That night the road started turning west, and they stopped to camp at the north end of a huge lake. They unhitched the wagon and tied the horse—a gray and white mare Julia had decided to call Pebbles—to a tree on the side of a grassy clearing. To the north was a gray, rocky hill, but the rest of the view was lush and beautiful, with forest to either side and the lake to the south. The water shimmered in the sun and reflected the purples and pinks of the evening sky.
“Where are we, exactly?” Julia asked.
“I got a map for you. It’s in your pack,” Falcon told her. When she returned with it, he took one side and she took the other. “There’s Jaida Grove,” he said, pointing to a spot on the map. “That’s the Smoky Cliffs.” He pointed north. “That’s Carrow Lake.” He pointed south. “So we’re here.” He tapped the map to show her the location.
“Are they called the Smoky Cliffs because they’re gray?”
“No.” He rolled up the map and set it aside before taking her hand and pulling her along as he started toward the rocky terrain. “I’ll show you.”
A short while later, they stood on the precipice of a sheer cliff. The drop was at least forty feet to a narrow beach below. “There,” he said, pointing northwest across the ocean to a tall, gray island. “The smoke emitting from that volcano is constant, it only stops one day a year. People call it the Mouth of Hell.”
“Does that Malluk god rule this hell?”
“Yes. That volcano is the location of his true temple. The day the smoke stops is Malluk’s Day. It’s in June, I think.”
She shuddered. “That’s not going to be the end bad guy, is it?”
“Very doubtful. Even if the gods are real, they certainly don’t show themselves. But Xavien―”
“A nineteen-year-old boy doesn’t seem too scary,” she said, sounding hopeful.
He chuckled halfheartedly. “It’s not going to be that easy. And how many years older are you?”
“Three,” she mumbled.
“Exactly. And he’s not alone; he has help. You’re just one person.”
She looked at him with those vulnerable eyes, but said nothing. He shook his head at himself as he turned and headed back, leaving her to follow. He knew he was slowly giving in. The more time went on, the more he couldn’t imagine her out there alone―the more he felt the need to protect her. He sighed. This woman was trouble, and she was pulling him in.
When they got back to their campsite, Falcon collected some wood and Julia started a fire with her fireball spell. “So, you want to set up the tent while I get dinner going?” he asked.
“Um… sure,” she replied hesitantly.
He glanced over at her. “You do know how to put up a tent, right?”
“Yes,” she huffed. She got it out of the wagon and then started digging around some more.
“What are you looking for?”
She pulled on the end of her long braid. “Directions?” she answered in a small voice.
He just blinked at her for a moment. He had the urge to laugh and sigh at the same time. He settled for shaking his head as he walked over to her. “Here, I’ll show you.”
__________
The sound of footsteps woke Falcon. He heard small twigs snapping under something’s feet just outside their tent, and his heartbeat quickened when he heard its low snarl. A wild animal came to mind, a mountain lion perhaps. He moved slowly away from Julia, carefully slipping his arm out from under her head: he had ended up holding her when she drifted over to him in her sleep.
He rolled over and gripped the handle of the sword he had hidden beneath his bedroll. He had kept it secret, not wanting her to know that he could fight; then she would have really pushed for him to come with her.
Suddenly, something reached into the tent, and Julia woke up with a scream as the thing grabbed her leg. It yanked her out, dropped her, then took a fistful of her hair and pulled her to her feet. “Not very meaty,” it said in a high-pitched voice. “But you’ll do.”
She just stared at it with wide, terror-filled eyes.
Falcon bolted out of the tent and immediately knocked the dagger out of the hand of the humanoid creature. The goblin had dark, greasy hair, long, pointy ears like a bat's, beady black eyes, and a hooked nose. The hideous green beast smiled, its thin, almost-nonexistent lips curling up, to reveal spiky teeth that gleamed in the light of the still-burning campfire.
“More meaty,” it said, throwing Julia aside and starting for Falcon as it grabbed the mace that hung on its belt with a dirty, clawed hand.
Falcon swallowed hard. This wasn’t a game. This wasn’t sparring with the guards at the Fighters Guild, or with Gabe as he had back on Earth. This was real.
The goblin lifted the mace above its head and brought it down with all the force of its long, sinewy arms. Falcon raised his sword and blocked. The sound of metal against metal was loud in the quiet night.
Adrenaline kicked in, overpowering his fear, and he slashed back, missing the monster’s chest by only a few inches. The goblin’s weapon came at him from the side, but he blocked again. Falcon took a swing and it jumped away. A few more strikes, a few more misses.
Finally, the goblin brought the mace up over its head again, and as it came plunging down, Falcon sidestepped it, using the opening to thrust his blade into its stomach.
The mace fell from its hand, and it staggered back a step as Falcon drew out his sword. He pulled it to the side and swung the weapon like a baseball bat with as much force as he could muster. The blade caught the goblin’s neck, slashing its throat open. It didn’t break its spine and slice its head clean off, but it got the job done.
Falcon stepped back as he monster fell to its knees, blood gushing from its neck. It wobbled for a second and then collapsed forward onto the ground.
He scanned the area to see if there were any more, but it looked like this one had been alone. Turning to Julia, he grinned proudly. He felt like he had done pretty well for his first up-close monster encounter. It had been scary as hell, but also undeniably exhilarating.
He sobered instantly when he saw her. She was sitting a few feet away from him, her wide eyes filled with fear, and her mouth hanging open. He hurried to her, dropping his sword so he could sit beside her and gather her into his arms. She buried her head in his chest and clung to him. “It’s okay now,” he soothed, stroking her hair.
It took her several minutes before she could speak. “What… what was that?” she asked, turning her head to look at its body.
“A goblin.”
Her eyes stayed fixed on the dead creature. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s okay.”
“I was just so… shocked,” she said quietly.
“A reasonable reaction.”
She lifted her head to look at him, and he loosened his hold. “You didn’t freeze like an idiot,” she mumbled.
He shrugged it off. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Just shaken is all. I’ll get better,” she said resolutely.
It took him a second to realize what she meant. “You still want to do this?” he asked incredulously.
Her eyes widened, filling with tears, and her lower lip actually trembled. She looked like a lost little girl, and something twisted inside him.
“I have to find a way home. I have to,” she said fervently as a tear slipped down her cheek. “I can’t stay here, I can’t! I just want to go home! I don’t belong here!”
He was holding her close again. “Shh, it’s okay,” he murmured gently. It was the last straw; his will broke and he gave in. “We’ll get you home.”
She sat up again. “We?”
He couldn’t help smiling, but then he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yeah.” He pushed some of the hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. “You’re obviously not going to get too far without me,” he teased weakly.
More tears escaped as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely. “Thank you!” she cried.
He sighed again and hugged her for a moment. “Okay, I’ll clean up. Why don’t you go back to sleep?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” Then, to prove it, she got up, grabbed the goblin by the ankle, and started pulling.
He watched her struggle, letting her put on a show of being tough. Slowly, she managed to drag it off behind a bush, leaving it there. He smiled at her determination and picked up his bloody sword. Walking to the wagon, he found a rag and cleaned off the blade.
“How did you get so good with a sword?” she asked.
He sat down beside the fire, next to her. “I’ve always been interested in swords. Gabe and I used to do some events back on Earth―tournaments―and I was pretty good,” he said, shrugging.
“Tournaments? Like fighting?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“With swords?”
“Yes.”
She blanched. “To the death?”
He laughed. “No. No one got seriously hurt. It was with blunt weapons.”
“Oh,” she said, sighing in relief, but then wondered, “Why?”
“For fun.”
She just shook her head, obviously not understanding.
“I’ve also been training at the Fighters Guild for a while now,” he told her. “They actually asked me to join the guard just before you got here.”
“What do they guard?”
“They’re this world’s version of police officers.”
“Oh. Are you going to join?”
“Yeah… I think I will,” he said. “Assuming I survive this quest of yours and the guard isn’t under Xavien’s authority anymore.”
She nodded. “So… if you knew how to fight all along, why were you acting all cowardly about beating the game?”
“There are these things called self-preservation and common sense, you should look into them. I might know how to fight in practice, but this is real and very serious,” he said gravely. “When are you going to get that through your head? People get hurt here. People die here. This might have been some game at first, but it’s real now.”
“No,” she said obstinately. “Maybe… maybe if you die here you just wake up back at home. Back at the start, like a normal game.”
He looked at her incredulously, feeling angry now. “You want to put that to the test?” he asked sharply. It came out harsher than he had intended. He immediately felt guilty when she flinched and cowered slightly.
“No,” she mumbled quietly.
He sighed. “Sorry, but… you need to wake up and realize how dangerous this is.”
“You…” She took a deep breath. “You don’t think we’ll actually find a way home, do you?”
He shrugged. “I’ll do what I can to get you back, but there might not be a way. It might all be for nothing. We might die before we ever know.”
She frowned. “Then why are you helping me? Why come with me?”
“Because I’m an idiot,” he said, laughing humorlessly at himself. He sighed again, then admitted seriously, “Because I can’t imagine you out there alone. I know you now… I care. And you need me. That’s enough.”
She stared at him for a moment. “Thank you,” she murmured. She moved closer, resting her head against his chest again, and he held her. They stayed like that for a long time, until Julia was finally tired again and they went back to bed.
