I watched as the mighty beast swept into view, beginning to circle us from above. It was definitely the same dragon I’d seen from the boat. And he was as impressive now as he had been the first time around. A giant, majestic creature with crimson-colored scales that caught the sunlight and scattered a thousand colorful sparkles across the ground below.
“Holy rainbow-colored unicorn poop!” I heard my sister whisper, looking down at the reflected colors dancing on her skin. Even Derek was gaping, his mouth opening and closing like a fish’s. I couldn’t tell if he was excited… or scared.
“Come on, you big dummy,” Eugene shouted as the dragon continued to circle. “Land already.” He looked at me and huffed. “AIs. Got minds of their own.” He snorted. “Literally.”
“Maybe Derek could play him a song?” I suggested.
Derek scowled, assuming I was making fun of the bard thing again. But this time I was serious. In the original Fields of Fantasy game, sometimes dragons could be brought down to earth by certain song spells. It was one of a bard’s few true talents. Something Eugene quickly confirmed.
“Atreus loves music,” he assured Derek. “Especially heavy metal. But he’d be cool with a ballad, too. Just no country. He hates country.” He smirked, and I got the feeling he’d programmed that particular quirk himself.
Derek shot us a suspicious look, but gave a tentative strum on his harp. Then he started singing—an acoustic version of an Imagine Dragons song, which I suppose made sense under the circumstances. His voice was unsteady at first, as if he were nervous. Then it became more confident, the notes clear and clean. Wow. He wasn’t half bad. Who would have thought Mr. Too Cool for School had such a good singing voice?
Atreus seemed to agree. His ears pricked at the sound, and his eyes locked on Derek. For a moment, he hovered, suspended in midair. Then, to our excitement, he dipped his snout and started swooping to the ground at full speed. I had to stumble backward to avoid getting plowed over as he came in for a landing, stirring up a huge cloud of dust on impact.
And then, there he was. The biggest, baddest boss of Fields of Fantasy—giving Derek a huge, slurpy kiss on the cheek with his massive black tongue.
“Ew!” Derek cried, staggering backward and wiping dragon drool off his face. “That’s gross, dude!”
Lilli burst out laughing. “Aw,” she cooed. “I think he likes you!” She took a step forward, reaching out to brush her hand against the dragon’s scales. Her eyes lit up in excitement—clearly forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t into the whole high-tech thing anymore. “He’s so soft! His scales feel like satin!” She turned to me. “You gotta feel this, Ian!”
I cautiously approached the giant beast. He towered above me and I looked up, way up, to make sure this was okay with him.
Atreus’s eyes locked on me. His mouth curled. Well, well, tiny human, his deep voice rumbled in my ears. It seems we meet again.
I smiled. He remembered me! And he recognized me, too—even with my new-and-improved warrior bod.
“Still need that ear scratching?” I asked. “This time I’m sure I can reach.”
Atreus lowered his head in response, and I reached up, scratching behind his ear. Lilli was right; his scales did feel satiny soft. And yet, at the same time, I was pretty sure they were tough enough to stop a bullet.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Eugene broke in. “Have you guys met or something?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, waving him off. “Me and Atreus here go way back.” As I continued to scratch, the dragon rubbed his head against my hand, as a cat might, and I half expected him to start purring. “We met on the ferry yesterday.”
“So you’ve been roaming again.” Eugene tsked, walking over and grabbing Atreus by the chin, roughly jerking the dragon’s head around to face him. Atreus shrugged out of his grasp, giving him a sulky look, as if to say, Hands off, buddy. A low growl rippled from his throat.
“Be nice, lug-head,” Eugene snapped back, not the least bit intimidated by the warning growl. “After all, I’m the only one who doesn’t want to send your profile to the trash bin.” He turned to us, rolling his eyes. “Gotta love it when the AIs start getting too big for their britches.”
“So is he really real?” Derek broke in. “Like, a robot or whatever?”
“Yes.” Eugene bobbed his head, looking proud of himself. “Think of him as a very large drone. He’s made of metal and can actually fly. The original idea was that maybe someday guests could ride him or one of the other three dragon lords in the game, were they to find a way to tame them.”
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “Riding a dragon? That would be amazing!”
Atreus turned back to me. Would you like a ride now, tiny human?
“Uh…” I gave an uneasy laugh. “Well, maybe not right this second…” I backed up a few steps. While riding a dragon in theory sounded supercool, I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for the real thing.
“Ian’s afraid of heights,” my sister chimed in helpfully.
I shot her a look. Was that really necessary to explain? Not that it wasn’t true. In fact, I hated heights almost as much as I hated water. When my mom took us to New York City and the Empire State Building? I almost had a heart attack at the top. I had to stay inside with my eyes closed while she and my sister spent forever taking a gazillion selfies outside.
“I want a ride!” Derek declared, sounding enthused for the first time since we’d entered the game. He took a step toward Atreus, but Eugene blocked his path, holding up a hand.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “It’s bad enough I’ve brought him here in the first place. The powers that be would kill me if they found out I was offering piggyback rides to kids. We don’t even have the proper safety equipment.”
“You’re going to fit him with seat belts?” Derek asked skeptically. “That’s pathetic.”
“Yeah, well, falling off a dragon from fifty feet in the air would be even more pathetic,” Eugene pointed out.
Atreus sighed, looking as disappointed as Derek. His long, powerful legs folded out from under him and he flopped onto his side, heaving out a long, slow breath. Poor guy. He looked so dejected. I reached out to give him another scratch behind the ear. This time he did make a sound like he was purring, snuggling up against my hand.
Thank you, tiny human, he grumbled in my ear. That feels so—
Eugene kicked him in the belly.
“What are you doing?” I asked, horrified.
“Trying to get him back into character,” Eugene snapped, staring at the dragon in disgust. “We can’t have our star attraction acting like your great aunt’s kitty cat, now can we?” He kicked Atreus again. “Come on, man. Show some dignity here. You’re supposed to be the big bad, remember?”
The dragon gave him a sulky look. But in the end he obeyed, rising slowly to his feet and shaking himself off. He turned to us, his eyes wide and sad.
I am sorry, he said. It seems I still have much to learn about this game.
And with that, he unfurled his mighty wings and pushed off on his back haunches, launching himself into the air. A moment later he disappeared over the horizon, leaving us alone.
“Great,” muttered Eugene, tapping at his spell book. “This is worse than I thought.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “He’s awesome!”
Eugene raised an eyebrow. “Did he fill you with terror?”
“Well… not exactly.”
“Did you have the almost overwhelming urge to scratch his belly?”
“I did,” admitted Lilli, meekly raising her hand.
“Well, then there you go,” the programmer pronounced, disgusted. “The powers that be were so concerned with him being too tough, they went and messed with my code and turned him into a freaking marshmallow instead. Who’s gonna want to fight a boss monster like that? He’d probably try to hug the players to death.” He groaned. “This is ridiculous. I need to go check on his code again. See
where it’s going wrong.” He glanced at his watch. “You guys mind cutting the tour short?”
Wait, what?
“No way!” I cried. “We just got here. We haven’t even finished our first quest yet!”
“And I’m truly sorry about that. But I have a job to do. I can’t babysit you kids all day.”
“We don’t need babysitting,” Derek protested. He placed a hand on Eugene’s arm. “Look, why don’t you go back and do your job? We’ll be fine out here. Ian’s, like, a total gamer geek. In fact, I bet he knows more about this game than he does about the girls at school.”
I wasn’t sure he meant that as a compliment, but at this point I was down with whatever worked. “It’s true!” I chimed in. “I’ve been playing Fields of Fantasy since I was eight.”
Eugene shrugged. “All right then,” he said, looking me up and down. “If you’re sure…”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll look out for each other. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Eugene gave us a salute, then turned and started trudging down the path, back toward the iron gates. As he went, I could hear him mutter under his breath, “Have fun with the dungeons and the dragons, tiny humans.…”
Derek watched him go, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “Finally!” he declared. “Now let’s go find some real action.”
“Hang on,” I said. “Before we wander off, we need to finish our rat quest and turn it in. I’m sure all the traps are filled by now.”
“Oh yeah,” Derek agreed. “Maybe we’ll even level up.”
I opened my mouth to remind him that technically he didn’t help at all with the rat gathering and therefore shouldn’t get credit for it, but I stopped myself. After all, we were a team. And we all needed to gain as many levels as possible if we wanted to hit the cool content later in the game.
Lilli, who had been silent since Atreus left, now frowned. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just go back with Eugene?” she asked. “We have no idea what we’re doing out here by ourselves. We don’t even know how to fight.…” She took a step toward the trail leading out of the park.
I leapt in her path. “We watched the tutorial. I’m sure we can figure it out,” I pleaded. “Come on, Lills. If we go back, we’re going to be bored out of our minds, sitting around the hotel for the rest of the day. This is our one chance to have a real adventure.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Real?” she repeated skeptically.
I sighed. “You know what I mean.”
Derek strummed on his harp. “Lilli, Lilli! The game’s scared her silly! She wants to run down the hilly.…”
My sister groaned. “Never mind,” she said. “It was only a suggestion.”
Pushing past us, she trudged back over to the cottage, yanking open the door and stepping inside. Relieved, I ran after her, and together we starting collecting all the now-filled rattraps. Derek, of course, remained outside to let us do the heavy lifting. As I picked up one of the traps, the rat inside squirmed madly, peering out at me with bulging, frightened eyes.
“Aw, I almost feel bad for them,” I said.
It was funny; it had always been such a nothing quest to trap rats in other games. But now I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to the poor little guys. Would the farmer re-home them? Or exterminate them outright?
“They’re just make-believe,” Lilli reminded me. “A bunch of rat-shaped pixels.”
Right. I stuffed the trap into the bag. Of course they weren’t real. Which meant they didn’t have real feelings and they didn’t feel real pain. Just like Atreus. Even though he looked really sad when Eugene kicked him—it was just part of his programming. He was a robot, after all. And robots didn’t have feelings.
Right…?
“Come on,” Lilli said, interrupting my troubling thoughts. “Let’s go turn this in and get it over with.”
We headed out of the cottage and back to the farmer, who was still hanging out in the same spot, the white star still spinning above his head. Weird. Why hadn’t it turned green? That was what usually happened in the regular game when you’d completed a quest.
Lilli poked him twice. The man’s face came alive.
“Brave adventurers!” he cried. “I am so glad you’re here. I am in need of your help!”
Uh… What?
“We already helped you, you idiot!” Derek cried, coming over and grabbing my sack, holding it open in front of the farmer. The creatures inside squealed at the sudden light. “Look. Rats. Trapped.”
“Brave adventurers!” the man replied, ignoring the bag. “I am so glad you’re here. I am in need of your help!”
“Ugh. Do you think the quest is bugged?” I asked, slumping my shoulders. That would be just our luck, right? Some kind of glitch in the game? And now Eugene wasn’t even here to fix it for us.
“Wait a second…” Derek frowned, looking into my bag, then Lilli’s. “Don’t you need ten rats? I only see nine.”
“Are you sure?” I squinted into the bag, surprised.
“Um, I may not be a mathlete, but I can count to ten.”
“Right.” I did a quick count myself. Sure enough, we were missing one rat. Urgh. How had we missed one?
“Guess we better head back inside,” I said.
“What? No way!” Derek hopped in front of me, blocking my path to the cottage. “Look! We have the whole game to ourselves now! We’re off the rails! We can go anywhere. See everything! Fight everything!”
“And die horribly if we don’t level up first,” Lilli pointed out dryly.
Derek pushed the bag in her direction. “Fine. You guys play it safe. Collect your rats. But if I’m going to be stuck on this island, I’m going to go ride me some dragons.” He strummed on his harp. “Dragons, dragons. Gonna ride me some dragons! While Ian and Lilli are pathetic and saggin’…”
And with that, he headed down the hill, still singing, until he was out of sight.
“Ugh,” Lilli muttered. “He really is the worst.”
“Agreed,” I said with a shudder. Then I shifted from foot to foot. “Though, should we go after him? I mean, he’s a bard. He’s not going to last ten seconds out there without us.” I thought back to my solo adventures the day before. Derek had no idea what he’d signed up for. And by himself…
“He’ll be fine,” Lilli assured me. “Worst that can happen is some crazy-powerful dragon drains all his hit points in a single blow and he’ll be forced to revive and start over.”
Oh right. Reality check. I was beginning to need a lot of those out here. Derek could do what he wanted. Nothing was going to hurt him in real life. Still, everything seemed so real. It was hard to remember it was just a game.
A game with only two players now. Not exactly a proper party.
I sighed, turning to Lilli. “Look, if you want to go back to town, I’ll go with you. We’ll come back out tomorrow with Lady Farah. Do this the right way.”
For a moment Lilli said nothing, just stared at the ground as if she was trying to make a decision. Then her eyes lifted to the farmer’s cottage. “Nah,” she said. “Might as well keep playing. Like you said, what else is there to do? Besides,” she added with a small grin, “we at least have to out-level Derek by the end of the day. Or we’ll never hear the end of it.”
I grinned. She wanted to keep playing! Even if it was just to show Derek up, it felt a little like having my old sister back.
“Totally,” I agreed, hoping I didn’t sound too eager. “I mean, can you imagine? He’d probably write some terrible song about it and make us listen to the whole thing.”
Lilli laughed and we headed back into the cottage, looking around for that last trap. But weirdly, there didn’t seem to be one. Nor did there seem to be any more rats. We stood still, holding our breaths, but there was no squeaking. No claws scratching against the wood.
Lilli crossed her arms over her chest. “So where is it?”
“I don’t know.…” I started pacing the room, peer
ing into each corner. But there were no rats as far as I could see.
I had almost given up entirely when my toe accidentally knocked against the small throw rug on the floor. Curious, I dropped to my knees and peeled it up. My eyes widened. There was an outline of a wooden door underneath.
“Look!” I cried.
Lilli ran over. “Holy sneaky secret trapdoor!” she exclaimed. “Good find, Ian!”
Excited, I wrapped my hand around the door’s outline, trying to tug it open. At first it seemed to be stuck, but after a second pull, I was able to yank it free. It moaned as it yawned open, revealing a rickety-looking ladder descending into a pit of darkness.
My heart stopped. I dropped the door. It slammed shut with a loud bang.
“What are you doing?” Lilli demanded.
“Oh, that’s probably for another quest,” I said quickly, scrambling to my feet. “Maybe a follow-up or something? I’m sure the rat we’re looking for is up here somewhere.” I picked up a chair, which clearly wasn’t hiding a rat, and made a point to look under it.
“Ohhh!” Lilli said knowingly. “I get it.”
“Uh, get what?”
“You’re scared to go down there.”
“I am not!”
“Really?” She lifted the trapdoor again.
“I just don’t think the rat is down there! That’s all!”
A loud squeaking sound rose from the pit. Lilli raised an eyebrow. “Probably not, huh?”
I slumped down into the chair, banging my head against the kitchen table. Lilli rose to her feet and joined me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, Ian,” she said. “You were the one who wanted to play this game, remember? Don’t chicken out on me now!”
“I’m not!” I protested. “It’s just… you know how I hate dark, closed-in spaces.” Almost as much as I hated water and heights.
Ugh. I was a total wimp, wasn’t I?
Lilli gave me another pitying look, which only made it worse. “Look, how about I go down?” she asked. “I’ll trap the rat and run right back up. You can stay here and wait.”
I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed. Then I forced them back open. “No,” I said. “I’ll come with you.”
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