Picture this: An Irish looking red head with a sharp ax made of stone in her hands and clothes made of leaves and twigs, making her way into the humid jungle. That’s the exact scene that was set out before me. I was able to catch a few fish in the morning by making myself a spear with a long stick and a rock and then cooked them up, so I had some spare food in my inventory. Water was a problem, but I was feeling pretty hydrated so I considered the trip safe enough. I need something to store water soon. Maybe if I can obtain some sort of leather somehow? The biome Skye said she was in probably had cows or something I could use, but the problem is getting over to the island in the first place without water. Skye could probably make it by investing her skill points like we talked about yesterday, but I don’t have that same luxury, at least not yet. 

At least my spear and ax were useful. I’d have my spear out now but the jungle is too dense, making it hard to carry around something as long as a spear without several inconveniences, and an ax allows me to cut down shrubbery and vines in my way. All in all, the trip should be pretty simple. I guess I’ll call Ella and update her.

Calling contact: Ella…

…

Answered.

In the corner of vision now sat the image of a girl who looked a lot like my short haired and green eyed girlfriend, but instead she had hair that reminded me of the greens of leaves in a rainforest, and pale blue eyes that reminded me of the rain.

“Oh my god you’re so beautiful- I mean, your character is so beautiful! I mean you’re so beautiful- shit!”

She started laughing like a madwoman and then stopped and looked into my eyes all serious, “You’re the gorgeous one darling.”

It’s already hot and humid but I think I just melted a little. Wait fuck I have to get back to what I was actually calling her for. “I uhm- I’m on my way there! The trip is pretty smooth sailing so far. Have you talked to Skye yet about where she’s at?”

“No, I didn’t want to distract her if she’s still dealing with getting chased, we should call her together when you get here. Speaking of here, I’ve made a bit of a home out of it! Remember how you joked about a treehouse? I was actually able to make a small one. It doesn’t have a roof yet but there’s a foundation set down and I hollowed out the inside of a tree to make a ladder.”

“You were able to do that without actual tools?”

“Once you get the basic stuff and put a few skill points into building, it’s mostly about resources, time, tools and imagination.”

“Huh, I’ll have to experiment with that. Maybe since we already have a treehouse we could build some sort’ve flight tower and make ourselves hang gliders to travel further distances outward from home.”

“We’ll need a lot of resources for that to be feasible, but I think it’s a good long term goal. Maybe if we find a way to secure them and make them sturdy enough we could even set up towers in every biome for a sort of network of places to glide off of.”

“Like in those old console open world games?”

“Exactly like that! Gosh we should all play some of those again, I loved Breath of the Wild as a kid.”

“Me too!! Both of those things sound like very great plans. Ok babe, I should be to your location soon enough, I’m gonna hang up so I can focus on my surroundings.”

“Good luck babe, I love you!”

“I love you too, see you soon!”

Call ended.

***

Skye-

Fuck fuck fuck they’re still behind me! Keep running Skye, keep running and ignore the spears and arrows falling right next to you! How did those fuckers from yesterday find me anyway? I made a fire in the edge cave, so the smoke shouldn’t have been that obvious I think. Do they have some kind expert tracker with their group? And why hunt me down of all people, I’m literally wearing leather scraps and only have a spear to my name, which they literally threw at me. I guess in games people don’t need reasons. They just do whatever sounds fun at the time. For some people that’s apparently hunting down newbies.

Up ahead I see a small cliff, and it seems I’ve made enough distance that their accuracy is way off. I make my way towards it and look over the edge- lucky me, there’s water below, and it looks safe enough to jump from. If there’s stones underneath then I can always respawn. Best to take the risk. I already got my level up yesterday so I should be able to swim across if Tina was right. Please be right you beautiful idiot so that I can kiss the hell out of you later.

I back up a little and sprint towards the ledge, arrows and spears attempting to hit me the whole way there, and I leap. For a few moments my entire world is cool air, and then the next it is cold water. Hitting the water from that height hurts like hell, but I’m alive, and I didn’t get the wind knocked out of me, somehow. I swim both up and forwards, hoping that if they’re trying to find me from down below that by the time I resurface I’ll be long out of their range. Now all I have to do is swim towards my girls. 

Call from: Ella

Accept?

I’m a little underwater right now! I swim up with all my might and resurface, gasping for air and with empty lungs I say,  “ACCEPT!”

“Skye? Are you in the water right now? It’s hard to see your camera right now. It looks like there’s waves and stuff though?”

“Yes! Babe I just jumped off a CLIFF.”

Tina, apparently now with Ella, appears on the screen, “A cliff?! That’s awesome! I mean, are you ok? But also babe that’s sick!”

“Yeah I’m alright. Hopefully the skill points you told me to invest in will carry me across, I’m gonna start swimming while we’re talking, the current isn’t too strong.”

“Why’d you have to jump off a cliff?” Ella asks.

“Those bastards from yesterday found me again, pretty much had no choice.” Hopefully won’t ever run into them again. “Wasted tons of arrows and spears trying to get me.”

“We should keep an eye out for hostile players more in the future,” Tina says. “Who knows what we could run into. With how in depth this crafting system is I have a feeling people will have far more advanced weaponry than bows and spears soon enough.”

The swim was really tiring after being chased down, but at the same time I felt good. I was talking to my girls and moving decently quickly without having to fight against a strong current. 

“Maybe we could get medieval and build a trebuchet or something,” I say. I was never the creative one of the three of us. Tina didn’t like to admit it but she was talented at practical stuff, always researching solutions and finding creative ways to solve problems. She could just look at something and spend huge amounts of time trying to figure out how it works. And Ella,  she was such an artist, designing the environment of our group home and decorating our apartment with cute little paintings and pictures. I just always end up scraping by, though they always tell me that’s a skill all on its own, even if I don’t always believe them. I’m just lucky. 

“That’s a pretty good idea actually! We need some way to get metal and find out how to craft things with it though.” Tina says, her nose cutely wrinkling up as she thinks.

“Actually when building the treehouse I found out that more advanced crafting recipes can be done through different types of crafting tables. Knowing the game you probably actually could craft stuff that advanced by hand too if you know how.” Ella says.

“I think sticking to the crafting tables is a bit easier…” Tina replies, looking like she was imaging the process of building a trebuchet by hand. Not fun, even with lots of gay stuff happening during the building process between the three of us. 

“I’m gonna have to agree with you there babe, crafting something like that by hand sounds like hell.” I say. Swimming while talking is a bit complicated, but I’m swimming slow to conserve energy as it is, so it isn’t a huge problem. I should probably either hang up or stop talking for a while though soon. “By the way, I should probably focus on swimming so I don’t drown out here.”

They both give a sad groan in unison. Fuck I love these two. 

“Fiiiine.” Tina says. 

“We’ll see you when you get here love. Expect to be tackled with kisses when you do.” Ella says.

“Oh no the horror!” I say sarcastically. “Ok, ok hanging up now. See you two soon. Love you both!”

“Love you!” “Love you, be safe!”

I look up towards the jungle growing slowly closer. If this was real life I’d be bedridden for a week after this swim…

But push forward Skye! You got this! For your pride! To see your hot girlfriends again! I switch from a breaststroke to freestyle and kick it into high gear, no longer caring about conserving energy. I’m getting this done. 

***

After what feels like an hour later, I make it to the shore, and crawl my way onto the sand, then onto my back. My chest is heaving, my heart pounding with adrenaline, My arms and legs feel so light from it that I know once it dies down I won’t be able to move for a while. It’s not often you get this feeling in a VR game. Some don’t bother to recreate it, and others either don’t let you get physically tired from exercise or aren’t the types of games to have much exercise as it is. It’s a delightful pain, where you feel light as air, yet can barely get enough into your lungs. 

I rest for a while, then once I can stand again, I make my way into the brush of the jungle. Time to go see my girls.