Digitized Online

by Richard J Thorn

  We hooked up April and Moxie out back, left some oats on the ground for them, made sure they had some water and went inside.

  "Hey, Ivan!" Patch saw me enter and his face lit up. He hurried over and gave me a big hug. "Long time, no see!"

  Trexxa chose that moment to pop her head up from the backpack.

  "Oh my!" Patch put his hand to his heart and staggered back. "What do we have here?"

  I turned my head to see what he was looking at. "Oh, that's --"

  "Trexxa!" The little raptor jumped out of the pack and began sniffing Patch. "Friend or foe?" She looked up at me.

  I smiled, holding back a laugh. "She wants to know whether she should hiss at you or not."

  Patch gave a deep belly laugh. "I see you've tamed a very rare pet. Congratulations! Did you get a title for it?"

  "Actually, I'm not sure. Let me check." I said and brought up my HUD while Trexxa got pats from both Patch and Esmerelda. Apparently, she had decided all on her own that he was a friend. "Oh look!" I changed out my title.

  "Raptor Tamer." Patch laughed. "I like it. Better than Bunny Slayer."

  "Hey now! That bunny was vicious. You saw what it did to my arm."

  "I wish I could've been there to see the carnage. How big was the bunny, anyway?" Esmerelda asked. "It must've been massive."

  "Uh..." I looked at Patch for moral support.

  "It was the biggest fucking rabbit you've ever seen!" Patch embellished the story for me. "It must've weighed 100 pounds with fangs the size of --"

  Trexxa hissed. "This big." She held her claws out to indicate the true size of the bunny.

  "Trexxa!" I admonished. "I'm trying to impress the lady here."

  She then turned and hissed at me. "That's what I'm for."

  "Wow." Patch said. "She's got a bit of an attitude. You sure she didn't tame you?"

  "Ha ha, very funny..." I laughed sarcastically. "I'm the one who hatched her from an egg. Not the other way around."

  "Whatever man. Just sayin' right now she's got you wrapped around her little claw. I mean, just look at those big emerald eyes. I bet she could get you to sit on command if she asked nicely enough."

  "Shh...don't give her any ideas."

  We all laughed. Everyone but Trexxa. She cocked her head inquisitively as though she were contemplating Patch's words.

  "So, can we get some food and ale? And maybe some meat for the little dino?" I pulled out my coin purse and laid a few silver down.

  "Steak, please." Trexxa hopped up on the chair like the rest of us.

  "And just who's going to pay for your extravagant meal?" I asked.

  Trexxa hissed and pointed a claw at me. Then she did something that astonished everyone there, including me. She reached into my coin purse and slowly, methodically pulled out 5 sp and pushed them toward Patch.

  "What the hell?" Esmerelda said after several long, silent moments. She voiced the exact thoughts of all of us. What the hell, indeed?

  "Trexxa? Where did you...ah, never mind. If the lady wants a steak, so be it!"

  "Good call!" Patch said. "One steak, coming right up."

  "Oh, and don't cook it. She likes it better that way." I said.

  A minute later, Patch brought out a large piece of raw steak for the hungry raptor. "Oh, here's the change." He said and tossed the silver on the table.

  I was about to reach for it when Trexxa put her claw on it and drew it toward her.

  "And just where do you think you're going to keep that, young miss?" I asked, flabbergasted that she would do something so bold.

  Trexxa hissed and reached into my pack, pulled out an empty coin purse and carefully put the silver inside.

  "Mine!" She said with an air of finality.

  "Well I guess that's settled, then. Trexxa, would you like an ale? Patch makes the best ale this side of Jakarth City." I asked.

  She nodded and he scurried in the back to pour her a mug of ale, which she drank down greedily. Esmerelda and I ordered a nice dinner of steak, potatoes, corn and bread and we generally ate our meal in silence.

  Patch sat down with us when we were nearly finished. "You've got yourself a real special pet there, you know that?"

  We all laughed when Trexxa hissed and nodded her head.

  "Fu-nny." I laughed. "She's certainly a handful." I turned my attention to Patch. "So, how's business since I've moved on?"

  Patch's eyes lit up. "Actually, now that you mention it, it's been pretty busy around here. In fact, you just missed Jacob and Candy. They were just here. Apparently, they're questing together now."

  I grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. "I'm really glad things are picking up. I was beginning to worry about you."

  He beamed as Trexxa slurped down the rest of her drink, let out a loud belch and asked for another.

  "Whoa, slow down there, girl. Let's wait a bit, shall we?"

  Trexxa pouted, but accepted my advice. I was beginning to think of her as another player like Esmerelda.

  "Yeah," Patch shook his head, "I don't know what happened, but ever since you left, PC's have been streaming in left and right. Every other day there's a fresh, new face in here." He wiped a tear from his eye. "Warms the cockles of my heart. In fact, just yesterday, it was so busy, I had to get Jimmy in here to help rustle up some grub for everyone. Best day I've had in a long, long time."

  At that moment, the door burst open and everyone turned to see Clint walk in.

  "Howdy, pardners!" He tipped his cowboy hat. God knows where he got one of those.

  "Hey!" We all said in unison. Trexxa hopped over and sniffed him. "Friend." I said.

  "What's this?" He looked down at the cute, blue baby raptor.

  "Oh, that's Trexxa." Esmerelda explained, grinning. "She's Ivan's pet - or should I say, he's her pet."

  Trexxa nodded. "That's right!" She agreed.

  He patted the raptor's head. "She talks, too, huh? Nice." He strode over to our table, his cowboy boots echoing off the wooden floor. "Listen, guys, I'm having some trouble with this particular quest and I was wondering if I could get some help with it."

  Esmerelda looked at me and I shrugged. "Sure. Which quest are you having difficulty with?"

  He pulled up his HUD and looked up the exact name. "Let's see...it's called Clear Barbarian Encampment. Hard as fuck. I've tried 3 times, but that damn Shaman is just too powerful. The barbarians are a piece of cake."

  "Oh, that one! Yes, I can see how it would be difficult." I said.

  Esmerelda shook her head. "I haven't done that one yet. Can you share?"

  Clint punched a few buttons on his HUD and Esmerelda a few on hers.

  "Great! Let's get to it."

  "I'm a bit parched. Let me have some of that world famous ale first." Clint took a seat next to us.

  Trexxa made some gurgling noises and we saw that she had her mouth open and was pointing down her throat.

  "Seriously? You just had an ale." I sighed. "Good thing I have some coin." I hollered out for Patch and ordered the silly raptor another ale. Hopefully she didn’t get drunk, we were going to need her soon.

  Patch laughed, but brought out the ale. I threw him a couple silver and realized I was starting to get tired. I hadn't slept a wink in awhile. After this quest, I was going to head on back home and catch some shut-eye.

  The three of us shot the shit as we downed our ales and finished up our food. I put my foot down when Trexxa wanted a third. I seriously didn't want that overgrown lizard getting tipsy.

  Clint ordered some beans and gulped those down like a starving beast. Trexxa crawled into my pack and was soon snoring softly.

  When he was finished, we gathered our things up, grabbed our mounts and made our way to the barbarian encampment.

  "I don't know how you did it." He shook his head as the encampment came into view. Those barbars don't fucking mess around.

  "To be honest, my first - and only - death was here. I chased one of them a bit too far into the forest and ended up getting murd
ered by an angry bear."

  "Maybe when we're done," Esmerelda pounded her fist against her hand, "we can avenge your death."

  "I would like that." I nodded.

  When we got closer, I explained exactly what I had done. "First, we'll get just close enough to pull the two patrolling guards. If you watch, you'll see that when they're the furthest away from the camp, they can be pulled without any adds."

  "Ah! So that's what I was doing wrong!" Clint stamped his cowboy boots against the dusty road.

  "And, if shit hits the fan, I can send Trexxa in to distract them. Speaking of Trexxa, where is she?"

  I felt a rustle in my pack and Trexxa poked her silly head out. Her eyes were bleary and she looked like she wanted to do nothing more than just go back to sleep.

  "Trexxa, we need you. This is a big fight. Are you up to it?" I asked.

  The dino nodded and clambered down.

  "Good raptor." I patted her head. "When we're done, you'll get to see our home."

  "Home?" She chirped inquisitively.

  "Yes. Where Esmerelda and I live and sleep." I explained.

  "Sleep. What's that?" Esmerelda said sarcastically, rubbing her own eyes.

  "You guys through yammering?" Clint asked, a wide grin plastered on his face.

  Trexxa ran around and got pets from everyone, then she was good to go.

  "Yeah, let's do it." I said, pulling out my bow. "Trexxa, I need you to stay by my side until I say, okay?"

  She nodded and crouched down, ready for her orders. We all laughed at her antics. She was a much welcome member of the pack. A bit eccentric, perhaps, but that was just fine. We all had our peccadilloes that made us unique.

  Everyone got into position. I readied my bow with a fire arrow. We wanted to pull them, not freeze them. Not yet. Trexxa was chomping at the bit. When I gave the signal, I shot the flaming arrow, drawing their attention toward us.

  "Nice, clean pull." Clint said, readying his sword. "Good job, everyone!"

  Trexxa hissed in agreement.

  The moment the two barbarian guards came within range, the team pounced. Clint raced forward, a battle-cry on his lips as he swung his sword down upon one. Esmerelda and I focused on the other one, causing him to trip and fall.

  "Get em, Rexa!" I ordered and like a cheetah, the raptor took off at high speed - well, high for an overgrown lizard. I could tell she had already grown in the day or so since she hatched and I was really looking forward to see how she was going to turn out.

  I had a feeling that she was going to be a spectacular hunter's pet.

  I kept an eye on Clint's mob, sending an arrow every now and again to help him out, but for the most part he was holding his own. Once our mob had been pummeled with fire and arrows, we turned to finish off his.

  A couple well-placed arrows, a fire blast or two and a nip from Trexxa's mighty jaws and the second barbarian guard crumpled to the ground in a worthless heap.

  Trexxa sprinted back to me, a wide grin on her face. Something told me she liked killing.

  I patted her head and praised her. She still had a bit of blood on her chin, but I wiped that off and we rifled through the bodies. Since I'd already completed the quest, I let Esmerelda and Clint have all the loot. It wasn't a big deal.

  The last remaining guard in front of the Shaman leader's hut was our next target.

  "I'll keep the Shaman frozen. Focus down the guard." I turned to the intelligent raptor. "Only attack the guard out front. Wait until everyone else is attacking the Shaman before joining in."

  She nodded her understanding. "Me kill guard!"

  I honestly don't know how she understood my words. It really boggled my mind. Maybe someday I'd be able to ask her about it.

  Casting my freezing arrow, I froze the Shaman, then we unleashed on the third barbarian guard. He went down before the ice arrow even had a chance to wear off. That was truly impressive.

  The moment the freezing trap wore off, the entire group descended upon the Shaman, bringing him to his knees within seconds. I had to remember how well we worked together as we might want to group up sometime to clear out a dungeon.

  Soon enough, though, we were all going to have to team up and face the spider queen boss. Who knows how tough she might be. And until we faced her, we wouldn't know how big of a group we might need. It could just be an easy 5-man or it could be a 40-man raid that we'd need. Making a mistake here could be deadly.

  Once the Shaman and guards had been dispatched of, all we needed to do now was wait for the others to return. While everyone was busy looting, I remembered that cryptic note with just my name on it. Would it still be there?

  I rifled around in the boxes and bins. This time I didn't manage to set everything on fire. I suspect that was a good thing. Except I remembered that burning it to the ground was one of the mission objectives.

  Trexxa came up behind me, sensing that I was looking for something. She searched around in the mess as if she knew exactly what I wanted.

  Which, apparently she did, as a moment later she fished up a piece of paper that was oddly familiar.

  "What's this?" I asked, gently taking the scrap of paper from her gentle mouth and patting her on the head.

  I opened it up and my heart sunk. Instead of just my name, there was a list of every single character that we had brought down. But more than that was their level, their class and - more frightening - their top weakness.

  For mine it just said: Trexxa.

  I gulped.

  As much as I didn't want to admit it, Trexxa was, indeed, my weakness. In the little time that I had known her, she'd grown enormously on me. In fact, I couldn't imagine questing without her. Esmerelda could come and go. But Trexxa was forever.

  Shakily, I showed the paper to the others. Esmerelda's eyes widened as she read her weakness.

  "What?" She waved the paper in front of her. "This can't be right."

  "I didn't notice. What is your weakness?"

  "Uh..." She pulled the paper away and turned a bright pink. "Nothing!"

  I smiled. "It's me, isn't it?"

  "No!" She shook her head vehemently.

  Clint peered over her shoulder and nodded with a huge smile on his face.

  "What does it say for you, Clint? What's your greatest weakness?"

  He squinted at the paper. "Look like it says something about pride." He shrugged. "Don't know what it's talking about."

  "Wait, is Trexxa on there?" I took the paper from Esmerelda's hand and scanned it. Sure enough, she was on there. But strangely, the weakness section next to her name was blank.

  "So what does this all mean?" Esmerelda frowned as she scanned the list again. "Who compiled this? What's it for?"

  I shook my head. "I don't know. When I first quested here - before anyone else had been brought down - it only had my name. Nothing else. It was my first clue that we were being watched."

  "Watched? By whom?" Clint asked.

  "I don't know. Someone working for the AI presumably. Why is the info here?" I shrugged. "I think we're going to need to keep our wits about us. This AI sounds extremely crafty and cunning. Let me take this to Orge and see what he says about it. But I think it's safe to say that she knows what we're going to do before we do it."

  "That's both awesome and frightening at the same time." Esmerelda admitted. "Are we going to be ready to face her?"

  Again I shrugged. "That's the plan, but until it happens, we won't really know."

  We waited patiently for the last two barbarians, setting up an ambush for them along the road. Just like before, once they saw that they were outnumbered, they ran. This time, however, we were able to take them down before they could get very far.

  "Hey, Clint, you want to see our new house? I built it myself." I gestured into the forest.

  "Is it far from here?" He asked. "I've got to get this quest turned in."

  "Actually, no. It's not that far." I lowered my pack and Trexxa jumped in, curled up and went to sleep.

&
nbsp; "Well in that case, sure!" He said enthusiastically.

  "We're probably going to crash here. We've both been up for far too long. Do you think you could make sure our animals have some oats and water?" Esmerelda asked as we made our way to our pad.

  "Oh, yeah, sure!" Clint agreed. "They're in the back, right?"

  "Yes."

  A half an hour later, we arrived at our semi-hidden house. From the outside it didn't look like much - after all I was still a beginner at the whole house-building thing - but inside was a different story.

  "Wow, nice and cozy!" Clint stepped inside and looked around.

  "It's still a bit bare bones as we've been trying to get ready for the boss fight." I explained. "But yeah."

  Trexxa hopped out of the pack and sniffed around. "Home?" She asked, her emerald eyes large and round.

  "Yes, baby. Home. You like?" Esmerelda knelt down and stroked the precocious raptor. "Would you like daddy to give you some steak?" She looked up at me and grinned.

  Trexxa hopped up and down, hissed and rubbed her belly.

  "Silly raptor, you're always hungry!" I laughed. "Clint, you want some?" I dug around in my pack to see how much I had left. A fair amount. I forgot how much meat those large elk provide.

  "Nah, I'm okay." He shook his head. "I've got to get back to town."

  I pulled out a bag of oats and handed it to him. "Here, we'll drop by in the morning and pick them up. Thanks, man!"

  "No problemo, pard." He tipped his cowboy hat, took the oats and left.

  "Well, now that he's gone..." Esmerelda came up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

  "Hiss!" Trexxa rubbed her belly and flopped on the ground for effect.

  "Hold that thought. We need to feed the beast."

  “I’m hungry, too.” Esmerelda laughed and helped start the fire while I got the steaks ready.

  We laid our bedrolls in front of the fire while we cooked up the steaks and knocked back some ale. Trexxa ate a double portion of raw meat and then curled up in the backpack.

  "Now that that's out of the way..." Esmerelda whispered as she ran her long fingers down my face and throat, only stopping at my chest.