by Taj McCoy El
He proceeded to walk them around a private section of Majesta, showing them different plants and animals. They walked towards a cabin in the distance. The Butlers were amazed at the realism. They oohed and aahed, fawning over the details, such as the dew on the grass. They stopped and watched some ants for a few minutes. Brenda poked at them with a stick and they swarmed at once.
They reached the cabin and the door was opened by a man with a hand towel over his arm.
“Breakfast is ready sir.”
“Thank you Abernathy. Would you mind joining us? I would like you to meet the Butlers?”
“They are new employs sir?”
“No, no, no. That’s just their surname.” Everyone smiled at the faux pas “Finish your preparations and meet us in the dining room. We’ll be there in a few minutes.” Abernathy nodded and walked out of one of the backdoors.
The inside of the cabin was only a twenty by twenty room set up to look like a hunting lodge. There were doors around the outside wall but there was no building outside of those walls. Other than that, the details were perfect. The seats by the warm crackling fireplace, a bear skin rug and various Majestan hunting trophies were hung around the room.”
“Mayah’s not going to be hunting these things, is she?” Brenda inquired as she pointed at the head of a creature with more teeth than a shark and more eyes than a spider.
“At her current level, I hope not. As far as I know those haven’t even been encountered in the game yet. There haven’t been any players with a high enough level to reach them yet.”
“Well that’s good.” She sighed in relief.
“But if she did face one I’m sure that she would dispatch it with some crazy plan.”
You’re right about that.” Gyasi commented.
Brenda waggled a finger at him. “Don’t you encourage that type of behavior, mister.”
“I’m sorry Bren, won’t happen again,” he chuckled.
“Well let’s go to the dining room.”
“What dining room.” Brenda looked at all the space in the cabin looking for a place setting. “Isn’t this all of the space in the cabin? Speaking of which where did Abernathy go?”
“Right this way.” Josh ushered them towards a door on the far side of the room. “Ladies first.”
Brenda opened the door, her eyes going wide. Gyasi moved to look over her shoulder. There he saw a beautiful baroque ballroom with high vaulted marble ceilings. It was so large that it could fit a thousand people if they were seated at round tables, wedding reception style. The arches were made of a marble so white they seemed to glow.
The Butlers stepped in heads swiveling at the luxury. Set back in alcoves, murals of knights and mages took place in epic battles. Differing panels contained a seemingly continuous story. Pillars lined each mural, they were veined with gold that looked as if it was quarried to perfect this room. The shiny floor and glowing arches gave the effect that all of the light was coming from the large windows that lay at the other end of the room.
The Butler’s walked further in. Brenda spun around taking a look in every direction. Then decided to leave the ballroom and go out of the front door and stare at the dimensions of the cabin.
Gyasi almost followed her until Josh placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Just watch this.” His eyes followed Brenda while his smile promised a pleasant surprise.
Brenda ran around the cabin. Gyasi watched her through the windows on the walls. She stood staring at the cabin with her hands on her hips. Then slightly out of breath she walked back in. “Now I know how the people who get into the Tardis feel.”
Josh and Gyasi laughed.
“The only difference being this is not a dimensional pocket. It’s VR so the mechanics of Dr. Who are only a small amount of what we can do.”
“Did you enjoy your run?” Gyasi asked.
“I did,” she slapped his arm. “but man am I tired.”
“That’s actually a game mechanic. It’s just that your Characters Stamina is so low. I thought you’d want to know how it felt when Mayah first got here. She’s levels above that now.”
“As a matter of fact, I’m going to show you her fights in the tournament as we eat breakfast. If you wouldn’t mind following me, please.” They walked back into the ballroom Brenda shaking her head at the unbelievability of the architecture. Gyasi just Stared at all of the expensive, everythings. Josh saw him looking and walked them over to what looked like an expensive Ming vase.
“What do you think about this vase?” he asked the butlers.
“A bit gaudy for my tastes. It seems extremely expensive, though.”
Josh picked up the vase like it was a newborn baby, stared at it and said. “It is a little gaudy. Catch!” The vase flew up in the air in a high arc. Gyasi’s attention focused on catching it at all cost. He may not have liked it but he was no wastrel either. He waved Brenda off as she tried to catch it as well. He caught the vase with the ease of a practiced wide receiver. He looked at Josh and just shook his head.
“You my friend are a good catch. Toss it back.”
Gyasi just took the three steps towards Josh and handed him the vase. As soon as Gyasi let go it crashed to the floor. Gyasi hurried to gather the pieces while Josh just laughed at him.
“What’s so funny?” Brenda asked.
“Just that your Husband is cleaning up bits of code that create a game item. This,” he gestured to the whole of the ballroom, “is just a digital representation of real world items. They only cost as much as the electric bill it takes to keep them here.”
Gyasi straightened. Leaving the pile of debris where it was. “I keep forgetting that we’re in the game and all of this isn’t real.”
Actually, we’re not in the game yet. I had us shunted over to the shareholders cabin. This is where I bring the Shareholders when they complain about how much money I’m spending on development. A single weekend here changed all of their minds. This was just the prototype of the finished game.”
“I rarely bring people here anymore. But I do let some of my employees use it to get a vacation. As you’ve seen there are mountains to the north for hiking and climbing. There’s a lake in the east, a beach in the south and a game reserve in the west. No real animals are hurt there and they respawn almost instantly. I’m hoping to set something up with the trophy hunting tourism industry to help the impoverished areas around game reserves. They need money for schools, hospitals and to stop poachers from destroying endangered species. I think it’s all a worthwhile investment.”
“You really do care, don’t you?” Brenda asked.
Josh Laughed. “Your husband and I were having a very similar conversation before you finished your makeup.” He nudged Gyasi who nudged him back. Both of them smiling at having had to wait for her to get dressed.
“Boys.” she scowled at them.
“Well enough games let’s eat.”
They walked the length of the hall and sat at the table made up for 4. It was laid out with a white table cloth, exquisite crystal flutes and gold filigree china. Abernathy walked in just as they sat and began to serve everyone. He announced the menu as he placed the plates in front of everyone.
“For today’s breakfast, we have a spinach quiche covered in cheese then drizzled with avocado hollandaise and tomato puree. Next to it we have a fried corn bread tostada with spicy chicken stew and garnished with cilantro.” He placed plates at all four seats and sat down next to them.
“Oooh, smells delicious. Thank you, Abernathy.” Abernathy bowed at Brenda and sat with his hands on his lap.
Brenda eyed Gyyasi, “Would you like to say grace, Hon?”
“Better than that, let’s do what we normally do at home,” Gyasi replied.
Gyasi looked to Brenda and Josh could see the love in their eyes.
“What do you normally do at home?” Josh asked
“Well we all tell each other one thing that happened during the day and makes us grateful to still be alive.” Bren
da said smiling.
“That sound like a good idea. Who’s going to start?” Josh said with a smile. Brenda and Gyasi stared at him.
Thank you for enjoying the book. I look forward to having the next one ready by September if everything goes according to plan. But as the old quote say, “the best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry.” – Robert Burns