Fate of Camlan

by A. T. Gilbert

  Creatures, actually. Plural. I can’t even count how many steps I am hearing.

  I’m somewhat comforted by the fact that whatever it is is walking, not running to attack us. That could mean anything, but at least we have a brief moment.

  I nock an arrow, choosing the Slay Poison option, and aim in the direction of the noise. SteelFeather, MadMachine and Balderdash13 all hold weapons ready as well. Only 88EGG88 continues to move forward.

  About thirty feet in front of her, the tree branches and shrubs form a curtain of foliage. Through the gaps in the leaves, the shadows dance. The hoofbeats get louder.

  I’m ready.

  The leaves part. A nine-foot tall centaur, with dappled brown skin, stands frowning down at us.

  Name: Tolius

  Level: 40

  Description: A member of the Dyrnwood centaur herd, Tolius serves as the right hand to the herd’s Boss.

  His hair is a dark, chestnut brown, long and swept away from his face. His broad chest and shoulders are bare, surprisingly without armor of any kind. Maybe centaurs don’t have any natural enemies? Where his human torso meets his horse body, Tolius wears a light belt and sword. He unsheathes his weapon immediately upon seeing us.

  “Travelers,” he says with a low growl. “What are you doing in our forest?”

  The moment he says the word ‘our’ I recognize more figures behind him, through the leaves. Tolius remains in the parted curtain of foliage, but past his shoulders I count at least three more scowling faces. There might even be more behind him.

  88EGG88 opens her mouth to respond but MadMachine interrupts her.

  “We mean you no harm,” he says, dropping his weapon to his side.

  I catch SteelFeather giving him an incredulous look.

  “We are merely trying to make our way to Pendragon Mountains the fastest,” MadMachine continues.

  As he finishes his sentence, Tolius steps forward out of the branches and advances on our party. He’s followed by five more centaurs, who slowly and deliberately move to surround our party.

  Enhancement received: Bubble of Protection

  Description: You will sustain -5% damage for the next sixty seconds

  MadMachine and I exchange a look. I can tell he’s trying to keep calm. I’m with him in hoping that those buffs won’t be necessary. It’s comforting to know our group has more in number, but it’s clear the centaurs are stronger. The one closest to me is easily three times my size. I keep my poisoned arrow nocked, but lower it to point to the ground.

  The centaur closest to me also wields a bow and arrow, but like Tolius wears no protective armor at all. I wonder if they are magically protected.

  Name: Cadoc

  Level: 38

  Description: One of the top warriors of Dyrnwood’s centaur herd.

  I clear my throat and stand up as tall as I can. “Is there something we can help you with?” I ask Cadoc.

  He glares and doesn’t answer.

  “You’ll have to come with us,” Tolius says, imperiously.

  “Aw, hell no,” TexBadass exclaims. “We’re just walking here. We’re not a threat. We’re not gonna grovel to any goddamn horses.”

  I flinch. That is not going to go over well.

  “We are not mere horses, human,” Tolius declares. “We are centaurs. We are physically and magically superior to all other races, and you are trespassing in our forest. You will be detained and in our custody until our leader determines what to do with you.”

  “Wait,” I begin, but Cadoc’s arrow is swiftly aimed at my chest. My fingers twitch. I want to point my own right back at him, but I won’t be fast enough.

  No sooner does the thought go through my mind then I feel a cold wave slide over my body.

  Attention! Debuff received: Shutdown

  Description: You suffer total muscle paralysis

  Whoa, what? Not even a timer or idea of how long this will last? Damnit.

  First my fingers weaken; I can’t hold on to the bow and arrow. My hands begin to tremble with the effort, but the strength just drains from me. I let both drop to the ground before I notice the strength is leaving all of my body. It is as though my muscles have been turned to jelly. The limbs go first. I drop to my knees. I lose my balance. I try to turn to see if the same thing is happening to the others, but I don’t even have enough control over my body to manage that.

  I collapse, face in the dirt on the forest floor, unable to move, unable to speak, completely at the mercy of the group of centaurs that found us in Dyrnwood.

  “Hm,” Tolius says from somewhere behind me. I can’t even move my head enough to look. “I expected that to be faster.”

  I give a silent thanks for Erinocalypse’s and TexBadass’s buffs, even though all they did was delay. Falling immediately to the ground, landing wrong on weapons, could have injured us even more.

  “Take them,” Tolius commands.

  I feel strong hands lift me, wrap a coil of rope around my torso and ankles and sling me over the back of a centaur.

  Chapter 33

  Being carried, draped over the back of a centaur is exactly as painful and uncomfortable as I would have guessed. The centaur warriors progress through Dyrnwood, carrying our party, but with no attention paid to when branches whip back to hit us, leaves push in our faces or how far we may be hanging upside down. With each step, the muscles and vertebrae under my ribs dig in, knocking off a couple health points.

  [-90 HP]

  [-98 HP]

  Luckily, since I’m at Level 30, my health can regenerate just as quickly as it is currently being broken down, but I still have to deal with a constant level of pain over the course of the traveling.

  While we are being kidnapped to wherever we are going, I can still pull up game messages, inventory and even the map. I look for some indication of the centaur’s territory. Should we have known we were walking in to what they considered theirs? Even spending a good ten minutes scanning the map, I don’t find any civilization or indication that there are any encampments anywhere near us. I have no idea where we are going.

  Following along with our progress, they seem to be taking us back toward Bors River again. We are heading southeast toward the mountains, rather than more north toward the Slade Pass. While I am reviewing the map, I get a ping with a message from MadMachine.

  MadMachine: Can anyone move anything?

  SirAsh3r: I can’t even close my eyes. Or swallow. I think I just drooled.

  TexBadass: These horses better hope I don’t get to use Fast Travel anytime soon.

  Erinocalypse: Tex. Stop.

  TexBadass: I’ll show ‘em what we do with unruly animals down on the ranch.

  SirAsh3r: Dude, that seems like a terrible idea.

  ElJugador: Can we talk about a plan?

  MadMachine: Yeah, guys, we need to work together.

  88EGG88: As soon as this effect lifts, I’ll go into Stealth.

  MadMachine: Yeah, that’ll work. Do some reconnaissance. Figure out what we’re dealing with.

  SirAsh3r: And if that doesn’t work?

  88EGG88: Of course it will work.

  SirAsh3r: I’m just saying, we don’t know what kind of magic we’re up against. They may have some kind of spell or way to make your Stealth ineffective.

  MadMachine: We’ll worry about that if it happens.

  SirAsh3r: But—

  I don’t even have a chance to finish my objection before he has logged off the message. I’m stunned. I’m half tempted to restart another message thread, but know it won’t do any good.

  This whole thing just reminds me of how much I love playing these games by myself. If I didn’t have these others I could be halfway to Smeaton by now. I could be leveling up in alchemy. And I almost certainly would not be slung over the back of a centaur, with so little control over my body that my head keeps hitting the animal’s hip.

  The game clock tells me we have been moving for almost an hour when the centaurs finally slow. I still
can’t turn my head, but I hear the clear sound of running water.

  In our hike through Dyrnwood, we had been moving away from Bors River, but it seems as though the centaurs have just taken us right back to it.

  Our captors call to someone else, what sounds like an exchange of passwords or names, but it’s hard to tell with my head hanging over the side of an animal. After a few more steps, I wish I could close my eyes against having water splashed up into my face. The river is almost as high as the bottom of the centaur’s belly, which makes it almost as high as where my head is hanging. At one point I get water up my nose, but my body is still completely paralyzed so I can’t even blow it away.

  Once on the other side of the river, the centaur carrying me makes his way to a dirt path, that looks worn and well-traveled. The murmuring and calling of other centaurs is all around us. They must have brought us back to their herd.

  And we still have no idea what they are going to do with us.

  I’m both relieved and panicked when the centaurs stop. I still can’t see anything beyond the dirt ground beneath me. Once again, strong hands lift me up, this time setting me down none-too-gently in tall, wild grass.

  Since I can’t move my head, I only get a glimpse of where we are as my body is moved about. It looks like we’ve been brought to a broad meadow, with the river making up a boundary on one side, the forest on the other. A low hill extends in the distance and between here and there I spot the larger herd of centaurs, both male and female, gathered around a large, wide oak tree. But that’s all I can make out before I’m lying, face up, with the grass tickling my face and nothing to look at but the darkening sky and the underside of the closest centaurs.

  I wish I could close my eyes.

  They make us wait even longer. It doesn’t seem as though we were captured for any specific purpose, but rather just so they could exert their authority over us. I’m insulted, actually. Or, I would be, if I could do absolutely anything in this situation. Instead, we just wait. Wait for information. Wait for action. Wait for a decision of any kind.

  “Oh,” a soft, cold voice says. “More of these?”

  I recognize Tolius’s voice answering. “We found them in Dyrnwood, your highness. Far from any town or neutral territory. I thought you wouldn’t want them wandering about unsupervised.”

  “You thought correctly.” She sighs heavily. “Free them from the spell and chain them in the pen.”

  For a third time, I feel my body lifted by a centaur I can’t see. The grassy meadow where they had laid us was at least comfortable, but in seconds my body is tossed into a dirt enclosure, rolling into a wooden fence post. My hands are pulled behind me and I can feel my body being secured to the post, while my head still lolls on my paralyzed neck.

  Once I have been detained, I feel a warm wave of magic cascading over me and feeling returns to my limbs and muscles. I tingle all over with the spell releasing us from paralysis. I lift my head, closing my eyes for a long moment, and relishing the ability to do so again. My eyes had been watering from their long exposure to the air, and I want to brush the tears from my face but I can’t get free. I squirm and twist, looking for any loose knot or gap in the restraints, but there’s no way I can find to get free.

  Across the pen, I see the other players in my group also each tied to their own fence post. The sun has set by now, and the twilight is getting darker. I hear the hoofbeats of centaurs leaving us to our detainment. Our captors have left us with a single torch to light the entire area, and leave without a further word to us, as though they can’t even be bothered to consider us people.

  “I’ve got a rein and bridle with your name on it,” TexBadass yells after them.

  He is completely ignored.

  “Well,” I say, once the centaurs are far enough away. “You still think Stealth is going to work?”

  Chapter 34

  88EGG88 struggles with her binding, rubbing the rope around her wrists as hard as she can against the wooden post to which she is tied. Maybe she has learned some kind of rogue skill that will help free her from rope knots, or maybe she’s just trying to save face since her original plan of going into Stealth mode isn’t really going to work. I watch her fight against her restraints for a minute before turning my attention back to MadMachine.

  The eight of us are each tied up to a fence post around the perimeter of a small pen in the centaurs’ compound. The ground is muddy, with hoof prints scattered throughout. I can imagine this bleak, solitary enclosure being a punishment for a centaur, but it’s not exactly pleasant for us either.

  “Um, you guys,” Erinocalypse begins, “I don’t want to make more problems for us, but isn’t the game going to insist we save and sleep soon? Like, isn’t there a limit on how much time Camlan Realm will let us play in a row?”

  “Damn, you’re right,” I say. “That’s how it was for the Camlan Challenge. What are we going to do? We’re miles from any inn or save spot.”

  MadMachine shakes his head. “FGI fixed that. Or, our spy on the inside did. I think as long as we don’t do anything too huge to attract attention for the next several hours, we should be fine.”

  “Well, that should be easy, seeing as we’re trussed up like stuck pigs,” TexBadass grumbles.

  “So, that’s our plan?” I say incredulously. “We just … wait overnight?”

  MadMachine shrugs. “Unless 88EGG88 or one of us can get free, or you have a better idea.”

  I look to Erinocalpyse. “Can you—?”

  She shakes her head, already ahead of me. “I tried. There’s a magical restriction on these ropes keeping me from casting. As long as I’m tied up, I’m useless.”

  I let out a long sigh and lean my head back against the post. Looking up at the stars of Camlan Realm I rack my brain for another possibility, some other step I’m not thinking of.

  Night has fallen, and the sounds of the centaurs in the distance begins to fade as it gets later. Whatever they are planning to do with us, it won’t be tonight. Still looking up, I realize that the constellations here in the game are different than in the real world. I imagine some side quests that would teach astronomy, or even astrology. I wonder if, after we complete the required mission for FGI if I’ll ever get back here to actually play the game.

  I wonder if my life will ever be back to normal.

  I wonder if I want it to be.

  With nothing else to do, I eventually must drift off to sleep, because the next thing I know I’m being woken up when a bucket of cold water is dumped on my head.

  “Gah!”

  “You must be clean to gain audience with her highness, Derryth,” Cadoc says with a smirk.

  I cough and sputter, blinking water out of my eyes. My hair drips more water into my face and I shake my head in hopes of ridding myself of some of it. I can’t do anything more since my hands are still tied behind me. I realize all of my party are in the same straits, as I look around the pen.

  “Who’s Derryth?”

  Cadoc stays silent, overseeing whoever is behind me, untying me from the post and dragging me upright to a standing position.

  “What are you doing with us?” I demand, but he still ignores me.

  TexBadass is cursing up a storm at whatever centaur is dragging him along. MadMachine tries to ask questions, Balderdash13 tries to charm, but as a whole our party is completely disregarded. None of the centaurs leading us by the rope have any words for us and I soon give up and just let myself be taken along.

  In the middle of the meadow is a single oak tree, tall and strong. The space underneath the boughs forms almost a cathedral, a protected area with an arched roof where a regal, dignified mare stands surrounded by a bevy of others. She is coal black, with streaks of white in her hair.

  Name: Derryth

  Level: 54

  Description: The Dyrnwood centaur herd is led by this Boss Mare, who rules with both grace and absolute authority.

  Our group is brought to stand under the oak tree, in the spa
ce where Derryth holds court. We are lined up shoulder to shoulder, still with hands all bound behind our back, with Tolius waiting just in front of our row. We all stand quietly waiting for the leader of the centaurs to notice us.

  “Speak, Tolius,” Derryth finally says after making us wait.

  “Your Highness,” he says with a bow. “These are the travelers we came upon in Dyrnwood.”

  “Ah, yes, I recall.” Derryth paces the space in front of us, eyeing each of us in turn. I meet her gaze unflinchingly, but my courage doesn’t seem to faze her. This centaur is undeniably impressive just in physical bearing. Combined with whatever magic or wisdom these creatures possess, I’m furious to be one of her captives.

  Especially remembering how far away our save spot is.

  “What were you doing in my forest, humans?” she asks, stopping in front of SteelFeather. The tank is the most obviously strong of all of us, clearly the best physical specimen and easily assumed to be the best warrior. Of course Derryth would defer to him.

  The tank pales, in spite of his dark skin. “I— that is, we— uh …” he sputters.

  “I see,” Derryth says. “You have no response.”

  “No, wait,” I say, drawing her attention to me.

  Derryth turns just barely enough to look at me, barely deigning to acknowledge my existence.

  “We are no threat to you, your highness,” I say, echoing Tolius’s title for her. “We are humble travelers, merely making our way to the King’s Road.”

  “There are other paths to the King’s Road,” Derryth says, finally turning to give me her attention. “What cause have you to cross through my lands?”

  “We, uh …” I think quickly. “We were looking for, uh…”

  “We were looking for you,” MadMachine says, interrupting me. I shoot him a horrified look.

  This time, Derryth strides over to the speaker, looming over him and getting in his face immediately.

  “What did you say?”

  MadMachine visibly shrinks. “We heard about your, uh… herd?”