by Shawn Kass
Reaching the mouth of the cave, Anna said, “Wow, I think that took us about half the time to get down as it did going up.”
“That’s just because we were going downhill, and we knew the layout of the path better,” suggested Mal. “It always seems like that when you return from a good hunting trip.”
“You have a point, Mal, but I think we all might be getting a little stronger, too. You seemed to be moving even faster with that blade of yours as you dispatched those last couple of wolves.”
“You think so?” asked Mal. “I guess. I mean, they did seem a little easier.”
“Yeah, I do,” said Sam seriously. Then as a joke he added, “Maybe next time, I’ll let you clear the whole path in front of us.”
“Funny,” replied Mal, sarcastically.
Smiling, Sam walked past him and led the way back through the caves.
It took them a few minutes to navigate the tunnels, but they soon found their way to a sentry standing with a lit torch outside the small cavern Jeva and his people had claimed for their own. Upon seeing the three of them, the sentry barked a short sound, and a runner emerged from the cavern to find out who was approaching and what he should tell their captain. When his eyes fell upon the trio, he called back for Jeva and escorted them inside.
“You made it!” exclaimed Jeva, as he met them at the door. “Does that mean you got what you needed?”
“We did,” answered Anna. “And we’re ready to take you and your people back to our town.”
“Excellent! From what you said before, I believe we can transport most of our people back in one hump, but a few may need to stay behind to care for the more injured until we can return.”
Shaking her head, Anna said, “Actually, I have an idea. I think we might be able to make it all back at once.”
Lifting an eyebrow, Jeva said, “That would be wonderful, but I’m afraid I don’t think it’s possible. I have one man who I doubt could even be carried safely down the mountain path. I don’t see how we can move him all the way to your town.”
Opening her bag, Anna pulled out a small clear tube with what appeared to be a thin metallic wire inside. Holding it up to Jeva, she said, “We can get your people back using this.”
Eyes wide, Jeva asked, “Is that what I think it is? How do you have one of those?”
Seeing the captain’s reaction, Sam asked, “What is it?”
“It’s an Ariadne Thread,” answered Anna.
“We call them warp wires in Cloverdale,” said Jeva.
“Yes, I’ve heard them called that before, too,” admitted Anna. Then to Sam she explained, “When you break one, it can magically teleport people back to the city gates.”
Having played several games in the past with similar items that could pull a character out of a dungeon or even back to a particular town, Sam simply nodded his understanding and waited.
“How is it that you two are carrying one of those?” asked Jeva. “You could have made your way back home at any point.”
Not fooled by the way Anna skipped the awkward conversation about where she had procured the Ariadne Thread from, Sam kept quiet, figuring it was one of the many things she had access to in her mother’s shop. “We had to wait until we got the flower before we could use the Ariadne Thread. If we had returned back to the town without it, there was a chance Peter wouldn’t have survived long enough for us to make a second trip.”
“I see,” said Jeva. “Again, let me apologize for my actions earlier. I should never have treated you two as I did.”
“We’re okay, and we got the flower. That’s all that’s matters. Now why don’t you get your people together, and we’ll get them back to Anozira.”
Turning to Mal, Jeva said, “You heard the young lady. Get everyone circled up and holding hands. We’ve got our ticket to safety.”
Chapter 16
It was with a short little ‘pop’ that the entire group arrived in front of Anozira’s town gate a few minutes later, and on reflex Marvin begin his customary greeting. The greeting was cut short, however, as his first word was strangled by fear. Poor Marvin had no knowledge of magic, and he could not understand how so many of them could simply appear out of thin air right before his eyes. Taking but a second to reassure himself that they were real and that he wasn’t simply dreaming them up, he turned towards the town center and began running as fast as he could for the mayor’s office. To him, people who could appear like that must be dangerous, and he felt it was his duty to warn the mayor of this new danger so that the town’s folk could be protected.
As Marvin sprinted off leaving a trail of dust floating behind him, Anna stepped through the crowd and yelled, “Marvin, wait! They’re with me,” but it was too late. Marvin was too far gone for her words to reach him.
“Do you want me to try to catch him?” asked Sam. “No,” answered Anna with a sigh of resignation. “It’s just as well. He’ll probably run to the mayor and tell him we’re under attack. The mayor won’t believe him, of course, but he’ll send someone out to appease the kid and that will speed things up for Jeva and his men.”
Nodding, Sam asked, “What about Peter? Should I go try to find his mother or Doctor Brown?”
“Yeah, you probably should find them. The sooner the doctor can prepare the cure for Peter, the quicker he can be ready to accept these new people from Jeva’s crew as his new patients.”
“Gotcha. Where should I go?”
“Ms. Kirkland and Peter live in the blue house one street over from Sekuri’s shop. You remember how to get there?”
Oddly, Sam found that he did remember how to get back to the strange woman’s shop, even though he had only been there once when he had first arrived. Nodding, he said, “I’ll take care of it while you get Jeva’s people settled in. You want to meet up at Nivek’s Pub when you’re done?”
“Yes, that would be good. I am quite hungry,” replied Anna.
With a wave, Sam said, “All right, see you there,” and set out through the town.
As he made his way to the first intersection, he spotted a couple of large men walking in his direction from the center of town with a very excited Marvin urging them to hurry up while animatedly describing the frightening scene as he had seen it. Choosing to stay out of the drama and leave it to Anna, Sam turned and continued deeper into Anozira.
The turn Sam took forced him off the path he had taken with Anna when she had first shown him around, but he knew he was headed in the right general direction and figured this would give him the opportunity to see a little more of the strange virtual town. As he walked down the street, he took note of several of the houses and businesses he hadn’t known were available. The one that showed the most promise was a bookstore where Sam saw several interesting titles and made a mental note to revisit the area again later when he had more time.
When he reached the end of the street, Sam turned right, walked a block, and then turned left. He zig-zagged like this several times, slowly working his way back towards the street where he thought he remembered Sekuri’s shop being. As he continued, he thought about stopping into Sekuri’s shop just to show her how big Tezukayoshi had grown since she had last seen him. Knowing how much she enjoyed growing various plants, however, he figured he should deliver the flower to Peter’s doctor first, just to avoid any temptation the game might provide for him to sell the flower to her before healing the sick kid. As it turned out, he wound up being so engrossed in his thoughts that he managed to miss her shop and did not even recognize the street when he reached it. It wasn’t until three streets later that he realized he had gone too far, and he ended up having to double back. Finally, when he reached the street he had been looking for, Sam managed to spot the numerous plants which filled the windows of Sekuri’s shop and turned up the next street to follow the last of Anna’s instructions to arrive at the only blue house on the block.
Stepping up to the house, Sam moved to knock on the door but was interrupted by Peter’s mother who met him
at the entrance and quickly ushered him inside. As she did so, she said, “Oh thank heavens you’ve arrived. Doctor Brown says things aren’t looking too good for Peter. Please tell me that you have the ingredient he needs.”
Opening his sack, Sam rummaged around for a second and then pulled out the Daturamura flower. Attempting to hand it to her, Sam said, “Here you go.”
Clasping her hands over her chest, Ms. Kirkland exclaimed, “Oh thank you, sir! You’ve saved my boy. Please follow me.” Then without taking the flower, she led Sam through the house and upstairs, saying, “Doctor Brown is up in Peter’s room watching over him.”
Taking just a bit longer than he needed to, Sam glanced about the house as they went and noticed a fireplace in the living room, a few pictures on the walls, and a master bedroom at the top of the stairs off to the right. Ms. Kirkland, however, had turned left, so rather than check inside for some hidden loot like he would have done if he were simply playing the game from his couch, Sam followed her down the hall to her son’s room.
As Sam entered, he saw Peter lying still in the bed with pallid looking skin and his mouth half open. Addressing the doctor, Ms. Kirkland said, “Look, Doctor Brown. Sam has returned with the Daturamura flower you needed.”
Eyes locked on the flower as he approached, Doctor Brown exclaimed, “Wonderful, this is exactly what we needed!” Then taking the flower, the doctor turned towards the nearby nightstand and began crushing it with a pestle in an old style ceramic mortar and said, “Please give me a moment to prepare this medicine for him.” Much like the miraculous speed in which the blacksmith had made his sword, it only took the doctor a few seconds to work the pestle before the flower was ground into a fine powder. With that done, he tipped the mortar’s contents into Peter’s half open mouth. By the time Doctor Brown stepped back, the boy’s eyes were open, his skin looked healthy once again, and he began to sit up.
Looking around confusedly, Peter asked, “Mom? Doctor Brown? What’s going on?”
To Ms. Kirkland, Doctor Brown proclaimed, “We did it! Peter is cured.”
Rushing forward, Ms. Kirkland hugged her son and looked at Sam and the doctor saying, “Thank you both. I was so worried.”
“It will all be fine now, Ms. Kirkland. I assure you,” said the doctor.
Seeing that the quest was complete, Sam said, “Doctor, if you’re done here, I know of some other people who could use your help.”
Holding up a finger, Doctor Brown said, “Just a moment, there. I would like to give you something,” before he turned around and began rummaging through his bag. After a moment, he withdrew a bronze colored bracelet and held it up, saying, “While I was researching possible cures for whatever poisoned young Peter here, I came across this item. The man I got it from said it was mildly effective at preventing poisoning.”
“Really, wow. That’s a pretty good bracelet then,” said Sam.
Looking at the bracelet, Doctor Brown admitted, “It is, but unfortunately, it only works if you are wearing it before you encounter the poison.” Then holding it out to Sam, he offered, “Why don’t you wear it? I figure if you are going to be going into places like those mines where you could come into contact with such things, it might help you.”
Accepting the bracelet, Sam said, “Thank you. I hope I won’t have to go back in there, but I’ll wear it just in case.” Then, looking it over for a second, he found its information written on the inside of the band.
Lv: 5 Bronze Bracelet, Adds +5 to Defense, Anti-poison. “Yes, well, thank you again for helping me to take care of Peter. Now, I think you said something about some other people needing my help.”
Sliding the bracelet onto his left wrist, Sam looked up and said, “Yes, Sir. There are several people who are injured and waiting for you.”
“Really, where are they?” asked Doctor Brown. Answering him, Sam said, “Anna and I met them in the mountains. A few of them look like they could use medical attention, so we brought them to the town’s gate.”
Dropping the mortar and pestle into his bag, Doctor Brown said, “Well then, if that is the case, I must go see them at once,” and rushed out of the room with his things.
Following suit, Sam turned to Ms. Kirkland and Peter and said, “If you need anything else, just let me know or tell Anna, and I’m sure we can take care of it for you.”
“Thank you, young man,” began Ms. Kirkland. “But I’m sure we’ll be fine now that Peter is on the mend.”
Seeing that as his dismissal, Sam headed back down the stairs and out the front door. Leaving Peter to heal under the watchful gaze of his mother, he contemplated whether he should go to see Sekuri or the psychic, Madame Esmerelda, first. He figured Sekuri would probably be interested in seeing Tezukayoshi, and he thought that perhaps she might have some more information for him about the lizard’s origins which could help him. There was also the possibility that she might have some work for him, too, as they had discussed the possibility of such on his first visit. On the other hand, he considered going to Madame Esmerelda because he was quite eager to do another reading, despite the pain it would cause. Something told him that the events in the forest and mountains added a great deal more than a higher level. The way he had killed the yeti was proof of that, and he was curious if he had gained any other abilities that he didn’t know about. He wasn’t sure if there was some sort of skill tree in this game or how he could go about learning new abilities, but if there were any secrets in his character’s development, Sam knew Madame Esmerelda would most likely be the one to help him decipher them. Deep in thought about which one to see first and what they might have to say to him, Sam nearly walked right into the two men who were blocking his path.
Catching himself before he bumped into them, Sam managed to stop and say, “Excuse me,” as he politely tried to step around them.
To his surprise, the larger man on the right asked in a gravelly voice, “Are you Sam Kyoshi?”
Sam took note of the bearskin coat the large man wore and thought it would have been nice to have had on his trip into the mountains. That aside, he did not register a need for caution and reflexively answered, “Yes,” before he thought to ask why they were inquiring. It was a half second too late when Sam realized that he shouldn’t just admit his identity when approached by two strangers, because at that point, he found that the larger man’s hand had already shot out and grabbed hold of his arm.
Pulling Sam towards the center of town, the larger man said, “You’ll need to come with us,” while his slightly smaller friend turned and began walking ahead.
Dropping his weight back forcibly, Sam wrenched his arm out of the man’s grasp, much to the man’s surprise and drew his sword before he said, “Whoever gave you my name clearly didn’t tell you what I am capable of. So, unless you want to be split in two, I’d suggest you take a hike.”
Holding up both hands, the slightly smaller man stepped around his larger friend and said in a high pitched voice, “You misunderstand, Mr. Kyoshi. We’re not here to hurt you. We were sent to retrieve you.”
“Retrieve me?” repeated Sam, confused. “For what?”
“We need to bring you back to the pub as quickly as possible. We were told they needed you for some kind of meeting with the big shots.”
Figuring it was Anna who had sent them out for him and that something must have gone wrong with Jeva’s group or tha perhaps even with the mayor for her to need him back so soon, Sam put his sword away and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
It took a few minutes for the three of them to wind their way through the streets of Anozira before they made it to Nivek’s Pub, but once they reached the door, the two men stopped and allowed Sam to enter first. Not thinking anything of this, Sam went in and began looking for Anna, Jeva, or Mal among the group of people. To his surprise, it didn’t look like any of them were around, and in fact, there was some sort of meeting taking place.
Stepping past the few empty tables so that he was on the outskirts of the crowd a
nd could better see the faces of those in attendance, Sam noticed that most of the people there looked to be fighters and knights dressed in their armor, and that a woman was standing before them on a makeshift stage. It was immediately clear that the woman was not Anna, but he knew that he recognized her from somewhere. After a moment of running through the events of the past few days, Sam finally recognized her as Kat, the woman who intervened his last night in the pub before he was forced to defend himself against the giant who was so easily offended by what he had said. As Sam was mentally running through these details, the smaller of the two men who had been walking with him easily cut his way through the crowd, stepped up on the stage, and walked up to Kat. When she stopped addressing the crowd at large, he leaned down and whispered something into her ear and then nodded towards Sam. With a brief glance towards Sam, she whispered something to the guy and then dismissed him to take a post near the side of the makeshift stage.
Kat talked for another minute and then excused herself, telling the crowd that she would be right back and that they should get themselves another drink. When she stepped off the stage, she immediately made her way over to Sam, extended her hand and she said, “I’m sorry if they didn’t introduce themselves properly. We hire them out from time to time to do some work for us. Bruno is a bit gruff with everyone until you get to know him, and Vinny, the shorter one, usually steps in to smooth things over before it gets violent. I hope there are no hard feelings.”
Shaking her hand out of politeness, Sam said, “No, no hard feelings, but I would like to know what’s going on in here, and why I needed to come. I had plans to take care of some business before I met up with the rest of my group, and I was under the impression when I came that my group might be here.”
Smiling, Kat said, “We know you just arrived in town a few days ago, and you’ve been doing a lot for these people, but you don’t really have a group. We’ve heard a few things about what you’ve done since you got here. Frankly, some of it sounds pretty unbelievable, but either way, we’ve heard you’re pretty strong. Ultimately it’s just been you going out with Anna to help her with a few tasks. I wouldn’t call two people who have known each other for just a couple days a group.”