Reeve bent at the waist, winded, a hand resting on one knee. That had gone a lot better than it could have, she thought. She was still recovering from the exertion, but she wanted to get them all out. Now.

She stood. After a quick mental check with Nyx, who was covered in injuries but nothing Reeve wouldn’t be able to help heal next time they were in the MMO, Reeve strode to join her parents. Her mother was frowning as she again tied her father’s suspenders together.

“Hey, Mom. We need your help to log out of the game.”

Wanda frowned slightly, and Reeve couldn’t tell whether from concentration or something else.

“Shouldn’t we check on those ladies up there?” Wanda said. “You shot one of them with an arrow, didn’t you?”

“No…I…that wasn’t…Dad…look, it doesn’t matter, they’re not real, we just need to get out of here.”

Wanda glanced up at the two half-elves high above them. The uninjured half-elf crouched over the other, and golden light was reflecting off both them and the cliff face behind them. “I can see from here they’re not real, Reeve, but that doesn’t mean we should just abandon those poor girls.”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I mean they’re part of the game, they’re NPCs. Look, can you please try logging out, and then we can talk about this back home?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Wanda finished tying the suspenders, placed her dwarven hands on her waist, and raised and arched her eyebrows in a manner Reeve immediately recognized, from a lot of prior experience, as parental skepticism. “OK, Reeve. What is it you need me to try?”

“Thank you, Mom. Do you know how to access your U…User Interface? It’s a bunch of windows that can pop into view.”

“All this?” Wanda said, circling both hands through the air in opposite directions in a way that reminded Reeve of the wax-on, wax-off scene from that old karate movie.

Reeve looked at her mother, confused. “It’s already open?”

“You can make it go away?” Wanda said.

“You’ve been playing for more than a day with your UI open?”

Wanda opened her mouth to speak, and Reeve realized she needed to avoid any sidetracks, however small. “You know what, never mind. It’s open, that’s great. Do you know where the ‘Log out’ option is?”

“Mija, I know where everything here is. I’ve been staring at it or through it since yesterday.”

“That’s impressive, Hon’,” Walter said. “Took me more than a little while to find my way around in there. You should have seen me trying to find my Class.”

“That?” Wanda said. “I’m a Hypnotist.”

“Apiculturist,” Walter said. Then, in a low, explanatory tone, “Beekeeper.”

“Hypnotist?” Reeve said. “Why would you…,” she looked back toward the unseen trail they’d traveled, “…though that might explain why the Kobold Scout that found you on the trail didn’t brain you.” She looked around them slowly. “Or why a whole camp would ignore you.” Reeve shook her head and snapped her fingers in front of her own face. “Staying focused. Mom, please, just try logging out so that—“

Wanda William’s dwarf avatar suddenly disappeared.

Wanda has left the game.