Saffie burst into the clearing.

“Stay where you are!” she ordered.

The boy jumped, and his bird panion spun around, squawking at Acorn.

“That’s my scroll, you can’t have it!”

The boy caught his breath.

“I found it first,” he said. “It’s only fair.”

“No!” Saffie said, “You don’t understand - it’s an advantage from a Spawner Chest. My Spawner Chest.”

“I… have no idea what that means,” he said. “I’m a new player.”

“So am I,” said Saffie, “and I need that advantage. I opened a chest and there was this flash of light that spawned that scroll right there on that stump.” In saying it out loud, Saffie realised how ridiculous and unbelievable it sounded. “It was a gift from my uncle,” she added.

The boy looked at the scroll, then at Saffie, his hand still poised to grab it.

“How do I know you’re not making that up?”

Saffie took a deep breath.

“Just trust me.”

The boy sighed and relaxed a little.

“I’m Nate, by the way. Nate Forrester. And this is Talia.”

The bird panion squawked.

“Saffie Sparkes,” Saffie said reluctantly. “And this is Acorn.” She wasn’t really interested in pleasantries. Especially with a boy who was threatening to steal something so valuable from her.

“He’s cute,” said Nate.

Saffie glanced down at Acorn, who looked mightily offended.

“He’s not cute,” she said in his defence. “He’s fierce. Look at him.”

Acorn gave a little growl.

“Now step away from that scroll,” Saffie ordered.

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Nate pondered for a moment, looking from Saffie to the scroll and back again several times.

“Nah, I think it’s fair game,” he concluded.

“I SAID - Step. Away. From. The. Scroll.”

“Or what? You’ll set… him on me?” Nate raised an eyebrow at Acorn.

That was it. Saffie had had enough.

“Attack!” she shouted, pointing at Nate. When nothing happened, she glanced down at Acorn, who had tucked his head between his legs. “Acorn?” she said through gritted teeth. “This is no time to bury your head in the sand!” But Acorn was doing no such thing. With a kick, he propelled himself into a rapid forward roll, heading straight for Nate.

Nate’s eyes widened and he dived out of the way, letting Acorn smash into the tree stump. With a dramatic faint Acorn slumped onto his backside, his head rolling around with dizziness.

“Acorn!” Saffie cried, running to him and cradling him. She turned and glowered at Nate. “Look at what you’ve done!”

“I’m sorry!” said Nate. “I just didn’t want to get hit by a rolling raccoon!”

“He’s not a racoon!” Saffie said, stroking Acorn’s head until his eyes refocused. “He’s a… well, I don’t really know what he is.”

“Wait - did you just feel that?” said Nate.

“Feel what?”

“The ground!”

There was a gargantuan groan. Saffie slowly looked down. Sure enough, underneath them, the ground was trembling. Saffie, with Acorn in her arms, and Nate, with Talia on his shoulder, scrambled outwards and watched in horror as a giant monster made of stone rose from the ground where they had just been standing, towering above them, with bits of earth and rock falling to the grass as it got to its feet. Its eyes were hollow and glowing white, and vines intersected its stone body like muscle tendons. A green gemstone was embedded into its chest.

If Saffie had thought Nate was her biggest threat, she was very, very wrong.

“Wh-what IS that thing?!” Saffie stammered.

“I have no idea,” said Nate. “Scan it!”

“Scan!” shouted Saffie, and the now familiar neon blue line ran over the rocky beast from head to toe. Several lines of text appeared next to its left shoulder. Saffie read them out loud.

Growlem

A stone colossus that resides underneath the ground of grassy areas. Its heavy fists are capable of dealing a lot of damage, but its connective vines make it weak to fire.

“We need to cast some kind of fire spell,” said Nate.

“And how do we do that?” Saffie replied.

“I don’t know any spells yet.”

“Neither do I,” Saffie admitted.

“Maybe we could just attack it,” Nate suggested.

“With what?”

Nate unsheathed the blade from his belt. It was no more than two inches in length. Saffie looked at it, then the huge growlem, then back at Nate.

“I know!” Nate said. “But it’s all I’ve got! You have any better plans?”

“There must be a simple spell we can cast! There’s gotta be one called ‘fireball.’ There’s always a basic fireball spell in every video game.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?!” Nate urged. “Give it a try!”

“Fireball!” Saffie said, pointing at the beast, and a tiny ball of flame burst from her finger.

“Oh my god, that is so cool!” said Nate, gawping.

Saffie noticed that a blue bar had just appeared underneath her green health bar, which depleted by about five percent. It had to be her magic level, or mana, as most video games called it; the magical energy source that was consumed by casting spells.

Saffie grinned, but they had celebrated too soon.

On impact with the growlem’s chest, the fireball sizzled away into nothing, and Saffie noticed that its health bar hadn’t depleted at all. The fireball had done zero damage.