New Game

Chapter 10: Party Up

Aquila ended up staying at the bar for more than one drink. In fact he stayed up chatting to Slie and Nixie until quite late in the night before he packed it in. They didn't ask Aquila to join their party again, but Aquila couldn't really stop thinking about it. He wondered what travelling with a group would be like. He couldn't deny, he had been a little disappointed in himself after turning down their offer, but Aquila was still resolved that he was going to be playing this game on his own. After all, there was no way that he could be sure they wouldn't turn on him. Even if they had seemed nice. He distinctly remembered that some of the nicest people he'd met during his online gaming sessions, turned out to be complete scumbags.

Nixie and Slie still had quite a lot to share with him though. Aquila learnt that there were two subraces of Fae, one with pointy teeth, and one with fairy wings. Nixie's subrace, the necrotic healer, could sacrifice half their health to heal three other players double the amount of hp she'd sacrificed. Unfortunately, like Slie's ability, it could only be used once a day. There were also two subraces of umbra, the umbra of the shadows, and the umbra of the moon; but they didn't really talk about that too much.

It was just after midnight when Aquila decided to pack it in; he ordered a basic room from the bartender, and pretty much went straight to bed. Well, he got into bed straight away. It was quite a while before he was actually able to get to sleep. His mind kept turning, and he suddenly wished that the game had included some kind of button that would put the player straight into a deep slumber. But as it was, sleeping could, at times, be just as hard in game as it could be in real life. It was something he just had to accept.

***

Aquila sat crouched within a patch of large grass, peering through the fields at two players well off into the distance. Nixie, and Slie. He'd left the Three Daggers Inn at midday, just after they had, and he couldn't help but let his curiosity get the better of him. He told himself that was just following them to be sure that they were just two humble players learning the game, and not preying on innocent players, not that he could do anything about it if it turned out they were killing real players. In reality though, it was more because he really did have an overwhelming desire to join them. There was something about Nixie that made him feel at ease.

He'd been following them for most of the afternoon; and he'd kept far enough away that their tags hadn't appeared. He could only assume that his tag hadn't appeared to them either. Nixie and Slie hadn't really done too much. They'd travelled and stopped. Travelled and stopped. And then travelled and stopped a little more. It was quite late, the sun was beginning to set, when they randomly turned off into a field, and continued until the road was well out of sight, and now they were atop a hill that had a few glades of trees for cover. Aquila wondered if they were going to keep travelling through the night, or if they had a plan to stay somewhere. He peered at the two of them carefully.

Nixie and Slie were now bare shadows as the sun had almost completely disappeared behind the horizon. He had slowly come to the realisation over the last few weeks that his night vision only worked for a certain distance; the further away into the night a player was, the more they were covered by the darkness. And so, it was hard to make them out as more than just bare shadows. But then a light appeared in front of them, a fire; they immediately became visible. However Aquila noticed that it was just Nixie now; in front of the low burning fire – she was alone. Slie had slipped off while they'd been obscured by the fading sun.

Where has he gone? He can't be too far.

Nixie stood in front of the fire. She looked over in his direction – almost as though she could see him. Then she began waving. Aquila gulped. Could she see him.

'Hello there,' said a voice from behind him.

Aquila screamed, turned and began crawling backwards.

'Relax! It's me!'