by Shawn Kass
Reaching out, Sam took hold of the rope and gave it a tug to try to test its strength, but aside from it not breaking immediately, he honestly had no idea if it would hold him.
Turning back to the other two, Sam announced, “I’ll go by myself.”
“No, I can come,” offered Anna.
Sam had no way of telling her that he still wasn’t sure if he completely trusted Mal, and that leaving him here would provide too good of an opportunity for stranding them on the other side, so instead, he just said, “I think you should stay here. Never know if those wolves will come back, and the two of you will have an easier time defending yourselves than just one of you by yourself.”
“What about you? What if you get into trouble?”
Smirking, Sam said, “Then I’ll make sure I light a big enough fire that you’ll know if I need you. Besides, I still have Tezukayoshi to back me up.”
“That’s a sound idea if it’s a hungry pack of wolves or a yeti, but what if you find yourself halfway across and the rope starts to break?” Then reaching into her sack, she pulled out a rope and said, “Why don’t you tie this about your waist, and the two of us will let out slack on this end as you go?”
“You think it’s long enough?” asked Mal as he stepped up. “I mean, going from one peak to another, it’s got to be a pretty far distance.”
“Well, I’m willing to entertain other ideas if you have one,” said Anna.
“Sorry, I don’t. I was just thinking it looked a little too dangerous and that we might want to consider heading back without the flower.” Seeing the look on their faces, he quickly added, “Look, I’m not wimping out here, I just think we should be safe. The kid you came to help won’t benefit from one of you dying, but there is a whole group of men and women in that cave who could be helped by you leading us to that town of yours.”
“If something happens to me,” began Sam, “then Anna can still escort you back to Anozira.”
Unlike Anna, who was emotionally invested in Peter’s welfare and immediately began to argue on the kid’s behalf, Sam found that he could see the practicality in Mal’s suggestion. It wasn’t meant to be cold or self-serving as she suggested. It was just a matter of fact, a fact which, as Mal had pointed out, could end up with one of them reenacting a certain cartoon complete with the savvy coyote’s extremely long fall after he failed to capture the roadrunner yet again. At the same time, Sam knew from playing games that there was probably no other way of getting across and that if he wanted to save Peter, he was going to have to just follow through. Chances were that no matter how bad the bridge looked, it would hold if that was what the game developers had intended for him to do. On that thought, Sam did his best to push aside the idea that this might be the one thing which didn’t follow the game logic he was used to, and he turned his back to the other two as he headed towards the bridge.
Stepping out past the precipice was probably the scariest thing he had ever done, and he reminded himself that the secret was to not look down. The problem was, as soon as he reminded himself not to do something, his body seemed to involuntarily want to do it. On top of that, the boards themselves weren’t evenly spaced, so he found that if he wanted to avoid a misstep, he had to at least look where he was placing his feet, and that meant the drop below was at least in his periphery no matter what.
Swallowing hard, Sam concentrated and kept moving until he was about twenty feet past the edge, and Anna called out, “Sam!”
If it hadn’t been for the fact that he had been deathgripping the rope already, he probably would have fallen right there. Instead, he merely lost his footing for a second which sent a rippling effect through the entire bridge. As he did his best to control the swaying of the bridge, he heard Mal calmly suggest, “I wouldn’t distract him right now. One more lapse in concentration like that, and he’s likely to be found at the bottom.”
When the bridge finally steadied itself once again, Sam found that his hands were unwilling to let go of the ropes for even a second, and therefore, he was unable to turn and face his companions. Calling back over his shoulder, he said, “Stay there. I’ll be right back,” and then mentally cursed himself for adding in those last few words which were the horror movie equivalent of wearing a ‘Death come and get me’ sign.
Taking a few moments to refocus on his task, Sam was finally able to build up the courage he needed to slide his hands forward, one at a time, and then take a step. The process was slow at the rate he was going, and he thought about ditching the quest altogether more than once, but eventually he found himself at the halfway point and knew that to turn back now would make all his efforts completely worthless. Resigning himself to finishing the crossing, Sam inched his way across the chasm as carefully as he could, making secure that he had sure footing and a tight grip before each move. The process was excruciatingly slow, and every time the snowy heavy wind blew, he had to freeze in place until the bridge settled back down. In Sam’s mind, he had begun to liken his crossing to that of a slug attempting to crawl along a single strand of a spider’s webbing while suspended over a busy freeway. The imagery of this didn’t really help, but to be honest, his actual circumstances weren’t much better. At least with the slug in mind, he could pretend, if only for a few seconds at a time, that this was happening to someone or something else, that was until his foot finally touched solid ground once more, and he found that he had to almost physically restrain himself from bending down to kiss the mixture of snow and dirt at his feet.
Looking back across the abyss, Sam waved to Anna and Mal, signaling that he had made it, and after receiving a long distance wave back, he turned back to his new surroundings and began searching.
At first, Sam wasn’t sure if he was actually at the summit of this new mountain because the first thing he saw was a tall wall of snow and ice with just a narrow ledge for him to stand on. Scanning the area left and right, he found that there wasn’t anywhere to go, but when he looked up, he noticed that the ice and snow only reached a few feet over his head. The idea crossed his mind to try to climb his way up the icy wall, but unsure of his footing, he reckoned his chances of making it were about as likely as slipping down the wall and plunging off the edge into the abyss below. His next idea was to try to cut through the wall with his sword, but having no idea how thick it was, he figured he might be at it all day. Plus, there was still a chance he could slip while swinging the sword and end up falling that way. With those ideas discarded, Sam went with the only feasible plan which came to mind and decided to melt his way through with fire magic.
Taking a step back out onto the bridge, Sam held the rope with one hand while he lifted the other to point at the ice. Then with a concentrated blast of will, he sent a fireball sizzling into the wall of ice.
When the steam cleared, he found that the blast didn’t exactly penetrate the wall, but it did melt away a decent sized portion of the ice. Repeating the process, he sent two more fireballs into the same section. It took a little longer this time for the steam to clear, but when it did, he found that a good sized hole had been melted away and that there was green on the other side. Bringing his aim down a bit, Sam used the same trick to widen the hole and clear away some more of the ice until he had enough room to squeeze through.
Strangely, the area inside the ice wall was covered in grass, bathed in sunlight, and had a tall tree in the center. It was as if the sun itself had favored this forty foot circular spot and while shining brightly upon it, neglected all the surrounding lands of snow and ice. Stepping further into the clearing, he heard the grass to his right rustle a bit before the head of a small creature popped up for a look at him. For the split second in which Sam had to view it, he thought it looked like some kind of squirrel or chipmunk, but he couldn’t be sure, because after a brief glance, the creature was apparently satisfied and dropped its head back down as it slipped away.
Sam thought about letting Tezukayoshi out to run around, figuring that he might enjoy stretching his legs an
d possibly eating whatever that creature was, but he figured it would be better to thoroughly check the place out first. As he did so, he commented to himself, “This whole place doesn’t make any sense. There didn’t seem to be anything special about this mountain while I crossed, and Anna hadn’t mentioned knowing anything about what was across the bridge, but clearly someone had to know or else who built the bridge?”
He had played games in the past where there were similar pockets of safety and seemingly magical fountains which rejuvenated his characters, but this place was just beyond anything he could have expected. As more questions than answers rolled through Sam’s head, his eyes were drawn to a colorfully striped butterfly which lazily floated through the air a few feet in front of him. Whether it was the design on the creature’s wings or perhaps some strange effect that it was producing, Sam felt his eyes begin to droop as if he were tired, but rather than closing fully, they remained locked on the butterfly. Eventually the insect must have deemed him to be acceptable or simply uninteresting, because after a few minutes, it allowed itself to drift down and land on the grass.
As the thing crawled around, Sam began to recover from whatever the special status effects were that he had become exposed to, and he realized that the butterfly was now several feet forward of its position and rubbing its wings against a small white flower. Remembering why he had come, Sam snapped out of his trance and analyzed the flower.
Daturamura, Lv: 10 panacea for all ailments “I found it!” said Sam excitedly, and he stepped forward to pluck one of the flowers. As he did, however, his eyes returned to the small butterfly which still sat nearby, and he was able to just barely make out some writing tucked neatly in the design of its wings. Sure that he couldn’t be reading things correctly, Sam stopped and refocused, but to his dismay, the butterfly’s information didn’t change.
PSYKHE, Lv: 100, charm, secret, secret, secret “Holy @#&%!” exclaimed Sam. “That thing is a level one hundred! How can that be? It looks small enough that Tezukayoshi could eat it.” Taking a step back, Sam gave himself a moment to think about his next action.
On one hand, he considered he might be able to kill it, not so much with his sword or some fireball technique, but by simply stomping on it. However, with a level like that, he knew it would have to have some serious hit points, probably close to a million. Strangely, he thought about the chaos theory Jeff Goldblum had talked about in the Jurassic Park movie and figured this must be the butterfly he was talking about which could cause storms half a world away. Obviously, stepping on it wouldn’t even come close to killing it. To add to that, those secret statuses must have meant it had some sort of special attack skills. Having already felt the effects of its charm, he knew it would be able to do whatever it liked to him while he was frozen in place admiring its beauty. Considering that it was a butterfly, something that biologically should have already transformed itself from caterpillar to this, he figured the programmers would have also given it the ability to transform even further, perhaps into something much more vicious.
That left the alternative. The creature, while clearly capable of destroying him, had not only allowed him to enter unharmed, but had actually seemed to show him to the exact thing he had come to find. That meant that it was not only giving him a chance to take what he needed to help Peter, but that it also knew somehow what he had come for.
Remembering his telepathic link to Tezukayoshi, Sam tried to cover his bases and sent a quick thought of apology for his initial ideas of stepping on it. Whether it was in response or not, the butterfly did slowly open and close its wings once as soon as he was done saying he was sorry.
Still thinking, Sam considered the name he had seen. PSYKHE was an odd name for sure, not only because it appeared in all caps, but he thought he remembered seeing it somewhere once before. He believed it was from another game he had played, and if his memory served right, the name was from some old Greek myth or something, but that was about it. He couldn’t remember the details. The only thing he knew was that the programmers of this game had probably chosen it for a reason, just as they had made its level so high that it would be impossible to kill.
Accepting this, Sam stepped sideways, making sure to give the unknown creature plenty of space so that it didn’t misinterpret his movement as an attack before he cautiously advanced towards the flower. Reaching out slowly, Sam kept an eye on the overpowered little insect and gently took hold of the flower by its stem. He had no idea what would happen when he plucked it, but he prepared himself to run at the first sign of trouble, all the same. After taking what he figured might be his last breath, Sam pulled on the flower and simultaneously launched himself towards the exit in a front roll.
When he came up to his feet, he looked back to see if he was being chased. He found that the butterfly had continued to stay exactly where it was, not attacking, and that its wings were vibrating. He had no idea if it was preparing to attack or not, but something inside him told him the little insect was laughing at him. Knowing he was unable to do anything about it and probably even less if it was preparing an attack, Sam acted on his only remaining option and eased away slowly towards the exit. Taking a second to quickly tuck the flower into his sack, Sam made his way back through the hole, out into the snow and wind, and onto the bridge. Casting one final look back, he watched in awe as the hole he had made in the wall refilled with ice, returning to the same appearance it had when he first approached.
Shaking his head in dismay, Sam hoped that the creature wouldn’t be able to read his mind from outside its territory, as his gaming instincts took over and made a mental note to return here if he was still stuck in the game, when he would be at a much higher level to challenge the butterfly. If all went well, he figured he could probably score a few legendary items or gear upon killing it. Just to be safe though, he figured he shouldn’t bother coming back until he was at least level 125, provided the game didn’t have a cap and allowed him to go that high. With that done, he set his thoughts of glory aside and returned to the task as hand. Realizing he was back on the rope bridge, he forced himself to concentrate on his safety as he crossed back.
As he began to make his way back towards Anna and Mal, he took a firm grasp on the ropes and carefully advanced one small step at a time. The weird thing was, even after several steps, Sam didn’t feel like the bridge was bobbing and swinging as much as it had on his way over. Risking a look away from the boards at his feet, Sam became confused. From everything he could see, the bridge hadn’t settled down at all. In fact, it appeared that the wind was doing even more to try to knock him off, but Sam simply wasn’t feeling it. For that matter, he didn’t feel like he was at risk of falling under these conditions. Allowing his feet to continue moving him closer to his goal, he considered the possible reasons for this difference. There was the idea that the game somehow registered the fact that he had gotten the flower he had come for and that the bulk of his trial was over, and it was taking it easy on him. This, however, didn’t jive with his experience of the game world, so he tried to come up with another legitimate reason. In the end, the only other thing that came to mind was that he had somehow gained a certain amount of agility and balance in his experience crossing over the first time and that he must have leveled up those skills or attributes along the way. He had no idea if this was the case, but either way, Sam wasn’t about to complain. Instead, he focused on the far side of the chasm, placing one foot in front of the other until he finally set foot on solid ground once again.
As his feet touched back down on the snow covered ridge, Anna asked, “What happened? Did you get it?”
“Yeah, I got it. I found the flower, but you didn't say anything about that creature over there. That thing looked insanely strong,” replied Sam.
“What creature?” asked Anna, genuinely confused.
“You didn't know?”
“No, what was it? Did you get hurt?”
Shaking his head, Sam answered, “Never mind, I’m fine. Just do
n't let anyone go over there unless they're a lot stronger than I am.”
Stepping up, Mal held out his hand to shake Sam’s and said, “Welcome back. That bridge looked pretty bad.”
“Thanks. Yeah, I think I’ll let one of you take the next one.”
Smiling, Mal suggested, “Well, if you got what you came for, maybe we can head back. I’m still worried about the rest of my people.”
Nodding, Sam said, “Agreed. We have a long trip ahead of us, and it looked like a few of them might need to be carried.”
“I think I might have a way around that,” offered Anna.
“What do you mean?” asked Mal.
“I’m not sure if it will work, but let’s talk it over with your leader when we get back and see what he thinks.”
“Okay,” agreed Mal enthusiastically. “Let’s go.”
Taking up positions similar to those they had earlier, the three of them made their way back down the mountain path with Anna using her long range bow attacks to aggro the wolves before she fell back and allowed Sam and Mal to step up and finish them off.
It was as Sam swung his sword and sliced his fifth wolf in two that he noticed how easy things were. Considering that the wolf hadn’t even been hit with an arrow, and it had fallen just as easily as the rest, he knew he could easily have made the trip back to town on his own unscathed. Somewhere along this trip, Sam had seriously stacked up several levels, and it was really starting to show as things just seemed far too easy to defeat. In some games he had played, this would have been the perfect time to swap out his character to work on developing one of the others, but here, that wasn’t really an option. Instead, Sam figured he might as well continue on collecting whatever experience he could while feeding Tezukayoshi the scraps of wolf meat and work on getting them both even stronger.