This is a cautionary tale of the boy, the girl, and the wolf.

= = = = = = = = = =

They were 13 or 14 years old and did their grades at an adventuring school. Earlier that day they had taught a lesson to a boy about being a baby. No one caught them, and eventually they went to sleep in the pads of their five-man room

Soon they were no longer there. “Where are we?” the girl asked. Neither of the other two had an answer. They were in a silent, narrow mountain pass, wide enough for three to walk together. The way behind them was blocked, so they could only stay where they were or go forward.

“It is just an odd dream, “the boy said. “See, we’re nude, like when we laid down under the covers to sleep. I wouldn’t be out in the mountains like this naked.” The girl had to agree. The wolf was wondering if this was one of their dreams, or his. It seemed awfully real to him, so if it was a dream, it had to be his, right?

She asked, “Should we wait here and see what happens, or see what is ahead?” They discussed it for a minute and decided to move forward along the winding path and see if they could figure out what this place was.

When they found out, they regretted it. The sign ahead, centered above the pass, read:

Welcome to

Skawa’s Playground

“That is not a good sign,” the wolf stated with some trepidation. “I never thought this place was real.”

“It is not, dumbass,” the boy replied. “It is just a dream.”

The girl responded, “Which one of us is dreaming then? Because I know I’m here, thinking, and ready to run as fast as I can to get away!”

“I think we are all here,” the wolf replied. “Do you think Skawa is pranking us? Onre called the old toy rabbit, ‘Skawa’. I knew we should have left it be. I told you!”

“Yes, you did. And yet, who was the one who ripped my head off?” asked a reverberating voice from behind them.

They turned around to see a highly translucent white stuffed rabbit from behind them. It was almost two yards tall. The boy whispered aloud, apparently to himself, “This is a dream. This is a dream. This has got to be a dream.”

The wolf attempted to excuse, “I didn't do anything until they ripped off its arms and legs! They would have thought I was a wimp if I didn’t do anything.”

Ignoring the wolf, the translucent rabbit shifted to a playful yet foreboding voice:

Skawa’s Playground, you see,

You my toys to be.

Fun to be had by one,

And that one is surely me.

Finding resolve, the girl said, “Skawa, we’ll get through this. Watch!” Then derisively, to the others, “I’m beginning to think you are a wimp anyway. Both of you! But dream or real or both, the way to end it must be to play out this ‘game’ of his. Let’s go!.”

So they turned back around and walked. They could look back nervously to see the translucent white rabbit following, several paces behind. The mountain walls transformed yard by yard as they went forward. Eventually they were in a cityscape. They were on a road in a residential area. There was something blocking each of the side roads. They kept walking the dirty, badly maintained road. The last cottage on the right of the second block stood out. There was a door ajar, like it had been broken and almost ripped off its hinges, then manhandled to stand loosely in place.

The boy said with some bravado he was not really feeling, “That broken door is probably where he wants us to go.”

“Maybe,” the wolf said, “but should we go there?”

Should you?

Should you not?

Awful, awful things there could be,

What must you do to be free?

The girl started marching with determination toward it. “If that is the way out, that is where we should go.” The others followed her.

As they got nearer to the door, they started hearing grunts, and cruel laughs, muffled screams. The wolf whispered, “Maybe we are supposed to stop whatever is happening in there.”

At the door, there were cracks they could see through. There was only a little light in the room, and the six people almost seemed unreal. They decided they were not real, more like ill-defined flesh puppets. The only fully coherent thing in the room was a new, undamaged version of the small stuffed rabbit they had torn apart earlier. It was just laying still on the floor as if carelessly thrown there.

Four of the people puppets were brutalizing the remaining two, a human man and woman. They had been stripped and only wore gags around their mouths.

“Let’s stop them!” the wolf exclaimed in a whisper. Without waiting for assent he began trying to pull away the door. It would not budge, or even creak or make other sounds as they tried pulling it away. When they shouted at the people to stop, they were ignored, apparently unheard. All they could do is watch or not watch the horrific scene play out. This must be where they were to act. But how? Maybe run? Where? What would it accomplish? They were nude with no weapons. Nothing moved when they pushed or pulled or pried. They were simply “there.” And “there” did not care. Completely ineffectual, the three felt only loss as events transpired inexorably over the next few minutes.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

When the vicious rapists were done, they slit the throats of their victims, and smeared something on their foreheads. The girl stated with disgust, “They are The Grease from Cycles, I should have realized sooner. Those are animals, not people.”

“Onre was from Cycles,” the wolf stated in realization. “And an orphan. Along with his rabbit there, I am pretty sure we just witnessed what happened to his parents. Why would you show us this, Skawa?”

A ‘baby’ you thought you knew,

Conclusions, the toys drew.

Fun to be had by three,

Yet eyes that shed tears were two.

As the poem was spoken, the door faded away, as did the four Grease. The three tried to enter, but something invisible still blocked them. They noticed something else; they were changing. First it was their crotches. Smooth now, and fabric. Slowly their bodies were becoming cloth, and they were shrinking. “What are you doing? Stop, please stop!” they shouted and screamed desperately in various ways.

The poem this time was the first poem ever heard. Silence.

The translucent rabbit had vanished. Invisible? Gone? They did not know and were terrified at that ignorance.

As minutes passed, the boy and the girl had become seated raggedy dolls, while the wolf had become a stuffed toy wolf, standing on four legs. They were all currently staring into the cottage, not even having eyelids to blink. Only their heads and necks could move.

They heard someone approach, and turned their heads to witness a lone, happy little boy walking toward them, toward the doorway. He shouldn’t see this, the girl doll thought. Maybe that is what we can do. “You should go to a friend’s house, boy,” said the raggedy girl doll. Your parents have gone to get the door fixed.”

He ignored her, neither hearing nor seeing them. They looked back into the cottage wondering what could be done. Nothing, as it turned out. The room was even worse than before, with the rabbit now looking aged, torn into pieces as they had left it.

As he got closer, the young boy knew something was wrong, “What is wrong with the door?” he wondered, beginning to fear. As he entered, he almost immediately saw his dead parents and began screaming for them to get up. They did not. He began crying and screaming. “Help! Someone! Mommy! Daddy! Help!.” Then he noticed, “Skawa too!”

As he said Skawa’s name, the boy, the girl, and the wolf completely lost the ability to move, and to speak. They had stopped shrinking, now barely larger than actual dolls..

The little boy, a solid stream of tears from his eyes, left the house and saw the now-visible dolls. Irrational rage filled him. “You belong to the ones who did this! I hate you. I hate you!”

To the boy doll, he said, “You watched as they killed Daddy!” Limb from limb, the little boy managed to tear off an arm and a leg. The boy doll knew what was happening, but he could not move. He could not feel. He could not speak. He could only partially experience, as much from imagination as sight. His eyes just saw whatever was in the directions they happened to be faced. An arm over here, the girl doll over there.

He could see the little boy go to the girl doll. “You watched as they killed Mommy!” He tore her apart too, and she was in the same state as the boy. She was left staring up, with the boy doll's head barely visible at her right, and the wolf doll at her left.

The little boy moved to the wolf doll. “And you watched as they tore apart Skawa!” And the final doll had its head ripped off.

Three sets of eyes simply stared at whatever was ahead, in a horror they had no way to express. They had no throats; they could not scream. They had no tears; they could not cry.

The little boy could do that, however, and he did as he ran away.

A silent, translucent figure moved into the sight of all. It said nothing, just standing vigil as each moment passed. The boy wondered (all of them in one way or another), “Is he going to help? Are we going to die like this? It is not fair. It was only a doll!”

The silent, motionless vigil of horror and regret lasted 10 minutes. That was when they heard Reveille, and awoke on their pads. Already having soiled themselves, they added vomit and tears to their blankets, in a fear and relief they could not have understood before. Their two roommates expressed concern and bewilderment, but the boy, the girl, and the wolf had only two words in trepidatious explanation. “Skawa’s Playground.” Once the worst of it was over, they got up to get cleaned off.

Now, how were they going to apologize to Onre?

= = = = = = = = = =

“Are you a boy, a girl, or a wolf?” you hear Skawa ask. “Best you remember the trickster god’s playground!”

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Meditation Meditations

The Meditation skill is key to the serious leveler. It not only allows them significantly quicker regenerations while active, but from Rank D on, it also has a passive mode with further benefits.

Meditation - Available at Level 0. Chapter 4 description.

Meditation is a skill used to accelerate all of your regeneration types at once. It will also help calm a panicked mind. Until reaching Rank D, it only offers benefits while active. Distractions will deactivate the skill.

Note that all mental benefits are passive.

Effects on HP and SP regen

F: +10% active

E: +20% active (highest rank reachable at Level 0)

D: +35% active, 5% passive plus 10% mental stress reduction

C: +50% active, 10% passive plus 20% mental stress reduction

B: +65% active, 15% passive plus 30% mental stress reduction

A: +80% active, 20% passive plus 40% mental stress reduction

S: +135% active, 25% passive plus 60% mental stress reduction

Note: “mental stress” characterized by factors such as anguish, fear, hatred, and other such self-generated distractions, especially during battle.

Effects on MP or Ki regen (not available until Level 1)

F: +15% active

E: +27% active

D: +44% active, 5% passive plus 10% mental attack resistance

C: +61% active, 10% passive plus 20% mental attack resistance

B: +78% active, 15% passive plus 30% mental attack resistance

A: +95% active, 20% passive plus 40% mental attack resistance

S: +165% active, 25% passive plus 60% mental attack resistance

Note: “mental attacks” include any external violations of the mind, including non-magical ones such as attempts to induce horror.

Active rp: 1 per minute, reduced to 0.7 rp per minute when stats fully maxed

Passive rp:

D-S: 1 rp per hour credited to Meditation

D: 2.5% rp rate boost to all powers except Meditation

C: 5.0% rp rate boost to all powers except Meditation

B: 7.5% rp rate boost to all powers except Meditation

A: 10.0% rp rate boost to all powers except Meditation

S: 15.0% rp rate boost to all powers except Meditation