Joanna Love sighed in frustration as she kicked the last of her clothes off and then wrapped herself in her favorite nightgown. She looked over her homework. It had been finished two hours ago. Her parents could almost never fault her academically. A thought of Rachel came to mind, and her cheeks flushed. She quickly shook her head, making sure she really had done her homework, and when she had satisfied herself on that count she picked up the device. Joanna had never intended to get into the world of gaming, but this thing, the Dream Machine, had promised something beyond a game. She had tried it on a whim, expecting to sell it off or give it away to someone who cared more about gaming in general after a few hours, but instead she had become enraptured by the world and its freedom. It was a place of peace for her, mentally, and the guild she had become leader of was a tight-knit group. Sure, some of them were bonkers, but that was what she enjoyed about them. There were no pretenses, no airs, no formalities: they were themselves, uninhibited, and she loved it. And now, it was high time to rejoin them in that fantastical world.
***
“Mel! You're back!” Clara hugged her as soon as she logged in.
“Hi Clara,” Melody smiled, returning the hug warmly.
“School okay?”
“Not really. It was torture. And I goosed my rehearsals again...” the younger girl said with a quiet frustration as Clara patted her on the back.
“You'll make up for it, love. I know you.” the other girl smiled.
“Thanks.” Melody smiled. “What's our status?”
“Whooo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoooo!!” Venomy cackled as he landed in a heap on the deck, springing up like an old jack-in-the-box a second later. “We're making progress! We got around the Siren Sea about a day ago finally when someone finally decided to listen to me, and now we're about halfway through the Veiled Sea!” he clapped his hands, doing a jig around the deck.
“And then we'll see the Dream Islands, where the Silvernight Queens will have probably landed already,” Cobra said with a wry expression on his face.
“Oooooooohh, boss! Bossie bossie, what'll we do with their ship, huh? Say we'll torch it! Say we'll torch it!!” Venomy exclaimed as he dropped to all fours and began skittering around like an excited puppy.
“If we find it, we torch it.” Melody said with a sneering grin.
“Yeeeeess!! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hooooo!!” her guildmate cackled.
“Mind the dragon.” Cyan quipped as he came out on deck.
“Speaking of which, is it still around?” his leader asked.
“He was still lurking around, but we managed to give him the slip long enough to get to the Veiled Sea,” Jana said as she appeared.
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“That probably won't fool him for long, though.” Merc said with a shrug.
“Oh he'll definitely smell a rat by tonight and double time it back to the Queens.” Jana nodded.
“Hmph.” Cyan grunted, pulling out an orb to look ahead with a magic spell.
“Any rocks we should be wary of, Cyan?” Clara asked him.
“That one, probably.” the necromancer returned. Then his eyes widened. “Hard to port!!” he shouted. The ship lurched to port at once.
Cyan never shouts, not even once, so what the-- Melody began to wonder, then saw for herself as two glowing eyes appeared in the mist.
“Holy--!!” she started to swear as the owner of the eyes, the dragon allied with the Silvernight Queens, opened its maw to breath fire. A raging inferno erupted from the jaws, and after a steady stream of flame that lasted for nearly ten seconds, the dragon took off and flapped away, laughing heartily.
“Water! Now! Hurry!!” Merc shouted at their remaining NPC crew.
The other members of the guild ran to help put the flames out as well, frantically working to still the fires the dragon had started. Melody herself splashed a few buckets, hearing Cobra swear several times with some unsavory words intermingled with “Silvernight Queens” and “dragon” as he rambled on and befouled the air with his cursing.
“Calm the #@$& down, will you?!” Merc finally shouted back, to which he received the ubiquitous reply of “screw off”, albeit phrased much less politely.
“Will you two screwheads get it together?” Jana called, splashing them both with a bucket of water.
“Dammit, Jana--me too!?” Merc retorted.
“Ahh, shut your face,” Cobra spat.
“You first!”
“Fiiine, fine,” his guildmate returned.
“Gawd.” Merc shook his head.
“Phew!” Clara sighed in relief. “That's all the flames put out, counting those two drips,” she remarked lightly, and Jana snorted with amusement.
“Shaddup.” Merc said, flicking her with water as she laughed.
“That's what we get for threatening to torch their ship, I suppose,” Melody shrugged.
“Welcome back, leader.” Clara said with a bemused grin.
“Sure,” Melody grinned in reply. “Now let's make sure the fires are out, and go pay the Silvernight Queens back in spades for these pranks.”
“Hoo-hoo! Right on!” Venomy jumped with glee, and Cyan nodded.
“Getting us back on course!” Merc said with a gleaming smile, and Cobra thumped him heartily on the back.
“Let's go, bud!” he said, and Merc gave him a fist-bump on the shoulder in reply.
“Ugh, men.” Jana shook her head.
“Right?” Clara smirked.
“Let's go indeed.” Melody smiled, her eyes glinting with excitement as their ship resumed its course, the bedraggled vessel and its crew doubly and triply determined to catch their quarry and make them pay. Never mind the orb they had been sent to retrieve; that was only a bonus now. Their real job, as they saw it, was to thrash the guild that had been making sport of them once and for all.