“What’s your name?” Saffie asked her panion, who had jumped back onto her desk and was scurrying around, sniffing everything with suspicion, especially a couple of fluffy pens protruding out of a glass jar.

It turned to her and shrugged.

“Can I… scan you?” Saffie said. “Of course I can. Why wouldn’t I be able to?”

She plonked herself in her desk chair and pointed her finger at her panion, whose eyes criss-crossed.

“Scan,” she said.

The creature tensed and squeezed its eyes shut as a neon blue line appeared and ran down its body from the tips of its ears to its paws.

Two lines of text appeared next to it:

Unnamed Panion

Belongs to Sapphire Sparkes

“I get to choose your name?” said Saffie. “Oh, this is so cool. You know, on an old cartoon I used to watch there was this little puppy called Smoozy Woozy.”

The panion stared at Saffie with a look that said ‘seriously?’

“What?” said Saffie. “Smoozy Woozy is a cool name!”

It heaved a little.

“Okay, okay,” said Saffie. “How about Fluffkins?”

The panion looked genuinely hurt.

“Mr Periwinkle?” Saffie offered as a last resort.

It shook its head rapidly, then straightened up on its hind legs and stuck its hands on its hips, sucking in a breath and puffing out its chest.

“Oh, you’re trying to tell me a name?”

It flexed one of its tiny arms like a bodybuilder.

“Bones?” said Saffie, and it shook its head again.

“Scrawny… arm?” Saffie ventured.

Still holding its breath, the creature pointed to its non-existent bicep.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“There is no way I’m calling you Muscles,” Saffie chuckled.

It let its chest deflate dejectedly, then flew back in shock with bristling fur and a bushy tail as something hard hit the windowsill.

Saffie was used to the sound. Even though Oakley’s drop season was Autumn, it wasn’t unusual for the odd acorn to come free during the summer and hit the windowsill from time to time.

“Don’t worry, it’s just an acorn,” she said, and immediately something about the word clicked.

“Acorn?” she offered to her panion, and its eyes lit up.

“Acorn,” she repeated with finality, and her panion grinned, satisfied.

After Saffie had showered and got dressed, she felt fresh and full of hope. Before heading outside to see exactly what the game had to offer, she grabbed Dax’s backpack to store away in her cupboard, but just as she was about to throw it in there, she stopped herself.

There was a faint yellow glow emanating through the little gaps of the zipper.

She slowly unzipped, and bright yellow light beamed out.

“Whoa!” she said, and Acorn dived on the backpack, itching to see what was inside.

Saffie reached in and pulled out what appeared to be a trinket sized, ancient looking wooden chest with an ornate gold rim.

“But there was nothing in h-” she started before it sank in.

This was why Dax’s first gift had been the Overworld key - the second gift was an in-game item.

She twisted her wrist, admiring the chest. It looked and felt like real creaky wood and glistening gold. There didn’t seem to be a keyhole, just a buckle that was keeping the lid shut.

She pressed her finger to the buckle and it popped open. Saffie and Acorn both peered in, but immediately reeled back as a flash of golden light almost blinded them. When they opened their eyes again, the chest was empty.

“Um… was that supposed to happen?” she asked Acorn, who looked just as shocked as her. He grabbed the chest and stuck his nose inside, then tipped it upside down and tapped it a few times on the desk before throwing it over his shoulder and shaking his head.

“Okay well, let’s not throw it away,” said Saffie, fishing the discarded chest from her bin and placing it back on her desk.

“Let’s see what it is,” she said. “Scan.”

A blue line identical to the one that had scanned Acorn ran down the chest from lid to base, then a bunch of text appeared a few centimetres to its left.

Spawner Chest

When this chest is opened, it will spawn a valuable advantage somewhere in a 5 mile radius.

“A five mile radius!” Saffie said out loud. “It could be anywhere this side of London! Where do we start?”

Acorn rubbed his chin with his paw while Saffie tried to think. Most video games had some kind of in-game map showing checkpoint markers, usually accessed by pressing a particular button on the console’s controller, or a key on the computer’s keyboard. With neither of these available, Saffie said “Open… map?” hoping and expecting a little flat graphic to appear in one corner of her vision.

She was not expecting what actually happened.

An ornate map of Central London materialised in front of her, folding out from the centre. It was the most beautiful map of London she had ever seen; it was like an animated pop-up book in a Victorian style with 3D illustrations of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and a rotating London Eye all protruding out of their respective coordinates. There were even a few tiny pigeons flying around and settling on some of the larger structures.

Saffie goggled at the beautiful map, taking in all the familiar landmarks until she saw it: hovering over a point to the north west of the Thames was a glowing golden scroll. It had to be her advantage.

She brought the map closer. It was in the centre of Kensington Gardens.

“Wanna take a trip to the park?” she said, and Acorn squealed with excitement.