Chapter 4: Chosen, Chapter 5: Great Outdoors

Aidan

The Realms

Unknown date (day 1)

Early afternoon

Somewhere in the Mistvale Highlands

As he emerged from the mouth of the canyon, Aidan stopped and stared in wonder at the landscape around him. There was nothing fantastical about it, but it all looked, felt, and even smelled completely real. The hills were covered in a variety of grasses and light shrubbery except where the slope was too steep to collect soil, exposing gray rock beneath. One hillside to the west was covered in a riotous collection of blue, red, and purple wildflowers, and the clear water of the stream which wended its way between the hills revealed a bed covered in stones worn smooth by their extended inundation. The sky was a brilliant light blue with a handful of fluffy white clouds above and a gathering nexus of darker grey on the eastern horizon. A light wind blowing from east to west was fresh and crisp and smelled completely clean with a hint of coming rain. The buzzing of insects and trilling bird calls filled the air.

More importantly, there were no signs of civilization whatsoever. No buildings, no cars, no streets, no power lines, not even a trail worn through the grass by the tramp of hundreds of feet. This was an untouched wilderness, the likes of which Aidan had never seen. Even the Appalachian Trail was, by the time Daniel had traveled it back in the real world, spotted with rest stops, emergency phones, ranger stations, and other intrusive elements of the modern world. Now, here, Aidan felt a connection to nature that he had never realized could exist—and it was all fake. He didn’t know how to feel at the revelation; on the one hand, this was something which spoke to his very soul and which he doubted existed any more on Earth, and yet it was entirely artificial, produced by a video game. There was wonder again in that artificiality, that something as seemingly simple as the landscape in a game could speak to him so, but also a great sense of loss that something this pure and beautiful could only be experienced in virtual reality.

Taking another deep breath of fresh air, Aidan resolved to enjoy this to the fullest. Why grow melancholy over a simulation that was too good? Wasn’t that the point? This was a game, after all, ultimately meant for the players to have fun experiencing. It provided something which he couldn’t get on Earth, but then again, he couldn’t shoot streams of fire from his hands on Earth, either. For all he knew, Earth had never been this beautiful and untouched; maybe this was the virtual reality equivalent of hyperrealism. Regardless, the world wasn’t going to explore itself, and Aidan wanted to see if he could find some shelter before that rain got to him. His starting gear didn’t include a tent or even a hooded cloak, which he hadn’t realized before spotting the clouds.

He decided the first step was to climb to the top of one of the nearby hills, to better see the land around him and hopefully spot a cave or thicket. He arbitrarily chose the flower-covered hill and started to pick his way up its slope, which turned out to be much more time-consuming than he anticipated. The grass and flowers obscured just how steep the hillside actually was. Without climbing gear or even a walking stick, Aidan was forced to spend a lot of time traveling around the circumference of the hill to find spots where he could advance upwards towards the crest without risking falling on his ass and rolling back down the slope. It didn’t help that the mist clung to the ground on the lower slopes of the hill, keeping the soil moist and the grass dew-wet, which meant his footing was less sure than he was comfortable with. By the time he finally found his way to the top of the hill, Aidan was sweating heavily and panting with exertion -- his Stamina bar was down to about a quarter of where it started—and the sun was nearing what looked to be a mountain range far to the west.

He sat down on a patch of grass clear of larger plants and took a long drink from his waterskin. He could feel the burn of exertion in his muscles, and he was sorely tempted to just lay back on the grass and relax for a while. Only the sight of the approaching rain clouds kept him focused on his task; while they weren’t as dark and turbulent as the thunderstorms he was used to, he still would prefer not to get caught out in the rain if he could avoid it. Looking around, he spotted a dense copse of trees on a lower slope of the hill he was on, on the opposite side from the canyon. With a groan, Aidan pushed himself back to his feet and began picking his way towards his target. Fortunately, going downhill was a little easier than uphill, and he managed to make it to the trees just as the brilliant reds and yellows of sunset began to fade to purples and black.

With the hiss of rainfall just starting to be audible from the east, Aidan wiggled and pushed his way through the closely-packed trees until he found a spot large enough for him to curl up in. Working as quickly as he could with his body protesting the exercise, he cleared away all the rocks, leaves, nuts, and other detritus from his chosen resting place then sat down with his back to a tree. He could hear the patter of the rain hitting the canopy above his head, but only a few fat drops got through to splash on his head and shoulders. He dug into his backpack for the Chest of Holding, then pulled out one of the burgers, which was still just as steaming hot as it was when he first inspected it hours ago in the canyon. It seemed that the Chest of Holding actually held things in stasis in addition to its other functions.

The burger was just as tasty as Analyze claimed it would be, the savory chewiness of the patty contrasting nicely with the crisp crunch of the lettuce and onions and the salty richness of the cheese and bacon, all held together by the toasted bun -- brioche, or something similar. He would have liked some condiments and maybe some fries, but honestly, even without it was one of the best burgers he ever tasted, and within a few minutes, he found himself licking the leftover grease and crumbs from his fingers. He felt satisfyingly full with just the one burger. As darkness descended around him and the relaxing sound of rainfall against leaves continued, he rolled up his backpack into a semblance of a pillow and did his best to make himself comfortable on the bare ground. With the afternoon’s exertions, it only took him a few minutes to fall asleep.

Aidan

The Realms

Unknown date (day 2)

Night

Somewhere in the Mistvale Highlands

Aidan woke with a start. He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep, but it can’t have been long because he still felt tired. At first, he wasn’t sure what woke him -- it was no longer raining, and all he could hear was the wind rustling the leaves and the inconstant tip-tap of water dripping from the canopy above. Then he realized that all he could hear was wind and water; some large creature was nearby, and the smaller animals were keeping quiet so as not to draw attention. Very slowly and very carefully, he rose to his knees then stood, pulling his ruby-tipped rod from the loop in his belt. He strained his ears and stood as still as he could, barely even daring to breathe. A minute passed, then another; he began to think that maybe he was just paranoid. Then, he heard something, a fragment of a whisper carried on the wind.

“... not sure who … clear tracks …” Knowledge flooded into Aidan’s head, and a prompt appeared in his vision.

He blinked away the prompt and strained his ears, hoping to hear more of the conversation.

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“... just one …”

“... still trespass …”

“... too thick to …”

“... cannot … morning … burn …”

Aidan didn’t like the sound of that last bit. Whoever they were, they clearly knew he was among the trees and didn’t want him there. He didn’t think burning down the copse would work very well; live trees, especially ones that had just been rained on, didn’t burn well. But, then again, who knew what kind of fantasy flamethrower they had to get the party started? Probably a better one than he had to defend himself with. It didn’t seem likely that he could fight his way out of this, nor did remaining where he was and hoping look like a plan with a bright future. He didn’t think the game designers would throw him into an unwinnable encounter so quickly, especially with the tutorial’s warning about death and danger, so he decided to take his one point in Luck and five ranks in Persuasion and gamble on a peaceful resolution.

He raised his voice and called out in his newly-granted language, “I can hear you out there. Please, I mean you no harm. I am from far away and was brought here magically, then left to my own devices. I am sorry if I am trespassing on your lands; I truly did not know. If you would direct me to your borders, I will leave at dawn.”

Silence greeted his words; even the wind seemed to die down and wait in breathless anticipation. The silence stretched out for what felt like an unbearably long time, then a male voice called out loudly. “Come out of the trees towards the west, slowly and unarmed. We will see you if you try to evade us, and you must know you cannot outrun a Starchaser.”

Aidan had no idea what a Starchaser was, but it sounded like maybe they wouldn’t just shoot him on sight, so he decided to do as he was instructed. “Alright, I’m coming out. Give me a moment, I can’t exactly move quickly in here.”

He grabbed his backpack from the ground and slung it over his shoulders again then carefully began picking his way back westward through the trees. A few minutes later, he emerged from the edge of the thicket and into a surprisingly well-light night. The canopy had prevented him from noticing that this planet had at least two moons, both smaller than Luna. One was maybe half the apparent size of the moon he grew up with and glowing a consistent pale blue in color, while the other was slightly larger and a rusty red. It almost looked like photos Aidan had seen of Mars. Furthermore, the sky itself was alight with billions of stars; with no light pollution, he could see even the faintest of stars above spread out in a tapestry that took his breath away.

His attention was quickly drawn away from the sky, however, as the soft light allowed him to make out the figures of the people who were confronting him. At first, he thought they were mounted on horses, but as they drew closer, he realized that, in fact, they were centaurs. They had the bodies of horses, but instead of a horse’s neck and head, they had a human torso, head, and arms. They were big, taller than him, although their equine portions weren’t as large as he expected horses to be; still larger than ponies, though. From what he knew of horses on Earth, they were generally around five feet to six feet tall at the shoulder, which would put their shoulders about at a level with his head, give or take a few inches. These centaurs weren’t quite that big; he guessed about four feet at the shoulder. That still left the three of them at six and a half to seven feet tall, about a head to a head and a half taller than his just shy of six-foot height.

Each of the centaurs was wearing leather armor and a helmet, and they each had a spear in their hands and a bow slung over their shoulder. Even with the moon and starlight, it was hard to tell the color of their fur, aside from dark. Their skin was somewhere between light and dark, but again he couldn’t say for sure what color or shade.

One of the trio, male judging by its dark, bushy beard, stepped forward and pointed the tip of his spear at Aidan, who raised his arms over his head in surrender, hoping that the gesture was universal. The centaur spoke, and it was the same voice which had called out to him in the copse.

“You claim to have been brought here magically from far away, but you speak our language perfectly. How can this be true?” The centaur’s voice was deep and rich, and Aidan could feel his eyes boring into him as he winced mentally. I didn’t think of that; I don’t know nearly enough about the Realms to try to bluff them now. Best to stick to the truth, at least partly.

“Please, good sir. I have a Trait that gives me the ability to learn languages very quickly. As you can see, I am a simple traveler, unarmed and unarmored. The three of you could kill me easily, and I doubt I could land a single blow on you before you do. As I said, I mean you no harm.” Another prompt appeared in Aidan’s vision, which he read quickly and then dismissed.

Despite the Skill increase, the talkative centaur didn’t look convinced -- or at least his speartip didn’t waver or withdraw. However, one of the others walked up beside him and whispered into his ear. This close, Aidan was able to make out most of it.

“He is only level one according to … telling the truth?” The second centaur was a little smaller than the presumed leader, and Aidan tentatively labeled it as a female due to her delicate chin and more pronounced breastplate.

“Hmph,” the first centaur grunted. “Looks can be deceiving, and I do not believe your story, Hellspawn. However, there is enough that does not make sense if I assume you are lying about everything that I will not kill you here and now. Derwyn, Lail, bind him. We will let the Council decide.”

Well, that’s better than being killed, I guess? It would be futile to resist or try to run, so Aidan held his hands out in front of him as the other two centaurs approached with lengths of rope. The two of them quickly tied his hands together and bound his arms tightly to his sides, leaving some to serve as a sort of leash. One of them, the one Aidan had decided was female, kept ahold of the other end of the rope and gave it a tug as she turned in place, causing him to stumble a bit.

“Follow along now, and do not make me drag you. We have a fair distance to go, and you might not survive the experience.” She said in a soft voice that further confirmed his assessment of her gender. She gave another pull on his leash, and Aidan stumbled along behind her as the three centaurs led him away.

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