Dream Storm Online

by Jareth Stark

  After they orgasmed together, Lily offered him a stamina potion, knowing he needed to come three more times, but Henry rejected it. “I don’t want no potion clouding my thoughts,” he told her. “I want to remember every single minute of this”.

  Lily took Henry on top next, enjoying the deepness of the position, and then she took his cock in her mouth again, enjoying the saltiness of his juices combined with the sweetness of hers. They finished the evening passionately, with Lily laying on the blanket and Henry taking her slowly, watching her intently as he moved his pelvis in time with hers.

  When they had finished, Henry lay beside Lily, holding her in his arms. Although he knew he had a dangerous quest ahead of him, he knew that he would do anything for Lily. She was the woman of his dreams, and he would do whatever it took to help her escape. He understood exactly why Nellie was reticent to leave Sara behind.

  As Henry’s level advances flashed up in front of him, he snuggled closer to Lily.

  “What are you going to spend your points on?” she asked him.

  “I’m not sure,” he replied softly. “I have five magical quest lines open now so I don’t think I need to learn any spells. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “Tomorrow morning, after you wake, speak to Nana Lurgi; you’ll usually find her in the grounds surrounding the monastery. She’s old, but she can help you progress. You need to improve the skill lines you’ve unlocked, and doing it out in the wild is too dangerous”.

  “Is she one of us?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t know, she was here before I arrived, but I think we can trust her. Well, I wouldn’t suggest telling her why you need to level up quickly, but she can give you some lessons that will help you progress. I’ll speak to her if I can, tell her you need them provided as quests”.

  “Thank you beautiful”.

  “Put your skill points for today into improving your health and armour. I don’t know what you’re going to be up against, but the more prepared you are, the better. I’ll try and make you some extra health potions too”.

  Henry kissed her in agreement. He nuzzled his face into her neck, enjoying the sultry scent of her aroma and the way she giggled when his breath tickled her flesh.

  “Will you come with me Lily? I need to leave for Thornforest the day after tomorrow”.

  “I’m not supposed to,” she replied, turning around to look at him. “But I will. I don’t want to be apart from you. Just don’t tell anyone - we have to act normal tomorrow. Promise me Henry, please”.

  “Do you think Esmeralda knows? About the game dynamics I mean,” asked Henry.

  “I don’t think so. She threw Arabella out pretty quickly based on the gossip I heard today. But still, she’s not easy to get along with. If she finds out I’m planning to leave before all her potions are finished, it’s not going to go down well”.

  “I’ll help if I can,” Henry replied.

  “No, you need to focus on your skills. You and Nellie are the only chance I have. You’re the only chance lots of us have. You do what you need to do to progress, and I’ll try and find out more. Let’s meet here at the same time tomorrow?”

  “Okay,” said Henry, leaning in to kiss Lily one last time. He watched her intently as she dressed, untied her horse and made her way back to the monastery. He would follow her soon after, but would take his time getting back. The last thing he wanted was to arouse further suspicion.

  “I will save you,” he said into the night air. “I promise you Lily, I’ll get you out of here”.

  16

  It was almost midnight when Henry returned to Eelry. The town was deathly quiet when he entered, and Henry found himself almost enjoying the freedom of the place. Lily would be tucked up in bed, and with any luck, no-one would have noticed her spending time with him earlier that night. He wanted to save her, but in order to do that he needed to protect her, and that meant keeping their relationship as private as possible.

  “Pssst, Henry. Pssst”.

  The voice startled him. Henry looked around him, trying to work out where it was coming from. Then he heard it again.

  “Henry, over here”.

  As he turned to his left, Henry saw a black figure near the stables, his body cast in shadow. Is that Rizon? He walked towards the shadow, his heart beating quickly.

  “Get inside will you. I’ve been waiting out here for hours for you to return. Where the hell have you been?”.

  “Rizon, is that you? You didn’t need to frighten me half to death you know”.

  “Just get inside Orc”.

  Henry felt anger rise up inside him. He was going to help Rizon escape, there was no need for the derogatory comments. Still, he didn’t want to cause a scene. The last thing he wanted was his meetings with Rizon to be reported to Arabella. He couldn’t see anyone in the market square, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t being watched.

  Henry entered Rizon’s house and took a seat by the fire. The night was cool and his leathery skin felt damp. He still wasn’t used to the character he’d built.

  “What’s going on?” Henry asked.

  “I’ve heard from Nellie. She’s asking me for updates about you”.

  “Is she safe?” asked Henry. “And Sara?”

  “Yes, they’re fine. She wouldn’t tell me exactly where they are staying in case her message was intercepted, but she’s safe. I need to reply to her tonight with an update”.

  “Erm, well, I’ve reached level 14,” Henry replied. “I’m hoping to be level 19 by the end of tomorrow and then I have a quest that will take me down to Thornforest, the day after”.

  The second he said those words, Henry saw Rizon’s face change. He watched as Rizon ran over to the windows and peered out into the dark night.

  “What…”

  “Shh, there’s someone out there”.

  Henry felt his panic rising again. Had he just spoken the words the developers needed to know? He crept over to the windows and joined Rizon in looking out over the market square.

  “I can’t see anything?” whispered Henry.

  “There’s someone there, I heard them”.

  After peering out into the dark market town for what seemed like forever, Henry had had enough. He opened Rizon’s front door and strode out. That was when he saw it, a small shadowed figure, huddling down beneath one of the windows. Henry grabbed him by the neck and shoved him inside Rizon’s house, forcing him down onto the old, battered sofa.

  “Who are you?” Henry demanded.

  The boy remained silent. His body was shaking and Henry could see the fear in his eyes.

  “I’ll ask you again,” said Henry. “Who are you?”

  The boy again refused to speak.

  “Do you know him Rizon?”

  Rizon took a close look at the kid plonked down on his sofa. He looked little more than 12, the perfect build for a sneak. “No,” he replied.

  “Right well I guess I’d best go get the guards then, see what they have to say about this”.

  Both Rizon and the boy looked alarmed at Henry’s words. “No!” they both said in unison.

  “THEN TELL ME WHO YOU ARE,” Henry bellowed. “I’m not messing about now. You don’t get to hide outside people’s windows at night time, listening to their conversations”.

  “Cup of tea anyone?” asked Rizon.

  Henry looked at him like he was insane? “Why the fuck would we want tea Rizon?”

  “I think we all need to calm down orc,” said Rizon, before making his way into his small kitchen.

  Henry listened as Rizon boiled some water on the stove, his anger increasing by the second. He felt like he was in some weird parallel universe, and then remembered that technically he was. Why was Rizon acting like he was crazy? The only explanation Henry could come up with was that he was acting like the good guy in order to extract information from the kid. Yeah, he’d seen that happen in the real world. One cop was good, one was bad - it seemed to be a good interrogation technique.

&
nbsp; As Rizon carried two mugs of tea into the living room, Henry looked at him trying to gauge his reaction. His face was still, giving nothing away. And then he smiled at the boy. What the fuck is going on?

  Henry stood up, ready to leave. He had a long day ahead of him and if Rizon wanted to make friends with their eavesdropper, that was up to him. But then the boy spoke.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, milk froth clinging to the tiny bit of hair he’d been able to grow above his top lip.

  Henry turned around, one hand on the door.

  “Go on lad,” said Rizon. “Tell me why you were listening in on our conversation”.

  “I was paid to. The woman who runs the inn… she paid me to follow the orc. I’ve been following him all day”.

  “Did she say why she wanted you to follow him?” asked Rizon, his voice gentle, a stark contrast to Henry’s.

  “She told me he was going to break the game, and it would kill us all. I don’t want to die”.

  Henry took his hand off the door, and moved back into the room. He sat down opposite the boy, and watched as he wiped his eyes, tears now running freely. Despite his anger, Henry couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for him. But still… what the hell.

  “And have you reported back to her yet?” asked Rizon.

  “No. She told me not to come back until he returned to the monastery. I thought he’d be going there after his date, but then he came here”.

  Rizon sneered at Henry, and he knew he’d want the details of his evening with Lily after this mess had all been sorted out.

  “We seem to have a bit of a problem here,” said Rizon.

  Henry wasn’t sure who he was talking to. He could see the kid had been caught up in something he clearly didn’t want to be involved in, but letting him go now would only make matters worse. He said nothing, preferring instead to stare into the flames of Rizon’s fire, hoping they may somehow tell him how to proceed. Alas, they didn’t.

  “I won’t say anything,” the boy said, his voice urgent. “I promise I won’t”.

  “That won’t work,” Rizon replied. “She’ll know you’re lying, and that’s if she doesn’t already know we’ve discovered you spying on us”.

  “I didn’t want to do it, she made me,” the boy replied, his cries becoming more frantic now.

  Henry looked the kid directly in the eye and saw his body tremble. “I’m going to tell you what is going on,” he said. “If you repeat this to Arabella that is up to you. But you should know that if she knows what we’re doing, a lot of people will die”.

  The boy quietened down, listening to Henry’s every word.

  “I am not part of this game. I wasn’t built by the developers as an NPC, and neither was Rizon. We’re not the only ones. We are trying to escape. I have a family in the real world who I love deeply. I have a nephew with a disability, a sister who needs the money I earn to support herself, and my parents live in a care home. In the game, I may look like a scary orc, but in the real world I am a man with people who depend on me. Right now I am trapped here”.

  The boy didn’t say a word, but he looked to Rizon for what Henry assumed was reassurance. Rizon nodded and patted him gently on the shoulder.

  “I don’t quite know what part Arabella has to play in this, but she seems to be part of the development team somehow. The more gamers they can trap in here, the bigger the game becomes. Every time someone dies in-game, they become an NPC, and that opens up more interactions, new quest lines, I assume even new locations. But it isn’t right. She doesn’t get to decide who lives and goes home and who dies due to some stupid quest”.

  “She told me you’d break the game,” the boy said through sniffled tears.

  “In her eyes she probably thinks we will. But we are not here by choice lad, so she has no right to keep us stuck inside”.

  After Henry’s speech, silence descended over the house, the only noises coming from the crackling flames of the fire, and the boy’s intermittent sobs.

  “What should I do?” the boy asked. He still looked frightened and there was no good solution for the mess he’d got himself into.

  “We aren’t going to keep you here against your will,” Henry replied, hoping Rizon would agree that was the best decision. “And what you tell Arabella is up to you. If you want to do the right thing and actually save the people in this game rather than keeping us trapped here, you won’t tell her where I am headed, and you won’t mention Lily”. He said the last words with a harsh tone. He would not let Lily come to harm.

  “Can we trust you to do that?” asked Rizon, seemingly needing more reassurance than Henry.

  The boy nodded. Henry wasn’t sure he believed him, but they had no choice. Keeping him locked away in Rizon’s house would only lead to more problems, especially as Arabella knew where he was. Letting him leave was risky, but there was little else they could do besides kill him, and Henry knew he wouldn’t be able to go through with it. Yes, he was in a game, but things were different. Things were real.

  “I’ll help you,” the boy replied. “You can trust me sir”.

  Rizon passed the boy a flannel and told him to wipe his face. “Compose yourself and get back to the inn. She’ll be waiting for you”.

  “Do you believe what he told us?” Henry asked Rizon after the boy had left.

  “Yes,” said Rizon. “I added a truth potion to his tea. He wouldn’t have been able to lie even if he’d wanted to”.

  So the old man hadn’t just gone crazy.

  “You’d better go back to the monastery Henry. We can’t talk any more tonight. If the boy does as asked and Arabella finds out you’re not there, she’ll know something is wrong”.

  “When can we talk?” Henry asked. He still had tons of things he needed to discuss with Rizon, but their timing was never right.

  “Tomorrow night. I’ll meet you outside the city”.

  “Come to the stream,” said Henry. “I’ll be there with Lily”.

  Rizon nodded and showed Henry to the door. “Be careful Henry. Don’t speak to anyone,” he warned.

  17

  Henry awoke with a banging headache. He tried to cover his eyes, but his limbs felt like lead. Desperately in need of some paracetamol, or whatever the in-game equivalent was, he forced himself out of bed and stumbled over to the alchemy room, hoping Lily would be able to sort him out. The second he walked through the door, he flopped down on her sofa clutching his head.

  “Oh god Henry, you look awful. What happened?”

  “No sleep. Head hurts,” he said, unable to string proper sentences together. “Please. Pills”.

  Lily searched through the alchemy’s pantry and returned with a bright yellow concoction. She measured out a dram and passed it to Henry. “Drink this,” she told him. “It will make you feel better”.

  Henry did as he was told. The liquid tasted bitter, but no worse than the cold and flu medicines he used to buy. With any luck, it would work a lot quicker than real-world medication, seeing as in-game potions usually did.

  After drinking the potion, Henry lay back on the couch, covering his eyes with his arm. He would have slept all day if he’d been able to, but there were more pressing matters than his lack of sleep.

  “Henry,” Lily said, shaking him. “Drink this too”.

  The new mixture was black, and in a much larger quantity. “What is it?” he asked, sitting up.

  “Coffee,” Lily replied, smiling.

  The word coffee was like music to Henry’s ears and he gulped it down quickly. By the time he’d finished the cup, he was surprised to find he felt alert and his headache was beginning to abate.

  “Thank you,” he said, drawing Lily into his arms.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied, hugging him back and planting a kiss on the top of his head. “I spoke to Nana Lurgi this morning. She’s expecting you”.

  “How much does she know?” Henry asked.

  “Nothing. All I’ve told her is that you need an express course in spel
l casting. She owes me a favour after I helped her with some urgent potions last week, so she’s cleared her schedule for the day. You’ll find her in the Grand Hall”.

  “Thank you sweetie,” said Henry. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?” It was still strange to him that the NPCs interacted with each other when adventurers weren’t around. Did they just have set roles they played when an adventurer was near? Did life really go on as normal for them as it did in the real world?

  “I’m already looking forward to it,” Lily replied.

  The walk to the Grand Hall didn’t take Henry long, and he didn’t need to use his Stormcom for directions now he was more used to the layout of the monastery. If this game wasn’t so massively fucked up, I could have enjoyed living here, he thought. He would have liked to have met some of the other characters he passed, and found out more about them. But there wasn’t time, and there probably never would be.

  “Hello, hello, you must be Henry,” said an old woman with grey-blue hair, standing in the centre of the Grand Hall.

  “The one and only,” Henry replied. “Lily said you can help me improve my magical skills?”

  “Yes, yes, I spoke to her this morning. I’ve cleared my whole schedule for you. She said it was important, though she didn’t exactly tell me why. So what skills have you learnt so far?”

  Henry wondered whether Nana Lurgi started all of her sentences by repeating the first word twice. It’s possible she was trying to be endearing, but Henry found himself getting a bit irritated. Still, there wasn’t anyone else who was willing to help him at such short notice.

  “I have a single skill in necromancy, restoration, frost, flame and shock,” Henry replied.

  “Oh good, good, that’s a nice selection right there,” said Nana Lurgi. “I’m to assume based on your current level that you just went with the first spell you were presented with in each line?”