Sphiel's Song Read online

  Her shivering subsided and her heart calmed. She opened her eyes and she saw the creature standing where it had been when she closed her eyes. The twisted-looking frown it wore could’ve been construed as concern.

  Sphiel swallowed. “Thank you.”

  “No prob, it’s cool.”

  Sphiel walked toward the creature but it took a step back.

  “What’s wrong?”

  The creature nodded toward the cache of weapons behind the rock. “You know perfectly well. I know you didn’t buy all those weapons. There are at least three different makes of weapon there and all of them are lower quality than what most merchants carry.”

  Sphiel looked at the weapons lying in a scattered pile. It slowly dawned on her what Shiva was insinuating.

  “Those weapons were gathered from mobs that attacked me in this clearing.”

  Shiva shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t buy that. You’re telling me you got all of those weapons from creatures that just happened to stop by, and all of them were hostile?”

  “I have difficulty believing it myself. Before I first started playing, the guy that gave me the introduction said this was a calm place. It was, at first, but as each day goes by I’m getting attacked more. I want to leave but, I’ve started to get comfortable here.”

  “You’re comfortable in a place where you’re getting attacked?”

  Sphiel ruefully smiled. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but this is the best place I’ve found to meditate. Though, I haven’t been anyplace else.”

  “Why?”

  “Honestly, I’m scared bigger, badder monsters will attack me. I don’t want to freak out and have a heart attack.”

  Shiva’s brow furrowed, but she shrugged. “Very well. Not my place to judge.”

  Sphiel took a step forward and Shiva took another step back. The elf looked at her mace and shield and dropped them to the ground. She held her hands out and moved forward again. Shiva seemed hesitant, but walked toward her.

  They met in the middle of the clearing and shook hands. There was a brief moment of extreme nervousness as the beast came close, but it passed when a rank odor hit Sphiel’s nostrils.

  The elf backed away and held her nose. “I’m sorry but, you really stink.”

  The creature laughed. The sound was gravelly and grating. “Why do you think I call myself Stinking Shiva?”

  “Are you a player?”

  “Yes, are you?”

  “I am. Why are you playing a big, stinky uh-?”

  “Troll. Because I thought it would be fun. I get a sick amusement out of seeing overly busty elves gag when they catch my stench.”

  Sphiel backed away a few paces and chuckled. She removed her fingers from her nose and found the smell wasn’t quite so bad. “Fair enough. I don’t think I have a reason for this avatar, other than I wish I was an overly busty elf.”

  “Well I can certainly say I don’t want to be a busty elf. Thank goodness this is VR. If you had knockers like that in real life your spine would give out from carrying them around.”

  The troll’s joke was just the right amount of strange and crude to tickle Sphiel’s giggle box. She was lost in her mirth for more than a minute while the troll looked down at her with a thin lipped smile.

  The two talked for over an hour before Shiva had to log off. During that time she learned her new acquaintance was a veteran schoolteacher who’d been at it “so long she’d become deliciously jaded.”

  Sphiel revealed a little bit about her life and the troll encouraged her choice to continue playing the game, thinking, like she did, that it would help her with her condition.

  “Before I log off I want to ask, what brings you to this part of the woods?” Sphiel said, lounging on her rock.

  Shiva stretched as she sat with her back against a tree. “There’s supposedly a goblin infestation in this area. There’s this other tribe of goblins offering ten gold for their eradication and I’m in the area looking for them.”

  Sphiel opened her inventory and pulled out one of the wooden chits she found. “I don’t know if this will help, but I found this on a lot of the goblins that came into the clearing. Does that give you a clue?”

  The troll pulled a torn piece of parchment out of her inventory. On it was a crudely drawn symbol of Kaput.

  “Looks like I’m on the right trail. If you’re getting attacked by goblins a lot it must mean they’re close by,” a gleam came in Shiva’s eye. “Hey, would you be interested in joining me? From the number of weapons you’ve accumulated, it looks like you can handle yourself in battle. I’d split the reward with you plus any other treasure I find. What do you say?”

  Sphiel tucked her head. She wasn’t sure if she was interested in leaving her little clearing. It was nice there and she didn’t want to risk being attacked by something out of her league.

  “I...don’t know if I should I could...it might make me react badly.”

  “That sucks, I was hoping to get a badass elf on my side.” Shiva bobbed her shoulders. “Oh well, I’ll keep looking on my own then.”

  Sphiel smiled. “Thanks for asking though.”

  “No sweat. I’ll look for these stupid goblins a little more. Maybe we can hang out again if we catch each other online.”

  The elf waved as Shiva left the clearing. Sphiel gave the command to log off the game.

  ***

  Mandy came back to reality. Sweat covered her body but it wasn’t as bad as it was before. She placed a hand on her heart and felt a regular beat.

  NINE

  Over the course of the next week, Shiva and Sphiel met in the clearing in-game. Sphiel would always break her meditation or stop whatever task she was engaged in when she heard the troll’s thudding footsteps to greet her new friend as she entered the clearing.

  It was a bit silly, she knew, to get so excited over meeting a friend. But it had been years since she’d been able to make a friend, let alone talk to anyone outside of her immediate family, other than Dr. Braun. At first, she tried to mask her excitement with a cool demeanor, but Shiva saw through it immediately. So she dropped all pretense, and managed to be something she hadn’t been in years: her average, nerdy, introverted, anime-loving self.

  It was a big deal, at least to her, since she hadn’t been able to do that in so long. It played into her excitement each time she saw her friend. She told Shiva these things, expecting her to think they were lame, but she only received encouragement from the troll.

  They spoke about all sorts of things. Their personal interests, politics, and just about anything else that came to mind. Sphiel suspected Shiva was a bit older than her and didn’t quite hold the same interests, but the troll would at least make the effort to humor her.

  Sphiel was in the middle of fighting another goblin when she heard her friend walking toward the clearing. The goblin thrust his short sword at Sphiel, which the elf easily dodged. The goblin tried to spin around but the elf planted a foot beneath his armpit.

  The creature was shaken and dropped its sword. It quickly steadied itself and leapt at the elf, but she was ready for it. She lunged with her short sword and caught the creature between the eyes and he immediately fell to the ground.

  Your skill with One Handed Swords has grown to 13!

  Sphiel closed the window and looted the creature. It had a few copper, a short sword, and some mangy furs, as well as a chit with Kaput’s symbol drawn on it. She took these items and placed them in a few bags behind the large rock she meditated on.

  Over the last week, the number of goblins invading her clearing had increased, as did the loot she gained from them. She had seven bags full of mediocre to poor weapons, shabby, goblin-sized armor, and trinkets, few of which were worth anything. She mused that eventually she’d be able to supply her own goblin army.

  Shiva stepped into the clearing in time to see the body of the dead goblin vanish and float into the sky. She watched the flame until it vanished then turned to Sphiel.

  “Another
goblin attack?”

  “Yeah, you know I’m really getting tired of these little buggers. I like loot and all but it would be nice to have a relaxing afternoon for a change,” Sphiel said.

  “What fun would that be? If nothing ever came by, you wouldn’t have anything to do. Besides, all those little goblins coming into the clearing to die is getting your sword arm in shape. Aren’t your weapon skills getting pretty high?”

  Sphiel looked at her character sheet.

  Sphiel Lvl. 8

  HP: 100%

  Stamina: 100%

  Mana: 100%

  Character Status

  Healthy

  Skills Known

  One Handed Swords: 13

  Daggers: 9

  One Handed Blunt: 8

  Bluff: 2

  Spells Known

  None

  Character Wealth

  22 sp, 496 cp.

  Items Carried

  Good Quality Tunic and Breeches (Equipped), Below-Average Short Sword (Equipped), Poor Quality Leather Belt (Equipped), Poor Quality Mace, Poor Quality Dagger, Poor Quality Dagger

  Sphiel read off her stats and Shiva whistled. “Not bad, you’re developing into a pretty good warrior.”

  Sphiel grinned. “One day I will be the scourge of the forest. Legions of goblins will die by my hand and will learn to fear Sphiel, the Leaf Walker.”

  Shiva snorted. “I don’t know about legions, but you’d give a group of goblins a run for their money. Speaking of, I think I finally found out where all of those Kaput goblins are coming from.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. The ruins of an old castle are a little north of here. I trailed a couple of goblins into it and found an encampment.”

  “How many were there?”

  “There were a couple of dozen I think, more than I could take on my own.”

  “Seriously? I think you could take out hundreds of goblins. Swing your huge tree branch at them and you’ll wipe out ten at a time.”

  Shiva laughed. “I think you’re overestimating my abilities. I could beat down a bunch of goblins if I put my mind to it, but goblins aren’t just going to rush me. They’d probably attack with ranged weapons and shoot me full of arrows before I’d have the chance to take them down.”

  “You could always just take them out while they sleep.”

  “I could, but soloing that many goblins wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do.”

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “That’s why I swung by. I know you have a beef with them, and you’re weapon skills are pretty good, I was wondering if you wanted to help me take them out.”

  Streamers of ice streaked through her stomach. Sphiel had been playing the game for a couple of weeks and had never ventured out of her little clearing. She stayed in her comfortable little domain, and that was how she liked it. She could handle the mobs that happened to wander in from the outside, but she wasn’t sure how she would fair against a large group of them.

  “Do you think we could beat them?” Sphiel said as she took a hold of her elbow.

  Shiva laughed. “Are you kidding. Between the two of us, we’ll crush them.”

  “I can beat down one goblin at a time, but two dozen? You said yourself I couldn’t take down a legion.”

  “Twenty-four goblins, give or take, isn’t a legion. It’s a pretty small group and a wretched looking group at that. Most of them weren’t even armored.”

  “I’m still not sure.”

  Shiva furrowed her brow and the right side of her mouth curved downward. “Are you still worried you’ll react badly if you leave the clearing?”

  “Yes.”

  “I figured you’d say that, but I don’t think you have anything to be afraid of.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Shiva pointed to the seven burlap sacks of loot sitting behind the rock. “Because you flat out kick ass, that’s why. I travel around and I’ve never gotten that much loot. If I had, I’d definitely be fighting with more than a tree branch.”

  “I’ve never fought more than one enemy at a time.”

  “Yeah, but how easy is it for you now? Did you have any difficulty taking out that goblin you were fighting before I got here?”

  Sphiel shook her head.

  “I bet you were doing it without even thinking. Did you get nervous when you were fighting him?”

  “My real body might have, but I didn’t.”

  “You see, it’s trivial for you now. You’re ready for a bigger challenge.”

  The streamers of ice soaring through Sphiel’s stomach grew colder. “I know what to expect when I fight one goblin, but I’m not sure when it comes to several. Not to mention they’ll be fighting on their own turf, and they might have surprises we don’t know about...” The elf allowed her voice to trail off, not wanting to think about the multitude of catastrophic things that could befall her.

  “Of course they could. Anything could happen. I know it sounds frightening, especially since you don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think you can handle it. I’ll be there with you the whole way, and if you want to run, I’ll run too.”

  Sphiel dug her toe into the ground. Could she handle it? She’d gotten this far, entering a new environment, making a friend, and beating down a few mobs, maybe she was ready to move on. The elf shivered as she envisioned several goblins rushing her with swords, shooting arrows at her while others charged her with weapons raised.

  She’d freeze up. She’d go into panic mode and wouldn’t be able to move while a bunch of goblins shot her full of arrows and stabbed her to death. That was the only outcome she could see.

  Sphiel shivered and looked into the troll’s steely gaze.

  “You think you’ll give it a pass?” Shiva said it flatly, but Sphiel could catch the undercurrent of disappointment.

  The elf bit the side of her cheek. She understood why Shiva was disappointed, she was disappointed as well. She came a long way since she first started playing the game, but it still scared her to leave her clearing, her little sanctuary. Even though she piled up a ton of loot from the stupid monsters that tried to kill her, easily defeating one after the other, she was still scared.

  Did she have to be? Shiva was right, she was getting stronger. She grew calmer by the day in the game world, perhaps she’d be safe adventuring with the troll. No, not safe, attacking a large number of goblins was anything but safe. But she’d have her friend by her side and they’d fight together.

  Sphiel swallowed. “No, I’ll go.”

  The troll’s thinning eyebrows went up. “You will?”

  Sphiel closed her eyes and nodded.

  TEN

  It was hard stepping out of the clearing. Even with Shiva standing there, offering her hand, her feet became concrete blocks when she reached the pathway that led out into the wood beyond. She took Shiva’s hand, closed her eyes and slowly lifted her foot. All of her synapses fired. It felt like she was going to die. Something was going to kill her, she knew it! It would just come out and kill her when she set foot out of the clearing. However, when she opened her eyes, her right foot was on the pathway and her body unscathed.

  Sphiel’s entire body shook as she walked down the overgrown pathway. She had to keep pushing thoughts of thousands of goblins overwhelming her out of her mind. Instead she imagined herself wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting goblins. Their ugly faces would scrunch up and the ground would run black with blood!

  This helped, somewhat. But she was still scared. Sphiel put on a brave face as they approached a group of trees. Shiva slowed her pace and the elf did the same. The elf had to stifle a giggle as she watched the massive troll tip toe. For being a large creature, Shiva generated a surprisingly small amount of noise.

  When they reached the group of trees, Shiva stopped and looked through a thin opening between two trees. The elf found an opening and looked through.

  Several goblins wearing loin cloths were dancing around a fire in the c
enter of a clearing. On a metal pole was a stone carving of a skull with a snake coming out of one eye. They were chanting something in their own language with the only recognizable word being “Kaput.” In the ring of dancing goblins was a goblin in black robes leading the procession.

  Behind them was a castle way past its prime. Several large stones littered the massive clearing. What was once a small castle was reduced to a single story. The “roof” was faded and marred with several gaping cracks running through it.

  There were six goblins standing on the outskirts of the encampment wearing leather armor and holding spears. They looked very bored, staring at the trees in front of them. The few goblins that looked battle ready were spread out and the ones around the fire didn’t look like they were armed.

  Seeing so many goblins in one place still brought a tinge of fear, but Sphiel was able to push it down. The goblins didn’t look very organized. This could be an easy fight.

  “What do you think we should do?” Sphiel whispered.

  “It looks like most of the goblins are busy doing whatever they’re doing. If we can quickly take out the guards we might be able to fall on the rest and take them out before they can react. You go left and I’ll go right. Once the guards are taken out we’ll go after the rest of them.

  Sphiel nodded and watched all of the goblins intently. Her knuckles were white as she gripped her short sword. She pulled her buckler off her shoulder and pushed her arm into the strap.

  I can do this, I can do this, the elf mouthed. A flurry of emotions were working up in Sphiel’s chest. This wasn’t going to be hard. All she had to do was what she did in her clearing.

  The voices of the goblins rose and the fire that surrounded the sigil of their god grew higher. The guards seemed to be drifting off to sleep.

  “Now,” Shiva said in a hoarse whisper.

  Shiva burst through the trees while the elf came out behind. Sphiel’s feet seemed to move of their own accord. The elf ran left and closed on the first guard she saw.

  He was surprised, and before he had the chance to get his spear up, Sphiel knocked it out of the way with her buckler and lunged at the small creature’s throat. Black blood spurted to the ground. She pulled out her weapon and the goblin fell to the ground.