We had to eventually come to terms with the fact that we were a bit lost. We continued to travel east, hoping to run into another village or some people. The one’s we did, bore the mark of the bear, forcing us to stealth our way around them. Just to be sure, we travelled a little further east until we ran into a nest of large spiders.

“Ah! Fuck this shit!” Urvi screamed as she ran as fast as she could with Sierra in her arms.

Well, I guess it’s my turn then. These buggers were big, each was at least six wide and five feet tall. They were also bloody fast. They scurried towards me and seeing those giant eight legs move so fast turned my chest cold. As one of them reached me, I stared into those multiple eyes and massive pincers. They looked disgusting.

As those pincers came down upon me, I cast a protection spell, this time using a good chunk of my mana. The shield didn’t break, giving me plenty of time to prepare a nasty decimation. I took one step back as the spider continued to slam its pincers into my shield. It took a good beating before the first crack showed up. Just as the spider broke through it, I let the ball go, turning the insect into broken body parts.

The ball continued to fly, cutting through several of them before dissipating. The other spiders seemed to take this as a cue and began to swarm me. I protected myself using protect, casting a shield around me. As the number grew, the strength in each strike reduced, allowing my shield to last just a bit longer.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to use the next level of my decimation spell, dome of annihilation. An area of effect attack that delivered a massive punch. I concentrated on my well, condensing the mana within me till it formed a boiling core. Just as I heard the shield crack and shatter, I unleashed the core, letting out a powerful burst of energy. I felt my body heat up, to a degree I never felt before. Just as I began to worry, coldness flooded in, making me feel as though I was freezing for a moment.

I slowly opened my eyes to see burnt corpses of spiders lying around me. Most of them were motionless but a few seemed to shiver for a second but eventually, their motion died out too. I looked around me with a bright grin on my face, my mana was almost completely drained, but it was worth it. I hope.

Just as I began to celebrate, something moved. The corpses of the spiders rose up and rolled over, revealing one bastard taunting me with his pincers. He scurried towards me, eager to get a kill, but I had other plans.

I unsheathed the dagger from my belt, gripping in a downward strike. Putting my left foot forward, I prepared for the spider to attack. As its pincers came down onto me, I lifted my arm and struck the insect right between his eyes. One of its pincers cut through my bicep but I pushed past it. It began to use its legs to push me back, dragging my feet on the ground. I felt my hand go numb, probably from the poison, but my grip didn’t give in. The spider finally began to stagger and retreated, giving me a chance to retrieve the dagger before striking it again in the right eye. I proceeded to deliver a few more stabs before it finally collapsed to the floor, lifeless.

I could feel my heart rate increase, my body felt like it was struck by fever. I was not sure if it was because of the exhausted mana, or the poison and I was too tired to check my health.

“Wow... You are crazy!” I heard Urvi exclaim.

I tried to turn towards her, but all I could see was a blob. “Would you be a dear and get me the antidote? I think I have been poisoned.”

“Oh god, Karna!” Urvi shouted as she rushed to my aid.

***

“How are you feeling?” Urvi asked.

“Don’t worry. The shot of the antidote did the trick. I am fine now.” Even the cut from the pincer was gone.

It was dark, but the silver light from the full moon penetrated the thin canopy, illuminating the forest floor in a dreamy glow. We decided to take in the calm and meditative atmosphere as we journeyed a few miles north before turning west.

“You are crazy to take on the whole nest like that,” Urvi said as she adjusted the sleeping Sierra on her hip.

“Speaking of which, bold of you to just abandon me like that,” I replied with a sly grin.

“I did not. I was watching over you the whole time. I was even about to jump in when you were getting swarmed.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Because you told me about that blast spell, and I didn’t want to get caught up in it.”

Oh yeah. I did tell her about it.

“Besides. That straight-up emptied your mana, doesn’t really look very effective,” she added.

“It’s basically a nuke. You have to give it some credit for its power.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “fine...”

Suddenly, the white moonlight seemed to turn orange. We stopped dead in our tracks and looked ahead to see a small campfire beside a big stone.

“More players?” She asked.

What we thought was a stone, suddenly stood up, revealing its giant antlers. We watched them in awe as they moved about. “Who is that?!” Urvi exclaimed.

We tiptoed closer to take a look. It was a human or something that resembled a human. They were draped in an enormous grey cloak that had leaves and vines growing on it. As they spread their hands into the air, we noticed that they were covered in bands from the wrist to the biceps. Their long flowing black hair blended into the foliage on their clock and out of it, two gigantic antlers stuck out, symmetrical in design and grand in beauty.

As they put their hand down, a female voice spoke. “Come on. Don’t worry.” She turned towards us revealing her elderly face, covered in more tattoos. “I am a player too.”

We approached her cautiously, her jet-black eyes shined like a diamond against the campfire. She wore a thin smile, perhaps not to look creepy. “So, how many days has it been since you arrived?” she asked, turning back to the campfire. Her voice was husky and had the maturity that came with age.

“Less than a month ago,” Urvi answered.

When she looked back at us, her smile was replaced by a look of surprise. “Who is the child?”

We sat down beside the campfire alongside the woman, after formally introducing ourselves. Sierra had woken up, probably by all the commotion. She sat down between Urvi and me, observing the woman cautiously.

The woman herself was dressed in a brown gown. It was adorned with small trinkets made up of twigs, nails, and even teeth. “My name is Andrie. Player name, Visenna.”

“If you don’t mind, how old are you?” I asked curiously.

Urvi jabbed at me with her elbow.

“It is fine,” Visenna said, still looking at the fire. “Age has a different connotation here. Before I answer that. What year was it on earth when you arrived here?”

“How did you know we were from Earth?” Urvi asked. She was equally surprised as me.

“I just so happen to have read the mythological epics from where your names come from,” she said. She was referring to the Mahabharata.

“So, you are from Earth too?” Urvi exclaimed.

“Indeed. I left Earth in 1857. I was in London at that time.”

Of all the crazy things that has happened so far, meeting someone from a place I have lived in, still managed to shock me. “Oh my god! You have been here for almost 170 years?” I asked.

She chuckled softly. “Time runs very differently here. I am well over 1200 years old.”

Okay, no. This is even crazier. “That is long... very long... So, time runs here very slowly?”

“I can’t say for sure. I have met players who are supposedly from the future. 2300. I wish I understood how all of this worked... but alas,” she explained.

This little tidbit left us dumbstruck for a good moment. However, Urvi had a question to ask that was nagging in the back of her head all this while. “What is it like living for so long?”

Visenna took a good while to answer it. “It is hard to describe it in simple terms. But I can try. When things are happening, the world around you is changing, you don’t feel the difference. Every day is a new day. But once things begin to slow down, boredom sets in and how you deal with it, changes from person to person. I, for one, lost myself in this dream. Days blended together and became unrecognizable and inconsiderate. Eventually, I began to lose my mind. Which is why I came here. If there was anything that found harmony with age, it was the trees. I sort of live like them. Find harmony with just living.”

“Did that work out for you?” Urvi asked.

“Well... the last 500 years have been a peaceful existence... Though something in this forest wants to threaten that.”

It seems like trouble is brewing in this seemingly peaceful forest. Though we might have already run into it. “Yes. There seems to be some tension between the forest dwellers.” We then proceeded to narrate the events of the past two days to her.

“Yes, the enmity of the mark of the bear and mark of the sparrow has been a contentious issue for a while now. It is unfortunate you decided to head east. There are hardly any folk from the sparrow clan in this region,” Visenna said.

Urvi sighed and said, ‘traveled millions of kilometers, still facing the dumb shit.”

Visenna smiled. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“There is a path that opens just north of here, about fifty paces from here. Follow it. There is something I want you to see. All I want you to do is see what that is and return,” Visenna said.

“Is that the trouble you are talking about?” I asked.

“Yes. Remain vigilant and do not get caught,” she replied.

Urvi shot a nervous glance at me. I couldn’t deny that even I was a little shook. “Alright. We will do as you say.”

“I will take care of little Sierra till your return,” she said.

***

It was odd to place trust in a stranger we just met. Then again, what else would you do when you run into a quest giver in a video game? Sierra was awfully calm around Visenna, not unlike how she was with us. So, we felt it was safer for her to be at the campsite.

We found the path Visenna was talking about. The forest had gotten darker as the canopy got thicker. But seeing in the dark wasn’t really a problem for either of us.

“Let’s stay sharp,” I said as we began following the path.

“Agreed,” Urvi replied.

Nothing felt out of the ordinary for most of the journey. The crickets chirped, the breeze gently swayed the branches, and every now and then we could hear an owl hoot. However, everything came to a stop as the forest suddenly turned red.

We could see hot red flames crackling at a distance. This was no campfire. “I think we found what we came looking for,” I said.

I could hear Urvi gulp before we began to slowly walk towards the fire. We could feel the heat of the flames as we approached it. Soon shadows began to form around it, seeming to dance around it.

We stopped at the edge of what felt like a small opening. Hiding behind a thick tree trunk, we peeped around to see what the trouble looked like.

The bright bonfire sat enclosed in a circular pit, whose flames spewed out of the pit. Embers from it shot into the night air in all directions before falling onto the bare ground below. Surrounding the fire were humans, dressed as the two men who tried to assault Sierra, except for one. A woman, thin and naked with long hair, stood before the flames covered in blood from head to toe. Her back was turned against us, but I assumed she too wore a mask like the others. They all appeared to be chanting, words that made no sense to me.

“Can you understand what they are saying?” I whispered.

“No. Sounds like nonsense to me,” Urvi replied, in an equally hush tone.

One of the men danced towards the woman before kneeling down. Another presented a dagger to her, which she graciously accepted. The man before her bowed down as she lifted the dagger into the air. She then hunched over and proceeded to slit the man’s throat. Blood sprayed out of his throat as he grunted before falling over to the ground, his body shaking violently.

Once it stopped, she kicked the body into the fire and the flames roared along with the others around it. The woman lifted the dagger into the air once again as the others rejoiced. She slowly brought the knife down when she suddenly snapped back and stared right at us with her red eyes.

Urvi and I vanished into the darkness of the forest before those eyes could see ours.

---

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