After the two of us made our way through the homework (which I swear is always a huge pile every start of a semester), we ended the call to have dinner at our respective houses, and then as usual I was released to go upstairs again, where I very quickly dove in to Panarena to forget that I was a student for the next few hours -- well, subjective hours, at least. Time acceleration is not good for nothing. I loaded up in Bethelia with a sigh of exasperated relief.

“You okay?” Ariana asked me.

“Hm? Oh, just glad to be back. You got on early, huh?” I replied.

“We had pizza, and I wasn't that hungry.” she shrugged back. “I think the others are at Queen's Haven, though,” she added as she looked at the roster.

“Well, Maryn will load up here too,” I pointed out.

“Oh true! We'll wait for her and then head back.”

“Welcome back, masters,” Fyu called as he approached. “Are we to head south soon? Or shall we continue building up your new estate?”

“Hmm...” I returned, pondering for a moment. Maryn then materialized, and the rest of the gang started arriving from the wayport.

“Yo! Leader! Where're we headed?” Lizzy said as she lead the others up to the porch.

“H--Lana hasn't decided, yet,” Ariana said, bashfully grinning over at me in apology.

“Hmm?” the blonde Nordian remarked, coming over to grab me in a gentle headlock. “I'll stock up on supplies and stuff for this place with Der and Heali in a couple days; right now there's an event quest at some village up in Bretony; wanna check it out?”

“Bretony?” I looked over at her.

“Master, there was a rumor from one of the beast-folk who visited here that Bretonnic villages are being raided by goblins that have recently sprang from a cave in that land; it would be an honor to go and fight them with you,” Fyu said to me.

“Hmm... Bretony's south of us, too, so we can waggon up and head for the train... we can do that!” I nodded back, and with that we were soon geared up and off on our adventure for the night.

“You forget how big this world can be, until you get on one of these trains,” Lysandra said as we all sat with Fyu in the waggon car.

“It really amazes me,” Anhe nodded in agreement.

“So, kiddos, how was that first day back at school?” Belle asked us. The six of us who were in high school groaned together as one. “That good, huh?” our pixie quipped as Lysandra stifled a giggle.

“I don't know what the rest of them are complaining for,” Maryn sighed, “I'm the one who's getting ready for university.”

“Oh, right,” Lizzy recalled, clapping her hands together. “You're aiming for AILE, right?”

“Yep.” Maryn nodded back.

“Ooh...” Belle whistled with awe.

“Good luck, girlie.” Lysandra said.

“And of course Der and Heali are now making their own university plans... what about you three? Or have you gotten that far yet?” Lizzy turned to the younger three of us.

“I do not yet know exactly what I am going to do for higher education, but I might go overseas for it,” Anhe told us.

“Aww! We'll miss you!” Belle said, and Anhe smiled back.

“I will always try to log in and spend time with you!” she replied, cupping Belle in her hands as the pixie-girl beamed back.

“Good!” she smiled. “What about Ari?” she then turned to the Wood Elf, who leaned back thoughtfully.

“Hmm... personally I'd like to try aiming for the local university... but I want to check with Sean about it over the summer so we can start planning it out, if he's up for it.” Ariana remarked.

“Hm? But Sean's--ohh, right,” Belle started, then grinned as she caught on. “La-na, where do you think about going?” she said in a teasing way.

“I never really thought about it.” I shrugged. “I guess it'll depend on what Ari wants.” I said, but Ariana herself seemed dissatisfied with that, affecting a soft pout.

“Have some ambition,” she poked at me. “Besides winning video-game tournaments.” she added with a grin.

“But those are more fun.” I quipped back, and some of the others began giggling.

“She's got a point,” Lysandra shrugged, a smile on her face. The train suddenly picked up speed, and began whooshing through the countryside of Kingsmark.

“Where's this thing dropping us off again?” Healina wondered.

“Ehh, some place called Duntorc,” Lizzy told her. “It'll be south of the village we want to go to.”

“Duntorc...” I murmured softly. “Boar Fort.”

Sure enough, when we got to the place about a Panarena hour later, the design of the city's banners had a red and green field with a black boar's head emblazoned upon them. We exited the car with Fyu, and then hitched him back up to the waggon before heading along the southward road -- not without a word of warning from the guards, which activated the quest we wanted.

“Here we go!” Lizzy cried out excitedly as we set off, letting out a whoop as Fyu began galloping down the road.

“Someone's wound up tonight,” I remarked to Ari and Healina, the latter smiling at me.

“She had a rough afternoon with classes,” our Sea Elf mouthed to me, and I put a hand over my mouth to keep my smile hidden.

“Where's Der, anyway?” Ari then wondered.

“He had work after our date.” she shrugged.

“Hmm? But not Lizzy?” Belle wondered.

“Not tonight,” the smith shrugged. “Today and Saturday are my best bets for the week; if I get on any other time I'mma gather resources for stuff.”

“I'll help, if I'm on.” Lysandra told her. Lizzy smiled back.

“Cool!”

“Masters, I can see the village ahead; there is a force of goblins almost upon them now!” Fyu told us.

“I see them,” I said as I sat up a bit to get a better view. “Fyu, slow down a bit and path along the edge,” I told him, and he began to do so. “Anhe, you hop out with Maryn and Belle, get the northeast side; Lysandra, take Lizzy and head to the square; Ari, Heali, back them up; I'll unhitch Fyu when we get to the south side and we'll come in from that direction.”

“Okay!” Anhe said.

“You got it, kiddo!” Lysandra nodded.

“Right!” Ari agreed, and we split off into our assigned groups to begin our defense of the little village.

I wasn't exactly sure how goblins figured into a region specifically modeled on Roman or Arthurian Britain, but then it is a pan-fantasy game. Then again the quest itself was a random event quest, and cross-genre stuff like this can happen. Anyway. It was time to stop thinking about that and to start focusing on getting rid of the little green fiends.

Our strategy routed them pretty quickly; there were four waves of goblins that attacked us before a hobgoblin chieftain showed up for us to deal with, and then the quest led us to another town. With no alterations to our plan, we went in to deal with the goblins there as quickly as we could; at once we noticed they were slightly stronger and a bit smarter, so we started adjusting our strategy as we went along, focusing equally on defense and offense until we had more or less routed them, then taking down the wily chieftain there before we had to move on to the next village.

We discussed en-route how we were going to deal with this next batch of goblins, whom we were presuming would again be both smarter and stronger than the last ones. This time, we would split up into pairs, mostly. Heali would ride around with Fyu, Belle would go with Maryn, Anhe and Lizzy would pair up, Ari and I would form our usual duo, and Lysandra would terrorize the outlying goblins on her own. Our hope was that these small formations would maximize our efficiency while letting us cover more territory to deal with the goblins; very quickly we found out that they had gotten much harder, and we soon found ourselves reforming our pairs into larger groups, focusing on a defense of the town-hall where the villagers and guards had gathered.

Ari and I went up to the rooftop to give Healina less to do (we hoped), and Sky Belle came with us for support while the others stayed down on the ground. Besides the fact that these goblins were getting stronger, I also noticed that they were starting to have different fighting types. The first village only had spear or sword-wielding goblins; the previous one had added archers; now there were mounted goblins, who were riding on hell-wargs, and there were a few shamans in the mix as well.

“Tch! I should've guessed they'd start jumping up the difficulty!” I griped as I continued firing arrows.

“Is this normal for a game?” Ariana wondered.

“Oh def!” Belle nodded. “Though this does feel a bit weird? Like they just randomly dialed it up to eleven midway instead of waiting for us to make all the rounds.”

“I'd guess it has to do with our levels.” I returned.

“Ooh, there you go.” the pixie-girl nodded in agreement.

“Hah, no wonder,” Ari sighed as she began preparing a devastating area-spell for a medium-sized contingent approaching from the south. She let loose the barrage of flaming wrath a moment later, and the goblins began shrieking and scattering.

“Lana!” Maryn called up, and as soon as I looked down towards her she pointed with her sword.

“N'gyahh?!” I gaped as my eyes followed the direction it pointed; heading towards us with an entourage of hobgoblin chieftains (which I could recognize because they had special badges on their baldrics) was a very, very large goblin. How large? He could definitely pluck us from the rooftops once he got closer, and the club in his hand looked like it had once been a tree.

“Uh-oh.” Belle remarked as she glanced over.

“Uh-oh!?” I returned at once. “More like, heck no!”

“Oh, come on! We beat a vault-boss!” she cheerily quipped back.

“We had a dragon with us.” I reminded her.

“Ah-heh!” she giggled back.

“Lana, it's getting closer.” Ariana told me.

“Hrrmm... if I could keep out of range, maybe I could bring it down...”

“Hmm...? You think it's got magic-resist?” my partner asked me.

“I mean, the hobgobs had a moderate resist; this thing probably has a stronger one.”

“Ahh, true,” she nodded.

“Don't trust your speed on the ground to keep you safe?” Belle asked me.

“N-not with that thing,” I shook my head.

“All-righty, here we go, kiddo!” she said, transforming to human size and quickly swapping into a dress before hoisting me onto her shoulders and taking off into the air.

“Wah--!!” I exclaimed in surprise as I felt myself going up into the air.

“Ready?” she asked me as she got a firm grip on my legs, and I nodded back.

“Maryn, Anhe, lead him around the edge of town!” I called down.

“You got it!” Maryn called back, and the two of them hurried out while Ariana jumped down to help the others.

While they led the--goblin king, I guess?--on a romp around the edge of the town, I rained down arrow after arrow upon him while Belle kept me out of range and out of mind. Meanwhile, Fyu came to join the chase as the goblins around the cathedral lessened, taking down the chieftains who were also following Maryn and Anhe one by one. It was incredible how in-sync the two of them were, Maryn's already indomitable stats being bolstered by Anhe's auras; she had a speed one going for sure, and either a resilience or a health-booster going too.

We steadily wore the big guy down on our wild little chase, and then just as we had gotten him down to thirteen-percent health I ran out of arrows. I double-checked my inventory just in case.

Nothing!! Nothing at all?? … I guess I didn't count on meeting something near this guy's stats, though... he has a ridiculously high amount of health if I look at the actual numbers... is he regenerating?!

“He's regenerating!” Maryn called up to me.

“Grr!!” I sighed.

“Out of arrows??” Belle asked me.

“Of course it happens now,” I sighed. Then I recalled Myanihia saying that one of the few things her trick with the two skills that she had taught me were world-bosses and the like. “Well, this isn't a world-boss... might as well try it... Belle, fly up a bit and then drop me on top of him!”

“Huh?!”

“Hurry!” I said to her, and she flew up to a higher altitude.

“You're sure about this?” she asked me.

“Yep!”

“O-kay, kiddo, bombs away!” she said, and gently flipped me off of her shoulders so that I ended up in a dive.

I quickly vanished into the shadows, and then enacted that fatal combo of Doomstrike and Crimson Heart-stinger once I reached the boss. The regenerated fifteen-percent health went to zero instantly, and the monster went up in flaming pixels as he howled in defeat. The rest of the goblins began scattering, and the townsfolk cheered. I managed to land on my feet like a cat, and the others regrouped with me as the quest updated again.

“Nice!” Lizzy exclaimed with a smile.

“Very nice!” Anhe smiled.

“I am impressed, master.” Fyu said as he joined us.

“Phew!” Belle said as she returned to her normal size, exchanging her large outfit for the one she usually wore. “And would you believe they want us to go to another village after all that??”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I believe it.” Lysandra grinned, shrugging. “Fair chance this might be the last one, though,” she added as she opened the quest-log to look.

“That one's... west of us?” Healina said as she looked as well.

“I can already see the smoke of battle,” Fyu remarked. “We must make haste!”

“Lhyn Glarryn, huh?” I read aloud.

“The cathedral town!” a villager exclaimed. “Hurry, brave heroes! You must save it!”

“Let's get the waggon and hurry!” I said, and we raced off to hitch Fyu to the waggon once more before racing off towards the west where the smoke was rising.

***

Lhyn Glarryn was a bit harder to get to. There were several raiding parties of goblins on the way, and the terrain was steep and hilly. The town itself was nestled in a valley surrounded by forests on the north side, a wide swath of fields on the east, and open plains with a river going through them on the south and west. We hastened down a tricky pathway winding its way down from the heights of a ridge, slicing up a few goblins in our way as we did.

“Lana,” Anhe tapped my shoulder. She pointed towards the west, where about five of the large goblin-kings were striding slowly towards the town.

“Hahh... are you kidding me?” I sighed. “I wonder how long it would take Dracuoatlax to get here...”

“Too long, I bet,” Ariana said. “And we don't have that person from Dreamers Fables, either.”

“Oh, yeah, the portal mage,” I recalled, and then jolted. “Portals!” I started.

“Huh??” Ariana looked over at me. I turned to her, and placed my hands on her shoulders.

“How's that spell you were working on a few days ago?” I asked her with a grin.

“Hm? Oh! That one!” she smiled as the memory surfaced.

A few days ago, Ariana had unlocked some traits and skills that would allow her to create a new spell: Abyssal Portal. It worked one of two ways, she had told me: if you turned your staff counter-clockwise to cast it, the portal would summon something; but if you turned it clockwise while casting, the portal would drag in any nearby monsters and send them to their doom. Overpowered? Yes. It was so overpowered, in fact, that when Ariana created it she was slightly miffed to see that it had a one real-week cooldown. And it took about three minutes to cast properly anyway, so there was that, too.

“The Abyssal Portal spell??” Healina wondered excitedly.

“Yep!” my partner said gleefully.

“All right; Maryn and Anhe, you come with me and Ari; the rest of you head for the cathedral and help the guards and townsfolk.” I then said.

“Got it, boss!” Lizzy nodded.

“Belle!” Lysandra called as she jumped out of the waggon and transformed, racing towards the goblins in wolf-form while Belle supported her. Ari, Maryn, and Anhe followed me as I leapt off from the other side to make a circuit of the town and head for the large goblins, and Lizzy and Heali rode the rest of the way with Fyu into town.

“Round them up, right?” Maryn said as she drew out her sword and Anhe took out her staff.

“As best you can!” I said, getting my bow ready. “Where do you want to cast it?” I turned to Ariana, who gestured towards a bend in the river.

“That looks good!”

“Ooh, that does look perfect.” Maryn agreed.

“Maryn! Hurry!” Anhe said, and the two of them dashed off while Ari and I headed over to the bend in the river.

I looked back towards the town to check on the others; Lizzy and Heali were in perfect sync, our brave little healer summoning up all sorts of creatures to help distract or fight the goblins while Lizzy transformed into her lightning-fast whirlwind of death. Lysandra was tearing up the ones trying to get into town, and I assumed Belle was nearby her from the shimmering sparkles and occasional shock of power I could see. As they continued fighting, I heard the sound of Maryn's taunts; she and Anhe had begun.

“They've got the one... oh, two of them,” I noted as I watched, starting to nock my bow so I could start picking off the more normal-sized goblins before I remembered I had no arrows left.

“Her aggro-skills have a target limit, don't they?” Ariana said to me as she began preparing her skill.

“Ehh, twelve main targets, I think? I can probably whittle down those lesser chieftains, but you'll be alone for a few minutes...” I said as I put my bow away to get out my short-swords.

“I'll put up Pyroclastic Ward.” she shrugged, and I nodded back. I jumped into the shadows, and went to help Maryn and Anhe. Seconds later I heard the sound of fire and brimstone; Ari had placed her ward.

As soon as I reached the first goblin-chief, I took it down with that special combo-skill, and then took out the next with a different series of strikes before vanishing into the shadows again.

“Looks like Lana finally remembered she ran out of arrows,” I heard Anhe remark. From the shadows I gave her a soft glare (which she couldn't see), and saw a smirk on her face. I reappeared to take down two shamans in a single blow, and then Maryn got the attention of the third great goblin. She bashed one of the smaller ones in the head with her shield, and Anhe and I took it out while it was dazed.

“I think I can get that fourth one,” Maryn said as we dashed along, “But that fifth is going to be trouble. He's already near the town.”

“Trouble, huh?” I mused. We took down a few more of the chieftains and shamans, and then Maryn got the fourth great goblin's attention. The fifth, meanwhile, had closed the distance to the town.

“Tch! If I try to go back for him I might lose a couple!” Maryn grunted.

“Then take the ones you have to Ari, she's nearly ready!” I told her, and she nodded back.

“What about that one?” Anhe asked me.

“I'll probably just do the thing again.” I shrugged as I gave her a soft pat on the shoulder and zoomed off into stealth.

“Hm? Oh!” our staff-wielder smiled as she recalled, and then resumed helping Maryn corral the four large goblins and their minions towards Ariana.

Come to think of it, I don't even think I got to see her try this out the first time... if she tried it out at all... I mused to myself as I came up on the great goblin that Lizzy and Lysandra were now facing. I leaped forth, enacting that deadly skill combo, and the monster in question went down to zero health, leaving me with an unidentified ring for loot.

“Niiice.” Lysandra said as she put away her sword, shifting back to human-form.

“Whew!” Healina sighed in relief.

“What about the other four?” Belle wondered, flying up higher to get a good view. We all turned to look towards the bend in the river, where Ariana was now thumping down her staff to unleash her trap. A deep boom was heard, and then the ominous sound of a bell tolled out as the sky went dark.

“Oh boy...!” I said with a shiver.

“What--!!” Lysandra started as we caught sight of storm clouds overhead.

The ground shook for a moment, and then two bolts of lightning struck down near Ari and stayed there, joined by several other bolts which began weaving and intertwining themselves with one another until it formed a more or less round shape. An eerie, ghastly chorus sounded, and a mass of dark energy formed a swirling vortex within the ring of lightning; it expanded, and then drew in the great goblins with their entourages as if it was an arcane vacuum cleaner, and then closed in upon itself before disappearing, goblins and all.

“N-no wonder it has a one-week cooldown...” Healina laughed nervously.

“S-seriously... you and her are getting some insane skills... w-we need to catch up somehow...” Lysandra sighed.

“Ah-heh-heh-heh...” I grinned wryly. “Oh, the quest log updated,” I then noticed.

“Go and see Duke Lordson for your reward, huh?” Lizzy read. “There's a creative name.”

“L-Lordson? Really?? That's the best they can do?!” I protested with disappointment at the simple name.

“Duke Lordson oversees these regions from his castle on Owl Hill,” one of the NPCs remarked. “You should go see him at once, adventurers! He will want to hear of your success!”

“I forgot how oblivious some of them are...” I muttered, and Lysandra stifled a snort.

Anyhow. We went to Owl Hill Castle after wrapping things up at Lhyn Glarryn, and were given an experience boost as a reward, along with a fair dose of gold. With our job done, we hurried on back to Xuanpu, leisurely heading through the countryside of Bretony towards the nearest wayport. We found one in a quiet grove of oak and pine, and headed through it with Fyu and the waggon to Queen's Haven, where we set Fyu loose from his waggon duties so he could take a well-earned rest.

“All-righty!” Lizzy then clapped her hands together. “I'mma go romp through the Vales a bit to get some ore, and maybe some wood.”

“I'll go with you.” Healina said.

“Me too!” Anhe raised her hand eagerly.

“Wanna go do that other quest?” Lysandra said to Belle.

“Sure! Oh, Maryn, you wanted to do that one also, right?” the pixie-girl asked.

“Hmm? Ohh, the raiders thing... sure!” the other girl smiled.

With that, the eight of us parted ways for the time being, the six of them heading off to do their thing while Ari went inside to do some crafting and I decided to change into more casual clothes and bask in the starlight on the beach. A soft breeze wisped past, and I felt a small shiver in the otherwise warm evening.

Seriously, the realism in this world, I thought to myself with awe. Come to think of it, I should get a few targets or so and practice my archery... ahh--!! Need to get arrows, too... we have enough gold I could get a decent pile of medium arrows from Yu or Ti'jori... should just do that anyway. But dang it, I didn't expect that thing to take a whole five quivers to beat, I bemusedly reflected.

“Hahh... that was probably meant for a raid, not a bunch of super-strong players with nutty skills...” I remarked aloud. I spent a few more minutes lying there, and then slipped off my outfit to go swimming for a few minutes.

You can train up a breath skill in this game to stay underwater for longer periods of time; I could go about fifteen minutes now without surfacing, just enough time to do something sneaky if we were ever in a PvP battle at sea. Probably. But here around the guild-home, it was just a nice little bonus to help me stay underwater and admire the seascape below the surface. There was a small coral reef to one side, and a cavern just beyond it with an old shipwreck inside. I liked to “train” myself on the shipwreck, to sharpen myself up in case we ever really did get into trouble on the high seas. There were a couple of chests with gold coins inside it, but they were part of the landscape, sadly, and could not be collected.

Personally I suspected there was a quest somewhere that would let me pick them up eventually, but I hadn't found it yet. For now, I could only admire it.

Oh, there's a special seaweed down here as well that Ari and Heali like to make use of for potions and such. As soon as I remembered this, I began collecting a few of them, along with some shells and oysters, and a couple of rocks that looked interesting. As soon as I had what I wanted in my inventory, I swam back to shore, donned my clothes again, and hurried up to the hall. After placing what I had collected in the storeroom for them to find later, I went to the kitchen to make some tea.

Oh, right, I also scanned that into the computer... I noted to myself, and used the game interface to bring up the thing in question: my script for the play. Ariana came in when she heard the kettle whistling, and got the tea ready before coming to sit with me.

“Oh nice! I forgot you could do that!” she exclaimed as she caught sight of what I was reading.

“Right?” I replied. “Scanners are something else now... all it needs is the code-ID of the thing in question and poof, here it is.”

“True! I'll have to scan mine either when I get off tonight or early tomorrow... did you get the songbook too?”

“Ehh... I meeaan, Lana's voice is higher than mine, so I dunno how good an idea it would be to get into that habit here.”

“Ohh, true... you're probably a mezzo-soprano here, if I had to guess. Maybe an alto...”

“Not that I know much about it, but probably,” I agreed.

“Trust me.” she winked. “Hmm... I guess it wouldn't be too much of a switch, so long as you hit the right melody. You'll just be singing in a higher octave.”

“R-right,” I nodded back. “Well, let's at least look over the lines for now... and we half-skipped on our Japanese homework a bit until lunch tomorrow, didn't we...”

“Don't tell Anhe!” she whispered back, and we softly giggled. “Let's take a look!” she agreed in a louder voice, and we spent the next couple of Panarena hours reading over the script and going over lines.

***

“Hahh... almost midnight for real, huh?” I noted as we put the script away.

“Yip,” Ariana sighed. “Hrrmm... I'm not happy with that one scene... I'll have to go over it with Allie sometime...”

“I'll have to get some staff-work in somehow or another...”

“Michael really is taller than just about everyone in the play, huh?”

“Oh definitely. I think Stephen is near his height, though.”

“Def. And he's got this 'kingly' sort of aura.”

“Hmm...? I didn't notice that...”

“You were zeroed in on our little circle.” Ari shrugged.

“Heh, I guess.” I shrugged. A moment of silence passed.

“No one's back yet.” she remarked then.

“Nope.”

“Not even a message... hmm...”

“Probably absorbed in their thing for the night. Though you'd think Lysandra and her group would be back by now...” I mused.

“Oh for sure.” Ari agreed.

“Think we should just head off?”

“Hmm... maybe.” she nodded. “Oh, what was that thing you got? Didn't you get something from that one great goblin?” she then wondered.

“Huh? Oh!! A ring,” I remembered, bringing it out of my inventory. “It's 'unidentified', which means it has a chance of being very useful or very useless... at least if it follows the typical trope...”

“Hmm... I think Healina had a spell for that...”

“Identifying something? She probably does, or maybe someone in Dreamers Fables...”

“Ahh, true.” Ari nodded, pulling up her friends list. “No one on there at the moment, though.”

“We'll wait for Heali to get back, then.” I nodded.

“Oh, I know, she bought a special tome to do things like that, too... I'll see if she left it in the library here,” my partner said, and then hopped out of her seat to go and look.

“Niiice.” I smiled. I stood up as well, with the ring in hand. I tossed it up a few times like a coin, absently heading towards the bedrooms. I could hear Ariana shuffling through the books and tomes in our collection, grumbling to herself about how we really needed to organize them better.

Note to self: get the library organized, I thought to myself with a faint grin. I entered the master bedroom of the estate, gazing around idly. We had certainly made this one and Cloverbell a home away from home. Someday, someday we could actually truly cross over...

“Hmm...” I pondered, and then held up the ring before my eyes.

It was a sleek silver band with a delicately small blue gemstone affixed to it. There was some sort of inscription on the inner band; probably some eldritch language from Bretony's lore and history. I felt as if I could just make it out if I stared at it long enough -- which of course I couldn't, but the feeling that I might be able to was fairly strong in that instant. It quickly faded, and I let out a sigh.

“Tch, how bad could it be? I can always take it off if it does something bad to my stats,” I said to myself, my eagerness and curiosity getting the better of my usual common sense.

Never, ever put on an unidentified item in a video-game. Unless it's a quest directive for some reason or another, in which case you're usually playing a solo-game. But my impatience won out for the first time since I had started playing games in general.

I held out my right hand, and slipped the ring on the index finger. All of a sudden there was a blinding flash of light.

A teleport ring!! Oh, Sn-nap, now I've done it!! And at this hour of the night, too!! -- was my first reaction.

And then I felt a strange physical sensation. As if my body was somehow being warped and twisted.

Ohhh boy... not a teleport?? Then I'm turning into something... a goblin, maybe? I got the ring from a goblin, so that would make sense... I hope it comes off quickly if that's the case...

Then came the sensation of being -- lowered? -- that's as close a word as I can think to use. Needless to say the whole thing felt very strange, but by the time the flash of light was starting to fade, so were all the other sensations. The light then ceased, and I opened my eyes.

I felt the strange sensation of the tunic I had been wearing fall into my shoulders, and I began to look around. Everything was larger somehow. Had I shrunk?? I had shrunk. By at least half my height. And, of course, like Belle, my clothes had not transformed with me. I wrestled with the tunic a bit to get it off, and then inadvertently stepped out of my footwear as well. Then I went to take the ring off. It was stuck fast.

“Oh snap,” I said aloud, and then noticed that my voice had changed pitch. My eyes widened. “Huh...??” I wondered anxiously, and then looked at my hands more closely.

I was definitely smaller. But my proportions weren't the same. The hand was... child-like...? I looked down at my chest. Suddenly realizing what had just happened, I scrabbled up onto the bed, and looked into the mirror. Judging from my current appearance, Lana had been transformed into a girl around five to seven years of age. My mouth gaped open, and then shut again as I refocused my attention on getting the ring off.

“Hrrgh! Hnnnyrrrggh!! Hurff! Ohhh!! Dang it! Snap! Snap, snap, snap!!” I cried out in that squeaky little voice.

“Lana? Is that you??” Ariana wondered. “Is something wrong with your voice--” she began as she opened the door, struck by silence for a moment as she caught sight of me on the bed. “-- f-filter...” she finished in a daze, and then her eyes widened. “… Lana?!” she gasped.

It was probably because my mental state was being messed with as well as my physical appearance, but I suddenly burst into tears.

“Aaaarrriiiiiiii!!!” I screamed, and ran into her arms. She picked me up, and picked up a blanket as well, covering me up with it.

“It's okay, I'm here,” she said to me as tears poured down my face. “Jeepers, girl, what did you--ohh, the ring.” she quickly deduced as she sat down upon the bed, gently taking my hand to look at it. “Well, it's identified now.” she said with a sheepish grin as she looked at me, wiping my face with the edge of the blanket I was wrapped in.

“W-what's it called...?” I wondered softly.

“It's called the Ring of the Eternal Child. Not sure how it's affecting you other than your appearance, however.” she said, and I suddenly felt alarmed, bringing up my character panel.

“Nyah?!?!” I gaped. “My stats are reduced by seventy-five percent, skill effectiveness by fifty percent, but I get a charisma bonus in certain situations... and I can't get this thing off until we lift its curse...”

“S-seventy-five?? Fifty?? D-doesn't that effectively null... n-nullify... all your... ahhh...” Ariana bemusedly realized.

“Y-yeah...” I sighed.

“We're back!” Lizzy's voice came from downstairs. “Lana, Ari? You two are still on, right?”

“Oh snap... I'll never hear the end of it now...” I groaned, and Ariana smiled sympathetically.

“N-no, I guess not,” she wryly laughed.

“Lana! Ari!” Belle called. We heard the sound of her wings coming closer, and she poked her head in the door. “Oh there you -- … are...?” she said, and then looked at me with surprise.

“Oh, you found them,” Lysandra said as she came to the door as well. “Wha--?!?” she then exclaimed on catching sight of us.

“OH my Gawd!! Lana, you're so cuuuuute!!” Belle squealed with delight.