There weren't many clouds but the usually clear blue sky was less vibrant, almost grey. It made the sky look sad, and as though the whole island grieved for the sky, it too looked a shade of grey darker.

A man was standing on the tallest cliff in the south side of the island. He wasn't old but no one would think he was young either. Although he was still a man in his prime, only twenty-six, the sad expression turned even sadder by large and deep wrinkles made his face appear much older than he actually was. He wasn't sad though, not for some time now. For about half a year, a month and a half in the real world as Royal Road's game speed was four times faster than normal, he was happy.

Well, happy is a bit of an overstatement, content would suit him more.

"You're right. It's getting colder." He spoke in response to a shiver he felt on his leg from a small creature pressed against it.

The creature, about the size of a small dog, looked like a seal but with a long, almost white fur. And though he had four legs, whenever it stood still, as it did now, the back legs would bend behind under its small and round behind, and would resemble a dolphin's tail. It was a monster named Tziffir. The man knew that because the system notice told him so when he accepted the creature as his pet. He planned to read on it on the internet but something always came up whenever he logged out, so eventually he gave up on the idea. Still, from time to time he would look at Zif and wonder how big he would grow and how ferocious it would someday become. Since Zif had a set of sharp teeth, capable of slicing a leaf in half he couldn't help but think that one day Zif would use these teeth on him. A round flat horn was also growing on its forehead, partly hidden under a mane which only grew long around the horn.

-'If it keeps growing so fast I'll have to take care of it again soon.'- The man thought.

It was unpleasant, thinking about filing the creature's horn. It didn't hurt the creature but grinding it down until it was flat enough was long, and as the beast rarely cooperated it was also very tedious work.

He didn't want to dwell on the unpleasant thought so he took a deep breath of fresh sea air instead.

"It's sweeter than usual," he spoke to his little friend again.

He wasn't much of a talker and kept to himself most of the time, however, Zif was an exception. Zif never answered but from time to time would look at the man with the purest eyes, as if he could understand everything.

"Somewhere, it must be raining. No wonder the atmosphere is greyish." He looked behind him for a moment before turning back to stare at the horizon. "It's probably raining over on the mainland. I hope it doesn't reach us." A flat dark shape on the horizon could be seen from where he was standing. The cliff was the only place where this shape, the mainland, was visible and the man liked to look at it in the mornings. Zif didn't like coming here because of the sea breeze which was strong here. But it was either this or staying at home so he bore with it as it meant spending more time with the sweet, strong and always kind man he considered to be his father.

"I like rain and I enjoy this grim atmosphere it comes with. It makes me feel like something magical is about to happen, even in the real world. But if the rain is strong enough to change the air here it must be quite the storm," he reached down to scratch Zif behind the ear. "Wouldn't want it to tear down the fence we've finally finished putting in place." Zif's eyes were closed in pleasure and he was trying to stretch his neck as far as possible so that there would be more space to scratch.

"Can you imagine Jee-sar's face if something happens to the fence? Eh? Can you?" He smiled to himself as he scratched Zif with both hands now.

The man straightened up to look at the distant land again; a ship was heading in the island direction.

"A big one. Must be a trade ship."

There was a strong sea current that surrounded the island. It started near the mainland, headed towards the island where it would make a circle and come back to the mainland on the other side. Whenever the man had business there he would navigate his small sail boat to the current, which together with a strong back wind would bring him to land in less than a day.

It was a rare occasion for him but other ships used it all the time. The current slingshot them towards the open sea where another current ran, thus saving them time on their travels.

"Let's go." The man started to walk away but stopped as Zif didn't follow. "No, Zif, it's cold today. Come on." Zif looked back with puppy eyes. His pink tongue hung out from his mouth and his lips curled up just enough to reveal a row of pin sharp teeth. It almost looked like he was smiling.

"Ok. I'll meet you down at the b…" Zif didn't wait for the sentence to end. He ran and jumped from the cliff. As he fell through the air his legs flattened to his stomach while his chin touched his torso. Air caressed his fur back and drew wave patterns in it as Zif accelerated. In this position his body resembled a missile where at the tip was the horn on his forehead. The horn would hit the water first, breaking the waters surface and absorbing the impact from the high dive so that his body could slip underwater with ease. The man was used to it already but the first time Zif jumped, head first, off of the cliff he almost dived after him.

Instead of watching Zif playing around in the water the man headed down the way he came from. His small wooden shack was visible between a few growing trees and a barely visible path led to it through tall grass. The path started at the shack and split into many ways. The one he followed would lead him to the rocky beach under the cliff.

The weather was to his liking and there was no task that needed to be completed, a perfect time he thought, for a little sculpting.

The short walk warmed him up enough to take off his thin cloak. He stopped for a moment to tuck it into his inventory and straighten the hammer that hung from the back of his pants. When he continued walking the hammer began waving back and forth, hitting the back of his leg with each step. A sheet of metal covered in leather was strapped to the place the hammer hit, so with every step a muffled clank was produced. He never noticed it anymore, but at one point this tapping sound had earned him a nickname amongst the players of Royal Road. A nickname from a time he wished to forget, and ever since he came to the island he managed to keep the memories out of his head quite well. The secret, it turned out, was to keep himself busy. That way he didn't need to think of the past and the bad memories woud eventually be replaced with good ones, or even better, become insignificant.

It was working fine for him but ever since the last of the fence was put in place there wasn't much left to keep him busy. Jee-sar and his wife Jee-Ra, took care of the little daily chores there were and so he now spent his days playing with Zif and teaching Fae-na.

On one of the long walks he took with Zif he found a small cove where the sandy beach was littered with hundreds of boulders. That day he had fun smashing the boulders with his hammer and working up a good sweat. It was something he hadn't done for some time and it was a nice change of pace. One of the rocks he hit crumbled in such a way that resembled a face and the rest of the day was spent trying to make the faces features more prominent. The next day was spent on breaking apart the base of the stone so that it would resemble a neck and shoulders. When he backed away and looked at the crude bust, thinking to himself there was nothing else he could do a system message popped up informing him that he has acquired "Sculpting Mastery".

On his next trip to the mainland he bought a few sculpting tools from a small shop near the docks and began to take regular walks to the rocky beach from then on. He worked slowly but he had already completed four statues and raised his mastery to level two.

An extension of the cliffs wall closed a boulder scattered beach from sight, but once you circled around it you could see the whole span of the beach with one glance. The face, his first statue, stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the beach. What once looked to him as a masterpiece was now nothing more than a rough representation of facial features, but he kept it as it was. He liked to look at it and see his progress.

After taking off his boots to enjoy the feel of water between his toes, he walked a bit more next to the waters edge until he saw the second statue he made. It was nothing more than a boulder with eyes and stripes on it but to him it looked like Zif. Two more statues were next to it, almost in a row. They too were supposed to be Zif, but only the last one actually looked like an animal and not a blob.

In his last session he finished working on the outline form of the statue and today he planned to texture fur patterns. He had a special tool for the job with a small hammer for it but he never used a different hammer except the one he had strapped to his hip at all times. The same hammer he found more than a year ago when his level was still in the two digit numbers.

It was a simple looking metal hammer, not much longer than his forearm. A leather grip and a small harness with a loop at the end were placed at the bottom of the handle. The grip looked completely worn-out but whenever the man grabbed the hammer and swung, it never tore or moved. The small harness kept the hammer firm in its place on the belt.

Only when the man raised the hammer to begin work on the statue it became clear this was no ordinary hammer. A large gemstone was imbedded firmly at the striking edge of the hammer. The quality of the precious stone was high and the way it shone in the weak sunlight of that day could be seen even from sea.

The first hit landed on the chisel he held in his other arm and although the strike was very gentle there was no visible backlash from the hammer.

The edge of the man's mouth curved a little upwards as he enjoyed the weight of the hammer in his palm. Out of his entire inventory the hammer was the only thing he was emotionally attached to. He even invested a huge sum of money to have an arch mage bind the hammer to him, so that no one else but he himself could use it. He had no need for any other weapon as the hammer leveled up alongside him.

It was hidden in an abandoned underground dwarven fortress and surrounded by stone golems. A month was spent on exploring the catacombs, but in the end he found the hammer held in the skeleton hands of a long dead dwarf . After identifying it he became the proud owner of the legendary hammer "Lonely Shine". Its legendary trait was the ability to absorb kinetic energy. In the weapons description was an exp bar that filled a little with each hit made with the hammer.

No matter how strong the strike was there was never any recoil from it. The perfect weapon for the man at that time. The anger that filled him finally found an outlet. And as the anger slowly left so did the hammer grow stronger. Until a day came when one of his quests had brought him to this island. A little longer than six months had passed since then but the quest remained incomplete and the thought of leaving has yet to cross the man's mind.

The sounds of the hammer hits on the chisel were lost amongst the sound of breaking waves. It was noon, when the sun was supposed to be the brightest, but the greyness from the morning got darker instead of disappearing. The wind was gaining strength and a drop of rain fell from time to time, leaving a small dark circle on the stones or sand.

The water got colder as well, yet the small, white creature kept playing in the waves as if nothing changed. It rode the waves and dove under them only to shoot high into the air a second later. It heard the man's voice coming from the beach but ignored it and dove under once again, looking for fish. When it came up the voice came again, this time it sounded a bit angry so the small beast turned towards the beach and caught a wave.

-'I hope daddy isn't mad,'- it thought as it rode the wave back to the beach.

"Hurry up! I don't want to get wet."

The man was standing on the cliff's extension, which entered the sea and hid the road back up from the stone riddled cove. Zif walked on the wet sand with difficulty. His feet and fur were sucked into the mud and refused to come out. When he finally got to the dry sand and looked up the man was no longer visible.

Scared, Zif sprinted foreword. His wet fur slowed him down, sending drops of sea-water in all directions as his butt wobbled up and down in a funny way. It jumped to where the man was last standing and tried to find the man's smell but the strong wind made smelling anything but his wet fur impossible.

Zif snarled at the evil wind, trying to scare it away so that it wouldn't delay finding the most important person in his life. Disappointed it didn't work, ZIf jumped down and started to run up the road, looking everywhere for the one he loved most.

The wind was weaker here and he got a whiff of the smell he was looking for, but the weak drizzle that started seemed to make the smell come from all the directions at the same time.

"Let's go, before the rain gets stronger."

The man seemed to appear next to Zif as if out of thin air. It made Zif jump sideways and his fur puffed up to make him appear more menacing. However, when he saw who it was he completely forgot about everything that happened and ran up to the man to try and climb up to his shoulder.

"No! no, stop it." The man lifted the small creature with great difficulty and put him back on the ground. "You can't climb on me anymore, you've grown too heavy!"

Zif scowled and whimpered as he followed the man.

"It's not your fault. I want to carry you as well but I can't, I'm too weak."

This shocked Zif to a stop. He looked at his almighty daddy and couldn't believe what he heard.

"Yes, yes. Just like that. I'm getting too old." He crouched to scratch Zif behind the ears. "That's life, nothing we can do about it."

Zif closed his eyes so he could concentrate better on the pleasure. All the tension disappeared from his body and his tongue fell out of his open mouth.

"You'll need to grow big and strong, ok? Then you will be the one to carry me." The man laughed out loudly when he saw Zif slowly realize what he just said. Zif began jumping up and down in circles around the man as if inviting his best friend to try riding him now.

"It will have to wait a little, let's go eat first. I can see the smoke rising from Jee-Ra's house." He stepped over Zif who was blocking the narrow road. "I think I heard her say something about fish for tonight."

At the mention of fish Zif made a sound like a dog's bark and a parrot's shriek mixed together. Fish were his favorite food and when it was cooked it tasted even better. He ran past the man's legs up to a bend in the road, where he turned and looked at the man as if trying to convey: "Walk faster, you slowpoke. How much longer are you going to make me wait?"

"Go ahead, I'll catch up. Make sure to save some for me though."

When things concerned fish there was no need to tell Zif twice, like an arrow he shot up the road, disappearing in between the trees.

-'I wonder how far you will get this time?'- thought the man while a faint smile covered his face.

-'Oh? I did it again? Didn't even notice.'- He thought.

Whenever Zif left his side the man's mouth seemed to clamp up. Not many people knew what his voice sounded like and even less could say they had a real conversation with him.

-'I probably talked more in these past few months than I did my entire life. But now that Fae-Na finishes books faster than I can get her new ones there's little need for me to talk.'-

He stopped to fix the noose on the hammer so it wouldn't snag on the low branches.

-'I wonder if there are any sweets left in the storage chest.'- He was heading to the small wooden shack he and Zif lived in.

-'Maybe I'll take Zif fishing tomorrow. Jee-Sar probably has some bait I can borrow.'-

The road he was following, more an animal track than any real dirt road, passed between trees and thick bushes. He had his right arm raised the whole time to protect his face from stray leaves and branches, but when a low branch scratched his left forearm all the color left his face.

-'I'm in my third year of playing and I still can't get used to this. Almost a year in the real world and I still get scared whenever something touches it.'- The man put his left hand in his pocket and continued walking as if nothing had happened, yet his body unconsciously turned to put his left side farther away to protect it.

The man was not so different than anyone else. Sure he had his quirks, everyone had a few, but his never made him stand out from the crowd. On the contrary, most of the times people would ignore him because of his small quirks. He was introverted and preferred to keep his thoughts to himself. He had a few close friends and even a girlfriend he married right out of high school, but none of them ever said or showed that they enjoyed his company.

He was a good friend to have. Quiet, loyal and always willing to help and as such the few people who knew him well never said a bad word about him and always respected him.

Married and with a child on the way he didn't have time for college and began working at a factory close to home. For two years life was bearable. He's wife always nagged him about not having enough money but other than that things were good. He loved his two daughters and didn't hate his job.

However good things are, they are not meant to last, not for long.

The factory had an accident in which he lost his left arm. There was no way to reattach it because there wasn't really any arm left to save. It didn't hurt at all actually as he lost his consciousness the moment it happened. So when he came back, lying in the hospital bed, no strong emotions were triggered in him when he saw his left sleeve lying flat against his chest. All he remembered was feeling a little regret which he thought was understandable.

The worst came a few months after the accident. He was back at the factory, they made him shift manager in hopes he wouldn't press charges, which always made him laugh because he never had any intentions of doing that. It was an ordinary day and everything was going well until a loud sound passed through the building. It sounded like metal grinding against metal, and it made the man writhe in pain. He could feel his missing left arm and it hurt like hell.

"Phantom Pain" was what the doctors called it and there was nothing to be done against it they said. The man accepted it and went back to work the next day; however his wife saw it as an opportunity and hired a lawyer to press for compensation. The man told his wife there was no need for that but she threatened him with divorce if he didn't go through with it.

In the end they won and became filthy rich. And now that the wife got the taste of the easy life she couldn't bear with the slow and quiet way of life her husband enjoyed so much. So in the end she divorced him and took most of the money together with the kids.

Left with nothing but the pain of his missing left arm the man wanted to run away from everything and everyone but wherever he went, there always seemed to be people around him. So instead he hid in his room and refused to leave. He had enough money left to live comfortably like that for the rest of his miserable life, and he probably would have done that if one of his acquaintances didn't suggest virtual reality games.

These games appealed to him and gave him an outlet to the anger that was starting to build up inside him. Still, none of the games held his attention for long until Royal Road was released into the market. To his surprise when he logged into the game he was presented with an option of regenerating his left arm in the character creation menu. He began playing without any real goal, simply enjoying the feeling of being whole once more, while to his great pleasure the phantom pain that had been bothering him ever since the accident disappeared.

His way of playing was peculiar. He didn't care if he died. When a month passed and he was finally allowed to go outside the town into the wilderness, he picked up the first weapon he could find and headed outside. He was helping in the construction of a building at the time so what he took with him was a simple nail hammer.

As he didn't have any goal and for getting quests there was need to talk, which he tried to avoid as much as possible, when he came out of town with a hammer in his right hand he felt lost. He didn't like that ,so he looked at the road that passed through the town and saw how it disappeared behind the horizon and without any second thought decided he would follow it until it ended.

So he began walking, fighting monsters, bandits and other players along his way. He lost count of how many times he died but when the road came to a dead end, at some rural village on the edge of a tall mountain range; he had become one of the one-hundred strongest players in Royal Road. It was at this small village that he had received the quest that led him to the island he settled in.

The island wasn't part of the quest but when he saw how isolated and peaceful it was he just never left. And just like that, the strongest one-handed hammer user of Royal-Road, a man with no useful skills but those required for killing and not being killed, with the only quest he had ever taken still unfinished left civilization and began a new life alone on an uninhabited island.

Two weeks later he met Zif and smiled for the first time since the day the accident occurred.

Raindrops were falling all around.

They weren't the heavy and cold drops storms were made out of but rather small and fickle rain drops one could encounter in rare summer rains. The strong sea wind scattered them with ease, so as the man exited the cover the small trees provided, the rain didn't hit him from where one would expect to be hit by rain drops.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Instead of the top of his head getting wet, the right side of his body was slowly getting a shade darker than his left. He was close to his small home already and if he hurried he could reach it before the wetness penetrated his coat.

It was probably his imagination but the wooden shack seemed to sway under the force of the wind. He made it with his own two hands and while it looked rundown he knew it was sturdy and more important, comfortable. He paused before entering to wipe some mud of his feet and shot a glance at the horizon as he did that. A huge black cloud blocked out the sky. As if it were alive it was slowly moving towards the small island, devouring the blue sky in front of it as it progressed. He could see lightning, bright against the black mass but it was still too far away for the thunder to be heard.

-'I should barricade the windows and maybe take something with me to sleep at Jee-Sar's place. I hope the storm passes over us fast.'-

Inside the house was eerily empty, as if it had been abandoned in a rush years ago. Only the lack of dust indicated the place was still inhabited.

A low one-person bed was placed in the far left corner from the door and a small chest lay adjacent to it. A small table with a chair next to it was in the middle of the room while a medium sized cupboard and a stool were placed alongside a fireplace on the right side of the one room house shack.

The man cast a small log into the dying coals, sending sparks flying and making the shadows in the room dance. He quickly closed the two small windows and secured them in place with a metal stick. With the windows closed the dancing shadows became darker and actually seemed to move in unison.

-'Now that the fence is finished with, I should clean this chest up a bit.'- His upper body was inside the chest and he was moving things around with his extended hands.

-'Where are they? I know I put them next to the shields.'- He dropped to his knees to get a better view.

-'There they are! How did they get so far?'-

The man rose and jumped into the chest. He disappeared inside and sounds of him moving things around were heard.

A hand grabbed the edge of the chest and then another. With some difficulty the man pulled himself upwards and jumped out of the chest with a small knapsack held between his teeth.

-'I could've just put it in the inventory,'- he thought as he straightened. -'Funny, how this game gets to you.'-

-'I got used to the weirdest things... yet some things still stay the same.'- It was too dark to see clearly but he held his left palm in front of his face.

-'It's my old hand, no matter how I look at it... even the scars I got as a kid are there...'-

-'Huh?'- The man stiffened.

His "Sense Presence" skill alerted him that someone or something has come into his range. By pulling up the mini map menu he could see two small dots moving on the trail towards his cabin. One was moving strangely, zigzagging and circling around the second dot. He could tell it was Zif which meant the other one must be Fae-na, which would explain the grey colored dot, usually reserved to Npc's.

-'Probably here to ask for another book.'- His tensed muscles relaxed once he knew it wasn't an enemy. -'I just hope I still have some left.'- He thought and jumped back into the chest.

The wooden door opened, almost silently, but before it could open completely Zif crashed inside. Wet and muddy he left footprints on the wooden floor.

"Zif!" A high pitched female voice said, "Do it outside."

The small creature looked at the small child, barely taller than him, standing outside the open door with her feet spread apart. With one hand held firmly at her hip and the other pointing at the ground beside her she could almost pass for a grown-up.

When Zif didn't listen and looked like he was ready to continue what he started, the little girl stamped her foot down like she saw her mother do so many times before. Not saying anything, she glared at Zif as he crawled obediently outside and began to shake his fur from side to side. When the child was satisfied at how dry he was she patted him on the head and scratched him behind his ear, which was something she knew Zif adored.

"Ok." she spoke to Zif and clapped her hands together.

"You go in first and I'll come in after I cancel the magic barrier." Zif joyfully jumped inside and disappeared in the shadows of the room.

The girl mumbled a few words before following him and closing the door as fast as her little strength allowed her.

"You're back." A voice said pausing for a moment in which scratching noises could be heard, "So? Have you eaten some fish?"

A low pitched ramble followed by what could only be described as a cat's bark answered the question.

"No? Are you sure you asked nicely?"

"Mama said no one eats until everyone sits at the table." The little girl walked up next to Zif, who was playing with the hammer swinging from his caring father's belt. She looked up at the man's eyes and extended her left hand forward.

"Ho... what's this?" The man asked as he crouched to be closer to the girl's eye level.

"A greeting." The girl said with a proud smile on her face.

"I see that. But where did you learn such a greeting?"

"A book."

"It was probably a very hard book."

"It was, but not for me." Pride could be heard in her squeaky kid voice.

She moved her hand to make him notice it was still hanging in the air, yet her smile still grew larger at the compliment making a dimple appear on her right cheek.

"Oh, right, how silly of me." The man grasped the small and fragile hand in his rough callused palm, firmly and gently at the same time.

"Hello." He said.

"Hello," answered the child with a shake of her tiny arm.

Zif sat and looked at the two people with curiosity and a bit of annoyance at the fact that he was being ignored. He licked their hands while they were still held together which made them laugh, and to him laughing meant that this was a game and he loved games almost as much as he loved fish.

-'Now I just need to figure out this new game rules,'- he thought and tried to give another lick, but the palms were already apart.

"Here, give me your paw."

"Good. Now we shake and greet each other like we haven't see each other for a looooong time. Ok? Ready? Hello."

"Mroof."

"Very good." She giggled.

While the girl played with Zif the man made sure the windows were secured once more. Satisfied they wouldn't budge even if the storm hit full force he gathered the coals at the back of the fireplace and closed the opening.

-'Wouldn't want the wind to scatter them and start a fire.'-

He tried to ignore the playing children and listen to the outside but Zif was just too loud.

-'Doesn't sound like the rain got stronger. But what am I gonna do about him? He's not going to get sick but he'll get everyone else wet...wait... can't say the same about her though...'-

"Fae-na, where's your coat?"

She looked at him with a pair of large round eyes. He couldn't see her well now that the coals were no longer coloring the room with their red light, however he could feel her stare upon him and see a faint glow. Her golden eyes were shining orange, as if they absorbed the light from the coals.

"Don't need one."

"Even though it's raining?"

It was hard to tell but she probably nodded. The man took her word for it and opened the door slightly, just so he could assess the situation.

"Whatever reason it is you don't need a coat, can it also keep Zif dry?"

"It can. But only if he's close to me."

Sensing somehow that they were talking about him Zif ran up to the man and rubbed himself on his legs.

"Can you show me? Please." Said the man and opened the door just enough for the small girl to pass. The child stood up and mumbled a few words before leaving the cabin. Zif was trying hard to go outside as well but the man held him firmly.

"So?" She swirled around herself, showing how she was completely dry.

"Wow."

"It's a spell I learned from one of the books you gave me."

"Aren't you the little mage."

It was clear that she wanted to be praised and there was a good reason to.

"And how does it work?" The man asked with an exaggerated impressed tone of voice.

"Well..." she spread her arms apart, "it's a protection spell that puts a barrier around me. I was practicing my magic, like you taught me, when the rain began. So I ran home but I wasn't wet. The rain couldn't touch me. It wanted to make me wet but the barrier wouldn't let him."

"How very useful."

"Mhhem. That's why mom said I can come here to ask fo..." she looked down at her feet suddenly.

-'Haha, finally she remembers.'- he smiled.

"Well... you see... I... ehhhm... I finished the book you gave me... and..."

-'It's so easy to forget she's still a kid with the way she usually acts.'-

"Yes?"

"I wanted to... ehh... ask if you have another book you can lend me?" She said and lifted her eager eyes from her feet to look at the man.

"I might have one or two left." -'Though it's actually getting hard to find books for your level.'-

"Can I have it please?"

"Of course you can." The adorable look on her face made it impossible to say no even if the man wanted to. "Here you go. It's about a witch who saved a village of fairies a very long time ago. Have you ever met fairies, Fae-Na?"

"Zif! Walk beside me." He said, more than a little annoyed.

There wasn't much more than a drizzle but their destination was still away to go.

Fae-Na was sitting on the man's shoulders and reading her new book on his head. The barrier she cast kept the three of them dry but Zif kept running to smell things and coming back inside the barrier with a fresh layer of rain drops on his fur.

Something resembling a smile was on the man's face and though Zif refused to listen it wasn't enough to ruin his mood. Walking in the rain was a habit of his even in the real world. Sure, out there he used an umbrella instead of magic, but both places felt equally real.

-'I wish I could take my own girls on a stroll in the rain.'- The faint smile he had, disappeared for a moment but reappeared as suddenly as it left.

-'Jinny will be five soon. She's probably the same size as Fae-Na.'- He heard the sound of a page turning and felt the book being moved around a little as it shifted his hair around.

-'We celebrated Fae-Na's eleventh birthday three months ago but looking at her she doesn’t look any older than six. I kind of hoped that with living here and eating well she might grow up being taller that her parents, but I guess she'll be around her mother's height.'-

"Zif! To me!"

-'A meter forty is just too small… too bad…'-

A small hut became visible in the distance. Smoke was rising from it only to be scattered by the wind.

-'At least she has the magic affinity her golden eyes give her.'- He could see in his mind her large eyes and the way they would look at him, as if they could read his mind.

"Look, Fae-Na, your mom is waving to us."

"Hhm."

-'Give her a book and she forgets there is a world outside of the pages…'-

"Come on… I'm holding you so you'll have to wave for the both of us."

"Hey. I hope we''re not intruding?"

"No, no. Never. You always welcome here."

"It is you are always welcome here, mama."

"Not now sweetie, go help with table."

"But… I want to read the boo…"

The small woman put her hand on her hip and gave her daughter the same look the small child gave Zif not so long ago when he was disobeying.

"Please come in." She turned to the man after her daughter came inside. "This your home too."

"Zif, shake yourself dry before coming in."

It was warm inside.

A fire was burning in the fireplace and a strong but pleasant smell of cooking fish hung in the air. There were two doors opposite each other that lead to the bedrooms and kitchen, but both were closed at the moment to keep the heat from leaving the round room they were in. Animal furs hung from the wall and a lantern filled with home made candles was hanging from the ceiling.

The man helped build the house with his proportions in mind but in the end he still had to bend when standing inside.

Because of the rain they had to use a smaller table instead of the usual one placed outside. Sitting next to it and with the family of three as company he felt like a giant. Zif was at his usual spot near him so he could feel part of everyone. He was eating his share of fish but would, like always, eat all the leftovers as well.

-'Never stopped him before, but I hope its okay for him to be eating the bones…'-

Fae-Na had her new book beside her. It was closed but she kept stealing glances at it nonetheless. Jee-Sar and Jee-Ra were discussing how they should deal with the coming sheep wool harvest. Jee-Ra wanted to take it all for household use but Jee-Sar said they should sell it and buy a cow instead. There was something else but it was hard to follow since they kept reverting to their native language.

-'I'll ask Fae-Na later. They'll ask me to decide what to do with the wool anyways so might as well be aware of all their concerns.'-

"Can I have some more?"

"Yes, yes. Here, eat all you want."

"Thank you. It is really good."

Jee-Ra couldn’t have been happier at that moment.

-'What is it now? Almost five months since they came… and they still treat me as their master, ughh…'- he tried to ignore Jee-Ra looking at him eating.

A little more than four months ago the man saw Jee-Sar and his family in the sea trying to reach the safety of the island.

At that time Zif was still small and they would take regular walks around the island together. Zif would sit on his shoulder or hide himself inside his shirt where it was warm.

-'I miss the way he would stick his small head out and look at the world with awe.'-

Zif was the one who noticed them first. The sea was calm that day and the ripples they were causing attracted his attention.

-'The water was pretty cold for such a sunny day.'-

The man jumped into the water and swam towards them to help.

-'I grabbed Fae-Na and Jee-Ra because I thought they were the youngest. Man was I surprised when I found out it was a family and not a bunch of children.'-

Jee-Sar made it to shore by himself and began to weep. All three of them wept.

Fae-Na's older brother didn't make it. Turned out he used up all of his strength to keep his sister from drowning, and when he saw she was safe in the hands of the man who came to their rescue, his muscles gave out and he went under water. He didn't struggle or scream for help, most likely didn't want to risk his parents coming back for him, the fool.

-'I felt responsible for his death at the time. I kept thinking that if I didn't idle around looking for the ship they fell from and instead jumped into the water right away he would've made it to shore.'-

When they finally stopped crying a different problem presented itself. It turned out they didn't speak his language but spoke some weird Npc one instead.

-'Luckily... I guess... being a slave race, they had an uncanny ability for learning new languages.'-

It took them less than a month to learn enough for them to be able to understand each other and another two to be able to converse casually. But unlike the parents, the daughter was a real surprise.

-'She's the one that told me their story. The parents refuse to talk about it even today.'-

In three weeks she could already make simple conversation and by the end of the first month she had already read her first book. The man bought her dozen of children fairy-tale books and very quickly she was already teaching her parents. Around the end of the second month on the island, while the man and her father worked on a fence for a small flock of sheep that lived on the island, Fae-Na began to learn magic.

-'When I was helping her with her first spell she shared with me their story. I had a hard time looking in their eyes after...'-

Originally from another continent than the one he started playing in, Fae-Na and her family were part of a slave race of Npcs. Sold to both players and other Npcs, they never had any choice with what to do with their lives.

-'But life wasn't so bad for her parents and brother she tells me. "Not until I was born" she says, like it means nothing.'-

Her father, at only a meter sixty, was among the tallest of her race and also one of the strongest. He worked in the king's stables and managed to get Jee-Ra work as a cook in the palace. Children were considered subject of their parents' master from the moment they were born, and so, the eldest son began working in the stables as well.

The day she came into their world was the day her family's life fell into ruin. Telling everyone the girl died during labor they hid her and kept her a secret. They knew that if anyone found out it would mean her death.

-'It was her golden colored eyes. They were a sign that she possessed a sharp mind and a strong affinity to magic.'-

Children with gold eyes were rare and if one was born it had the good fortune of being a personal slave of the king himself. However the king already had golden eyed slaves. The first was an old man who grew up together with the king and has served the family for more than sixty years. While the other was a young girl destined to stay next to the king for the rest of her life and be passed from father to son.

-'Apparently it wasn't the first time such a thing happened and since the king didn't need another golden eyed slave, Fae-Na was to be handed to the royal mage'-

This was the cause of her parents' fears. It was common knowledge that mages lusted the power hidden in the golden eyes. They would nurture the young slaves and raise their magic power only so they could harvest it for themselves later.

In the old texts it is written that golden eyes were once a common trait amongst their race, but mages craving more power hunted them down to extinction. While many of the side effect of consuming the eyes were unknown there was one trait that no mage would pass the chance at getting.

-'Eating the eyes permanently doubled a mage's Mp. Even for a warrior like me it's quite tempting… and god knows I've done worst things to get stronger.'-

With great difficulty Fae-Na was kept a secret.

But when she was ten, she somehow wandered outside and was seen by another slave. Jee-Sar, scared the secret was no longer safe, killed the slave and ran away together with his family. No one bothered following them, especially not for killing one slave, and they managed to get away from the citadel and reach a port town.

-'Their goal was the land I came from; however things didn't go so smooth…'-

Hiding the girl's identity on a small ship turned out to be impossible and so the father killed once more. They took the small dinghy the ship carried and let the vassal disappear in the distance before following the same direction. They thought they were safe until the little dinghy started filling up with water from numerous cracks. At the last moment they noticed land in the distance and swam towards it.

And at this small island they had been staying since.

-'They're free now, but I guess it's written in their programming or something, because they keep treating me like I own them. Good things Fae-Na is different... maybe it's her golden eyes?'-

"The rain is done."

The man looked at the window and sure enough the stars were visible and the window was dry.

"I go start fire there. Fae, you go get the book, sweetie."

-'It's already night time? I should get back home before the rain starts anew.'-

"Zif, come. I got sweets in my room." The girl whispered in the sleeping animal ear, careful so her mother wouldn't hear.

The man laughed at the drowsy Zif following her, falling twice on his behind. His belly grew a few sizes and what he wanted to do most of all at the moment was sleep near the fireplace, but at the mention of sweets he somehow summoned the will force to wake up.

-'I guess we can stay a bit longer. Plus Fae-Na is one hell of a story teller.'- The man stood up, careful not to hit his head on the ceiling, and went outside to help Jee-Sar start a fire while Jee-Ra cleared the table.

Sitting outside by the fire with a full stomach felt heavenly. There was just enough wind to make the flames dance without making one cold and looking for cover.

The man looked at the fire in a daze. He could hear Fae-Na's voice in the background but he tried to concentrate on the crackling of the firewood instead. Zif lay by his side and without even noticing his hand was patting him on the head.

-'So nice.'- Was the only thought in his head at the moment but even that was gone as he looked up at the stars.

The rain cleared away all the dust in the air and the stars were shining brighter than ever.

"What doe0s residence mean?"

"It means a place where someone or something lives. Like that," he pointed at the small house behind him, "is your residence."

She explained to her parents in their native language and went back to reading the story out loud. The man returned to watching the stars and patting Zif.

-'It's almost impossible to see the stars in the real world anymore. Too many bright lights wherever you go. No wonder more and more people are vacationing inside Royal Road instead of in the real world.'-

A falling star shot through the sky for an instant.

-'So beauti…!'-

The man jumped up to his feet. A message appeared in his field of vision alerting him that his "Sense Presence" skill had found something.

He started to open the map menu but didn't bother to continue. Whoever it was he was heading towards them without trying to hide. A bright light was hanging in the air down the dirt road that headed to the sea.

-'A werelight! Whoever those guys are there's a mage amongst them.'-

"Sir, is all okay? What happen?"

"Jee-Sar! Look! Guests!" Shrieked Jee-Ra and ran inside the house.