“The line will be one meter long and the color of the circle will be black,” Kiara said. I had spent only about an hour inside Pook, but my time was distorted, and when I returned to my chamber it was late at night.

“As simple as that?” I asked her.

“As simple as that. Why don’t you take me to meet Pook?”

“Time passes at a different rate in that realm,” I told her. “If you enter that realm now and come out an hour later, you will find that it’s already morning.”

“Well, we can afford that,” Kiara replied. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. I will return to the real world and sleep all day.”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday?” I asked her with a raised brow.

“Living in the game world you have lost track of the days of the week,” she told me.

“It’s simpler here,” I said. “No Sunday, no Monday. Only Someday.”

***

“The line will be one meter long and the color of the circle will be black,” I repeated Kiara’s words to Pook.

Pook had directly brought Kiara and me to the place with light, skipping the black place. The result we would only know once we were back in the palace.

Pook dwelt on my words for a moment before replying.

“Hmm,” he said. “Will it be a slanting line, a horizontal line or a vertical line?”

I looked at Kiara for an answer.

“A horizontal line,” Kiara said flatly.

Pook pondered. I was sure that he was trying to devise an excuse to use his imagination. I inwardly reasoned that at some point during the quest making, Pook would have to rely on his own imagination. There was no way Kiara and I could provide him the minutest detail. It was just not practical.

Pook continued to contemplate. Kiara had had enough.

“Oh, shut it, will you?” Kiara snapped.

I was taken with surprise. Kiara was fierce. The game world had waved its magic wand on Kiara, transforming her from a mild mannered girl to someone who went the extra mile to assert herself. Or maybe it was just Pook’s behavior getting on her nerves.

“You create the quest exactly as we tell you to.” Kiara said. “If you have any doubts then clarify with us. And if nothing works, and you must use your imagination, then we would recheck the quest you make to ensure that it does not contain anything we do not want. Is that fair with you?”

“That’s very much fair, indeed,” Pook said and this time he sounded satisfied. “As long as I can use at least a few drops of my vast ocean of creativity, then I am happy. Otherwise what joy is there in creating a quest?”

Kiara and I decided that we should let Pook create a test quest. A very simple one, just to see how things would work out. The reward would be minimalistic. But the main question was: What quest?

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“Maybe you can ask him to make me the monster again,” Fono suggested.

“And what will be the objective of the quest?” I asked. “To kill you?”

“Oh, just cut it short,” Kiara said. She removed one of her earrings and passed it to Pook. “Hide this,” she told him. “The objective of the quest is to find it.”

“And where shall I hide it?” Pook asked.

“Anywhere—” Kiara said, but she bit her lips.

“How long is the line? What color is the circle?” I muttered under my breath. Pook was refraining from using his imagination as much as he could. Now we had to give him the tiny details of the quest.

“Behind him,” Kiara said, pointing at Fono.

“And what should the reward be?” Pook queried.

“The earring itself would be the reward of the quest,” Kiara said.

“Very well,” Pook said. He again entered a contemplative mode, remaining dead silent for almost a minute. Kiara let out a grunt and spoke,

“As long as the earring can be found behind Fono, and as long as… you don’t make him disappear and keep him in our sight, we will permit you to deal with the small things in the quest yourself,” Kiara told Fono.

A cold sensation disturbed my stomach. Pook might interpret ‘dealing with small things’ in his own odd way. I spoke up.

“And, if there is anything we don’t like in the quest, then we can modify the quest at our discretion,” I told Pook.

“Yeah, that too,” Kiara nodded in agreement.

“All right,” Pook said.

The earring in his hand disappeared.

A blue quest box popped up before us.

New quest available!

Find Kiara’s earring.

Rewards: Kiara’s earring.

Would you like to accept the quest?

Yes/No?

“Yes,” Kiara and I said together.

The moment the words were out of our mouths, when the lights went out. Was this the black void? Shit.

“Darn it,” I said. There was a squeal from beside me.

“Kiara?” I said.

“Where are we?” she asked. I moved towards her voice, my fingers feeling the space, until I accidentally swatted Kiara’s face. She yelped.

“Um, sorry,” I apologised. I detected her arms and pulled her closer to me.

“Where are we?” Kiara said.

“Ultimately we are inside Pook,” I told her. “I had asked him not to bring people into this black void, but it looks like he decided to ignore me.”

“Hey, you two.” It was Fono.

“You are here with us, Fono?” I said. He was probably only a few feet away.

“I am. Looks like Pook decided to turn off the lights,” he said. “I wonder, is this part of the quest?”

“Why don’t you two search for the earring?” Pook’s voice said. He too sounded like he was only a few feet away. “And please do not think that I have brought you to the black void. I have kept my word. Fono is correct, I just turned off the lights. You said I could insert a little bit of my imagination. I hope I am within my limits?”

“All right. Fono, keep speaking,” I said, “We will reach you, and get the earring that’s behind you.”

“What should I speak?” Fono asked. “Should I just make noises with my mouth to lead you to me. You are probably only a few meters away, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find me—there you go!”

Kiara and I had reached Fono. We felt behind his stone back.

“Don’t touch me, it tickles!” Fono said.

“Where exactly is it?” I said. We probed the floor behind Fono. My forehead struck something small floating in the air. I grabbed it quickly. It was the earring. Pook had placed the jewellery piece hanging in mid air behind Fono.

A radiant blue message box appeared.

Congratulations!

You have completed the quest!

You have received a reward: the earring

A few seconds later the lights turned back on.

“You did it,” Pook said. “The quest is complete. Ah, it gives me such deep satisfaction every time a quest is completed. Even though it’s only an insignificant test quest.”

“He stuck to our overall model of the quest,” Kiara said to me in an approving undertone.

“So what’s next?” I said. “Another quest?”

In the second quest Kiara volunteered to be the main objective and the reward. I wasn’t particularly excited about that, but I let her have her way, hoping no harm would come to her. As a precaution, this time too I retained the right to modify the quest whenever I felt necessary. We set the main framework of the second quest, and Pook filled in the details.