Playing the Game
By Dracona Dragillian
Two figures, one male and one female, trudged out of the woods. The male was tall and thin. He was brown haired and tanned. He wore the green and gold hooded robes of a Summoner and around his belt were filled pouches and a short sword. The woman was short, blonde, and muscular. She was clothed in light armor. A spear was her main weapon, although she was not unfamiliar with black magic.
They had been traveling for several hours, searching. Drallit, their quarry, barely escaped the two warriors. But their pace soon quickened, as weary as they were. The man looked down at the woman. "Aylina, we have to catch up with him before he reaches the other end of that field. The thieves' lair is on the other side," the man said.
"You're right, Rixor."
They continued on but discovered that they had arrived too late. Drallit had managed to call the thieves. Thank the Goddess that the knights had attacked the thieves lair a few days ago, Rixor thought, Or we'd be fighting a lot more than 3 thieves and Drallit.
One of the thieves looked at Rixor. "'Ey," the thief yelled, "I know you. You were part of that party that killed off the last King of Thieves."
"That scumbag deserved it," Rixor hissed.
With catlike grace, the three thieves attacked. Rixor pulled out his sword and started to parry their blows. Then he heard Aylina yell, "Rix! Drallit's getting away! I'm going after him!"
"Be careful!"
Ten minutes of battle passed and Rixor was starting to weaken. He knew that he had to finish the fight before he became too weak. Damn it! I don't want to use up my magic. I did want to save it. Maybe I don't have to waste my power. Maybe I can do this without magic. So Rixor continued the fight. He managed to knock one of the thieves unconscious. One of the remaining thieves was bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. But the other thief was still virtually unharmed. And that's when he heard Aylina scream.
NO! I can't let her die! Hold on, my love!
A fierce blast of magic coursed through his body. "Great Goddess, call upon a creature of fire to help me protect my love!" he screamed. The magic built within him to an unbearable level. Finally the magic rushed out of him. Rixor fell to his knees, barely aware of the magical storm converging around him. The storm raged with great power but managed to merge into a solid mass. The mass then began to form into a barely human figure.
The thieves screamed in terror at the horrible monster before them. With eyes blazing with fire, the monster roared. Balls of fire exploded from his hands that incinerated the three thieves. Then, with its purpose fulfilled, the monster faded away. Rixor watched, too weak and too nauseous to move. Then when the monster had completely faded away, he remembered. Aylina! Rixor managed to stand up. He half-ran/half-limped toward the source of the scream. Aylina was laying on the grass. As he sat down beside her, Rixor could see that she was badly burnt. He took her in her arms and cradled her.
Maybe it was the demon I summoned. But she was out of the demon's range of attack. Drallit did this to her. But if I had told her not to go...she would have fought the thieves with me. Then we would have caught up with Drallit and defeated him. Then she wouldn't have gotten hurt. This is all my fault. If she dies...I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
"My love," his voice was husky, "What harmed you?" Finally he was drawn out of sorrow into action. Rixor administered the potion to her. And she barely managed to drink most of it. Slowly the potion began to work. Gasping and coughing, Aylina awoke. "Beloved?" she asked softly.
"Drallit did this to you," Rixor stated.
"A...a strong lightening spell," he voice began to steadily grow stronger.
"Where's Drallit?" Rixor let anger slip into his words.
"There," she then pointed to a pile of clothing that Rixor hadn't noticed before. He rummaged around in the clothing and found the gemstone, that Drallit had stolen, and a small frog.
Rixor understood and smiled, "You turned him into a frog?"
Aylina nodded
"Well Drallit's gone and we've got the gem back. Our mission is complete. Wanna quit?"
"You quit," Aylina said, "I want to finish healing and then I'll leave."
"Good," Rixor said and disappeared. After she turned off the computer, Willow turned to Oz who was still paying attention to his computer. "I told you MUDs were fun. I love gaming over the Internet."
Oz looked over at Willow. "Yeah, it's really cool. But the game itself seems kind of familiar."
Willow smiled, "You noticed. This game was based on Final Fantasy Tactics. That game you've got on your Playstation." She started to /augh, "Actually the guy who plays Drallit is a really nice guy from England. Kenny, that's his real life name, and I e-mail each other a lot."
"I killed Kenny!?!" Oz laughed, "Does that make me a..." Willow stopped Oz with a kiss. After a bit of cuddling, they broke apart. "Don't you find it odd? I mean playing a male character, Rixor," Oz asked Willow.
"Nah, half of the people in these MUDs play characters of the opposite sex," Willow grinned, "It's just another way to escape reality. Don't you find it fun, Aylina?"
Oz finally finished typing and turned off the computer. He quickly kissed Willow. "It was weird but VERY fun. I'm definitely going to try this again. Since you showed me such a good time, my beautiful Rixor, will you allow me to show you a good time at the Bronze tonight."
"I'd be delighted too, my wonderful Aylina."
They stood up and walked out of the empty classroom, holding each other's hands.
