D blinked as he was dragged away.

What the hell was this? He did not like being leaded on so much, especially when he knew what to do.

Er… kind of. He knew there was an enchanter, or something, someone that could teach him different languages – maybe both of them, depending how much money it cost. But it vital, being able to speak them. This wouldn’t be a damn problem. He finally figured out that she probably didn’t even understand that, hey, he was a player also.

But no.

She didn’t seem to catch onto that, never mind the fact that most Drow lived underground, and they were typically pretty aggressive. It pissed him off when people were unprepared. It was something that said “I’m so fucking good at these games, I don’t NEED To look around!”

Fuck them, they’re stupid. As D got more annoyed, he glanced at her with a slight bit of glare… could he trust her? How did he know she wasn’t going to rip him off some how. He was in the same situation as she was, why did it matter?

D was a little too untrusting.

She kept pulling him in that direction, and eventually found the sign she'd been told to look for. She grinned and pointed at it, urging D inside.

The book shop was managed by a young Drow gentleman. An enchanter as well as a librarian of sorts, he looked at them, quizzically.

"Can I help you?" he said, in common. Leona looked at him, and shook her head. Agh. She nudged D and looked up at him. Surely, if he was a Drow, he understood DROW.

But then again, he might not know what to ask. She didn't know. They might be playing charades again in a minute.

“Dos ph'l'enchanter, ditronw?” D asked, looking at the Enchanter. So this WAS the right person. This would make things much easier. Without having the girl interfere with his conversations, he could get this over quickly. D held the few gold pieces he had closely.

“Nindel zhah uns'aa. Vel'bol xun dos ssrig'luin, Ilythiiri?” The Enchanter asked D in return, D smiling widely. This would solve both of their problems quickly, really. D showed the enchanter his few bits of currency, and the enchanter laughed at him

“Dalhar! Gaer zhah nau ssrig'luin ulu yaith uns'aa! Ka dos daewl ulu telanth rivvin, Usstan orn xxizz dos tu'whol duul'sso - natha dalninuk ulu natha dalninuk!” The Enchanter laughed even more heartily as he saw the excited expression on D’s face. This was excellent! He didn’t have to pay a cent, and the girl would probably see this as a reward until she figured out that he was an actual person. He grabbed the Sepp girl, and pulled her closer to the Enchanter.

“Bel'la dos. Qualla xun ol.” D said, gratefully as he heard the Enchanter’s words. The Enchanter just smiled, and replied “Ves al, mir pholor.”

Suddenly, the Enchanter started to cast the spell. His hands began to glow as he whispered the rune words, closing his eyes. The glow shattered like glass, the millions of little pieces flying into them. They didn’t cause pain - they instilled them with knowledge.

“Thank you again, kind Enchanter.” D said in common, his Drow accent ridiculously obvious. He’d need to work on that. He then turned to the Sepp girl. “I am D. Thanks for your help - this is pretty incredible, is it not?”

(Translation, in order:
"You are the enchanter, right?"
"That is me. What do you need, Drow?"
"Child! There is no need to pay me! If you wish to speak common, I will help you both for free - a brother to a brother!"
"Thank you. Please do it."
"Very well, hold on.")

Leona blinked. Alright, so the Drow knew what she'd wanted. That was great.

She blinked and nearly jumped out of her skin at the enchantment. It was so rediculously realistic! This entire GAME was. She shivered and shook herself after the enchantment.

Suddenly, she could hear what they were saying. She looked between the two, then up at D, as he spoke to her.

"O-Oh... I'm Leona," she said, noticing suddenly she had a heavy accent that was similar to deep-south. She grimaced. Fantastic - she'd sound like a hick through the entire game. "Yeah, the spell WAS pretty incredible..."

She still thought him to be an NPC. So, she asked the obvious question. "You lookin' for somethin'? I can help."

D couldn’t figure out why he had an accent suddenly.

He hadn’t ever had one before. He came from a family of accent neutral people - other than his father, who had a hint of a southern accent. D grinned hearing her voice. He had a very, very calm voice - he simply SOUNDED intelligent, other than the accent.

“I was talking about the game it self, but yes - the enchantment was.” D said, crossing his arms and looking around. He pocketed his gold pieces and smiled at her.

D suddenly offering his hand to shake her’s. He hoped he wasn’t making him self look crazy, and her actually be an NPC. You could never tell in this game - everyone and everything was so... realistic. He looked around some at the people walking around, as it got even darker. His vision was still blurry - which worried him. He should’ve recovered by now. Maybe there was some permanent damage... He hoped not.

Leona's eyes widened, and she failed to notice his extended hand. She seemed dumbstruck for a moment. In reality, she was trying to figure out what he meant. She was a little slow.

"... You're a... player?" she said, still a little dumbstruck. She wasn't even aware this was an MMO. She clearly hadn't read that carefully.

Her expression fell, and she scratched her head. "Damn... Well, looks like that was a bust," she muttered. Her exhaustion was hitting her hard. It was evident by how she was moving. She had some food and a mostly-full flask of water. She had an idea.

"... Look," she said finally, looking up at him from a meager height. "It's late, and I'm broke. I have food and water, and you ain't got enough to get that AND a room for the night. Lemme tell ya, in this game? Everythin's just like the real world. You're gonna want that room to sleep. We'll figure out the eye thing in the mornin'. We gotta deal?" she said, hopefully.

Blaize slowly sat up, opening his eyes tenderly. The light from the open window blinded him, making his hang over the first thing on his mind. He thought to himself, laying spread eagled on his bed, "Damn it!!!!! What the hell was I thinking? Letting Spike talk me into drinking. Damn the guy to hell!" He realized that he had spoken aloud when he heard the common "SHUT UP" from upstairs.

The frustrated college student ignored the voice from up the stairs, used to the complaining from the other guys. He thought that they had finally complained to the college dean when he heart the door bell ring, the obnoxious carrilon ripping into his brain like a cleaver. He trudged to the door, not even caring that he was naked except for his boxers. "I swear, if I live through today, and not get shot by the biker gangs, I'm going to straighten up my act. I gave up drugs, I can stop drinking that booze. As he reached the door, he ran a hand through his permeneantly spiked hair. So what, he spent half his pay check on hair gel, keeping his sky high spikes was part of his personality.

When he wandered down the hall, the bell rang again, splitting his head open once more due to the fact that he was right next to the indoor half of the bell. "Damn it! I hear you the fricken first time!" He ripped open the door, "what?!" The mail man, taken aback by the violent teen, handed him the small, rectangular package with the sticker of Firestorm. Blaize signed, his signature nothing like his real one, the man it belonged to not caring about how it looked. The package was a consequence of being a gaming addict since the age of 10; people just knew you existed when you were as prominant on the gaming scene.

Aralon was suppsed to be a groundbreaking achievement in the world of VR, able to duplicate real world feelings. "Ah, well, anything to escape thie hell hole of a hang over." He already knew the instructions, one of his friends got the same deal, of course he died a day later. "Name huh? Meh, Slazer'im" The youth still talked to himself.

Blaize sat down on a couch, the same couch he spent many friday nights curled up on. He slid the goggles over his eyes from their position on his forehead. "start"
__________________________________________________________________________

Blaize woke up. The massive form stirred, the pain of his hangover almost completely gone. "I like this thing already. Perfect way out of a hangover." The giant lizard tried to stetch, but found himself trapped. He tried moving back, and to either side; however, he eventually realized that that bright pin prick far ahead and above him, was light. "I'm going to have to crawl out of here......you have to be shitting me." The draknoid slowly began the long, diagonal slither up the smooth tunnel, dug into the stone.

After several hours, he emerged into the light, finally able to observe his surrounding, and himself. Blaize, now Slazer'im, turned around, noticing the meter and a half wide hole dug into the side of a rocky cliff face. "Wow, everything in this thing is lifelike, I think they made it look zoomed in though, must be a bug. Everything is so clear." He looked around, noticing the mass of gray slate behind him, slowly noticing that the path ahead of him led down into a large town, pointed to by a rock with an arrow and the word "Blanka" written on it. The path was long and steep, winding like a serpent down from the heights. About halfway down the path, a forest began.

Shortly after realizing that he would have to walk there, he heard a growling. Behind him, dragons, no, he corrected himself. Draknoids. The beings were massive, he knew that, but they seemed to him to be his size. They were, dragon men as far as he could tell. However, the 5 or so that were near him suddenly took flight, soaring straight up the cliff, into the mist.

Suddenly intrigued, he walked on the cliff shelf, suddenly finding a waterfall. The fall, perfectly clear, lacked the breaks most did. It just fell, in a sheet of mirrorlike fluid, reflecting everything. As he walked up to the water, his now changed face reflected utter shock. It was scaled, dragon like, showing golden eyes and viciously sharp teeth. The teeth were over an inch long, ending in a razor point. He noticed the horns coming off the top of his head, both of them angling up and back, towards the space above the crown of his head. Each was a bright ivory color, ending in a point at a length of a foot. He was shocked...in a great way. He was ripped, far more than anything steroids could get him. He admired the scaled form, the 7'2" height, the 350 pounds of muscled body. The twice thigh thick arms, and the powerful legs, able to travel miles without tire.

He mumbled to himself, "I'm a mother fricken bad ass" He flicked out his tongue, flicked out his claws. Then, the newly virtualized human.. he corrected himself instinctively, draknoid. "Alright, lets get going." He set off down the path, taking the time to familiarize his new form. He felt human, except the scales, and face. He thanked God that he was at least able to be comfortable in this body. Suddenly, when he was flexing his deltoids, thankful that the draknoid musculature was very similiar to that of a humans, he felt something stretch. "What the.." His head turned on the slightly longer neck, noticing the massive, leathery wings behind him. The thin frame that stretched the skin seeming fragile, but he instinctively knew that they were as strong as the rest of his body.

"I'll have to get to know how to use those." After several hours, a lot shorter then he estimated, he arrived at the city. The draknoid passed under the gate, taking note of the sickly looking man and the female near him. His massive form passed underneath the gate, people gazed up at him, seeming shocked. He guessed that not many of his kind lived here. Maybe they were shocked that he wore only a loincloth. He proceeded to pass through the city, hoping that the language barrier wouldn't be part of this game.

Viktor was still admiring himself and his looks after he dried off. His fur was still damp but it didn't matter to him. He still had to try out his newly crafted 'Boomers'. 'What to test on, what to test on.' he though in his head looking around the landscape sharply. He saw some naga further down the shore armed with their tridents and staffs. Viktor scoffed at the sight, <"Well they don't seem to friendly. Wonder is there is anything else."> Viktor looked towards the woods and noticed some stag in the distance. He giggled thinking of what would happen. Viktor walked slowly with his backpack and boomers on his belt toward the wildlife. The walk soon went into a crawl as Viktor was now prowling his pray. Viktor readied his boomer and got out a match. He struck the match as a fire soon sprouted, he drew the match to the wick coming from the metallic sphere. Sparks were seen and a hiss was heard, Viktor was waiting for the right time to throw seeing as he was still unnoticed. The wick grew shorter and shorter by the millisecond, soon Viktor threw the boomer at the animal. A loud boom was heard, the animal barely got away as Viktors timing was a little off. Viktor snapped his fingers and muttering a curse word under his breath.

What he didn't know was that a wolf was near by looking like it hadn't eaten for days. Viktor's ears perked up as he heard something coming from behind at a running speed. He turned around to find a large wolf leaping at him. Fear shot Viktor as he then panicked not being in a situation like this ever in real life. He took his backpack and used it as a shield from the attack. The wolf bit the backpack and shook it around, the beast then started to snap at Viktor's neck. Thankfully the padding from the clothes and other things in the backpack held the wolf from biting while Viktor was on the ground. He grabbed another boomer desperate to save his own life from certain doom. The matches Viktor was looking for was a few feet away. He managed to reach out and grab one holding the wolf back with his forearm. The mammalian managed to light the match with his teeth and light the boomer. Viktor threw the match aside as slobber was on his face, and the wolf began to claw at his chest causing him to bleed. Vik lit the boomer crying, <"I don't want to die!"> He then shoved the sphere into the wolfs mouth and kick the animal away. A loud boom was heard as blood and guts were everywhere. Viktor sat up and wiped the entrails from his face looking at the mess. "Cool!" he said happy that he was still alive. He picked himself up along with his backpack which was ripped to shreds. <"Aww man, I need to get a new one now."> He took his clothes out and chucked the backpack aside.

<"I guess I need to head back to town. I could use some help."> Viktor then walked back to the road and then to the town Blanka. He walked past the guards at the entrance, they appeared to be human. Inside there were many more races walking around doing their own thing. Vik eyed all the races seeing what would be best for him to partner up with. The one that caught his eye had scales and wings and stood at a height of 7'2". Viktor sighed he didn't know what the creature would think of him or his offer. He shrugged that feeling off walking up to the scaled being looking up. The dragoon clearly towered over the small mammalian who was only a mere 4' tall. 'Come on, just think like any 'common' person would.' Viktor coughed and soon spoke to the Dragoon in the common language in Aralon, "I could help but notice, you look like a strong fellow. Would you be interested in being my grinding partner? It's a pain by myself out there as a engineer to kill anything for experience. We could split the loot fifty-fifty if you want." Viktor stood there looking up still feeling the pain from his wounds having his fist on his side. He eagerly awaited for the dragoons response.

The sun was bright, the wind was warm and yet Peyton could still feel a small chill run down her back as she walked into the decaying building she’s lived in for the past twelve years. The smell of urine in the stairwell was almost nauseating to her as she walked up the first flight of stairs. By the time she reached the fifth flight, her legs were beginning to ache and she still had two more to go. “We really need an elevator…” she thought.

It was only 4:30 and already she could hear her neighbors arguing while others blasted their music or television sets to avoid hearing the screams of the constant offenders. Once she reached her flight, Peyton walked on till she eventually reached her destination, 7H, before taking out her keys which had a small red fox key-chain hanging. So tired was she that the girl barely realized the box laying in front of her door until she tripped over it after trying to enter her home.

Pushing her glasses up a bit, she stared at the box for a moment. It was when she saw the word, Firestorm that she reached out for it. Picking the box up, Peyton stared at it with a look of awe before looking outside to see if anyone was watching. “Well... it has my name on it.” She thought, “But I don’t recall sending out any requests of any sort… but it has my name on it, and if it’s a mistake I can always apologize later… Um....”

Within seconds the door was closed and Peyton looked around the house quickly. It was a mess; obviously her mother was out with her boyfriend of the week. Sucking her teeth in disgust, Peyton decided to clean up a bit before getting to business. About an hour letter she took the game to her room and locked the door. Her room was her sanctuary and the only place where she could be alone and free.

She began to read the letter, a small smirk forming over her lips as she finished it. Making room on her bed by moving Mr. Magee, her penguin doll, Peyton rested against her pillow and placed the goggles almost near her eyes. She hesitated for a moment, “Hm… she won’t be home for a while.” She thought before putting the goggles on. “Middeth.” She thought, using her normal user name for most MMOs and then she spoke, “Start.”

Within the blink of an eye, she was gone or well not really gone. She stared wide-eyed as a cloud was within reach, for a moment she thought to reach out towards it and realized with a quick look that she was not on solid ground. A small scream escaped her lips as she fell down, her arms crossed in front of her face as she made impact with ice cold water. The wind was knocked out of her as she floated down, the water beginning to fill her lungs.

With a few quick moves Middeh kicked herself forward, until she reached the surface. Yet she had taken in to much air and immediately began to cough. It felt so real to her, as she swam to shore with the small stitch in her side. She felt so out of shape. The air smelled so fresh as she dragged her feet, bending over with her hand held tightly against her right side.

It was a moment before she caught her reflection against the water. Her skin was a light purple and her eyes were green while her hair was blue. She smiled in amazement before the reflection was destroyed by some ripples as an object floated towards her. It was short and dark, a small staff made of wood. She picked the object up, “Woah…”

The draknoid stood, towering over the mammalian creature before him. Finally, Slazer'im realized that the game did not have incredible graphics, his golden, eagle life eyes were sharper, able to see far above the lever of an ordinary person. That being said, his sense of smell was many times sharper, being able to smell the guts and blood coating the individual. Initially, Slazer'im was tempted to strike the small figure, being angered as he would have been in real life.

Suddenly, the realization that he was not in the real world hit him. He didn't have to put on this costume anymore, he could be something else, a fresh start. The temptation left. The dragoon, having wandered if their was a language barrier, spoke. His bass, powerful voice was loud. "You....you are injured, brother." On instinct the drake held up his hand, near his maw. Suddenly, his mouth opened and a jet of white flame was emmited from the snout. The flame, seeming to be a living thing, curled around the dragon-man's hand, seeming to fit like a glove.

Without permission, the scaled creature placed his hand upon the wounded creatures side. The flame melted against the wound, not completely healing it, but rather coating it, taking away the worst of the pain and stopping the trickle of blood. "Yes,I think that I shall join you, brother, this world is likely dangerous. A game has never been made that is so....shockingly dangerous." The drake was shocked to hear himself talk, the "brother" was instinctive, likely part of the personality of whom he had replaced.

He felt enlightened, able to be kind and generous. Blaize, for the first time in years, was genuinely happy, and willing to have some fun.

A bead of sweat rolled down Julias’s face as he forced a last bit of effort into the glowing sword. Sighing and dropping to his seat as the glow slowly dissipated and the strange runic symbol remained staining the blade of the sword he handed it back to the owner. Wiping away the pool of sweat that had accumulated on his forhead he accepted the piece of gold and small pile of silver from the proud owner of a newly enchanted sword. Holding back a groan as he got up to place the money in the wooden chest he watched as the man left. So far that had been the most advanced enchantment he’d done, and as such he’d done it almost completely with his own materials that he’d gotten from the troll’s pile of odds and ends.

Smiling as for the first time that majority of the money went to his pile, rather than the supplies and upkeep pile, he took a look around the stores walls. A few of the random containers and vials were starting to run low, as they had had an unexpectedly large number of people coming to seek low level enchantments today, the last of which had been the knight, though it had also been the most powerful one as well.

Walking by Ben followed his eye and nodded.

“Yeah, were getting a little low and supplies? Want me to go and get some more from the auction house, we haven’t really had enough people in here today to keep up with the demand for supplies.”

Seeing an opportunity to get a better view of the area, and maybe buy some new stuff Julias shook his head.

“No that’s ok, I’ll get it, you go ahead and head home.”

Smiling Ben took a small handful of silver from his pile and darted past the counter, speeding off to the small market, most likely for some sweets. Chuckling Julias grabbed two bags and filled one with some of the store’s money and some with his own small collection of silver (and one gold). Locking the chest and heading out he almost hit himself over the head as he realized he’d been about to leave the shop unlocked and open to thieves. Looking at it for a moment he frowned, puzzled. There didn’t seem to be any locks or gate. Then suddenly taking notice of his surroundings he realized why. There were so many guards just randomly walking about that any man fool enough to go for something would have a small army after him.

Heading off in a delightful mood to where the signs specified a Nuetral Auction House he took in all the different races and types of people around him. Most looked pretty normal, basic NPC’s, but some looked like the designers had decided to spice them up a bit. He saw some furry critter talking to a massive lizard, a group of guards darting after an apparent thief, even an elderly woman haggling with a salesmen. It was nice to see a bit of variety in a game such as this.

D chuckled softly at her question. “Was he a player?”... That was a question that could be answered in multiple ways. But, for the sake of this, he took it in the context in which it was asked.
“Yes, I am.”
Then she said it. D quirked a brow, and crossed his arms. “Hm. I don’t think so. Now instead of one person to do things, you have two. And as they say, two minds are greater than one.” D said cooly, closing his eyes for a moment and thinking about the situation as she offered the room deal.
What did he have to lose?
He reached into his pocket, producing one of the four golden coins that he had, and dropped it into her hand.
“Let’s go then. I am tired, and my eyes still hurt. Hopefully tomorrow will not be as bad.” D stated, looking around. “Now, where is this room?”

Lyca made her way through the streets of the town, watching as people went on their way. The diversity of races amazed her, and she kept turning her head this way and that to look at the people as they passed. People bustled out of her way as she explored, curiously sniffing at the stalls set up around. She looked to see if their was any inns around, as night seemed to be falling. She wondered if she would be made to sleep outside like an animal, considering she was one. She figured it would probably be more peaceful for her, she doubted anyone would bother her if she decided to curl up in a alleyway.They all seemed scared of her anyway.

She moved back towards the city gates, having her fill of exploring. She wondered if she should stick around, or if she should go back out and find a quiet spot to sleep. She discarded the notion though, thinking that the city was probably a safer place to sleep, she was less likely to be attacked by hungry creatures while she rested. She yawned, mouth opening wide and large teeth gleaming in the twilight. She shook her head and headed off towards a small alleyway nearby. She curled up next to a pile of boxes, and rested her head on her paws. She kept one gleaming amber eye open, watching the people moving about while she waited for sleep to come.

Leona blinked at the coin handed at her.

Wow. Something told her this was NOT a small amount of money.

"... Uhm," she said, looking around. "I... dunno. We can ask now. Actually..."

She walked back over to the book keeper, who smiled warmly at her. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Yeah, d'you know where an inn is?" she asked. The book keeper nodded, and gave her directions.

"Thanks," she said. She turned to D. "You ready?"

God, she was about to fall over and pass out. This was terrible. She hoped she made it to the damn inn.

D started to lead the way, then noticed something.

She was not looking good. Not at all. And he couldn’t have the one person who had actually helped him pass out on him. That wouldn’t do at all, not in D’s opinion. He stopped for a moment, letting her pass him, then in one quick move lifted her up, carrying her bridal style.

“You’re tired.” He said, in a straight forward manner. “I don’t want you passing out on me until we’re at the inn. Alright?” He mentioned, pulling her closely to his chest.

They reached the inn in no time. He set her down next to the counter.

“What are the prices of your rooms?” He said in such a point blank manner, that he may offend.

Thankfully, the inn keeper didn’t catch that. And he didn’t pay attention to the fact that he was drow, which was another bit of luck.

“‘Pends on what yer lookin’ at. We got our Deluxe rooms comin’ in at fifty gold, our average rooms twenty five, then we got your cheaper room... I suppose I could give ona’ them out fer maybe... five gold.” The inn keeper said. The only other option was sleeping on the streets, and he wasn’t going to do that. So D quickly made something.

“Please, sir. She’s sick. She needs to lay down. We only have three gold that we can spend, so-“

“Shut yer mouth, gimme yer gold, and go. All the way down the hall.” The inn keeper said, D slamming his remaining gold on the desk. He lifted Leona up again, and carried her to their tiny room with a single mat on the floor. D sighed, then placed Leona on the map gently.

“Sorry for carrying you so far.” He said, looking to the side.