Gaia's Rebirth Box Set

by Caiden Walker

A strange look passed over Blake's face, but it was gone in less than the span of a heartbeat. "How do you know that I didn't? Just why do you think I'm stuck here in the game now?"

  Nika snorted. "I think you made an ass of yourself and your beautiful and sexy Cora got rid of you."

  "Believe what you will," Blake said. "But I didn't want the new plans—if there really are new plans—carried out." He paused. "I like you and Evan. And your employees have never done anything to deserve what's coming."

  Finally, something she could agree with him about. She wasn't buying his hero ploy one bit, but she did believe him about everything else.

  She took a deep breath and then turned to Evan and the others. "New plan. Blake comes with us."

  Ash glanced over at Blake then back to Nika. "All the way to the end?"

  Nika nodded. "As much as I don't want to have to look at him that long, if his singing will up your magic in battle, we need him. I'll make that sacrifice if it means we get to Gaia faster."

  Then she turned to Louella. "Any luck breaking into the part of the program with Gaia to let us know if there are any major changes we have to worry about?"

  Louella shook her head. "I'm sorry. It literally took me weeks of solid work just to hack into the character class creation section. The others are still eluding me." She paused. "Do you think you would be able to access them through my Gaia account?"

  Nika took a deep breath before answering. "No. My dad was a bit too thorough. Evan's account and mine were given access to everything. Anyone else only had access to the section they were working on." She smiled at the girl. "I'm no hacker, unfortunately. I'm beginning to have a lot of respect for them, though."

  Louella smiled at her. "I promise to keep trying every chance I get with the terminal."

  "That's all we can ask," Nika said. "And if we ever get out of here, I promise I'll make it up to you."

  Instead of answering, Louella looked away and gave a small shrug.

  That was odd, Nika thought. But then the girl had been odd since day one. It was part of who she was.

  "It's still early, and now we have all the more reason to move as quickly as we can through the game," Ash said. "So anyone else want to go kill some monsters?"

  Nika hesitated. "With one small thing first," she said. "I want to collect our horse and then, if we are still going to do the smaller team thing for a while, maybe my team can use him to get a little deeper in the desert to the bigger and badder monsters. That's where we'll start getting the nicer loot drops."

  "It might be smart to pool our gold before we leave and see what we need for the other two mounts," Evan said slowly. "That way we won't come back before we have enough to do the job."

  Ash nodded. "I wish there was a way we could communicate with each other even when we split. It would make things easier."

  "Something to definitely set the programmers on once we get out of here." Nika's face hardened. "And we are getting out of here." She made sure she met everyone's eyes as she said it. Nika had no intention of letting any of her new friends be killed. The same thing went for her old employees too. They'd get out of the game and face down Cora and all her cronies.

  She just wished she could take her Viking ax with her.

  The team had a quick lunch before splitting up again to do their tasks. They had debated switching the teams up a little, but in the end, they decided to stick with what was working. That didn't mean they didn't stock up on remedies before leaving the town again.

  When they parted once more, Ash's team had taken over the quest for the missing pig to gain that precious gold, and Nika and her team had decided to just wing it and take on any nests of monsters they could find. As they were going to be going deeper, they should still be able to make a good haul.

  They were headed to turn in the hyena quest when Evan finally spoke up.

  "When we took that hyena quest, didn't the guy seem a little too anxious for us to take it?"

  Nika looked at him. "What do you mean?"

  Evan took a deep breath. "Well, I had my hand in a lot of the game's code, but not nearly all of it. Some of the other programmers had odd senses of humor. It's just got me thinking, that's all."

  "You think he's going to try to give us a nag or something? A bait and switch?"

  He hesitated. "No, not that. I mean he showed us the horse we would get."

  "Then what?"

  Evan shook his head. "I'm not sure. Maybe it was just my imagination." He gave her a sad smile. "I guess maybe learning that our days may be numbered has me doubting everything."

  "Our days aren't numbered," Nika said. "We have the best team anyone could ever ask for, and we are going to kick the desert’s butt, find Gaia and kick her butt, then exit the game and kick Cora's butt."

  "Am I part of that team?" Louella asked her voice quivering.

  Nika glanced back at her. "Of course you are. We'd still be leveling up to face blood elves if it wasn't for you." She motioned over to Evan. "Not to mention that he'd still be walking around on all fours and purring."

  Evan just grinned. "Yeah, I'll admit I had my doubts about you at first. But you did me a solid with that one."

  The girl gave a tiny shrug. "Thanks for that." It seemed like she was going to say more, but she must have changed her mind because she stayed silent.

  When they reached the small barn on the outskirts of the town where they had taken the hyena quest it took them a minute to find the rancher. When they did, he was wearing a cast from his toes up to his shin and walking with the help of massive crutches.

  "What happened to you?" Evan asked.

  The rancher recognized them and his eyes immediately lit up.

  "Oh, it's nothing really," he said. "Did you finish my little task?"

  Evan was right, the man did seem a bit anxious. Now that Nika thought about it, she wondered how much of a threat the hyenas had been to the man. Towns were safe havens, and the man’s ranch was within the town’s limits.

  "We did," Nika said. "Did you want the hides of the beasts?" They still didn't know what they were to be used for. Maybe they were simply proof of the kills.

  The rancher shivered. "Goodness no," he said. "Although there is a furrier in town that will pay a decent price for them."

  More gold in their pocket. That would be nice, Nika thought.

  "So when can we get our horse?" Evan asked.

  The man gave them a huge grin. "Right now! Follow me. I have him all saddled up for you and everything." He paused. "I guess you can consider the saddle a part of the reward too." He seemed a little sad about the offer, but as badly as the team needed their gold right now, Nika took it.

  The horse was standing in a stall, and like the man said, he was wearing a saddle. It wasn't until they got closer to the stall that the horse turned his head toward them. His eyes sought out the rancher’s, and his lips curled away from his huge horse teeth.

  The rancher immediately started backing up. "Well, there you go. Be sure you take him with you when you go." By now he was back at the barn door. Man, he was moving fast for a guy on crutches. "Thanks again. Bye!"

  And he was gone.

  "Okay," Nika said slowly. "Now I totally see what you mean."

  They all looked at the horse. It looked back. At least once the man had left, it had the decency to cover its teeth.

  Now it looked like a perfectly fine horse. Its solid black color was only marred by one single white streak that ran from the top of his eyes down his muzzle. He was quite striking, even up close.

  Nika looked at the other inhabitants of the small barn. There were three other horses, and none of them looked as fine as this one.

  "Are you wondering why he would give us the pick of the litter instead of one of the others?" Evan asked.

  "Actually, that's exactly what I was wondering."

  "I'm kind of thinking he's the reason the rancher was wearing that cast," Evan said.

  "You may be right. I'd say we should probably take
a lot of precautions when dealing with this mount," Nika answered.

  While the two of them had been hesitating, Louella had walked right up to the stall door. Before they could stop her, she had reached into the stall to offer the horse an apple.

  The horse looked at the offering, then up into Louella's eyes and gave a soft neigh. Then his giant teeth reached down and took the apple from her hand as softly as it possibly could.

  "Well," Evan said. "At least it looks as though he likes our pixie."

  Nika grinned. "She is a nature creature. Louella just might be our saving grace with this beast." Then she noticed the nameplate over his stall. Sunshine. Who was the rancher trying to kid, anyway?

  They approached the pixie and her new friend cautiously, not wanting to spook the horse. Especially Evan, who could definitely be seen as a threat to any type of livestock. The whole tiger-man persona and all.

  Sunshine didn't seem to mind him at all. Or Nika either. At least as long as the pixie was there with them.

  Louella opened the stall door and took the horse's reins in her small hand, leading him out in the open center of the barn where they could all take a better look at their prize.

  "Isn't he beautiful?" Louella said in awe, her voice hushed in reverence. "Can we really ride him?"

  Nika laughed. "That's the plan, anyway." She paused as she watched the horse nuzzle its head against the girl's hand. "I think we might want to stop off at the mayor's house and stock up on apples before we head out."

  Sunshine's large muzzle turned to Nika and his head raised and lowered. Twice, to be sure she got the point.

  Not only was he fast, he was smart too. That had her worried. Just why was the rancher so anxious to get rid of him?

  ***

  The stop off for apples didn't delay them much, and with their virtual inventories now stuffed with the fruit, they made their way to the far gate. So far, none of them had tried to actually mount the horse. Once at the gate that was the obvious next step.

  "I'll go up first," Louella said, handing Sunshine another apple. "That's the last apple for a little while, fella. I've got plenty more, but you've already had five. We don't want you to get a bellyache now do we?"

  The horse gave her a sad look but shook his head slowly from side to side.

  The pixie looked over to Nika. "Are all horses this smart?" she asked. "I never got to meet one in the real world."

  Nika was staring hard at the horse. "No, I don't think they are. Something tells me this particular horse is very special indeed. I just hope he's as fast as he looks." And doesn't try to throw them when they got on his back. But that she kept to herself. Maybe they should have kept the healer with them after all.

  Louella nodded, then motioned for Evan to give her a lift up onto the beast's back. Sunshine stood as still as possible while she got situated. Then it was Nika's turn.

  He didn't seem quite so happy when he realized there would be two riders, but after a brief sidestep, he allowed Nika to join her in the saddle. After all, the pixie didn't take up much room.

  Evan would be running beside them. Tiger-men were apparently very fast all by themselves. Putting him on a horse would be wasting a ride needed by another party member.

  The territory out this gate was new to them, but in the desert, the scenery was pretty much the same in every direction. Until you got to an oasis, of course. There were only a couple decent sized ones between Waterton and the Outpost. There were a few tiny ones along the way, though, for travelers who hadn't taken the care to properly prepare their water supplies. Nika was pretty sure those hadn't existed in the real world. Some things simply had to be better than life to make it easier on the players. After all, they would be paying to come here.

  Close to town, there were palm trees and some sparse grass in certain areas. As they got farther out, those disappeared pretty much completely. And as fast as they were traveling that didn’t take long.

  There were no mile markers in the desert, but there was the occasional signpost to alert the traveler as to how much farther the next water source was and in what direction. They'd been riding at a pretty good pace for about thirty minutes when they reached the first one. According to the sign, Waterton was about four miles behind them. Not bad. Farther than they would have gotten by walking and no one in their right mind ran in the desert in the middle of the day.

  The game did a good job conveying to the brain just how hot it was here. Too good of a job to Nika's mind. She knew that her body was in a temperature-controlled environment and that she really wasn't hot at all. Unfortunately, her brain thought just the opposite. That meant that logic wasn't in control here. The game's desert sun was.

  A mile or so from that first signpost, they ran into their first band of desert nomads. There were only three of them, and they were dressed in the long white, skin-covering robes the sandy terrain called for. But their head wraps also covered their faces. If there had been a strong wind blowing the sand around, this would have been normal. With no wind, this was a sure bet they were bandits.

  A quick glance at her area map showed three red dots right in front of them. That clinched it. That, and the fact that they were blocking the lighter colored path between two fairly large sand dunes. Oh, and of course, they had all drawn swords as well.

  If the party had wanted to avoid the fight, they could have easily done so. A simple turn of their mount followed by a quick retreat and there was no way the nomads could have overtaken them. Of course, that would change once they started meeting mounted nomads. Those were pretty much fight or die. Especially if they had bows rather than swords.

  Unfortunately for these few nomad bandits, the party wasn't in the mood to run. In fact, Nika's only thought going into the battle was a hope that their swords remained once they disappeared, and how much each of them might bring at the market.

  The three bandits put up a pretty good fight, but technically with Louella's clone, they were outnumbered from the start. They were decent fighters though, and very skilled with their blades. One of them managed to get a couple of lucky strikes in against Evan, and if Louella had been a few seconds later with the health potion, he might have gotten rebooted back to Waterton. As it was, the near miss just made him angry. An angry tiger-man was a scary tiger-man. Enough so that Nika wondered if there were some secret coding involved that gave him extra speed and endurance when injured. She wouldn't put it past Louella to have added a little something like that for him. After all, that type of ability wasn't unheard of.

  In fact, she just might ask if the girl could add that to all of their abilities. If she did it just right, the other players would never have to know, and it would help them out in a fight if they were close to losing. Might turn the tide of the battle even. A near loss is much better than an actual one.

  Her thoughts had distracted her and she let one of the bandits get a little too close with his blade. Her ax was a decent length, but their swords had a much larger reach than her weapon. She didn't jump back in time, and the tip of the blade sliced through her new robe and left a small trail of blood from a thin scratch. Blood immediately started staining her covering a bright red.

  Damn it! She hadn't had the robe all that long and now they'd gone and torn and stained it. Giving her WarCry again, she advanced, moving her ax to block each swipe of the nomad's blade and managing to get her ax to the man's body. One mighty heave of the ax and the man was nothing more than glitter on the desert sand. Being cut in half will do that to you.

  As there had been one monster for each of them, Nika glanced around to see if the others needed help with her enemy now gone. They didn't. They were actually waiting for her. Louella with a health potion in hand just in case. When the girl saw Nika's look she grinned, shrugged, and put the potion away.

  It was a good feeling knowing someone had your back.

  Looking around the small and sandy battlefield, they found three swords. Good, so you did get the enemies’ weapons after battle. That w
as nice. Nika's part of the game programming and design had focused on the world itself. The fauna, the flora, and the creatures themselves. How the game play actually worked sometimes came as a complete surprise to her. Truthfully, she loved that fact. It made everything new and exciting.

  Just how her dad would have wanted her first play through to be.

  Now Evan, on the other hand probably knew everything there was to know about the game play and exactly how the game worked. That was his area of specialty. But he was keeping to their agreement and only telling her what she had to know to make it through the game faster. Things like this she could learn as they played through.

  Besides the swords, they found a single health potion, a remedy, and an emerald. The jewel would come in handy later when they got to level twelve and could start using weapons with gem slots to hold them. Each type of jewel gave extra power to a stat class. If she remembered correctly, emeralds were for magic. This one would most likely be fitted to Ash's staff.

  "What do you think?" Evan asked. "Press on and ride until we hit another band or stray from the path and see what we find?"

  Off the path would probably yield more actual creatures. The path was where the nomads and other human types of enemies were normally found, preying on the supposedly unaware travelers. Nika considered for a minute.

  "How about we ride on? That way we can take in a little more of the desert and see if there are any surprises waiting for us there," Nika said. "What do you think Louella?"

  The girl turned guiltily from Sunshine's head. She'd been sneaking him another apple.

  "Sounds okay to me." Turning back to the horse, Nika could hear her whisper. "I promise you a whole bucket of water, a ton of oats, and a good rub down when we get in for the night." The girl patted the horse's nose and got ready to remount. Sunshine wasn't a small horse by any means, and with Louella's height being on the shorter side, she had to wait for Evan to give her a hand up before making it into the saddle.

  As soon as she was situated, Nika started to follow then hesitated. "Did you want to ride the next round?" she asked Evan. Tiger-man or not, the desert was awfully hot to be running in it. And he had a light fur coat too. "As an Amazon, I should be able to keep up fairly well myself."