The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (28 page)

Chapter 101: Val & Em’s Trip

(Thursday, January 20th Game Day / Monday, May 10th Real Day)

* * *

“
Brrrr
it’s so cooooooold,” said Emily as we began to wade through the river.

“You’re positive we need to cross?” I inquired with my voice wavering as my feet could no longer touch the river bottom. Holding onto the back of her shirt so as not to be separated, my ability to swim was insufficient for the task at hand. Though I had been practicing and had seen marked improvement, I dare say.

Unable to respond to my questioning as she began to swim across, all the while dragging me with her, the current of the river aided in our journey as we ended up traveling nearly a hundred metres northwards in less than a few minutes’ time. As we reached the water’s edge, I attempted to exit the river under my own power.

Slipping down the steep slope of the riverbank, I fell face first into the cold water as I struggled to climb out. After a helping hand was lent, I finally exited the river only to find myself drenched from head to toe. Soaking wet with no fire to speak of and only snow surrounding us, this perilous journey of ours had been rather disconcerting. The lone positive was the natural beauty of the location and perhaps… the lack of players was a boon as well. I did rather enjoy the silence out here.

“We’re close, let’s keep moving?” Emily suggested as she already resumed her walking pace. Heading north to our final destination, this nearly two-week long excursion had us traveling around the entire Northern Province. We had stopped along the coast, dined on the local delicacies, and toured all that was to be toured.

The last stop on this trip was some player’s place, curiously titled Dragon’s Breach according to Emily. A village that was surprisingly well-developed, created and managed by a man we had met during the programme’s meetings. I could hardly remember the man but Emily believed it would be a fun trip.

So far, it was rather enjoyable.

“You’re convinced it’s near?” I said as I rubbed my arms, trying to warm up.

“Um, off the map I would say we’re only fifteen minutes away,” Emily replied as she turned and smiled. “I’m sure there’ll be a fire burning and plenty of food.”

“What makes you so certain, isn’t food scarce?” I asked, truly curious.

“Oh he has plenty, trust me,” she giggled as a strange noise caught our attention.

Chants in the distance, of one man calling out and others repeating at set intervals, it was the oddest thing to hear out in the middle of the forest. We couldn’t quite see around the bend of the trees but we could clearly hear the words yelled out.

“Are you familiar with… this noise?” I asked, completely confused.

“Ah, yeah… no, no not at all,” said Emily. “What do you think it is? Friend or foe?”

“Mm. You said he was the only one here,” I stated logically.

“Quite right!” she said with a laugh as the voices grew louder.

We stopped in our tracks and listened with great interest as they headed in our direction. They couldn’t have been more than a few minutes away by now.

“He-eyy Warr-riors!” called out a man at the front of the pack.

“He-ey War-riors!” called back a chorus of men and women.

“Aa-xe wieldin’ Warriors!” he called out again at a determined interval.

“A-xe wieldin’ Warriors!” they replied.

“Pick up your axe and run with me,” he continued.

“Pick up your axe and run with me,” they repeated.

“We are the sons of Dragon’s Breach.”

“We are the sons of Dragon’s Breach.”

“He-eyy Shield-bearers!”

“Arrow sponge Shield-bearers!”

“Pick up your shields and run with me.”

“We are the sons of Dragon’s Breach.”

“He-eyy Arr-chers!”

“High-aiming Archers!”

“Get out your bows and follow me.”

“We are the sons of Dragon’s Breach.”

Mesmerized by what we were witnessing inside the game, Emily and I continued to stare as the extremely large group started to close the distance between us. It wasn’t more than a minute’s time before they would reach our position and all we could do was stare at each other in amazement and curiosity.

“Um Em, that’s a rather large group,” I said, completely caught off guard by what my artificial eyes conveyed to me.

“Uh… yeah it is?” she answered with her intonation rising at the end.

Spotting us, the man leading the call at the front of the mob yelled out to those behind him without a noticeable break in his step. “HAVARDR TAKE OVER!” he shouted as he separated from the crowd and jogged towards our location, only to slow his pace by the ten metre mark. As he came within an arm’s reach, he stopped to look us over before making any gestures or engaging us in civilized conversation.

After what felt like an eternity, he was seemingly satisfied with what he saw and finally spoke up as Em and I nervously took a step back away from the strange man. A clean yet disheveled appearance with a medium length beard and hair that had been shaved along the back and sides, while the top remained relatively long and pulled back. He was a large man, not in height but in overall stature.

His voice sounded familiar though, and I suppose it should have if he was the one.

“Welcome to the North ladies,” he said with a deep gravelly voice while turning his head to the side with a somewhat serious demeanour. His face appeared conflicted but I wasn’t positive, as my recognition of facial expressions was still lacking. Sweat dripping off his forehead, he continued his hard gaze on the group that had been following him until they were out of visual range.

“I don’t suppose you’re lost?” he asked with his head still turned.

“Huh?” blurted out Emily almost instantly as she failed to mask her confusion.

“Mm. No, we’re not lost thank you,” I replied courteously as I tried to figure the stranger’s angle. He was most likely the man we were coming to visit but he didn’t appear to recognize us and Emily didn’t appear to recognize him. Curious as to his question, I decided to follow up. “Mind explaining why you would ask such a thing?”

The second the words left my mouth, Emily shot me a glance that told me to choose my words more carefully. If this were the real world I might have heeded her advice but this was within the virtual world. There was nothing to fear here.

“Ah don’t mind her!” cut in Emily immediately after giving me the look. “She’s a little straightforward that’s all. We aren’t lost though, just touring the area. Thanks for asking!”

Taking his time to reply as he turned and met our eyes, he tilted his head slightly to the side and let out a sigh as he shrugged his shoulders. “In my experience here there’s generally two types of players that find their way this far north,” he began to explain. “Those with objectives… and those who have lost their way.”

As his tone of voice had changed from the beginning of the conversation, I couldn’t help but notice the subtle differences that turned it from a neutral greeting to one of subtle hostility. He might have concealed it slightly but the air about him was threatening, if only a tad bit so. Something wasn’t quite right with this situation.

“And if we’re neither?” I replied sternly.

“Then you just haven’t realized you’re one or the other yet,” he said mockingly.

“Mm. Is that so?” I said with a nod. “Charming.”

Sensing the hostility a step late, Emily tried to diffuse the situation as she put her hands up in a sign of surrender… or in her mind, a show that she wasn’t a threat. Smiling as she often did when dealing with strangers, she had a tendency to play peace-maker when we interacted with random players.

“Ah uh, I think we’ve gotten off to the wrong start here,” chimed in Emily. “We really are just touring the area… there’s a player village a ways up, right?”

“You should know,” he angrily shot back, temper clearly boiling over. Following up his first retort almost instantaneously, he blurted out a curious line that made me subconsciously scratch my head. “You’ve got the data.”

“Um. What?” she said with slight hesitation.

I couldn’t help but hold my tongue as the situation was entirely odd. His voice was known to me, that much I was certain of and as for his appearance, strangely it didn’t seem as if it were the first time we had met. That meant, we had met in-game but I couldn’t place it. Then it clicked, it was definitely him.

He was the one Emily wanted to visit.

Nudging Em’s arm, I tried to get her attention to let her know but before anything could be said, he started talking once more.

“What brings you here of all places, Emily?” he finally asked, revealing himself.

“Oh my God is that you?” Em nearly shouted in surprise. “Why, I didn’t even recognize you with all of that hair! And what’s with the attitude if you knew it was us all along?!”

As the cards were revealed, a distaste had filled my mouth as our journey had now come to an end in a rather displeasing fashion. He was the one Em wanted to visit and thus far, I couldn’t help but disagree with her decision.

“Hah, really now,” he laughed out as he placed a hand over his brow and pushed his hair back but left the hand in place. “Hahaha, I can’t even, I don’t even know what to think… about all of this right now.”

“Uh how about why you’re being such an ass,” replied Emily with a seriousness I had yet to see from her. “It’s been ages since we’ve seen you and after travelling all the way out here, this is how you treat friends?”

She had a point and it was well-made, we had traveled this far out here on a whim to visit someone we had interacted with at the Alpha and Beta meetings. To think our reception would be filled with hostility after so much time had been invested.

This really was a surprise, even for me.

“Friends… or foes, I often wonder,” he muttered while leaning his head back. “Do friends put out information on other friends? Do they let information leak about their friends’ businesses? Do they contribute indirectly, if not even directly, to other competitor’s aggressions?”

Taking a step back, he turned away from us and stared at the river before continuing his tirade, as Emily was dumbstruck by the words and I failed to understand the meaning behind them. They were serious accusations, one’s I wasn’t aware of.

“Friends you said,” he mumbled. “Tell me, are you a friend?”

Whatever had happened between them, I felt completely out of the loop. My knowledge of the situation was limited to what I heard from other players and from Em herself. If what he was alluding to was true, then Emily was the one responsible for his village being attacked. If that were the case, why would Emily want to come this far out?

I was utterly lost.

“What are you even talking about?!” spat out Emily furiously.

“Really… alright, let’s start from the beginning,” he replied slowly. “My territory was attacked, which I’m sure you already knew.”

“And what does that have to do with me?” she countered immediately.

“Well details being what they are, everything about my village was leaked from the A&B Meetings and was posted on blogs for people to see,” he explained seriously with a much more rapid delivery this time. “So stop me at any time here, but were you not the one in charge of running those meetings, compiling, and presenting that information, while generally being the figurehead that dictates what other testers know?”

“Are you serious?!” she shouted as her face turned red with anger.

“No, I’m auditioning for my next role,” he replied callously and sarcastically.

“You think I’m the one who leaked that information?!” she snapped. “Really, I JUST work there. I don’t have any say in what gets put on those presentations and I had nothing to even do with it being leaked. I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW it was leaked!”

Stopping for a second as she tried to catch her breath, she resumed her argument as she pointed her finger at him. “Maybe if you weren’t such an asshole people wouldn’t be looking to target you!”

“Is that right?” he said with a half-grin.

“You know what, forget it, maybe we were lost. Thanks for your help, I know where we’re going now” she said as she turned around with the intention to walk away.

“Yeah… and where exactly would you head to now,” he cut in before she took a step.

“Anywhere but here you douchebag,” she voiced clearly as she started to walk away.

Watching the scene unfold before me, I wasn’t sure about what to do as I had never been in such a situation before. One look at the man and his face that was full of anger had changed to what I believed was hesitation and confusion. He seemed genuinely distraught as his emotions were clearly unsettled.

Before Emily had taken five steps though, the man quickly glanced at the position of the sun and then stared at Em’s back. “You’ve got thirty minutes of sunlight left and this area is no place to camp right now,” he called out. “If you came from Andal… that’s a five or so hour journey. Look… judging by your reaction, maybe I’ve misunderstood some things… for now, I’m sorry for my behavior.”