Creatrix

Chapter 18 - Transformation

Anika spent every spare moment she had living out  her story with Tyr. She walked through her real life as if in a dream, stayed clear of her father and kept quiet and out of the way. He didn’t bother her either, and most of her time was spent shut in her room enjoying a wonderful adventure.

***

They had walked for miles before leaving the edge of the woodland. Tyr could make out from here that they’d come too far west. The misjudgment had added to their journey, but neither of them would mind; they enjoyed the time getting to know one another. The land rose up high on this side of the Southern Ridge and the dry riverbed curled round to the south. They followed along the bank. 

 ‘You know, I’ve been wondering, what’s your real name?’ he asked her.

 ‘It’s Anika, of course,’ she replied.

 ‘You kept your real name for the game?’ 

 ‘Yeah, I didn’t really think about it, a lot of people use their real names.’ she said. She never imagined that his name would be different.

 ‘Well, I didn’t.’ he laughed,  ‘Do you want to know what my real name is?’ 

 ‘Yeah,’

‘ Well . . . It’s Charlie,’ he smiled. 

Charlie.  A cheerful and friendly name; you had to smile to say it. Anika was surprised that knowing his name re-enforced that he was a real person sitting somewhere else in the world. She wondered if she would ever meet him, and what he would look like in real life. To meet him for real? Never, that would be too weird.

 ‘Hey, do you want to see something fun?’ he asked.

‘Okay, what is it?’ 

‘I have this makeover talisman that a friend got for me, you can use it to go back to the original selection scene and change your character. It’s so funny look at this.’ 

He took out a purple coloured talisman, it was circular and about the size of his palm, with a raised triangle on the top. Tyr turned the triangle and a large book appeared in front of him. Anika waited, wondering what was going to happen next. He touched the pages of the book, laughed to himself and turned the page; his image flickered out and his name disappeared from the corner of Anika’s vision. When the image reappeared before her, she saw a short, thick set, bearded warrior.

‘Ello sweetheart.’ He said, and he grinned showing crooked yellow teeth through an auburn beard. The name in the corner of her screen showed up as Angus. 

‘Hello Angus.’ She said through her laughter. ‘Is that really you?’ 

‘Yeah, of course it’s me, great isn’t it? Don’t you think I’m handsome?’ he said and displayed his crooked smile again. His eyes looked the same, but the rest of his image was so wildly different, and funny.

‘Much more handsome, I think you should stay like that. Is that what you  look like in real life?’ she teased.

‘No,’ he laughed. ‘Really I’m much more ugly that that, a lot older, and I look more like a river troll.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you don’t look like a troll, but how old are you?’ she asked.

‘I’m seventeen, but only just,’ He said.

 ‘Wow, really? I’m going to be sixteen in two weeks.’ Anika was relieved, she felt safer now she knew they were a similar age, but she still couldn’t tell him how she loved every minute she spent with him.

‘So, do you want to have a go on this talisman?’ he asked and held it out to her.

‘Well, I don’t want to look like a bearded dwarf!’ she said, and they both roared with laughter.