Openings

by Thomas Davidsmeier

  Sure enough, a swirling vortex of crimson and white light appeared out of nowhere. Christopher reached out to touch it. It felt strangely solid to his hand despite the way it flickered and roiled. He brought the folded letter and gold piece up to the surface of the portal. As soon as the paper touched the vortex, it was swallowed up. The twisting chaos collapsed in on itself and disappeared. The library was eerily still.

  “Hope that worked…”

  ***

  Olivia woke up to the sound of birds singing on her first morning in the Divided Lands.

  Confused because she could only see darkness, Olivia tried to say, “They don’t sing during the night at home.” The words were muffled and garbled. Olivia realized there was something covering her face.

  She reached up and removed a beautifully carved wooden mask. It looked like her face, except the eyes were tipped and big. And, the ears were larger and pointy.

  Olivia was captivated by the mask. She gazed at it for a long moment. It was not out of vanity, but rather a fascination with how the slight changes to her human features made her elf-self look so different. Finally, she decided that it gave her face a subtle animal-like quality.

  She reached up and felt her own ears. Sure enough, they were pointy like the ones on the mask. Tearing her eyes away from the mask, she saw light was coming from a large triangular opening with rough edges across from her. After a moment’s contemplation, she realized she was sitting inside a hollowed out tree trunk.

  Her eyes adjusted to the surroundings, and she saw that there were all sorts of things around her. There was a beautiful sky blue and green robe, a gnarled length of branch that seemed to have grown around jewels, a book with a leather cover and faintly glowing runes, and a treasure chest of the most beautiful woodwork.

  In wonderment, she asked aloud, “Is this the Divided Lands?”

  “Yes,” came a gruff response from outside her little inside-a-tree house. “You’ll need to put on your kit there to be ready for your first challenge. There should be clothes in the chest, and a magic robe hanging on a wall. You’ll want your wand as well.”

  Olivia pulled herself up to her feet stiffly. Looking down, she felt very glad that whoever was outside her inside-a-tree house could not see her. She was only wearing what looked like linen strips wrapped all around her. No matter how much some other girls made fun of how she dressed, Olivia would never have gone out in public like this.

  Blushing despite the fact that no one could see, she rushed to the chest and flung it open. “I’ll be out in a minute, I’ve just got to get dressed.”

  “Take your time, Lady.” The last word was said with pure respect and not a whit of irony or mockery. “The enemy is still a ways off. The stag has not even come through yet.”

  Olivia had no idea what exactly that answer meant, but she was happy enough for the time. Unwrapping herself, she found that she was wearing a full slip that covered her from her shoulders to her thighs. This would not come off. No matter what she tried, it stayed or reappeared in place. It was actually a little reassuring.

  Out of the chest, she pulled a thick, sky blue blouse, and a long, forest green dress that went over the blouse. The style was beautifully simple and fit Olivia’s taste perfectly. Sliding these two on, she reached up to check her hair and found it tied back with her sky blue ribbon like she usually wore it.

  Fussing with it anyway, she muttered, “I’d really like a mirror though.”

  A belt with a dagger attached was hanging on the wall. Olivia took that down and put it on over her dress. Pulling the robe down off the wall and sliding it on, Olivia got a surprise.

  You have acquired a Novice Wizard’s Robe. +4 Maximum Mana.

  The text eventually disappeared. Olivia grabbed the branch with the jewels that she assumed was her wand. More text confirmed her guess.

  Your have acquired a Wand of the Elements. +3 Damage when you used Evocations.

  Hoping that whoever was outside her little wooden chamber would know, she asked “What are evocations?”

  “They are your wizard spells which evoke or draw out fire, ice, or lightning to damage and destroy your enemies. I am a ranger and your tutor. I have no such powers, but I know how they work in this Worldgame.”

  Olivia felt her hair again one last time and ducked out the wooden door and into the brighter light outside. She blinked a couple of times, letting her eyes adjust.

  A tall man with pointy ears like hers and too big eyes was standing to the side of the opening. Olivia had indeed been inside the trunk of a very large tree. The man wore greens, grays, and browns. A cloak, leather armor, britches, high but soft boots, and various weapons made up his equipment. But, what Olivia noticed was his gaze.

  The man had cool, steady bluish gray eyes that gave Olivia a strange sense of confidence. It was as if nothing could surprise those eyes, as if they had never seen anything that they could not handle. It was not a cocky or over-confident stare at all, just supremely confident.

  “Welcome, Lady. My name here is Cato. I was a soldier on Earth and I am a soldier and your tutor here.”

  The formality of how he spoke matched the seriousness of the eyes. Olivia could not help but curtsy in reply. It simply felt natural. “Thank you, Ranger Cato. My name is Olivia Jordan. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  A stag suddenly bounded out of the undergrowth and burst through the open area they were standing in. “Help!” cried out the animal. “Shadow elves! They want to make a meal of me!” It bounded off, through the bushes on the other side of the clearing.

  For a moment, Olivia wondered if the Divided Lands were like Narnia. Then, the Shadow elves arrived. Two lanky men with long ears like her own appeared. That was where the similarities ended. The two were dressed and colored in all blacks and grays. Their skin, eyes, and hair were all some variation of gray. Their leather armor was black with unnecessary, decorative chains. Their long ears were pierced with lines of silver hoops. One had a hoop through the corner of his lower lip. The other had his hair cut into a mohawk. Olivia wondered if she had stumbled upon a Death Metal concert in the woods by accident.

  “Did you’s two see a deer come runnin’ through ‘ere? We’s ‘ave got a claim on it.” This shadow elf, the one with the mohawk, spat to the side after he got done speaking.

  Nervously clutching her wand, Olivia answered, “Uhh, yes. Yes we did. What sort of claim do you have on him?”

  The elf with the lip ring laughed. “We’s wants ta eat it!”

  Cato had slid a little forward of Olivia and seemed to be getting ready to get between the two shadow elves and Olivia.

  Olivia asked, “Would you settle for something else to eat?”

  “What ‘ave you got?”

  "Well, nothing to be honest. But, I could buy you something if there is a village nearby.”

  The two shadow elves looked gobsmacked. They exchanged nervous glances. Cato squeezed the handle of the tomahawk he was holding at his side. It seemed to be a gesture of irritation or impatience. Yet, when he spoke there was no hint of either in his voice.

  “Lady Olivia, there is a forest elf village nearby. Would you care for me to show you the way? They will certainly have bread there to buy.”

  Gratitude filled Olivia’s face as she looked up at Cato for a brief moment. She turned to the two shadow elves. “Would you two be happy with bread?”

  Mohawk started to say, “Well, dere’s a couple…”

  But, Lip Ring elbowed him violently in the side. “Dat would do us nicely. Could you bring it round our camp? We’s won’t be welcome much near dat village.”

  “Certainly. Where’s your camp?”

  “We’s could shows you real easy like. Next to the bridge over the stream. Wanna follow us?”

  Olivia smiled and nodded. “Go on, lead the way. We’ll follow you, see where your camp is, and then bring the bread back to you.”

  The shadow elves waved their hands in that universal “Follow me”
way and headed back into the woods from the direction they had come.

  Uncertain and embarrassed, Olivia whispered to Cato as they started off, “Was I supposed to kill them? I didn’t want to kill them.”

  “Your decisions and solutions to your challenges are your own. I am just a tutor to help you learn how to play this Game. Speaking of which, you may soon want to know how to cast your spells quickly. Allow me to explain how to setup short phrases that will cast your spells when spoken.”

  ***

  The ropes were too tight to allow them to fall asleep. That was probably the point.

  The shadow elves turned out to be much less friendly than they had seemed. Cato had not said anything approaching, “I told you so,” yet. Still, Olivia’s embarrassment and humiliation was complete.

  At the camp, there had been three more surly elves. They had demanded Olivia’s gold from her. Wisely, she had only said that she did not have it on her. She had not said anything about her inside-a-tree house or her treasure chest.

  So, the shadow elves had taken their weapons and tied them up. Cato and Olivia were now dangling about four feet up in the air from a sturdy branch of a large tree. It was after nightfall, and the shadow elves had fallen asleep, tired out from hurling insults and small rocks at their captives.

  Truthfully, Olivia whispered, “I’m sorry. I did not mean to get us into this kind of trouble.”

  Cato replied, “It is tempting to try to avoid fighting. But to paraphrase an acquaintance of mine, there comes a time in the course of events when it becomes necessary, so to speak.”

  “Am I supposed to kill them?”

  “That is for you to answer for yourself. In my time, they would have never put a young woman like yourself in charge of a war. But, there was Joan of Arc, Boadicea, and I suppose Queen Elizabeth, though she was not a commander in the field.”

  Hope springing into her voice, Olivia suggest, “There was Catherine the Great too. I mean, I don’t condone a lot of the things she did morally speaking, but she did raise a great empire.”

  “Hmmm, she was a contemporary of mine, though rather my opposite in many ways. I dare say she enjoyed ordering the killing more than I did.”

  “Were you a leader of your country?”

  “Don’t worry about the past, child. We have some rather pressing concerns in the present. Are you ready to deal with these savage fools yet?”

  “I think…”

  But, Olivia did not finish her though. Instead, a brilliant vortex of purple light and unnatural darkness appeared from nowhere on the ground about fifteen feet away from her.

  Sir Jeremy the Necromancer is giving you a gift of: 1 Wood.

  “What? I thought he was my enemy?”

  A log began to emerge from the portal, but like the one that would go to Chris the next day, it had skeletons tied to it. The first skeleton saw the two elves hanging in the tree and thought that looked like a good target. It reached up its claw to take a swipe.

  But, the other four skeletons saw the shadow elves stirring by their campfire. Those looked like better targets. So tied together as they were, the one that wanted to attack Olivia and Cato was dragged off by the other four.

  Surprised but not shaken, Cato calmly said, “I have no idea where these monsters have come from, but it seems to be an opportunity from God. Let us take advantage of it.”

  Olivia cast her Novice Alteration spell by saying her selected phrase, “Presto-change-o.” She pictured herself as a child, smaller and more slender than she was. At this beginning level, she could only change into another humanoid form of the same race as herself. But, her equipment would change to match the new form.

  Proudly as her new, smaller form wriggled out of the ropes easily, she whispered to Cato, “I think this spell was meant for me to change into a warrior in armor or something like that. But, this works better at the moment.”

  Olivia dropped out of the bottom of the circle of ropes, and Cato followed a moment later. Howls of pain and anger were coming from the battle between the shadow elves and the skeletons. The log had broken free and fallen on one of the shadow elves trapping him.

  The skeletons were freely moving about now.

  One went down to a sword blow.

  Two more were flanking an elf who was holding his side like his guts might spill out at any moment.

  Even in the dim light, Olivia’s big eyes could make out every detail of the horrific scene. Night vision was not always an advantage.

  Looking like every muscle and sinew was twitching in readiness, Cato informed Olivia, “I will fetch our equipment. You need to cover me with evocations if anything comes near. Unless you want to join the fray?”

  Olivia looked closer to losing her lunch than joining in the combat. This was not pixels and sound effects. This was real sounds, real smells, and real death.

  The shadow elf holding his side was caught by another swipe and went down in a bloody heap.

  The ranger did not say another thing as he broke into a crouching run and took off for the edge of the engagement. Just as he reached the pile of their belongs, the shadow elf that had defeated a skeleton spotted the forest elf and came at Olivia’s tutor with his sword draw up over his gray head.

  The young wizard reacted. She raised her finger and spat out, “Burning Bullet!”

  You have cast Novice Evocation: Fire at Shadow Elf Rogue.

  You have 9/15 Mana.

  A ball of flame about four inches wide shot out of her finger and flew as fast as an arrow at the charging shadow elf.

  You hit the Shadow Elf Rogue for 8 damage. He becomes a shadow of his former self. He dies.

  Olivia did not have the wherewithal to completely grasp what she had done. Cato grabbed the pile of belongs and dropped back away from the conflict.

  There were now three shadow elves and four skeletons up and fighting. The fourth elf was trapped under the log. Instead of leaving well enough alone or playing dead, he tried to reach out and trip one of the skeletons. The undead turned around and plunged its claws into the trapped elf’s chest and neck.

  Olivia screamed in horror at the sight. She pointed at the murderous undead and screamed, “BURNING BULLET!”

  You have cast Novice Evocation: Fire at Skeleton.

  You have 6/15 Mana.

  The ball of fire smashed into the skeleton’s rib cage.

  You hit the Skeleton for 6 damage. The Skeleton is BURNING.

  This only added to the surreal terror of the situation. Still in the form of a young girl from her Alteration spell, Olivia made a fitting image as tears welled up in her eyes.

  The ranger was kneeling beside her now, stringing his bow. “The first time is the worst. I would tell this to no man under my charge, but I hate combat.”

  Nocking an arrow, he waited until a skeleton was in the clear.

  He loosed his arrow.

  It flew straight and true, smashing in one side of the skeleton’s skull and out the other. The creature fell apart from the force of the blow.

  A touch of shame entered at the edge of his voice as Cato sighed, “I shall not tell I lie. I love combat as well.”

  BURNING Skeleton takes 3 damage. It dies... again.

  Exhilaration did surge into Olivia when she saw the burning skeleton collapse.

  Still, there were two skeletons fighting two elves. Indecision froze Olivia in place for a moment. Should she leave to their battle? Who was worse, undead or bandits?

  A cry of agony from an elf as he was wounded made up Olivia’s mind. She launched another spell at a skeleton. “Burning Bullet!”

  You have cast Novice Evocation: Fire at Skeleton.

  You have 3/15 Mana.

  You hit the Skeleton for 9 damage. It dies... again.

  The unscathed shadow elf swung a heavy cudgel with an uppercut through the rib cage of the last skeleton, smashing it to bones and dust.

  The wounded shadow elf stumbled back two steps and fell to his knees, cradling his shredded lef
t arm to his stomach.

  The unhurt shadow elf was the same one with a Mohawk who had lead them into the trap in the first place. He surveyed the carnage with an air of indifference.

  Cato took a step forward, an arrow drawn and aimed at the gray elf’s chest.

  “Isn’t enough killing enough?” Olivia asked Cato. The elf wizard dismissed her Alteration and returned to her full, though slight, stature.

  “Lady Olivia, that is your decision to make.”

  The gray skinned elf panted as he looked from the ranger to the wizard and back, his already large eyes wide open.

  “Then we should capture these two and...”

  Cato had glanced for just a split second toward Olivia when she said the word capture.

  It was all the shadow elf had needed.

  He dove for cover behind a nearby tree. Then, he took off dodging and ducking through the undergrowth into the night.

  Embarrassed again, Olivia corrected herself. “How about we capture this one...”

  The ranger just sighed as he drew off his bow and took the arrow from the string.

  ***

  Olivia was asleep in a forest elf village the next day when a crimson and white vortex swirled into existence in her cozy room. She jumped back and readied a spell. It was a relief when just a folded up letter from Chris with a coin inside came through.

  ***

  While Chris waited for responses to his letters, he scanned the books on the shelves of the little library in the parsonage. He was looking for something that might help him to make a more informed decision about what to do with his remaining skills and attribute points. He had spent his Magic Skill at the start of the battle with the skeletons, but he still had important decisions to make. He spotted a book titled Bestiary of the Divided Lands. He pulled it down off the shelf and began flipping through.

  “Know thy enemy and know thy self, right?”

  The book was divided into two or three page entries that each had at least one nice quarter page illustration with them. Various monsters and mundane animals were described.