Cyber Mortality

Chapter 54:

I guzzle down the iced tea Pappy offered me and set the glass down, grateful to catch my breath for a moment. It certainly was a lot of work to fly for that long. Zephyr always warned of flying too high because if you exhausted your magical energy you would fall to your death. A great thing to think about.

"So why did you come crash landing in? Do you have some kind of magic that lets you fly?" Pappy inquires while tapping her foot on the ground.

"Wind magic," I nod and set the glass down on the table between us.

"Ah," Pappy smiles. "That's pretty rare. The last person I saw with wind magic was a boy a couple years ago. He hit the ground a lot harder than you did, dear." She chuckles at the memory. "Lucky for him that was before we could die for real."

"So you're not an NPC?" I ask.

"No," Pappy shakes her head. "Just someone who felt disillusioned by the real world so here I am. I own a bar in Georgia, but its not nearly as popular as this old place here." She pats one of the wooden walls softly.

"You don't have anyone in the real world you want to spend time with?" she shakes her head sadly in response to my question.

"No," she sighs. "My husband passed away a couple years ago and when this game came out I felt like it was my chance to escape."

"My mom is dying," I mutter and glance down at my dirt covered boots. "She's got a brain tumor."

"I'm sorry," Pappy smiles empathetically. "My husband had lung cancer. Too much smoking as a teen, they said."

"It sucks," I sigh. "But that's why I came here. I wanted to win the tournament so I could pay her medical expenses."

"Well," Pappy replies. "I'll be rooting for you, kiddo. Who knows how long we will be stuck in here."

"I should probably go," I say when I glance at the clock in the center of town. "I was supposed to meet my friends fifteen minutes ago. Granted I have no clue where the heck they are..." I pull out the map Flint had given me and find my location. "We started out this way..." I point at the location of the cabin. "And split right around here..."

I clamber out of my seat and stash the map away.

"Thank you for the iced tea!" I shout toward Pappy as I leap into the air. As I zip over the town, I test out my flying a bit more. It was certainly easier to maneuver just my body, but I could fly for longer with the carpet.

"I suppose I will just have to build up my stamina," I grin while twirling in the air.

"May!" a voice carries on the wind from the east.

A ball of fire erupts into the air and hurtles in my direction. I narrowly dodge as it soars past my head.

"Hey! You could have killed me!" I scowl at Jez as I land in a tree above them.

"It got your attention, though," she smirks and picks at something that must be super important on her nail.

"We were starting to get worried," Nyle pipes up from my left. "When you didn't show up on time."

"I'm alright," I shrug nonchalantly.

"We didn't really find anything in our section of the map," Flint says from below.

I step off the tree branch and cushion my landing with a puff of air.

"I did," I grin and peer over the map in his hand. My eyes scan until I find the tallest peak of the Snow Tipped Mountains. "Right here." I point to around where I fell from the sky after my run in with the flying beasts. "But theres one really big problem. Well more than one problem."

"And what's that?" Flint inquires.

"Well, there may or may not be Pterodactyls guarding the dungeon, and it might also be several thousand feet in the air." I shrug.

"Good grief," Flint sighs and runs a hand through his silver hair. "Got any good news?"

"I am pretty sure it is the dungeon," I chuckle. "Cause I don't think Pterodactyls are native here. Or anywhere."

"Indeed," Flint scowls and pulls out a pocket watch looking device. "I guess I will call Vyra."

"I should probably find someone too," I groan. "We're going to need his help with this one."

"Who?" Nyle asks.

"My teacher."