The rain eventually stopped sometime in the night. The clouds were starting to break up and a beam of sunlight shot through. I stopped and followed the ray with my gaze. The light created a shimmering emerald jewel against the jade backdrop of the sodden forest. The grass was heavy with drops of water each one sparkling as if in a spotlight. There was a light mist curling around the base of the trees as the sun warmed the ground
And in the centre was an impossibly delicate looking deer.
It blinked at me. I was getting used to the six eyed animals, this one was cute. It then tried to bound away and faltered. Then limping ran into the forest.
That was a side quest if I ever saw one.
Or a trap.
I ran into the forest after it.
I slowed when the forest floor changed. The leaf litter gave way to bare black soil, damp and oddly spongy underfoot. The smell had changed too—sweet and cloying, like rotting fruit left out in the sun. I didn't trust this, and hefted my club in both hands.
The deer had limped through here, but now there was no sign of it. I found myself standing in a clearing choked with thick green vines that twined over one another like a giant's beginner knitting project. The vines pulsed faintly, and in the middle, a bulb the size of one of those big round hay bale opened with a wet schlrrrp. Petals unfurled, multiple hinged jaws revealing a red, tooth-lined maw.
Oh shit. Still not sure if this was a trap or a quest.
The plant roared. Its leaves shivered but there was no breeze—the forest air was still. One vine shot out like a whip. I barely jumped aside, That boost to speed was handy. The vine cracked against a tree trunk where my head had been, leaving a smear of sap that hissed as the bark began to bubble.
Poison? Or acid. Great. Of course. Anger thrummed through my veins as I gripped the club. I watched the vines as they writhed, then leapt in right as one coiled back and swung my club. It connected with a thunk, and the vine recoiled, spasming and writhing back on itself like an injured snake.
Three more unfurled from the base of the plant.
A hydraesque challenge? Bring it on.
The tentacles were writhing and curling toward me. I backed up. They were herding me, cutting off angles of escape. It didn't know I was no longer interested
in escape. I was out for blood. Or sap. Whatever it was that pulsed through this foliage based hellspawn I wanted it.
I raised the club like a baseball bat, sweat trickling down my back despite the cool after-rain air and waited for it to come to me.
The first vine snapped forward, aiming for my legs. I was ready and jumped, it felt instinctive—almost graceful, and swung downward -CRIPPLING BLOW.
The club smashed into the vine mid-lash. It crushed the tissue enough that the end flopped, useless, bleeding a deep viridian fluid.
Yes this was more like it. Crippling blow was awesome.
Two more vines lashed together, a scissoring strike meant to catch me between them. I threw myself flat, dirt smearing my arms and cheek as they sliced the air overhead. Missed me.
I rolled, laughing, just as one slammed into the ground beside me with enough force to send clods of dirt flying.
I scrambled up and charged the central bulb. It had a head, did it a central processing organ in there? It bled like an animal.
"You've got a head, I wonder if you've got a brain. Lets find out," I taunted it and raised my club and brought it down in an overhead strike.
The blow landed with a sickening crunch against the lip of the open maw. The plant screamed and the sound filled me with an emotion I had never felt before. It wasn't dead yet. Seems Crippling Blow had a cool down. I would have to see if I could find out how long that was, but not during combat.
The maw convulsed, teeth snapping shut just inches from my arms. A spray of acidic drool hissed against the ground.
I stumbled back flinching from the noxious fluid, nearly dropping my club. One of the remaining vines snapped around my ankle. The pressure was immediate, bruising, pulling me off balance. I screamed and smashed the club down on it. Once. Twice, HIT. The Hit broke the vine's grip, viridian ichor spraying across my legs. The vine recoiled, curling like a burned ribbon.
My ankle throbbed, but somehow it wasn't important and I kept moving. The maw lunged stretching forward as if the stalk itself had suddenly grown a spine. I swung with everything I had, a wild sideways strike that connected with one of the tooth ridges. The impact jarred my arms and sent pain up to her shoulders, but the tooth cracked with a sharp report.
"Ha! Can't bite me." I yelled at it.
The plant shuddered, vines writhing wildly. Two of them lashed blindly, catching me in the ribs and knocking me sprawling. Ok so it could still hit me.
The air fled my lungs in a whoosh, I felt stunned and the hesitation nearly caused me to visit the lanperanas again. But I managed to roll as the central maw snapped, missing my torso by far too close a margin.
The ground shook with the force.
Staggering to my feet, vision swimming. I raised the club again, I could feel CRIPPLING BLOW was read again.
"Come at me bro," I yelled.
The plant drew back, preparing another lunge. I waited, heart hammering, sweat dripping into her eyes and a maniacal grin spreading my lips. I swung upward with all the speed I had and brought the club down.
The club jammed into the maw just as it closed. The wood splintered, caught between teeth. The plant convulsed, shrieking, its death throes causing the vines flail in all directions. I clung to the haft of my club with white knuckles until the thrashing knocked me clear across the clearing.
I hit the ground hard, pain flaring in my side. But when I pushed up onto my elbows, gasping, to make sure the plant was really dead I watched as it collapsed in on itself. The bulb shrivelled, petals curling, vines going slack. With a final wheeze, the whole mass sagged into the muck.
I staggered to my feet, holding a shortened club. "You've got to be kidding me." I spat mud and blood but grinned. The nice thing about a club is that it doesn't get dull. Making it shorter just means I'll have to get closer to the action.
Wait where were these feelings coming from? I took a few breaths. What had come over me? Who was I becoming? I had never gloried in violence before, not even the fictional kind. I began to shake. If this game was changing me, would I no longer be me?
A shadow crossed in front of me and I jumped to my feet. It was the deer again. I narrowed my eyes at it. It looked fine now, it was moving without any sign of a limp. It approached me, its liquid soft eyes watching me calmly, then the deer bowed its head and dropped a leaf at my feet.
It backed up watching me for a moment. Then the spell was broken, it twitched one of its ears and it was bounding away leaping high over the underbrush till it was out of sight. Totally not injured.
I bent down to examine the leaf. It looked like a regular tree leaf but when I picked it up it felt like paper.
CONGRATULATIONS PLAYER! You have completed the Quest of the Forest Friend
-You have found a legendary item. SOUL FORGED COMPANION. Please choose companion deer/falcon/flying squirrel.
- companion grants 0.1% experience transfer.
I closed my eyes. The choice stayed as the rest of the text faded.
Deer/falcon/flying squirrel
I had just been yelling at the sky last night that I didn't want to be alone. Had someone heard? Had they given me this sidequest just so I could get a companion? So I would keep playing? Though really, what was I going to do if not play? I could just stay in a village. That might be for the best. Though would the game just change me if I didn't want to follow it's rules?
I thought back my life before the game. To who I had been, a grad student. Someone who loved books, games and her boyfriend and her dog. Pain ripped through my heart.
I remembered the animal who had truly been my companion in the real world, my best friend, my heart my soul. Who had been with me through so so much.
What I wanted was her. I wanted my dog back. She hadn't been gone long when I had been scanned that last time. It could be decades since she passed. But for me it had been less than five months.
I can't believe I hadn't thought of her once since being here. What did that say about me? But now all the grief came flooding back.
I ignored the prompt and just focused hard on picturing her little face. I couldn't forget those I loved in here, I wouldn't. I pictured the way her face was split brown and white down the middle with dark little eyes looking up at me. Tears stung, but I smiled.
The way her little tail wagged whenever she was doing something she knew she shouldn't. The way it wagged faster when I grabbed her leash. Her delerious delight when I came home after school, her joy in seeing Rodney. The way she would weigh down my blankets in a way the defied her small stature.
ERROR…..
RECONECTING….
Companion chosen.
I kept my eyes closed. I wondered which one the game would give me. A falcon was the only one that could be used as a fighter. I should have chosen, if it was the squirrel I would be so pissed. But none of them would be able to hold a candle to Dekka.
Then. I felt paws on my legs!
Those weren't squirrel paws. I knew those paws.
My eyes flew open.
My dog!
There was my dog. Standing there her whole body wiggling. And this wasn't my dog as I had last seen her. Scrappy but slowed by time. Here she was at her prime. Her eyes alight with life and mischief. I reached down and touched her head. The way her little skull fit against my palm was a memory I could never forget. I don't know how, but it really was her.
In that moment, I was ready to forgive the game devs or who ever put me in there. This was worth everything I had gone through to get here.
I dropped to my knees and scooped her up and held her close. She tried to lick me, wiggle closer. It was as if she knew it had been too long. I don't know how they gave me my dog. She felt so real, even if she was just made from my memories, I would take it.
I stood up and she raced around in circles excited to be off on an adventure. I called her and headed up to the road. Soul Forged. That was term I didn't know. I all of sudden felt sick and my blood ran like ice and my skin raised up in goosebumps all across my arms.
If I died would I lose her? It said legendary. Would I be able to get her again?
I would face any number of slimes or the bandits and their stupid unrideable horses every time for this moment.
I watched her sprint after a bird she had no chance of catching.
I couldn't deal with that again. I had to believe they wouldn't give me my dog to take her away. Not if this was a ploy to keep me playing.