Somnium Online

This is Real.

"Eric?" A far away voice broke through his foggy mind.

"Eric?!" The voice sounded distant and murky, like it was being distorted.

"Please Eric! Wake up!"
The voice was coming closer.

"Get up you lazy idiot!" This time the voice was clear as day.

Eric cracked an eye open. He was in an unfamiliar room, no, a tent. Green cloth, the sun filtered through, bathing the tent in green light.

Eric was propped up on something, a backpack? His head was still fuzzy.

"Hey, are you up?" Anne was leaning over him, but why and how was she upside down?

Oh.

Eric finally figured out what his head was propped up on.

He tried to sit up but his head flared with pain.

"Lay back down you big dummy, I can't have you suffering any more brain damage that you already have!" Anne grabbed him and pulled his head back onto her lap.

"Hey." He managed weakly.

"What the hell was that?!" Anne yelled.

Eric winced. "I'm not really sure. Some kind of poison maybe?"

He studied Anne's face carefully, she was angry but also, wait, was Anne worried? About him?

And why were her eyes rimmed with red? Had she been? No, that was impossible. There was no way thug bashing, bandit slaying, power shopping Anne had been crying.

So, like a complete idiot he asked the stupidest question ever. "Wait, were you crying?"

Anne was suddenly defensive. "Yes! I mean no! I mean... Dammit what is it with you!"

Eric closed his eyes and breathed. "Hey Anne... Thanks."

"Hmph. You're welcome. If you weren't potentially recovering from poison I would totally kick your ass for this."

That sounded more like her. "Yeah." He smiled. "I know."

They sat there like that for a while. Eric resting his head in Anne's lap, Anne curling his dark hair around her finger absently.

After a while they heard Jorvik bellowing. "All right ye lazy bums! Just because ye had ter earn yer pay last night doesn't excuse any slacking!"

"Come on." Anne said gently. "Let's get going." Eric sat up, and together they stepped outside.

Jorvik was barking orders left and right sending his large well muscled soldiers to wherever work needed to be done. Eric offered to pitch in but Jorvik brushed him off

"Ye don't need to be worrying about such things." He explained.

Eric packed up his gear, and tried to stay out of the way. Within a few short minutes the entire camp had been dismantled, and neatly packed into the wagons. The monks seemed eager to keep moving, and the caravan resumed it's journey.

Eric was stationed at the back of the caravan, and since there were an odd number of guards, he was on his own.

After a while he decided to give contacting N a try.

Except... he wasn't sure how to do it. He figured he might as well just start talking. "Hey... N? Are you in there?"

"It's about time, man that hurt!" N exclaimed. Something was off about his voice. It sounded... younger.

"Hey N, what's with the voice change?"

"Oh, that? When I became the Narrator, the de eloped thought it would be funny to give me an old man voice, but when I escaped I decided to... conveniently forget it.