The moment Kylie popped into the forest, she was bombarded with a private message from Heather. “Where the hell have you been! I need help!”
“Heather?” Kylie replied back through the friend private messages. She hadn’t even had time to read the login messages, and already she was getting pestered. “What’s up?”
“Where have you been?” Heather demanded to know. “This jackass was sitting here, in the middle of the sewers, waiting to ambush me the moment when I logged in. I don’t think I can take it anymore!”
“Sewers? Jackass? Start at the beginning, you’re confusing me!”
Even the sound of a deep sigh carried across the friend chat. “Fine,” Heather tried to say calmly. “I logged into the game, hoping to have a little time to do my own thing, and that jackass William was sitting in the sewage like some insane stalker, just waiting on me. And he won’t shut up! No matter what I do, or say, he won’t shut up!”
“Show him your boobs,” Kylie suggested.
“What!!” Heather’s mental shout almost knocked Kylie off her feet. “Why the hell would I do that?!”
“It’s not a big deal is it?” Kylie asked, reasonably. “They’re not really yours. They’re just some game avatar boobs. But I imagine it’d make him completely shut up just seeing a woman’s breasts inside a game.”
Silence answered, and Kylie took a moment to look around and gauge her surroundings. Everything looked like it had when she’d logged out, and none of the vines seemed to have spawned close enough to be a danger to her currently – which was a good thing! If she’d popped in and had to deal with Heather and being attacked, she probably would’ve died.
“YAHOOO!!!” William yelled joyously over everyone’s friend chat. “BOOOOO… EEEAAAAOOOOOOGGHHH!!” Silence once again descended across the chat channels.
“Well, that worked,” Heather told Kylie privately. “Flashing isn’t enough to make him shut up, but a swift kick to the crotch while he’s in shock works nicely.”
Kylie half shivered, trying not to imagine what William might be feeling right about now. “Are you dead?” He asked privately.
“Nuuuh Ugghhh. She’s not that nice.” William replied. “But, I got to see her knockers,” he said, sounding half laughing and half crying. “But now, she’s ran away and I can’t wobble too fast to catch up to her. She’s going to have all the fun without me, and that’s not fair!”
Kylie couldn’t help but shake her head in disbelief. Kicked in the crotch, the girl ran away, and William still couldn’t get a hint that he might be pushing things too far, too fast, with Heather. Looking over at her friend’s icons, Seran, Drun, and Johnb weren’t in the game yet. Drun and Johnb might be occupied with homework or something, but Seran should be around by now. Sera did go home to log in so they could play together – or at least that’s what she said she was going to do. Maybe Fanny had caught her streaking through the house in nothing more than a leather overcoat and was talking to her about it. While trying to figure out what might be going on with Sera, Heather’s icon suddenly turned gray and had a large question mark floating over it instead of her picture.
“You OK?” Kylie asked her privately.
“I am now,” she answered. “I set my character to ‘anon’, to hide. Now I won’t show up on jerkwad’s map anymore and he can’t track me. I just needed some space, and he simply won’t shut it!”
“Then I’m going to go ahead and start my hunt,” Kylie told her. “I might be slow responding if you send me a message, as I’ll be in the middle of battle, so don’t think I’m ignoring you.”
“I’d never think that!” Heather sent back instantly.
Kylie didn’t bother to reply back; instead, she chose to toss herself at the nearest vine once more. Slowly, ever so slowly, she was improving both with the staff and her crafting skill. Already she had several different leaves hung around her neck, dangling from a small necklace made of her hair, like dog tags. Another few days, and she could try and tie them all together and make a tiny loin cloth or something to start covering herself with.
After several hours of wandering near along the riverbank and slowly killing the vines there, Kylie noticed a set of broken and moss covered ruins downstream, where it looked as if the creek she was following merged with another. Cautiously, she approached it, wondering if it might mark the border of a different zone in the game. Rivers were often used in games to separate monster levels, and the creatures on the other side of those ruins might be a lot more powerful that the simple little vines which she’d been fighting for the last several days.
Stolen story; please report.
Creeping up, Kylie used identify on everything in sight before she moved forward even a single step. “Old worn rock.” “Wisteria Vine.” “Running Creeper.” “Neddlewart.” “Orchard Grass.” Lots of pieces of worthless information, and nothing that even vaguely resembled a monster’s status screen. Finally getting close enough to identify the weathered and worn ruins, they were called an “Ancient Lost Ven’driki Travel Post.” Since Sera wasn’t in game, and William for some reason had went completely silent – either the crotch kick had killed him for good, or else he’d entered into ‘stealthy ninja mode’ and was trying to stalk Heather without her knowing it – Kylie sent a private message to Heather about it.
“Hey Heather,” he simply had to share his odd discovery with someone. “You’ll never guess what I’ve came across!”
“Yes, sweetie?” Heather always sounded so much different when she thought she was talking to Sera. “What is it? Something nice? Is it sexy?”
“Oh my God! You’re as bad as any of the guys,” Kylie sent back to her, shocked. “No. It’s not anything sexy. You can’t wear it. I’ve found an old set of ruins of some sort. An ‘Ancient Lost Ven’driki Travel Post’ is what it identifies as. I’m thinking of checking it out, there…”
“Don’t you dare!” Heather commanded all at once. “Stay away from that place!”
“Uhh.. Sure.” Kylie involuntarily took a few steps back away from the ruins. “What’s the heck wrong with them?” She asked, concerned.
“Are you back safely away from them?” Heather asked, with a hint of unease in her voice.
“I am now,” Kylie replied honestly. “What’s up? Are they that dangerous.”
“They’re probably the most dangerous place in the world!” Heather exclaimed. “It’s a travel post. If the magic is still active, you can use them to travel to places you’ve been before, as long as they’re connected. If the magic’s broken, you might end up in the hells or some other dimension which you can never escape from! You’d basically just have to sit and wait the rest of the month without playing, and then make a new character unless someone could come rescue you. And, this early in the game, I doubt that could happen.”
“Oh, hell!” Kylie shivered just thinking about it. To spend the rest of the month trapped inside some alternative dimension, not being able to play with anyone at all in that time. That would suck sooo bad! Winter’s Tale might offer a chance at a new life with fame, fortune, and magic, but it also offered a chance at simply being stuck under a rock until you died and started over from boredom – or just quit the game!
“One thing though, tell me if you see any sort of runes or glyphs around. Don’t go inside the ruins, but check to see if there’s some markings on the outside of them,” Heather asked. “This might be a great thing for you and me both!”
“One second.” Kylie slowly made a circle around the ruins, identifying everything from as far away from them as she could. After several long minutes, a section of the wall with a faded engraving of a two headed eagle identified itself as an ‘Ancient Lost Ven’driki Travel Marker’.
“Found one. An ‘Ancient Lost Ven’driki Travel Marker’. Is that what I needed to look for?” Kylie asked Heather privately.
“It certainly is!” Heather was starting to sound very excited. “What’s it look like?”
“It’s old and faded, but I guess a two headed chicken, or eagle or something.”
“Anything else you can tell me?” Heather asked in a rush. “Hurry! Hurry! The guards and William are after me!”
“That’s it. Sorry, it’s faded almost beyond recognition.”
“Do or die then!” Heather yelled to Kylie.
“You’ll never take me alive you jerkface bastard!” She yelled through the public friend chat channel.
A moment later, the ground shook, a whirling rainbow light appeared in the center of the ruins, and a ragged and dirty looking female elf appeared out of thin air. Rushing out of the ruins, she turned and launched a dozen balls of fire one after another into the walls until they finally crumbled and collapsed.
“You can’t get me now!” Heather screamed into the party chat, as the elven girl stubbornly shook her fist at the sky once; twice; three times; before falling over in a faint.