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Winter's Tale
Chapter 6: First Encounter

Chapter 6: First Encounter

Kyle wandered aimlessly through the forest for about an hour, uncertain even about which direction she was going in, when suddenly a window popped up and she felt a slight stinging pain in her head.

You have taken 1 point of damage.  (19 / 20 remain.)

“What the hell?”  Kyle was surprised by the message and started spinning and scanning all around furiously to look for whatever had hit him.  He managed to turn just enough to barely avoid being hit in the head once again by a large acorn.  Looking up, a small creature that appeared to be a combination of a squirrel and a person was standing on its hind legs on a branch several feet above him.  Its front paws were glowing, and after a moment, another wooden acorn appeared and shot rapidly towards him.

“Asshole!”  Kyle yelled at the squirrel-man while nimbly dodging the acorn.  “Come down here and fight like a man, you rodent!”  

Ignoring him, the squirrel’s paws started to glow once more and it chittered back in his direction in defiance.  A moment later, another acorn shot in her direction and Kyle nimbly dodged it once again.  A hundred agility isn’t something to sneeze at apparently!

Glancing around in frustration, Kyle grabbed up the nearest branch she could find and tossed it at the creature, missing it by a mile.  Another acorn came hurling her way, and this time struck her shoulder for another point of damage.  Cussing loudly, in the cute musical elven voice she had, Kyle cast a heal spell on herself while looking for another stick to throw.  Bending over to pick one up, another acorn hit her in the ass, making Kyle flinch and cuss even louder.

“Heal!”  She healed herself once more, and again missed the creature by a mile as she tossed a stick at it.

And, in such a pattern, the two continued their relentless assault on each other for several more exchanges.  The squirrel-thing would create and shoot acorns, Kyle would either dodge or instantly heal herself afterwards, while trying – and failing – to find something to toss up into the tree and knock the creature off its perch.  Back and forth for several minutes they went, until finally the little squirrel-creature’s hands stopped glowing and it looked confused.

“Ha!”  Kyle laughed and taunted the creature.  “You ran out of mana before me, you worthless rodent!”  With a chitter of frustration, the creature leapt down from the limb and dashed across the forest floor to bite at Kyle’s cute ankles.  

“Dammit!”  Nimbly Kyle hopped to the side, and lashed out with his staff at the annoying little beast, once again missing.  

And, once again, they fell into an odd little dance of back and forth attacks.  The squirrel would leap and bite at Kyle, she would dodge or else heal herself, and then strike back at it.  Dash, bite, dodge, heal, club. Dash, bite, dodge, heal, club.  Dash, bite, dodge, heal, club.  On and on their battle went, with Kyle getting in a lucky shot every now and again and slowly whittling the creature’s health down.  After dozens and dozens of turns snapping and swiping at each other, Kyle had managed to hit the beast enough times that its fur was looking a little tattered, and a few blood stains were visible around its mouth and face.  

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“I’ve almost got you now,” Kyle exclaimed, almost out of breath.  Leaping one last time, the squirrel bit Kyle on the leg one more time for good measure, and then dashed between her legs and into the forest.

“Heal,” Kyle muttered breathlessly as she spun around looking for the creature, to no avail.  She’d managed to get lucky and hit it enough times to injure it, but the little beast ran away before she could kill it!

“Dammit!”  Kyle cursed loudly.  “Status!”

Name: NoneClass: NoneLevel: 0Race: X’entian Elf (Altered)Experience: 0 / 1000Title: Exiled Princess of X’entiaStatus: Exile, Wanted CriminalCP: 0

HP: 20 / 20MP: 196 / 200SP: 20 / 20PD: 0 (10)DR: 0MD: 0

STR: 10KNO: 100WIL: 10AGI: 100MYS: 100PRE: 200END: 10SPI: 10LUC: 10

TALENTS

Mystical Regen: 7.5 – Recovers mystical energy at 7.5 times the normal character rate

SPELLS

HEAL: 40 -- heals 40 HP for 1 MP

SKILLS

Identify: 3 – Allows identification of basic items or creatures.

Even after all that, Kyle had only lost four mana during the whole fight.  Her energy recovery rate was insane!  But, sadly enough, Kyle was still sitting at zero experience.  Even after all that time fighting, she was still just as bad off as she had been before the fight even started.  If it wasn’t for the identify skill of three now, she wouldn’t be any different at all from how she first began the game!

Feeling like crying, Kyle slowly turned and started to wander off once more randomly in the forest.