School was just another daily grind for Kyle. He went to class, turned in his homework, (somewhat) listened to the teacher, and wrote down his homework assignment. Lunch was the best part of the day as he got to sit with his friends and chat freely with them. Kyle wasn’t one of the super popular kids in school, nor was he a complete misfit or a loner. His friends were average, run of the mill slackers just like him.
Darryl was a year older than the rest of his buddies, as he’d goofed off too much one year and failed and had to repeat a year of classes. Darryl was a scrawny, tall young man with a rough patch of hair coming in scattered across his face which he liked to pretend was a beard. Maybe in a year’s time, it’d grow to the point where it could honestly be called a beard; for now, it was just scattered stubble which Kyle thought looked kind of silly.
Jason was one of the overweight porkers at the school, and everyone gave him hell over how fat he was. Kyle thought it was a shame as he was one of the nicest guys he knew; the type of person who would do anything for anybody. Being fat wasn’t his problem, as he suffered from hypothyroidism, which caused him to be tired all the time and have an excessively slow metabolism. People would constantly poke fun at him for his weight, and then moments later ask him to do things for them like he was their best of friends. Kyle was honestly disgusted by it sometimes.
And, his last friend sitting at the table, was William. William was one of those overly active midgets at the school. The bullies would happily pick on him for his size, if they could just catch him! William stood a good foot and a half shorter than all the rest of them, but he was quite fit and always full of energy. He carried his backpack full with every book for all his classes, slung it over his shoulder like Santa Clause, and simply dashed from one place to another avoiding anyone and anything that might try to bother him.
The four boys were all sitting together today for lunch, and talking about Winter’s Tale. William was the first to bring up with subject with his rapid manner of chatting whatever was on his mind. “Hey guys, hey! How is everyone. I’m fine. Have you all been playing Winter’s Tale? I have. It’s awesome. I’m a level six squire already in the Berkshire Republic! I think I might be able to get to level ten tonight and then I can apply for knight status. Won’t that be great! I’ll be a knight. Oh, I’m a human, by the way. Almost six feet tall! Isn’t that something! I feel like I’m going to trip and fall all the time whenever I start going anywhere. Do you know they fuss at me sometimes for not walking. Knights aren’t supposed to be in a rush for some reason, though I don’t know why. I’m…”
“I’m a rock giant.” Darryl interrupted. “I’m almost twelve feet tall, and I’m trying to get the village chief to give me a better quest.” Unlike William, who talked in one endless rush, Darryl was a slow talker, being certain to accent each part of a word carefully before going on to the next one. “I got a quest last night where the chieftain wanted me to bring him back the best rock. I’ve collected hundreds of rocks – big and small – and taken them to him one at a time, and he always asks me why it’s the bestest rock. I try to tell him how pretty it is, or round, or anything I can think of, but so far I still haven’t found whatever rock he’s looking for.
“It’s kind of a pain in the ass, to be honest,” he admitted.
“Oh wow! That sounds neat. Maybe I should’ve made a rock giant. I bet I could find the bestest rock! I wonder what it is! It’s probably gold or silver or shiny or red or maybe it’s good for throwing or bashing things in the head or maybe it’s your pet rock. I bet a pet rock would be the bestest rock! You could love it and hug it and snuggle it…
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“I’m dwarf, apprentice to a smith,” interrupted Jason. “It’s a lot of fun learning to work the different metals in the game. I’m just now starting to learn to heat metal and temper it with different liquids, but my master said I should be able to start making something like nails soon.”
“Oh wow! That’d be fun too! I bet I could be a great smith! I’d…”
“I made an elf,” admitted Kyle, completely ignoring William. “I guess I’m in about the same boat as Darryl. I’m stuck with a quest as well, and I don’t know how to do it. I’ve got to perform a traditional elvish naming ceremony before I can even name my character. The problem is, I don’t know a thing about how to do one, and my character started out in a forest area.”
“Oh wow…”
Kyle held up a hand to stop William before he could go off on a tangent. “I wasn’t finished yet, thank you kindly.” William just laughed and proceeded to wolf down his meal. “I don’t guess any of you have heard anything about naming ceremonies? There’s no one around for me to ask currently, and I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to do actually.”
“I bet all you have to do is yell something like, ‘I’m Kyle Superelf! Hear me roar, oh great trees of the forest! I name myself!’ I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Or maybe you just need to go up and introduce yourself to a tree or something. ‘Hi! I’m Kyle!’ DING! You have a name!”
Kyle just sighed slightly to himself. “If it was only that easy, I’d be happy. I just think a traditional ceremony might be a bit more complicated than that.”
“Nope.” William shook his head left to right rapidly several times. “It’s really that easy. I started out with the name Crusher Badass for my character, but once I became a squire I didn’t think it was fitting, so I told everyone I was William. Everyone in the city of Berk knows William Fleetfoot now! I’m famous! I only had to tell everyone a few dozen times, get arrested twice, and kick the mayor in the shin once before he changed my name on the tax rolls! It’s not hard at all!”
All of them burst out laughing, when Jason muttered, “That sounds about like you,” and William affirmed, “It was me! Honest!”
After that, lunch degraded down to them picking on William, while he told them all about his adventures in the first day of Winter’s Tale. Listening to him talk, it sounded like he’d somehow played six times as long as everyone else. He’d delivered messages, talked to people, helped an old woman get her cat out of a tree, painted a house – the wrong color, repainted a house – the wrong color, tried to repaint a house again only to get chased off by a grumpy old man with a broom, got arrested, released, arrested, released, arrested, placed into a knight’s care….
And then the bell rang signifying that lunch was over, before William could finish talking about his adventures.
The rest of the day was much like the morning for Kyle, with him going to class, and halfway going to sleep now that his stomach was full. When the final bell rang for the day, he happily took off like everyone else heading home. He’d have to walk back, but the evening was always much warmer than in the morning, since the sun had had time to warm everything up somewhat.
It amazed Kyle that William was level six already! He hadn’t managed to even get half a level yet with his character! He was going to have to work hard, so he wouldn’t be so far behind in case they ever got a chance to meet up and adventure together in the game sometime!