I fell into step beside Zach, just a little more interested in his so-called game. “So, who are the bad guys?”
“They’re called the Legion. We should check out these other buildings,” he said, motioning to some of the other nearby structures. “I have other toons, or characters, too. Maybe they’re here.” Zach hurried toward a little, white cottage off to the side of the road.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched him. He looked so funny. “You look like the Pillsbury Doughboy.”
He ignored me, and a stab of guilt pierced my conscience. For some reason, every time I opened my mouth, teased him, made fun of him in some way, or commented on his weight, I felt terrible. All siblings fought or tormented each other, right? I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, but ever since I’d been here, it felt like I was looking in a mirror, seeing how awful I really was, how awful I was treating my brother. I hated it, and vowed not to let it happen again. Either that mirror had to break, or I did.
The cottage was shaded by a tall willow tree whose long branches scraped the ground in the soft, summer breeze. The red front door and shutters seemed very Hansel and Gretel, and I was sure there was a witch inside just waiting to trap us in a cage and fatten us up.
As we entered the spotless home, ducking through the rounded door, I noticed an elderly woman with wispy gray hair stirring a simmering pot of stew at the fireplace. The heavy aroma of grilled meat, steaming carrots, and potatoes filled the room. My mouth watered automatically. There was also a loaf of golden bread, just like the one we’d bought at the inn, sitting on the table.
Zach leaned toward me. “She’s always in this house. She hands out quests.”
“Maybe she hands out food too,” I mumbled, staring at the bread. I was still hungry. My stomach rumbled at the memory.
“You have to stand on the stone to her left and talk just right to make the quest work,” Zach said, stepping forward. “Mrs. Mellor?”
Mrs. Mellor turned at the sound of his voice. “Well, hello children. What can I do for you?” Her long, calico dress swished about her feet, and her bun bobbed on the back of her short, wrinkled neck.
Zach cleared his throat, and I could tell he was nervous. I almost stepped forward to save the day, but he started speaking, so I waited to see what sort of disaster would unfold.
“Um, I wonder if you know a priestess named Flitwicket?” Zach smiled as he waited for her reply.
The woman tapped her lips. “I may. Who’s asking?”
“Well, I’m Zach, and this is my sister, Lauren. We’re trying to get home, and I think she could help us.” He put on his friendliest face—the huge, toothy grin I hated.
Mrs. Mellor paused, her movements becoming excruciatingly slow—too slow. It was as though the woman’s batteries were running out. Each turn of her head was done at a glacial pace.
“Oh, no,” Zach whispered. “I didn’t do it right.” It was painful to watch. My brother’s expression fell, and his shoulders visibly slumped.
“What my dorky brother is trying to say is that we’re trapped in this stupid game or whatever, and we need to get out. We really need to know if you’ve heard of this priestess lady. We’re in kind of a hurry.”
“Hmm. Impertinent,” the woman quipped, turning back to her stew at full speed. She didn’t look at us or say another word again. It was as though we’d disappeared and no longer existed in her world.
“Thanks a lot, Your Highness,” Zach hissed at me as we left the cottage. “You’ve ruined things again. I could have fixed it, but you just had to step in and show how stupid you are. Epic phail if I’ve ever seen one.”
What the…? Epic fail? “What’s that supposed to mean?” I hurried to catch up to him, grabbing his shoulder, because all of a sudden he could walk at mach speed. I’d only been trying to help.
“An epic phail is when someone does something monumentally stupid like you just did.” He shrugged from my rasp and tried to hurry ahead, but I grabbed onto his arm and held him back. It felt like I was forever either dragging him or hanging onto him. I was starting to get tired, and just wanted to rest. I couldn’t take it anymore. I yearned for my bed, just to lie down and close my eyes for a minute, but there was no way I was about to do that on the dirt road we walked.
“Are you kidding?” I said. “Did you see how slow she was moving? She was the idiot, not me.”
Zach turned, his jaw clenching. “That’s what Mrs. Mellor does if you don’t ask her the right questions. It’s part of the game. It’s been a long time since I’ve quested in this area, and I forgot, okay? But I could have fixed it.”
“I just want to go home!” I said, too much anger in my voice, but in my defense, I was getting super annoyed. “Can’t you see it’s getting dark? Do you want to be stuck here all night?”
“Are you going to do this the whole time we’re here?” he asked, his jaw grinding. He was getting mad too, and this would turn into a full-scale war if I weren’t careful. Already, I’d ruined my goal of being nice, which really bothered me.
“Do what? What are you talking about?”
He shook his head, and sighed. “I’m in the one place I’ve always dreamed of, and I have to be here with you. It’s unbelievable!” Zach stalked farther down the path in the waning twilight. He knew I wouldn’t wait long to catch up. Not that I was afraid of the dark, but I didn’t like not being able to see. Especially here, where wild flowers could spit at you and make your skin boil. A moment later, I was at his side, grabbing his arm, an apology in my smile.
“So, tell me about your game. What’s your favorite kind of character?”
Zach eyed me warily. I could see the wheels turning in his mind, and I knew my brother well enough to be able to read his expression. He wondered what I was up to and knew I didn’t really care about his game.
“Well… mavericks, I guess.”
“What’s a maverick?”
“It’s a character you can make. Mavericks are quick and can fight like… oh, it doesn’t matter,” he said sullenly. “They just have certain abilities that make them deadly.”
“Will we meet one on this road?” I asked, glancing around at the dark shadows. There were too many trees along this path, too many places to hide, and suddenly I felt very exposed in the waning sunlight.
Zach sighed with resignation. “With our luck? Probably.”
A half hour later, the sun set behind a line of jagged mountains. We had been walking a long time, and I was tired. Tired enough to finally lie down and die on this danger-filled dirt path. “How far is this city?” I asked.
“It takes about five minutes to jog with a toon,” he said. “But we can’t stop. Dangerous creatures lurk in these woods, waiting for stupid kids to pass by.” He laughed as he said it, but I knew he was nervous too. We had to find shelter, and Tardania was our only option. We should have stayed in Morgantown, but it was too late now.
“It’s been a lot more than five minutes, and I don’t want to jog.” I pictured the two of us flailing like morons down the road. The thick-trunked trees bent over the path, their claw-like branches reaching out. They almost seemed alive.
“Maybe we should jog. Everyone here does.” He walked faster, pumping his arms even though he knew he was inviting a sarcastic comment. You’d be proud though. I refrained, even though he looked super funny. At least he was trying. It was more than I was doing at the moment, so I picked up my pace too.
For the first time, my knees didn’t ache, and I didn’t feel like I would run out of breath. Maybe this wouldn’t be terrible after all. Zach didn’t seem to be having trouble either, which was a surprise in itself. “This isn’t so bad. It actually feels good!” I waved at people who passed by. My mood began to improve drastically, and I felt more talkative and friendly. “Whoever heard of running without getting tired?” I said after a while. “Is it like this in your game?”
Zach grinned. “Actually, yeah, it is. It just never occurred to me tha
t we could do it too. I guess this is pretty cool, and it does feel good.” He ran a bit faster, and we kept pace in the center of the road… in the dark.
“Exercise always feels good,” I answered like I knew, and had tons of experience. “We should have started a long time ago.” I sped up, experimenting with speed. I couldn’t believe my joints didn’t hurt, that I didn’t run out of breath, and that I could actually run. I was starting to believe that Zach might be right. Maybe we were in his computer game, and we had magic powers of strength. But how was that possible? It wasn’t, but if we were going to survive, I’d need to know more.
“Okay, you might as well tell me more about this game, so I can be prepared.”
Excitement filled his expression, and I knew nothing would make him happier than talking about his Warlord game for hours, nonstop.
“Okay, well, you already know about the Legion and the Guild. Inside those groups are different classes of characters you can make, like warriors, mavericks, sorcerers, trackers, and priestesses. All very cool with different abilities.”
“Sounds divine. You should tuck in your shirt. You look a little sloppy.” Looking back, I really should have listened better. I honestly didn’t care about all the little details, but it made the time pass, and it made him happy, and it made me happy too, succeeding at my goal at being nice and all.
Zach ignored my comment and kept right on talking. “Yeah, and so when you play, you pick the race you want, then the class you want. Can you believe the vivid colors here? It’s just like on my computer. Hey, see those birds?” He pointed off to the right. Three giant parrots rested on a gnarled tree branch, their florescent feathers bright in the waning sunlight.
“Yeah, what about ‘em?” I barely glanced in their direction. It was hard to see since it was dark, and I was concentrating on the road, its twists and turns. He should know I wouldn’t care about any stupid birds, or the Legion, or the characters you could make. I hated computer games, but Zach continued anyway, hoping to convert me, I suppose.
“Well, they’ll peck your eyes out if you get too close. I can’t remember what level they are, but we’re probably ones.”
“Ones? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Zach turned to me with wide eyes, unable to hide his enthusiasm. “Every character starts at level one in a super-easy area. You do quests that get harder and harder. Different areas are different levels. The higher your character gets, the harder the area you go to. Got it?
“Take Dardanos, for example. He’s a level fifty-eight. If he goes to a high-level area, he’ll get killed easily. So say, if we went off the path here, we could either kill those birds, or they’d kill us depending on our level of expertise.”
That sounded terrible. “How do we find out the level of this area?” I asked, looking around, hoping nothing was trailing us, waiting to attack.
Zach shrugged. “Guess I’ll just have to remember, but I think it’s low. We’re probably safe.”
Just over the crest of the next hill, a beautiful city appeared with towering spires and shimmering walls that glowed with golden light. I stopped, my mouth dropping open. Never had I seen anything like it. “Wow! It’s so beautiful.” Tall spires glowed iridescent in the distance, lighting up the night sky, and glowing like a giant pearl.
“Yep. I’ve been here tons of times with all my characters. You can find anything and anyone in Tardania. Come on.”
Jogging through the front gates, we were greeted by a soft rainbow of flowers that blossomed along the hedges. Their fragrance wafted over the path, surrounding us in the sweet scent of springtime. Past the gates, the city teemed with activity. People of all shapes and sizes milled about visiting in the lamplight. The craziest thing of all was the people who weren’t people.
I stayed close to the wall, my eyes wide, my heart racing in fright. Okay. This could not possibly be real. I was dreaming. I was in a coma or unconscious, just like I thought. Before us were beings I’d only seen on TV. Beings with green skin and others with horns, some with long, pointed ears. I called them “people” for lack of a better word, but they weren’t people. They were monsters and elves, human-like animals who could talk, and aliens. Some were short and squat, dragging their hands on the ground. One monster had a large snout and black shaggy hair covering its entire body.
“What is that thing?” I asked, shrinking back behind Zach, hoping he could protect me.
“Him? He’s a werewolf. He works in a pastry house. I remember him from the game. What’s his name again?” Zach snapped his fingers, thinking.
Scowling, I said, “How should I know? Don’t werewolves kill people? Shouldn’t everyone be afraid or running away screaming? Why are these monsters walking around free?”
Zach watched the werewolf benignly as he passed by. “He’s part of the Guild now. He’s not scary, Lauren. He defected to our side.”
How did he know all this? How were these… things familiar to him? I couldn’t grasp it, but I tried. “We’re not on a side, Zach. We’re only spectators. Remember? And yes, he is scary.”
The tangy scent of oil floated on the air. Firelight gave everything an ethereal, dream-like appearance, and I started to relax the longer I stood there, people watching. Zach continued to point out other characters he recognized.
“And that guy over there, he’s a dryad. They’re a forest nymph—like a fairy, but human sized. Also on the Guild side, there are elves, humans, pixies, and halflings—who are small like dwarves. The Legion has zombies, goblins, ogres, werewolves, and drows—a dark race of elves. Like African-American elves.”
Shaking my head, and too tired to even think straight, I said, “It’s too much to remember, Zach. Why can’t everyone just be human?”
“Because it’s a game! They’re all cool. Come on. Let’s go to the Barter House. I want to buy some new gear. Maybe I’ll recognize someone.” Zach grabbed my sleeve to pull me along, but I yanked out of his grasp. I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.
“Don’t drag me. I hate that. I’ll follow if I want to.” I didn’t mean to sound so irritated, but I guess I did, because Zach scowled and turned away.
“Whatever,” Zach said. “I just thought that the hustle and bustle might be scary. I was trying to be nice. It won’t happen again.” He shook his head, his hands tightening into fists.
He left me and stalked toward a large, white building, busy with people coming and going. A sign above the door read, Barter House. Adrenaline filled my veins at the thought of being left alone, so I hurried to catch up and followed him inside, trying to remain inconspicuous and not ruin it for him.
People of all races filled the large building, yelling out prices they were willing to pay for the items on display. The noise was deafening, and the smell—the sweaty, metallic, wet-dog stench that permeated the room—just about made me want to puke. I held my hand over my nose, hiding in the back corner and keeping my eye on Zach who was only a few feet away. I’m sure he knew I was there.
A woman caught my attention, and I watched her as she moved her hand over a glowing silver vial. She glanced up and smiled, then floated across the room toward me. I was trapped and ready to bolt when Zach suddenly materialized at my side, mesmerized by the woman who approached.
“Flitwicket?” he said, his hands clasped. He looked so hopeful that I knew this had to be another one of those characters he had made in his game.
“Flitwicket?” I mouthed, loving the name and wondering how he’d thought of it.
“Yeah, she’s my dryad priestess,” he said, gazing in open adoration.
“Did you pick her name?” I teased, shoving him with my elbow.
Zach grimaced in embarrassment, but smiled. “It just popped into my head that day.”
The priestess’s eyes twinkled, and her smile was filled with warmth. “Hello there. I noticed you watching me. Is there something I can do for you? I sell charms, healing elixirs, and enchantments for armor and weapons.” The p
riestess inclined her head, and in the gaslight, her ice-blue eyes radiated with depth, and her alabaster skin glowed with the smoothness of porcelain.
“Uh, no. We don’t need anything. I was just telling my sister about you.” Zach answered, still in awe.
“Do I know you?” Flitwicket studied us. “You have interesting armor,” she said, eying our jeans and T-shirts.
Standing beside her, I felt like a peasant in my old, Saturday work clothes. If I’d known I was coming here and would meet someone more beautiful than any model I’d ever seen, I would have dressed up a bit more. I simply paled in comparison, and yet she inspired adoration in me, and obviously in Zach too. You couldn’t help but want to kneel down and worship her beauty and knowledge. I didn’t even question it, but if I had to guess, I’d say she’d charmed us with a spell or something.
“Oh. These aren’t armor. Just our clothes,” Zach said, picking at his loose, sweaty T-shirt.
“Magic clothes?” Flitwicket asked.
“Uh, no.” Zach said, his smile widening. “But your clothes are. You can only wear cloth armor though, so you’ll be killed easily if you don’t wear your magic shield. You’re a level forty-seven.”
Flitwicket stepped back, caution filling her eyes. “You know a lot about me. Are you a sorcerer?” Her light-blonde hair was wrapped around her head in a series of intricate braids. Tiny, glistening diamonds sparkled through the silken strands. I would have given anything to know how to do my hair that way. There was nothing drab about this woman, and I wished Zach would stop talking. He was making us look more and more stupid with every word that came out of his mouth.
“No, no,” Zach said, trying to reassure her. “I know you because… well, it doesn’t matter. We’re actually looking for help.”
Flitwicket’s expression relaxed. “What sort of help? Potions? Armor? Magic?” She continued to move her hand over the vial in a circular motion.
“No,” I said as politely as possible. I’d learned my lesson from Mrs. Mellor. “We just need to get home.”
The Eye of Tanub Page 3