She was going to be late, so she was walking fast when a video game store caught her eye. Not so long ago, the servers of the game she had been playing for several years had been shut down.

It is true that she had barely entered during the last year, since one of the two people in the group had left. She didn’t know him personally, nor the other one, but, despite this, she had felt very close to them.

She had started to play due to the advice of some friends, in order to run away from her worries, from her recent divorce. Her husband had been sweet, caring and considerate, until they had been married. Then, she had discovered that he was jealous, possessive, and even aggressive. After being hit by him for the first time, she had left home, reported him, and filed for divorce.

The experience had been traumatic. She had been very much in love with him, or rather with whom she thought he was.

For months, she had been depressed, crying day after day. But, in the game, she had found distraction and a small family, a small family that she missed.

“Bam!”

She was suddenly on the ground, a little sore from the blow. Distracted, she had crashed on someone. She was a teenager of about fifteen, who wore somewhat peculiar clothes. Both these and her makeup seemed the style they call gothic.

“I… I’m sorry! Are you okay?” she apologized.

“Yes, yes… It’s my fault, I was distracted,” the girl also apologized.

They both got up, looking around. Their gazes met that of a teenager who was in front of the video game store, looking at them, not knowing whether to laugh or help them. They both blushed, looked at each other for a moment, and then hurried on their way.

The woman was somewhat embarrassed and walked away quickly, not stopping until she reached the outdoor sitting where five other women were.

“You’re late! You’re a little blushed, Have you being flirting along the way?” One of them scoffed.

“Oh come on, don’t laugh at me. I was late and I almost came running,” she defended herself.

“It’s a shame. But there is a very handsome waiter here, he is quite hot. Let’s call him, let’s see what you think,” another mocked.

She remembered that day, partly because today she was together with the same friends again. Ten years had passed since then, and she was late too.

Again, they all teased her a little, although they were also worried. Since her divorce, she hadn’t wanted to meet other men, even though they had tried to introduce her to a few. What they didn’t know was that there was already someone in her heart, although the problem was that this someone wasn’t real.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

They spent several hours chatting, laughing and gossiping, until it was getting late, and they each had to go home. They were surprised that the woman insisted several times on inviting them, and, in the end, they had no choice but to accept.

She watched them go without knowing if this would be the last time. She hadn’t wanted to tell them, so as not to worry them. If all went well, she would tell them and accept their complaints. If not, at least they wouldn’t have to suffer the anguish until the time came.

In a week, she was going to get surgery. It was a life and death surgery, and the chances of dying were high. Only her family knew it.

When the five friends met again, the atmosphere wasn’t the same as on other occasions. They greeted each other with hugs and tears as they arrived, and the topic of conversation was an email they had all received. It started like this: “If you receive this, something has gone wrong and I haven’t survived the surgery. I hope you will forgive me for not telling you…”

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“Has the surgery succeeded? It must be if I’m awake.”

She felt no pain. Just the confusion of waking up in a completely dark and silent place. She felt strange, although she attributed it to the effects of the operation and anesthesia. However, she didn’t feel weak at all, nor were there the typical drop-by-drop tubes.

“Hi there? Is there someone?”

The only response was an echo that stunned her. After a while of being in complete darkness and silence, she decided to try to get up very slowly. She didn’t want the wound from the surgery to be reopened.

“What’s going on?” she asked herself.

Instead of a hospital bed, she was on the stone floor. She got up carefully, but wasn’t feeling the slightest pain. In fact, she felt good, better than she had in a long time.

She walked slowly, her hand always resting on the stone wall, totally disoriented. It was a kind of tunnel, like a cave, something to which she couldn’t find any sense, unless it was a dream. But it was a very real dream, and she felt her mind perfectly clear.

Behind a bend in the tunnel, she saw a light indicating that there was something beyond. But, before she got there, the dim light allowed her to focus on her body.

“Eeh?!”

Her chest was bigger than it had ever been, and the strange feeling she had when walking was now evident. She was a few inches taller. Even her skin seemed lighter, although it could be because of the light. She was dressed in a simple robe and sandals, that were somehow familiar to her, though she couldn’t put two and two together.

Her hands were also different, slimmer, softer and stronger. Frightened, she touched her face, which also felt strange. But it was when she reached her ears that she completely lost her cool. She went through them several times to make sure, but there was no doubt. They were pointy.

Frightened, she hurried to the exit, to be dazzled by the light that was falling directly on her eyes. She had to blink a few times before starting to get used to it, and see past the hand that was trying to protect her retinas. And when she finally began to make out the landscape before her, she was speechless, confused, unable to accept what her eyes were showing her.

In front of her, a pathway descended that led to an esplanade covered by vegetation over a meter high, in the center of which was a large ellipsoidal platform, preceded by two large columns at each end. The lower part of the columns had been colonized by vines that would fully cover them in the future.

The platform was in turn covered with whitish stone tiles, between some of which the vegetation peeked out. It was beginning to make its way, and, little by little, it would claim for itself what was still a large square almost immaculate.

But it wasn’t that abandoned square that surprised her the most, nor the giant dome that covered the place and shaped an artificial sky. What left her speechless was recognizing the place clearly in her memory, a place that didn’t even exist: what had been the beginner’s area for the elves in The Heroes of Jorgaldur.