and get some done.” Heali then said.

“Yeah, I think I've had enough excitement for tonight.” Ari said bemusedly.

“I don't doubt it.” Lizzy smirked back.

“Okay; see you all tomorrow then!” Maryn said, and with that she logged out first. Lizzy and Heali poofed as well, leaving Ariana and I alone with the salamander.

“Poor guy... hope he doesn't freeze.” Ari suddenly said, and I suddenly felt much guiltier than before about leaving him alone.

“Ahh...” I looked around the old building quickly. “We can close the doors and windows... and there's some meat and stuff in our inventory from the crystal elk... not sure how that works but it's there...” I noted as I opened my inventory.

“Right? That is weird...” Ari agreed as she also opened hers.

“We can leave him enough snacks while we're gone... oh hey! You have some of those magic crystals, right?” I said as I took out the meat in question.

“Hmm? Oh! I see; yes, I can definitely do something with those!” she smiled back as she took out her share of the meat and three of the crystals in question. We set the meat on the floor near a hearth for our little friend, and then Ari set the crystals in the hearth itself. “I'll enchant them to radiate heat in turn; the first one for now, the second one to go off when that expires, and then the third to last until we get back.” she continued as she operated the spell-menu on them.

“Nice!” I grinned.

“Hey, it was your idea.” Ari returned as she finished.

“Yeah, but I didn't quite know what to do with them.” I shrugged, and she winked back at me.

“That's why we're a team!” she said.

“Definitely!” I agreed.

“Okay; Sally's all set. See you tomorrow?” she then said, and I nodded.

“See you tomorrow.” I told her as we shared a hug. The two of us then logged out for the night, departing Panarena to the safety of our beds. I set the Dream Machine on its charger, and fell asleep moments later.