“Well, this got not good quickly,” I said.
We were all standing around the mini-bonfire, trying to look in every direction at once. The glade was only about ten yards across, in the center of a hundred-yard grove of trees. I wasn’t sure if we’d be safer out on the plains or in these little woods.
Whatever had been howling was quiet now.
“What do you think it is?” Emma asked.
Slade was helpful, “Sounds like a pack of dogs. Wolves, maybe?”
“Well, I’m going to hide,” Max said, stepping away from the fire. He faded into the shadows quickly and was gone.
“Dogs, wolves, cougars, even bears will be able to smell you,” Slade called out.
Both Emma and I shooshed him. The last thing we needed was Slade’s booming voice telling every pack of wild animals that there was a tasty snack nearby. I could also fade away into the bushes, but Slade was probably right. Animals would be able to smell us even if hidden. Probably.
About this time, I realized I no longer had the spear. I probably dropped it earlier when climbing the trees. Better and better. I looked around for the floating cubes of the goblins we’d slain earlier. I didn’t see them anywhere.
“What happened to the Goblin loot?” I hissed at Slade.
“We looted it,” he said. He looked pretty comfy holding a spear, almost as if he knew what to do with it.
I looked over at Emma. Like me she was empty-handed.
“Did you get any weapons?” I asked. “I could really use a spear.”
“I thought you had one already?”
“Lost it climbing trees.” I hissed back.
“Be more mindful,” Slade said. “It’s not like they grow on trees.”
“They do. It’s literally a sharpened twig. Just toss me one, so I’m not unarmed here. And get one for Emma too.”
Emma protested and Slade started flicking his hand in front of him. A spear appeared and he tossed it to me. He tossed another at Emma, but she just let it fall to the ground.
“Emma, grab the spear,” me and Slade said in unison.
“I don’t think so, I’m alright.”
The howling began again. I listened closely. A message scrolled in my vision:
Aural Signature Identified: Barghest, Level 5
“Wolves for sure,” Slade said.
“It''s something called a barghest,” I said. “I was able to identify it by sound.”
“What the hell is a bag-rest?” asked Slade. “Still sounds like wolves to me.”
“Sounds like really big dogs,” whispered Emma.
“Animals are usually afraid of fire,” I said. “Maybe we should build ours up?”
Nobody wanted to leave the fire to venture out in the darkness for branches. I stole some peaks behind me to see how the bonfire was doing and wondered what would happen if it started dying out. I didn’t exactly like the thought of being stuck in the dark with dogs that sounded like they ate hippos for snacks.
“Are they dogs?” Emma asked. “Maybe we should climb up the trees?”
“I’m afraid to look in the help,” I said. “I just know the moment I poke my head in a menu, they’ll be on us.”
“Go ahead,” Slade said. “I got us covered.”
He sounded so confident that I actually believed him. I blinked and looked up barghest.
Barghest – Level 5
Hunter knowledge accessed
A huge black dog with fiery eyes that appears only at night. Monstrous in size, they may attack small groups of travelers with large teeth and claws. The wounds from this enchanted beast are difficult to heal. Often used as guardians by practitioners of the arcane.
I read it all aloud to the others.
“What’s a practitioner of the arcane?” Slade asked.
“Let''s not find out,” I said. “It says it’s a dog, so let''s climb up out of the way.”
Slade and Emma darted to the nearest tree. I followed to help them up, but honestly, I wanted off the ground immediately. I remembered that Max was out there somewhere.
“Max!” I whispered as loud as I dared. “We’re climbing the trees. I suggest you do…”
“Right here,” he whispered next to me. I damn near screamed.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
I ushered him to another tree. Even when I was helping him climb, it was hard to see him. He made it up, and I looked over to see Emma about ten feet up and Slade just starting his ascent. I grabbed a branch and found a ladder waiting for me. I zoomed up past Max and helped guide him into the canopy.
We waited in silence. Nobody dared to speak. There was little to do but watch the bonfire consuming itself.
As we started to relax, Slade laughed, “We’re jumping at shadows.”
“No, we jumped at a really big dog howling,” I said. Slade and Emma weren’t too far away, just ten yards or so. We all had an excellent view of the fire in the clearing below. Luckily, the wind hadn’t shifted the smoke into our eyes.
I heard something snap below. At first I thought it was the fire crackling. I had a sinking feeling that it was something else, something large snapping twigs as it walked. A moment later, I heard the chuffing. There was a really big dog down there, much bigger than my dog Ron back in the real world.
“I think it’s here,” I whispered.
Slade started to speak, “I don’t see any…:”
The words died in his throat as a huge dog neared the fire, completely unafraid of it. A black silhouette passed in front of the flames. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest—hell, I could feel it beating all the way up into the back of my throat. I clutched the branch I was perched on, terrified that I might fall into the jaw of the monster below.
That was before it turned and looked up at us. My blood turned icy in my veins.
A set of red glowing eyes glared up at me. I could swear flames were flickering from them, not just some half illusion of flickering flames from the fire. I wanted to run, to sprint away from this vision of a ghastly creature. I would have, too, if I could move even a single muscle. This was no dog but a demon straight from the inferno itself.
And just like that, it turned and shambled away into the darkness.
When I could breathe again, I whispered, “I think I peed myself.”
“That’s not funny,” Max said.
There it was. My dad always told me, “In the face of fear, laughter will give you courage.”
It had worked most of my life. Public speech? Imagine the crowd naked or making out with each other. That’s funny, not at all scary. A rickety boat on choppy water? Crack wise about having a drinking problem. Humor has always been my crutch. It made the scary much less so.
But honestly, I really might have peed myself a little when that thing looked at me.
It was a long cold night. Max seemed content by himself so I did some tree walking over to the others. Slade was asleep, snoring against the trunk. I hung out with Emma the rest of the night. Neither of us were keen on sleeping, both afraid we might fall off, so we chatted through most of the night.
When the first strands of daylight peaked through the leafy canopy, I was utterly relieved.
Slade sat straddled across two branches, his back against the trunk, sleeping in a sitting position. At first light, he roused and looked around blearily. I realized I hadn’t checked in on Max all night, but I also hadn’t heard anything fall, so I rationalized that he was probably fine. Running back over to him, I saw that he had wedged himself in a lying position around the trunk supported by multiple branches.
As I approached Max the bouncing of the branches gently woke him. He looked up at me and asked, “So that thing only shows at night.”
“That’s what the entry said.”
“Alright.” He yawned. “I’ll slip down stealthed and check things out.”
“Seriously?” I said. “Just like that?”
“Like what?”
“You’ve been awake all of two seconds and are willing to risk your life that quickly?”
Max blinked at me, “Somebody has to do it.”
“We could do it together as a team.”
“Naw,” he spoke through another yawn. “This will be quicker.”
And just like that, he unwrapped himself from the trunk and started climbing down. He faded almost instantly, and I lost track of him after that. With a shrug, I ran back to the others.
Slade peered down at the ground, which was shrouded in shadows and near darkness. The bonfire had died out hours ago.
“We should draw straws or something to see who’s going down first,” Slade said when he saw me.
“Max already went down.”
“What?” Emma yelped.
“He went sneaky like. He insisted.” I said.
The three of us watched the ground anxiously. After a full night of no sleep, I had to admit that I was feeling a little woozy. The grass in the glade looked mighty soft and inviting.
“I think it''s okay to come down,” Max yelled up to us as he faded into view. It was a little weird. One moment, there was a shadowy figure; the next, it was Max.
Slade and Emma began their slow descent while I rocketed along the branch ladders that only I could see. I went over to the remains of the fire. Sure enough, I spotted a giant set of tracks that I suspected would be there.
While I was looking at the tracks they highlighted for a moment, glowing. Then text appeared:
Barghest Tracks – Level 5 Monster
A glowing arrow pointed along the path the beast had taken. No matter what anyone else said or tried to do, I would ensure we wouldn’t go in that direction.
“Alright,” Slade announced when everybody was on the ground. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Which way?” I asked.
Slade looked thunderstruck for a moment, then just pointed in a direction, “We’ll go this way.”
“Why?” I said.
“Does it matter?” he said. “It’s a game. It’ll lead us where we need to go.”
“You’re assuming this is a crafted narrative, not a sandbox,” I said.
He scratched his jaw, “I play shooters. If you go the wrong way, you just bump along the edge ‘til you find people to shoot at.”
“What do you play?” I asked Max.
“Builders, mostly, and resource managers. The edges are usually pretty well defined, and you can’t wander out of the play area.”
“I play collectors and clue finders,” Emma volunteered.
“And what are the maps like in those?” I said.
“Mostly, there is no map, at least not for the click and finds. For the collectors, it’s impossible to get lost or miss the path you are on.”
“And what about you?” Slade demanded. “And how does any of this help?”
“I played massive online games. Lots of people, and lots of areas to explore.”
“We’re alone here,” Slade said. “My games are probably most helpful.”
“No. MMOs also have wide areas to explore. Getting lost is a thing.” I explained, as a thought hit me. “Crap, we should be checking our journal.”
When I flicked the menu open to the journal, sure enough, there were plenty of entries:
Goal: Find armor
Goal: Find a boosted item
Goal: Discover a point of interest
Goal: Discover a town
Goal: Make a trade
Goal: Purchase an item or service
Goal: Acquire level 3
Goal: Gain a reputation
Goal: Resolve a quest
Goal: Resolve a crisis
Goal: Discover a civilization
Max whistled. I figured he was seeing what I did, a lot of goals.
“Well,” I said. “One thing is good to know. There are towns and civilizations here.”
“I sort of figured there would be when the goblins had coins,” Max said.
He was right, and I felt a little dumb for having not made that connection earlier. I was glad this game wasn’t a Western Marches, pure wilderness sandbox game. Towns meant people, which played right into my preference for massive online games.
I closed the menu, a little frustrated there wasn’t any help on completing our goal of finding a town. “Anyone else have an idea of which direction we should head?”
There was a slight pause, then Emma pointed and said, “We should go that way.”
“Do you have a reason for going that way?”
Emma nodded and explained, “The voice in the fire last night told me to follow the signs in the sky.”