by Sean Oswald
The royal decree accomplished its intent and an entirely new zone of the forest was created. Eloria had a way of responding to the actions of its inhabitants, not quickly but always with a sure, steady hand. The inhabitants of this new zone were not the most fearsome nor were they the most wise, but they were prolific in numbers and breeding. A bulwark was formed against the expansion of humans, who came to call this zone of the forest the Merkwood. For just over forty-five years, no humans other than the occasional adventuring party made their way north of the Seinna River, which flowed south and east from the Halcon Mountains and cut just south of the Merkwood.
Again, though, as happened all too often, the elves underestimated the internal and external pressures upon the humans to expand, grow, and change. Hordes of orcs warred with dwarves over precious minerals and metals many miles to the west deeper into the Halcon Mountains. This upset the natural order of things, driving many goblin tribes out of the mountains, resulting in many of those tribes forging alliances that led to the creation of a horde capable of causing a real threat to Albia on the northern and western borders. First, it was just raids. Then, skirmishes and eventually true war as the chaff of the goblins were destroyed and the strongest of them rose to a mantle of leadership.
Caught up in the internal politics of a relatively young, vibrant, and growing kingdom, the three dukes and even King Borstein were purposely oblivious to the calls of danger made by the border barons being attacked by the goblins. For two years, this danger was allowed to grow and Borstein, although not a bad king, did nothing to quash the threat when it could have been put down with little trouble. Instead, he counted on the knights of those same vassals to deal with the goblins just as effectively as they dealt with the bandits that occasionally rose up to harass the trade routes to the dwarves. By the time the danger was great enough that a goblin raiding party was able to break through the lands of the border barons, it was too late. They struck the heartland of the kingdom, well into the Duchy of Tarstadt. One of the old duke’s granddaughters had been out picnicking with friends and few guards in what was supposed to be a completely safe zone when the goblin raiding party was bold enough to strike in broad daylight, with dire results. The guards were killed and the young lady of House Tarstadt along with two of her maids were kidnapped and taken for ransom.
Finally, this assault upon one helpless member of nobility brought the reaction that all the cries for additional soldiers by the barons had not been able to achieve. The kingdom as a whole, starting with Tarstadt and then the king’s own troops were raised and pushed against the goblins. Their assurances of an easy victory were given too soon. Now for almost three years, a sometimes hot, sometimes cold war waged between the goblin horde with its unknown leader and the Albian forces. Eventually, as is often the case, this war started to boil down to resources. The goblins were dug in deep into their zones along the fringes of the Halcon Mountains and seemed to have far less need or far greater hidden support than the Albian army. Wood for catapults, bows, and even simple cooking fires became in short supply in the west, near the skirmish lines. What small forests there were, were either protected grove zones or were held out at too high a cost by the owners of the land.
So it was that for the first time in forty-five years the humans on the eastern side of Albia, as far from the frontlines as possible, were pushed to find more sources of lumber. Half a dozen villages sprouted up on the west side of the Seinna River and began to harvest wood from the edges of the Merkwood. These villages were now supplying the majority of the lumber for the war, but their efforts were starting to dry up as the king did not supply enough military protection to the villages, deterring most people from joining them. Those who were attracted were people who had been stifled in the kingdom proper and wanted the opportunities that came with pioneering. Of course, with those opportunities came the dangerous beasts that filled the Merkwood. So far, the loggers had only been able to clear trees within a quarter-mile of the edge of the forest. Any further in and they were overwhelmed. Little did these villagers know the changes that were coming or the strangers who would come on the tide of those changes.
It was in this area of cleared trees that five figures appeared in a flash of light. Dave was the first to appear, temporarily blinded by the bright noonday sun which was so in contrast to the gray smoky space he had been in while being formed for this realm. As he appeared, he raised his hand to shield his eyes from the glare, even as he blinked, his eyes trying to regain clarity of sight. As he adjusted to the light, he first looked all around him. He saw hanging in the air four vaguely human-shaped floating disks of silver light and another larger disc of the same silver light in a roughly rectangular shape. Not seeing his family around him, Dave started to panic until his mind took in the shapes and realized that each of them was approximately the size of his wife or one of his children. Putting two and two together, he assumed that those discs were portals of some kind bringing his family here just as he had been brought here. He sighed in relief and did a quick mental high five to himself, as it seemed that his plan to make quick choices had indeed resulted in him appearing first.
Relaxing a bit about his family, he began to look around. Just a short distance away, he saw a thick forest with closely grouped trees, many of which were quite large in size. He quickly estimated that he was less than a hundred feet from the edge of the trees. It appeared that the area he was standing in must have been worked by a lumber harvesting group. All of the brush had been cleared and the larger trees were cleared as well. This left only pine trees under thirty feet in height and most of those were separated by large areas of mostly flat ground and the stumps of many larger trees. Next, he took stock of himself. Without a mirror, it was difficult to fully assess, but his biceps were definitely back to their college glory. As he ran his hand over his stomach, it was flat with no belt creep and instead, a well-defined six-pack. As far as clothing went, it wasn’t his usual suit or even jeans from his weekend wardrobe. Rather, he was clad in what appeared to be fine woolen breeches and a shirt covered with a satin vest and, upon closer inspection, linen underwear, thicker woolen stockings, and what seemed to be reasonable quality leather boots. A leather belt held his breeches up as there were no buttons on the breeches or shirt, although there seemed to be some on his vest. It was hard to place the quality of this clothing in his usual context. They weren’t as well-fitting as his typical tailored suit or as smooth as the many artificial materials from which modern clothing was made. The amateur history buff in him would place the clothing as the type worn by a well-to-do merchant during the Middle Ages on Earth, or at least that is what he thought based upon one summer he had gotten sucked into a medieval reenactment troupe by his brother.
What bothered him, though, was that based upon his time in what he was starting to think of as the gray loading zone, he had assumed that he would have weapons and armor, not just woolen clothing. If Eloria was truly a world based upon game-like rules, then he expected that sooner rather than later he would have to fight to survive. The gamer in him certainly knew that he wanted to be able to earn XP, if it would give him the option of increasing his level. This train of thought led him back to worrying about his family. A game world where he could level and gain power, sign him up; but a game world where monsters were going to try to kill his wife and children, that would be a hard pass. Then again, he wasn’t exactly given any choice in the matter.
With that thought lingering in his mind, he was startled as two of the silver light discs popped and both Jackson and Sara appeared simultaneously. Well, at least they looked like his children, sorta. They were both slightly leaner than his memory indicated they should be and both at least an inch or two taller. Their skin was dusky like the deepest most natural tan rather than their fair skin. Their ears were somewhat pointed, like he would expect in elves, and their eyes had a slight almond shape to them while remaining their usual bright blue color. The kids both recognized him because as soon as they sa
w him, they both ran over to him. Even his normally relaxed son seemed more than a little anxious. Sara upon seeing him cried out, “Daddy,” as she ran over.
Once they reached him, he engulfed them in a wide-armed hug, pulling them both close as if he would never let them go. All three stood there clinging to one another tightly, clustered together to find a comfortable common ground in this crazy situation. Finally, pushed by his internal cool-meter, Jackson pulled away. At thirteen, any young man needs to prove himself in his father’s eyes, and he was no exception. So as he stepped back, he looked at his father, who was still hugging his little sister, and asked, “So what is going on, Dad?”
Keeping true to his principle of never sugar-coating things with his kids, Dave replied, “Well, I can only make a guess, but it appears that our car went through some sort of dimensional portal and that we are now only God knows where. According to what I was shown in whatever that place was between home and here, this world is known as Eloria.”
“Yeah, I got that much, but how is this even possible?”
Sara chimed in for her part. “The voice in the gray place told me that this is called Eloria. It said that this was going to be my new home and that I would see my family again soon, but I’m scared.”
Dave took a few minutes to ask the kids what they had experienced since going into the silver portal back home. As they compared notes, he learned that neither of them had been given any choices about race or skills, but they had been instructed by a voice in how to open their character sheets and to check their various stats. Both kids informed him that they were told they were placed into Eloria as level 0 because they had not yet reached the age of majority. Jackson proudly explained that he knew that meant that they weren’t adults yet, but Sara one-upped him when she revealed that the voice had answered several questions for her, including explaining the age of majority. She had learned that in Eloria, it was fifteen years of age and then an individual was considered to be an adult.
It wasn’t long before their conversation turned toward wondering where Emily and Mira were. In an effort to distract the kids from a question he didn’t want to try to answer, Dave started to discuss the differences in them. He learned that both of the kids were told that they were half-elves, apparently a blend of a human father and a moon elf mother. Dave chuckled to himself when he remembered how stressed he had been about not choosing a race that would negatively affect what race his children were. Looking at them though, he couldn’t say that they looked bad. If anything, they looked better, more refined. Sara’s curly brown hair had always been beautiful to him, but now it hung down her back in perfectly sculpted ringlets. Dave also commented on the difference in their clothing. While his clothing was woolen with a satin vest and leather boots, their outfits were much snugger and seemed to be composed entirely of leather with some sort of fibers woven into them. What was more, the leathers were not plain colored like his undyed clothing but were designed in such a way that the colors seemed to shift between various earthen tones as the children moved. It was actually a bit distracting the way the clothing seemed to move.
At exactly that moment, another one of the silver discs popped with an audible sound much like a water balloon makes when it breaks on the grass. Stepping out of the larger of the two remaining discs was a goddess, or at least that is how it appeared to Dave. He immediately recognized his wife, as there was enough of her former face in this new incarnation, but it was as if someone had taken his wife and reversed time back to her gorgeous twenties and then airbrushed everything into an almost impossible beauty. It took his breath away, and not just because of her stunning new look but because of the relief he felt at having her there. He had fretted about being in a game world with his family and he still worried after the children, but upon seeing his wife, he knew that there was no one else he would rather have with him on this grand adventure.
Moving startlingly quick, Emily stepped forward grabbing up both of her children in her arms as her momentum carried her forward into Dave with a sigh. “I’m so glad to see you.”
Silence followed as the family once again clung to each other until Jackson became self-conscious again and pulled away. Almost immediately, Emily started in with the questions, asking Dave how this could be and what did it mean and how would they get home. Of course, Dave had no better answers for her than he had for the children. Yet this didn’t stop him from trying to explain what his understanding of Eloria was to her. This led into another discussion comparing notes about what had happened in the gray space that Dave was now insisting on calling the loading zone. The children chimed in their observations, but for the most part, allowed their parents to speak. Dave was always proud of how well behaved his children were in public and always conscious of how that was due to Emily’s strict but loving training.
Now upon seeing this new Emily, Dave could certainly see how the children were a blending of the two of them. He couldn’t stop complimenting Emily on her appearance, which almost got sidetracked by a “didn’t I look good before” question, but in the end, Emily had to admit that she too admired the changes in her husband. She liked the muscled form of the man she had fallen for all those years ago and so couldn’t fault him for liking her younger and more... well, just more appearance. Emily also sported the same body-hugging, eye-shifting leathers, and as they began discussing possible reasons for the differences in attire, they were greeted with another pop.
Out of the last silver disc stepped Mira. She had always had images of her mother in her but now they were more pronounced, and while Dave had already been worried about having to beat the boys off her with a stick, he knew if they were back home with the exotic look that she had now, there wouldn’t be enough shotguns in the world to keep the boys away. Mira being fifteen didn’t leap into an embrace with her family but nonetheless got a long tight hug from Sara, whose face was buried in Mira’s side as Emily came over to try and embrace her oldest daughter. Mira prevented that by jumping into pretty much the same series of questions that everyone else had been asking and once again, they all seemed to think that Dave should have the answers for what was going on. He supposed that it made some sense because all of them had been told that it was a world based upon rules similar to the games that he would play so regularly on the computer back home.
Thinking of game rules prompted Dave to ask Emily and Mira about what choices and information they had been given. He learned that Emily had been allowed to make a racial choice where Mira had not, but also learned that both of them were level 1. Emily and Dave discussed the skills that they possessed, and Dave even explained the reasons for some of his choices. It came as a shock to all of the others to learn how Emily had received help from a so-called Watcher in assigning her various points. Emily, of course, pointed out to Dave that she was able to be a ninja and one with healing at that, which simply caused Dave to shake his head with chagrin.
Oddly, or perhaps not, considering her age and the recent fight with her mother, Mira was especially evasive about answering questions about how she had assigned her stat and character points. Emily was about to push the issue when there was a much larger pop and the rectangular disc gave way to a chest in the middle of the field. It was about six feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high. Sara jumped back toward Emily upon hearing the pop, but as soon as the chest materialized, Jackson called out, “Loot!” David agreed with him and explained the idea of loot drops that appear in most MMO-type games for the three girls who had no experience with such games. It appeared that even with her new almond-shaped eyes, that Mira could still roll her eyes with the best of them at hearing her dad and Jackson talking so enthusiastically about game terms.
Chapter Five
“Every child wants treasure and every untested babe wants loot, but only an adventurer earns his share; for the bounty goes to the brave, the spoils to the lucky, and it all comes past the jaws of beasts.” —Memoir of Jayfen Tarzen, former Chapter Head of the Theriot Adventurer’s G
uild.
As Dave walked up to open the chest, Emily asked if it would be safe to do so. A short debate followed but, in the end, Dave’s argument that they needed equipment and that this seemed to be prepared for them won the day. The chest was not locked, and easily sprung open when Dave lifted on the lid, but no loot list or anything like what he was used to in games appeared. Instead, Dave looked down into the box and saw an assortment of items all without any specific tags or descriptions floating above them. Instead, there was a floating screen off to the side of the chest that read:
Watcher’s Boon:
You are being supplied with basic gear to make your transition easier. In consideration of the fact that you have children with you, some enhanced items will be provided.
You will also be provided with local coin equivalent in value to the value of the vehicle you were traveling in when you were brought here and the money in all accounts you previously controlled adjusted for interest.
This ends the provision that shall be made for you.
Looking inside the chest, he found that it was divided into two sides. On one side he found a green cape, an amethyst pendant worked in silver with intricate carvings on the metal, three rings, a flanged mace made of some silvery metal on a stout, ebony-colored wooden handle, and a long dagger at least twelve inches in length complete with a sheath. On the other side, he found five backpacks of varying sizes which seemed to be stuffed with an assortment of supplies, a leather pouch that was filled with coins, dull gray splint mail that was of a size to fit him, a longsword and sheath, as well as half a dozen daggers of assorted sizes.