Alice's Story

Viola put on the headgear that came with her brand new "Sleeping Era" massive multiplayer online virtual reality game. She stared through the tinted blue visor, then carefully she laid down on her bed, resting her head on her pillow, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Initiate link."

After a brief moment of multicolored tunnel-vision, while the headgear intercepted the signals from Viola's brain, came the pre-game status check. Confirming the link connection of her five senses: Touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. Viola surely would have panicked at all this, had she not been not been told about it, but also for the fact that she had calibrated the machine the night before.

Now the time had come for Viola to dive in to the virtual game world of Sleeping Era. Logging in and creating her first character was awkward... She knew her body was laying on her bed and yet here Viola was, standing in a room full of various types of weapons and was being prompted to select one. Edward had told her about claw weapons the other day as well as the quickest way to acquiring the skill for them, so she selected the knuckles. Next she was prompted to decide on her in-game appearance. Viola didn't want to change much about her looks, she wanted Edward to be able to recognize her, so all she changed was her the style of her hair and it's color. Viola also changed her eye color, decided on her in-game name and logged in.

“Thank you for purchasing Sleeping Era. You will now be logged in to the world of Engilaia.” Stated the woman in her electronic-like voice.

A bright light surrounded her and then Viola, well "Alice" now, was suddenly in the middle of the vast city called Jamalis. She stared in amazement and wonder at how beautiful and real this world looked! To think technology had come so far to be able to make games this detailed! Being so excited and staring in awe of the game world, Alice failed to notice she was standing in the middle of a crowded square. That is until someone bumped in to her, knocking her to the ground.

"Hey!" She yelled after the person. "Watch where you're walking!"Alice yelled up at him.

The blonde boy who had knocked her down was wearing a small sword at his waist, a large bag that went over his shoulder and what Alice thought was a feathered cape. He looked back at her for a mere second with a blank stare, before he turned on his heel and walked away. Alice puffed out her cheeks, clearly that boy was not a friendly person.

"Heeeyy! Alice! You are who I think you are, right? Well, yeah, you should be. You did send your character data along just now." Came a voice from behind Alice.

Alice glared after the boy as he walked away before glancing over her shoulder. "Ed--" She started to say, but stopped to correct herself. "I mean... Cheshire?" He did look a lot like her best friend Edward.

"Correct!” He said with a smile and giving her a thumbs up. “Well, I am kind of surprised, considering that my hair is red and I have cat ears and all... But you seem to be able to recognize me!" He nodded, then squinted at the receding figure of the odd boy who had bumped into her.

"You know him? Well, you probably wouldn’t. What'd he want?" Cheshire asked as Alice pushed herself up to her feet.

"No idea, the jerk just ran right into me and knocked me down." She replied while dusting off her trousers and adjusting the simple blouse she now wore.

Alice then smiled up at Cheshire and giggled. "You look amazing! Like a real human-like Cheshire cat!” She exclaimed while pushing a section of long plum hair, that was now hers, off her shoulder. “What about me? What do you think?" She asked before giving a slow spin and ending it by jumping a few times in one spot.

Cheshire laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Uh... Yeah! You look... Great! Yeah... Uh..." He looked away, his face literally glowing a slightly pinkish color.

Alice made a 'mew' like sound as she looked up at Cheshire.

"Oh! Right, I just remembered.” He said startling Alice. “The guild house is just down the way. We have some stuff for you there. I didn't really bring it because... Um... Yeah... Armor and stuff... Anyways..." He smiled and took her arm.

Cheshire began to lightly tug her down the street, when Alice nearly tripped over her own cloth boots. "Whoa! This is so weird... I mean being able to move my body around in a game." It took a few tries but finally Alice got used to the idea of being able to actually feel her body and muscles working— "Cheshire... Are you sure I'm not actually walking around my house with the headgear on? I really don't want to walk in to a wall or something."

Cheshire started laughing. "As if you don't do that already. I remember when you used to sleepwalk back when we had sleep overs and stuff. That was funny.” The smile he had disappeared. “Until you fell down the stairs. What wasn't quite so funny. Sounded like it hurt, a lot actually..." He thought quietly to himself for a moment, still walking.

"It did hurt...” Alice whispered and glanced up at him curiously, she hoped he wasn't still blaming himself, sure she broke her arm when she fell down the stairs but—

Suddenly he perked up again. "Come to think of it, this is your first time in a virtual reality game, isn't it? You like it so far?"

“Yes it is my first time in virtual reality game, I told you that it would be at school yesterday silly!" Alice giggled.

Then he stopped and gestured to a average sized building in front of them. It looked more like a house than a guild hall to Alice, but she was okay with that. Cheshire had said they were a small guild, all of a handful of people really. It was quaint and simple, with its large gray stone walls, two square framed windows, one on each side of the door, and a gabled roof.

"Here it is! The Lucky Cat! Home sweet... Guild house.... Thing... um..." He trailed off, frowning, before giving a small shrug and pushing open the wooden door, with an 'after you' gesture.

Alice giggled again and curtsied to Cheshire. Upon taking a single step inside the guild hall, her jaw fell open. While it wasn't packed full of people, the ones who were there, were enough to make Alice stare. Their characters were all very different, unique... Suddenly Alice felt very self conscious and she turned to look up at Cheshire. "I-I don't know Cheshire... I don't think I--"

"YES!” Someone in the building shouted. “Five hundred Luc! Told you she'd look hot!" The male declared, slamming his hand on the table. He was small, tiny actually, with a short, almost toy-like bow on his back and a cloth hood, that resembled the shape of fox ears, on his head. He had fiery red hair, and was now in the process of clinging to a tall, black haired woman, and trying to take her coin bag.

Cheshire blinked and blushed, slightly embarrassed. "Isley, what the heck...?"

The black haired woman, who was now almost managing to pry Isley off of her, while three others just sat at the table and laughed, looked up. "You're Alice, then? Welco-” She turned her attention to the man who was now trying to fondle her. “ISLEY IF YOU DO THAT ONE MORE TIME I WILL CUT YOUR ARMS OFF." The woman didn't give him a chance, she grabbed the small man and brought her knee up in between his legs. He dropped to the ground, and everyone else got quiet.

Cheshire opened his mouth and closed it again, then gave a wry smile. "Well... This is quite... Quite the welcome, isn’t it...?"

Alice had just stood there and stared as the scene had unfolded before her. Then she glanced at the the black haired woman, then at man on the floor and back to the woman, before turning and looking up at Cheshire. "Is he going to be okay?" She whispered as she took Cheshire's hand in hers. "I mean like... Outside of the game is he going to be okay? That has to hurt. I remember when I accidentally kicked the soccer ball and it hit you there..."

Cheshire only blushed and looked the other way. Worried and slightly curious, Alice pulled Cheshire with her as she walked over to Isley and stood over him, looking down at him while biting her lip, trying to determine if he was okay. "Are you dead mister?" She whispered.

Isley groaned. "I think Clara killed me... I'm dying... Help..." He choked.

Clara, the black haired woman, stood up and ignored him. She walked around to the other side of the table they were all seated at and addressed Alice. "Don't mind him. He's a melodramatic little idiot."

Isley sat up immediately. "Hey... That's kinda mean, isn't it?” He looked up at Alice, who stood up straight when he sat up. “Hey, Alice, you think that was mean too, right? Right?" He looked at her pleadingly. His eyes were big, watery, and close to that of a puppy's.

"Hey, guys, do we have Alice's stuff around here?" Cheshire sighed.

Isley raised his hand. "You mean the lingerie? I have it in the back."

Cheshire stared at him, suddenly turning red. "Wh-what?!"

Isley cocked his head. "Oh. Right. That stuff. Yeah, we put it in the spare guest room thingy."

Alice's eyes went wide in shock. "You got me what! Did you think I would honestly wear something like that?" She shouted while glaring up at Cheshire. "We are childhood friends, you should know I'm not that type of girl!" Puffing out her cheeks, Alice crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to Cheshire.

Cheshire sputtered and looked back and forth from Alice to Isley, who was laying contentedly on the floor. "Isley..." He hissed. "What are you talking about?!"

One of the other two guild members, a girl with short brown hair, who wore thinner leather gear and had a set of simple metal knives at her waist smiled. "Isley got some at one of the developer's random events and decided he would give it to you and Alice when she came on.” She shrugged at Cheshire and Alice. “Something to do with his plan to build a network of tunnels inside the guild hall to spy on people."

Alice peeked over her should are Cheshire, before giving a "Hmph." and going over to Clara. Cheshire opened and closed his mouth, saying nothing, and instead glared at Isley, who looked at his fingernails, whistling.

Curtsying to Clara, Alice gave a child-like smile and held out her hand. "Hello, I'm Alice! Nice to meet you. Can you tell me where the guest room is so I can throw the lingerie at Cheshire and Isley and then tell them to go suck an egg and never speak to me again?"Alice took a moment to turn around, look at Isley and Cheshire, and promptly stick her tongue out at them.

Clara snorted, a grin spreading across her face. “Just go up the stairs, it's the only room up there. The clothes are on the bed. Cheshire got you something or other and put it in the chest too. And if you really want it, the lingerie is in a chest at the back marked 'ISLEY'S SUPER SECRET CHEST'. Nice to meet'cha, kid.”

Alice giggled and thanked Clara, then dashed towards the stairs. Taking two steps at a time she darted in to the room and shut the door quickly behind her. Putting her back against it, she looked around the room and decided it was quite nice: A single bed with a chest sitting at the end of it, while another chest occupied the corner of the room. The walls were bare with the exception of a two small, but empty, shelves by the door. While the only light source in the room, for the time being, was a small and simple window above the bed.

Alice noticed the items laid out on the bed and skipped over to look at them: A black dress and a dark colored cloak. She was curious about what Cheshire could have put in the chest, for her, so Alice shuffled over to it and lifted the lid. Right on top of a bunch of other items was cat ears and a cross necklace. With a childish squeal Alice picked up the ears and cross and sat down on the edge of the bed. Then Alice realized one important thing... She didn't know how to equip these items.

"Pssst! Alice! Open the menu and press equipment!" Whispered a male voice above her, followed by chuckling and scurrying noises. "Oh. Right. Menu opens with putting two fingers at face level and slowly pulling down. Try it. Hehehe." More scurrying and chuckling ensued.

Alice stared up at the ceiling, frightened at first, but then she puffed out her cheeks, angry that someone was a peeping tom. However she did put two fingers in front of her face and slowly pulled them down, and sure enough, there it was! The menu! Alice smiled happily, but then frowned remembering the noises above her.

But then she had an idea, with a mischievous child-like smile and taking a deep breath, Alice screamed as loud as she could. "PERVERT!"

"Oh, come on, you're no fu- AHHHH HELP IT'S GOT ME! NOOOO-" All the noises, banging, and screams in the ceiling ended aruptly with a faint sound of thumping down stairs. Then Cheshire's voice came up from the stairs. "It's okay, we got it!"

Alice's smile returned at that and she went back to looking at the items she held in her hand, as well as the ones that lay beside her. Receiving these items, or gifts, made it seem like it was Christmas! But there was more important things to do then just look at than items. Returning her attention to the open menu, she figured it was time to put on her 'special' items. It took her some time, but finally by using the same technique to open the menu, except over the items, Alice was able to transfer the items from her lap and the bed, in to her inventory. After she had the dress, cloak, ears and necklace equipped, the first thing she wanted to do was find a mirror. The 'lingerie' was now completely forgotten.

Running to the door Alice threw it open and shouted, "Are there mirrors in this game?" She really wanted to see what she looked like now.

Cheshire, who was standing at the base of the stairs talking with Clara, turned away immediately and covered his face. "I didn't see anything I swear!"

Clara sighed, pushing Cheshire back a few steps and started up the stairs. "She's dressed, there's nothing to see, you idiot. Here..." Clara opened her menu and took out a mirror from her inventory, handing it to Alice. "You should get one. They're useful in the field if you're hiding, too."

Alice carefully took the mirror from Clara. "Ooh. Where can I get one?" She asked as she lifted the mirror to see herself, but before Clara could answer, Alice let out a squeal of delight. "I have cat ears! Oh my god they are so cute!" She lifted and hand and felt the furry ear. "Oh and it's so soft! This is so awe--"

Alice stopped in mid sentence when she felt a swish of something by her leg. Looking down and behind her she saw a cat tail. Moving the hand from her newly acquired cat ears, she gently touched the tail and traced her hand along it, to find it was connected to her. Alice's eyes went wide. "Cheshire!" She cried handing the mirror back to Clara and running down the stairs. Alice threw herself against Cheshire and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm a cat girl! I'm like a real cat girl! Ears and tail! Now all I need are claws!"

"My god, you've got to be kidding me. You're recruiting idiots now, too, Mr. Cheshire...?" Said a voice from the other side of the room.

Alice looked over her shoulder to see a young looking blonde boy who was sitting at the table with some glittering items spread out before him. "Where did you even pick her up? She doesn't even have a weapon equipped. Or an item At least, for that matter."

Alice recognized his feather-like cape, she narrowed her eyes and Cheshire grimaced. "Uh... Alice. This is Kacha. He's a veteran player that does quests with us sometimes if we need more people... Kacha, this is Alice, my friend."

"You..." Alice hissed, letting go of Cheshire and taking a few steps towards the blonde boy. "I demand you apologize to me! You... You jerk!" She shouted while pointing her finger at him.

The boy, Kacha, snorted and picked up a large fang that lay on the table. "Now where've I heard that before...? Look, I don't have time to remember every person who has a problem with me." He stood up and looked at Cheshire. "Okay, we've got thirty minutes to spare, so if you really want to take her along, be my guest. Just get her a weapon and teach her the basics, okay?"

Alice puffed out her cheeks and balled her fists at her side. She knew she not only looked childish, but was acting very much the part of a child as well. It was who she was here, her real persona. "I am not going anywhere until he apologizes for knocking me to the ground in the square earlier! As for a weapon, I selected knuckles and I will put them on when we go out of town!"

Walking right up to Kacha, Alice poked him in the center of his chest. "I'll have you know I've had some martial arts training in the real world, and I'm taking lessons in kickboxing. I don't need your help."

Kacha's face flashed into a look as though she had hit him, but it disappeared just as quickly. "Here. While you're at it have her do something about her attitude. That's a good way for her to get killed if she does it to the wrong person."

Alice watched as Kacha promptly turned on his heel and stalked outside.

Cheshire put his hand on Alice's shoulder. "He's not quite as bad as he seems..."

Isley, from a place on the floor in the corner, piped up. "Yeah he is. Trust me on that one. He is."

The other three nodded in agreement.

Alice looked up at Cheshire over her shoulder. "He's a jerk. I don't like jerks. You should know that from school."

Opening her menu, Alice went to her inventory and equipped the starting knuckles she received when she created her character. Making sure she had a good grip on them she whipped around and lightly punched Cheshire in the stomach. With a childish grin, she looked up at him through her lashes. "You ready my Cheshire Cat?"

Cheshire scratched his head. "Uhhh... Starting knuckles are... Um... What are we hunting again today...?" He looked at the other three around the room.

"Big, scary things." They all said in unison, as if it had been rehearsed.

"Thought so... Um, Alice, maybe we should go get you claws or something? Something a bit... Better, maybe?"

Alice blinked up at Cheshire. "I can haz claws nao?" Alice definitely had her work cut out for her... Her adventure in Engilaia had only just begun...

Kacha sat on the ground near the south teleporting gate of the city, a large, leather-wrapped, sword shaped package next to him against the wall. He sighed. That girl... Annoyed him. He didn't really know why, but she annoyed him more than most people did. He pulled down the menu and checked the time. They were late. Ten minutes. He sighed. That guild... Lucky Cat or something? Some weird name like that. They were always so careless, and he still didn't know why he teamed up with them. Maybe it was because they were the only ones who would, or maybe he didn't feel like training more people to just deal with him and stuff. Alice came skipping ahead of Cheshire, towards him, he noted she now at least had a pair of claw weapons equipped. With a 'hmph' as she passed by Kacha, she held her head high and continued to skip towards the teleport gate. Kacha looked up and sighed. Standing up he slung the wrapped broadsword over his shoulder, he waited for Cheshire to get over to him.

"You couldn't try being nicer...?" The man asked Kacha simply.

Kacha shrugged in answer, walking forward and opening the navigation menu for the teleport gate. He selected 'Southern Forests, mountains of Sudoria.'

"Here we go, then." Kacha smiled to himself, then glancing at the girl, Alice. "Don't die. That'll cause problems with the hunt. Just stay back and be a good girl, and everything should go pretty well."

Alice made another hmph noise and turned away from Kacha. Opening her own menu, she cleared her throat and looked past Kacha to Cheshire. "Shouldn't we party up first?"

Kacha watched as she navigated through the menu. When she was done she gave him a mischievous grin and giggled. "Kacha. I am a good girl. I just don't listen to jerks who don't know when to apologize to a pretty girl when they knock her to the ground."
Kacha smiled and hesitated a moment before accepting the party request Alice had sent him. "Good thing, then. No reason to listen to 'em anyways." With that said, he promptly walked into the portal.

The darkened forest was wet. Wet and slightly chilly, actually. Looking up, Kacha could see the light of the setting sun reflecting on the snow-capped mountains. At this altitude, in the game, it could snow at any time, and it usually did at night. When that happened, it would be better for tracking, but it got dangerous. Visibility was limited already in this place, and two players usually stuck by each other. Even sound was muffled, and rumor had it that guild messages and normal messages even traveled slower.
All in all, at night the forest was scary. Even for Kacha, there was no getting past that fact. It wasn't even an unfounded fear. Things stalked him at night here, things jumped out at him. Undead monsters, hiding monsters... This was one of the few places where the game went from being fun, to being serious. He took out a few pieces of straw from his inventory and held them out to the others in the party.

"Okay. There are six of us, so I guess we're dividing up into twos. Draw straws, and whoever have matching ones get paired together. We can keep in contact through party messages, right?"
Everyone else nodded, but Kacha watched as Alice tentatively reached for one of the straws he held. She pulled a straw from his hand and smiled.

"I have Purple!" She said with glee. "My favorite color!"

Cheshire reached next. He pulled out green and grimaced, shrugging apologetically. Isley and the other girl, Seras, drew red, while Clara tentatively reached out and drew... Green. She sighed and looked at Alice with a pitying gaze.
Kacha moved right along. "All right then. Let's go. It'll be night soon and we should probably get going before visibility gets shot." He looked up. Clouds were gathering above them, little by little. 'Could the situation get any worse?' Kacha thought to himself.
"Hopefully it won't snow, but be ready if it does. And with that, Let's go."

He turned and walked towards the mountain touched by the last rays of sunlight. He was aiming to get halfway up the mountain to hunt the creatures there before turning back.

"Hey wait up! Don't leave your partner behind jer-- Kacha! Kacha?" Alice called after him as she jumped up and over a rock that jutted out from the ground. Catching up to and walking beside him she hissed at him. "You know I understand you want to get in some monster kills before nightfall, but do you really have to walk so fast. Geez..."

Alice rubbed her arms. "Holy cow it's cold..." She started to say when a drop of water landed on her head. "And wet! Why can't we go somewhere warmer and less... Creepy." She whined, pushing a large leaf from a plant out of her way.

"Hnh... Welcome to Sleeping Era." Kacha looked over at her. She was almost shivering. He sighed in frustration and opened his inventory. A fur coat he used for close to zero temperatures in the mountains should work okay. He removed it from his inventory and tossed it to her. "Hurry up."

He ruffled his wings slightly. They were sore from not being used all day, and he hoped that he would be able to find a use for them soon. As long as they were in the mountains and not these woods... They kept walking. Minutes passed, and Kacha made sure to avoid monsters when he heard or sensed them. Getting detected in the woods wasn't worth it, and would attract every monster within a huge radius.
Finally they reached what looked to be a path. The trees ended and gave way to a barren, snowy, rocky landscape that led steeply up to the mountains above. The sun had set about five minutes ago and it was becoming increasingly darker. Snow began to fall softly as the wind picked up.

"Perfect conditions, huh...? Kinda like it doesn't want us to go this way," He mumbled to himself as he started out past the trees.

Alice pulled the coat tighter around her as she stayed close to Kacha and watched as snow began to float around her. Her cat ears twitched when Kacha mumbled to himself. "Do you always mumble to yourself? Or do you just wish it was anyone but me stuck with you?" She asked as she followed him past the trees.

"I mumble to myself because I usually don't have little girls around asking me questions," Kacha said simply.

"Where are we going to by the way? We've been walking for so long and it's dark out! Won't the others be looking for us?" Alice questioned him further, which was beginning to irritate Kacha.
"Oh!” She exclaimed before letting him answer her set of questions. “Also why haven't we encountered any monsters yet? Arn't we supposed to be like... Hunting them or something?"

"Yes, we're going to see some monsters soon. I’ve been avoiding the ones in the woods. I don't want to deal with them right now." Kacha stated bluntly, hoping it would end her seemingly ceaseless questions.

The snow and wind had started whipping around them as they reached a stop in the road. A cliff, actually, might be a better term for it. It was a sheer drop, some three meters wide until the other side continued the road upwards. Kacha sighed and went to the side to climb up it. Pausing, he looked back at Alice. "You can climb, right?"

Alice bit her lip and looked at Kacha. "Uhm... I can try... I think..."

Kacha eyed her curiously and watched as she cautiously walked over and stood beside him. Looking up the side of the mountain and then down at her hands. She opened her menu and unequipped the coat he had given her, then closed the menu. Kacha watched as Alice backed as far from the mountain side as she could, then stopped and took a few deep and calming breaths with her eyes closed.
Her eyes flew open and suddenly she sprinted towards the side of the mountain, but a few feet before she got to it she pushed herself up in to the air. Putting her claws out in front of her, Kacha watched as she thrust them in to the rock. She slid a bit, but one claw held her up, clearly it hadn't penetrated very far, but far enough to hold her weight it seemed. Alice felt around with her foot until she found a foothold and tested her weight on it. Taking a moment to smile down at Kacha, she continued to either thrust her claw in to the mountain wall or dig out groves with her claws so that she could keep pulling herself up higher.
Kacha nodded at Alice, and spread his wings, jumping and using them to propel himself up. Latching onto the wall, he used more, smaller jumps to keep up with Alice and make sure she didn't fall. It would be a bother if she did. After a while he noticed Alice's breathing had changed.

"How long can you keep this up? I don't know when the climb'll end and I really don't feel like dragging your ass back if your character breaks a leg from falling. Or dies." He yelled above the now wailing winds.
Alice finished digging a groove in the rock and pulled herself up. She was breathing pretty heavy.

"Well... How much more till we hit the top?" She asked glancing below her.

"The top? It takes about two hours to scale a mountain like this." Kacha ruffled his wings, the wind howling around them, trying to tug them off the mountain. Even in the virtual world, falling wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling. "But were not going to the top. Nothing up there I need." He flapped his wings once and shot up a few feet, clinging to the rock-face again.

"There's a network of caves and paths all around the mountain. We're finding one of those." He climbed higher. They should be nearing a path fairly soon, actually.

"Caves?" Alice squeaked. "Please tell me you have something that will light our way, like a lamp or something! I don't want to be stumbling around in the dark!" She added, pulling herself up just under Kacha.
Alice tried to look around, but the wind kept whipping her hair around her face, making it impossible for her to see anything really. "While I don't like this idea Kacha... But along the idea of always backing up your game data on console games, I like back up plans... So I would like to know that if I should fall... Would you save me?"

Kacha blinked and looked down. "No. Probably not, considering we'd have to climb all the way back up here again." He said simply. He felt no remorse for those words. The girl was just dead weight right now, and he wasn't about to let that term become literal.
"The cave is up here. If you think you won't make it, just do me a favor and let go. Cheshire'll probably find you at the gate. If something else doesn't first. Never know what happens in that forest." Kacha's words were, while, harsh, actually true. He was just being overly blunt, actually.

Alice puffed out her cheeks. "What your all mighty wings can't carry more than your own weight? Hmph. Be thankful I didn't just expect you to fly us up here then!" She shouted at him as she pulled herself up and past him.
Kacha watched as Alice's clawed hand thrust in to thin air. Taking her by surprise, followed by another surprise of her foothold crumbling under the suddenness of her full weight resting on it.
With a squeak Alice tried to pull herself up in to the open space above her, but with only one hand holding on to its edge and no footholds to push herself off of... Looked like Kacha was going to get his wish... She was going to fall after all. So Kacha fluttered his wings and shot up past Alice, landing lightly on the ledge.

"Oh, gonna take my advice then, huh? Good luck, then." He turned to leave, the mouth of the cave gaping in front of him. Then he stopped and turned around. "Are you really that useless? You came all this way and now you're gonna let yourself fall? Good riddance. I don't need someone like you around if that's all you're good for." He nodded and turned to walk back in the cave again.

Alice hissed at Kacha, she couldn't see him, thank god. It was bad enough she could hear him while hanging from the edge of the caves mouth. "I won't let you win jerkface..." She muttered.

Bracing herself with the hand that held the ledge, she found a small jutting rock with her foot and steadied herself. Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was ready. She opened her eyes and pushed off the foothold, causing it to crumble like the other had before it. Alice pulled herself up and threw her other arm over the edge, she felt it dig in to her arm pit, but she didn't care. Now she had enough leverage to pull herself in to the cave, and she did.

Breathing heavy, Alice crawled away from the edge before she stood up... Glaring in to the cave, she could barely make out where Kacha was, but she could see his wings. Good enough. Alice readied herself again, this time for sprinting... She ran, ran right for the center of Kacha's wings... When she was less then a foot away from him, Alice threw herself at Kacha with a growl, getting a face full of feathers as she tackled him.

Kacha fell face-first towards the rocky ground. Alice felt the jerking his wings to push the her off as he rolled over onto his back, letting his wings fold up against him. Then he brought his fist back and hit her in the stomach, launching himself up and sending her flying in to the wall. Upon impact with the wall, her breath was knocked out from her lungs. She watched as he pulled the huge broadsword from his back and get in to a ready position... Then he stopped.

"Oh. It's you. I thought you'd just come up and hit me. That's what girls generally do. Well, some have tackled me, but they mostly got killed, actually." He stated bluntly while sheathing his sword. He was about to walk past her, but stopped beside her instead and gazed, or glared, down at her. Alice was not quite sure. "What's your name again, girl?"

Alice could only hiss and kicked Kacha in the leg. "What the heck were you doing you idiot! I know you are a jerk but hitting a girl? You are low! And Alice! My name is Alice you stupid jerk! That hurt!" She screamed up at him. She really did not like him at all.

Alice sat on her knees and rubbed her head. Hitting the cave wall was not something she had anticipated. Getting thrown off Kacha, yes, him hitting her in to a cave wall, no. She glared up at Kacha, angry tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

'Why did I have to get stuck with this jerk?' She thought to herself as she braced herself against the wall to stand up. "Jerk..." She said under her breath.

Suddenly Kacha looked up at the ceiling. "Oh. So there is one of those little fuckers here."

A huge spider sat, a Frostweb Stalker, its many reflective eyes staring at the them. It crouched on the ceiling, mandibles moving slightly and the white and blue, smooth body unmoving.

"I thought you were one of those.” Kacha pointed out. “You feel kinda similar when you tackle people." Kacha again bluntly told Alice what he was thinking. He still didn't care in the slightest. As he pulled his broadsword off his back, the spider did what made the most sense: It shot like an arrow from a bow at Alice, covering her body and immediately starting to inflict damage with its mandibles.

"Well. Smart little bastard." Kacha charged at the spider to aim a slash at it.

Alice clearly hadn't seen the spider right away when Kacha had pointed it out. She only put her arms out in front of her face and screamed as the spider's attacks ticked away at her health. "Get it off of me Kacha! I can't do anything pinned against the wall!"

The spider monsters were relatively low level creatures, and they didn't have much armor. Kacha merely had to aim five clean, well placed strikes at it before the sixth made its head fly off. The body disintegrated and Kacha leaned his blade on his shoulder, Alice still sat crouched against the wall.

"You haven't fought monsters yet, have you?" He looked at his experience bar and her health. They had both gained a small amount, or, in Alice's case, a good amount, of experience. "You have claws. You can stab into it. It's mouth is its weak point. Remember that in case we run into a nest of them." He turned to walk away, putting away the sword and pulling out a stick with a green glowing orb of light on the end, washing the tunnel ahead in light.

"I fought a few before. But I had time to prepare for an attack!" Dusting herself off she jogged over to stand beside Kacha. "And for your information, I know I can stab with the claws. But if you hadn't noticed, that darn spider shot towards me so fast that I had all of point five seconds to react... Plus..." Alice's voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm terrified of spiders..."

Kacha stopped. "You what?"

These caves were infested with spiders. Little swarms of Frostweb Spiderlings that you couldn't kill without an archer who had explosive arrows, as well as medium sized Frostweb Creepers, giant sized Frostweb Lurkers, and the damned insanely big mother Frostweb Widows. Not fun, those things. But worth it for the experience.

But if Alice was scared of them... Kacha made a mental note not to mention the fact that the cave was full of them, at least the upper levels. The lower ones had undead and more bestial, huge monsters. “Watch your back. I can't do it for you. It'll help heighten your sense skill anyways." He advised her.

"I-I knew that...I-I can take care of myself." She stammered.

Alice kept up with Kacha now, sticking as close to him as she could, closer than he preferred. "Think there will be anymore of them?"

Kacha raised his Glowworm torch higher. "It's a cave. There'll be more, yeah. You'll get used to fighting them. Unless you really are completely useless, which isn't completely out of the question yet."

Kacha looked forward again. No use telling her. If they ran into a nest, which usually had every kind including a mother spider, it would be better to run. Unless there was a force of at least ten, even Kacha would be hard-pressed to survive the encounter, especially while protecting some terrified newbie.

Alice shivered and looked around at her immediate surroundings. "I-I'm not useless you jerk!"

Upon hearing a loud clacking noise, Alice shrieked and grabbed Kacha's arm. Burying her face against him. "No spiders, no spiders, no spiders..." She repeated to herself quietly. "H-how much further Kacha? W-where are we going? I-I really want to get out of this cave."

Kacha shook his arm. "Hey- what the hell are you doing?! Get o- HOLY-" He yelled out as he stepped back on thin air and fell.

He hit the ground hard. It probably didn't help that there was apparently a small shape on top of him.

"What the hell are you trying to do, kill us... oh. Fuck." Kacha found himself staring directly into the glowing green eyes of an impossibly huge spider. Several other huge, albeit slightly smaller, spiders flanked it. This was a nest. It appeared to be a bigger nest than normal, as the huge spiders, three of them, were males. Each female fed on the males after they laid the eggs, so there were always a couple in each nest. Of course, that just meant that they were both fucked if they couldn't find a way out.
Alice had already noticed the spiders by the time Kacha had. Slowly, yet never taking her eyes off the spiders, she leaned her face close to Kacha's. He could feel their cheeks touching. "What do we do?" Alice whispered. "Please tell me the answer is 'run'."

"No, the answer is run up and give them all a kiss.” Kacha replied sarcastically. “Of course we're running. If the exit is covered by webs... That'll be bad. But yes, move slowly. It'll work for about half a minute." He tried to push her off of him. "Are you going to let go of me? We only have so long before they wrap us up slowly in webbing and store us to eat our innards out later."

Death by spider nest was one of the worst ways to die. You had to deal with tiny spiders crawling over you for about ten minutes if you didn't get out, and then the larger spiders came to slowly eat you alive. Most people logged out and let their characters die.

Alice's face went pale, but she did as she was told, not once taking her eyes off the spiders. Slowly she pushed herself to her knees, then up on to her feet. Glancing around, without turning her head, she looked for an exit. From the corner of her eye she thought she could make out a tunnel, and so ever so slowly she lifted her arm and pointed to the right. "Is that a tunnel over there Kacha? Please tell me it is and not my mind wishing one there."

Kacha sat up slowly and nodded. "Yep. Okay then. First rule about running from monsters: I don't need to outrun the monsters if they catch you first. Get moving."

Suddenly Kacha just jumped to his feet and took off. A spider scuttled in his way, but he hopped up, and used his wings to shoot into the air, drawing the sword and falling on its head, impaling it. He wrenched the sword free and kept running, not checking on Alice. Alice ran after Kacha, using the spider he just impaled as a stepping stone, pushing herself up, over and landing behind it. Her eyes kept darting to her side, where spiders were scuttling alongside her.

"Screw this!" She shouted and sprinted.

Passing by Kacha, she gave him a wink, followed by her sticking her tongue out at him and darted in to the side tunnel. She refused to slow down or look back to check on Kacha. Alice was sure he could take care of himself. It was some time before Alice stopped, realizing she had no idea where she was and that she was surrounded by darkness. For all she knew, there were any number of monsters around her...

"Kacha...?" Alice whimpered. "Kacha!" She really did not want to be alone in the dark, in these caves... Being stuck with Kacha was better than being stuck here.

"You are one ugly son of a bitch, you know that?" Kacha smacked the giant spider on its eyes with the flat of his sword. It was, at the moment, blocking his path. They were a fair bit faster than he'd expected. Kacha sighed. "I hate it when I have to actually use items. Because none of you can just leave me the fuck alone... Why do I even bother trying to talk this out?"

He plucked two large pouches from his belt and threw them into the center of the room. Then, smacking the spider again as it lunged for him, he pulled out a small ball and struck a small part that stuck out on the sword in his hands. It caught fire, and he threw it over with the two pouches. The spider lunged again, and this time Kacha dived under it and scrambled for the exit.

"Alice, start fucking running!" He yelled. There was enough handmade explosives in the room as of right now to buy a fucking house. The damn things were expensive. And annoyingly deadly.

Alice heard Kacha's voice echoing down the tunnel, but it sounded distorted as the echoes kept bouncing through the tunnel. All she caught was "Running", but she didn't dare risk staying put, so she ran and ran... After some time the tunnel curved and then a few feet after that, it forked. But the tunnel which forked on the right looked odd to Alice. It was only a few feet deep before it ended, making Alice's curiousity get the best of her.

She walked up to the dead end and started running her hands along it. "Secret door? Room maybe?" She asked the wall. It was strange and to Alice, seemingly out of place and then she heard a boom echoing through the tunnels. The ground under her rumbled and shook, but did not fall out from under her... She hoped it stayed that way, as well as hoped she was safe in this dead end, searching for a possible secret treasure.

Kacha dived into the tunnel as the blast rocked the chamber. He looked at the experience. It had risen by a hell of a lot, but now they couldn't gather any spider parts, unless they were making some kind of grotesque soup. He got up and started jogging down a hallway. The path forked, and Alice seemed to be standing in the right one looking at a wall.

"Is there something especially important about this wall? If not, then we should leave before every monster within earshot who wants to eat some adventurer comes looking."

Alice jumped and with a quick glare at him, she went back to feeling along the wall. "Doesn't it strike you as odd that only after a few feet this tunnel ends? I mean if you are gonna have a tunnel with a dead end, at least make a lengthy one so the player curses and cusses about having to walk quite a fair distance back to where the tunnels fork..." Clearly frustrated Alice took a step back and really looked at it.

"There has to be something behind this wall! It makes no sense to have it here otherwise!" Alice growled and performed a Lashing tail kick on it. "There has got to be a rea--" Then she bent down and was peering at a crack in the wall. "Hey.. Hey Kacha!" She waved at him over without looking back. "Bring the light stick here... I think there is a room behind the wall."

"What the hell are you talking about..." Kacha sighed and walked over to her. "It's a wall. You want to... What? Hit it some more?" He stared at the wall. He couldn't find anything out of the ordinary about it. It was just a wall. Alice was staring at a little crack in it, but other than that, it was a normal fucking wall.

"Would you just look? Or at least hold the light stick close to it?" Alice glared over her shoulder at him. "Watch."

Slipping what she could of her one set of claws in to the crack, she dug it in to the side, the rock was soft and pulled out a chunk out. Now the crack was a hole. A hole big enough for her to stick her hand in, which she did, right up to her shoulder.

She smiled triumphantly at Kacha. "See? Something is back here!"

"Well whaddaya know, the girl managed to break a fucking mountain wall." Kacha sighed. Suddenly a rumbling behind them started up. Kacha looked back. A medium sized rock came tumbling down the path. "... Huh?"

More rocks began tumbling down. The walls around them started to rumbles and shake. "Oh. Shit. Break the wall faster."

With a glance back to see what was rumbling, Alice's eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh shoot..."

Turning back to the wall and shoving both her clawed hands in to the hole she started making the hole big enough for her as fast as she could. She was about to start climbing through it, when she realized Kacha and his wings would not be able to fit.

"Kacha take your wings off! I am not going to make this darn hole big enough for you to fit with them equipped!" Alice yelled over her shoulder as she scrambled through the hole.

"FUCK THE DAMN WALL, JUST- here, dammit, just..." He pulled off the sword and lobbed it at the wall. It's weight managed to break a section of the wall, and it narrowly missed impaling Alice. Kacha dove through what used to be a normal wall, and fell on top of her.

"Alice, there's something soft on the ground here. Don't get eaten before you start screaming... Oh.” He stopped and looked down at her. “That's you." He rolled off of Alice and onto the hard stone ground as the boulders slammed against each other at the entrance, blocking it.

Alice groaned. "I'm not a pillow to cushion you jerk."

Pushing herself up on to her knees, Alice looked at the now blocked exit. "Whelp, I hope there is another exit or that you can bust up boulders. Otherwise we are trapped in here."

With a sigh she turned her attention to scanning the room. It appeared empty except for the odd glowing walls with weird symbols drawn all over it and a chest across from them. To the left of it there was a--

"Treasure chest!" Alice said jumping up and down nearly bumping in to Kacha. "Kacha look! Look! Treasure! I found treasure! Oh my god treasure!"

Running over to the chest and dropping to her knees, Alice began giggling. "What do you hold for us mister treasure chest?"

"If you’re not careful it'll be a trap. A treasure chest once grew teeth and bit my arm off. Not pretty. Treasure chests can bleed. They can bleed a lot." He walked over to stand behind her, picking up the Lady of the Mist in the way and fastening it to his back again. "So, yeah, I don't really want to deal with the damn thing spitting fire, so try not to fuck it up, okay?"

Kacha looked around the small room. The walls glowed themselves with an odd orange light from some unknown, flickering source. Almost as if spirits were sitting around a flame in this very room. Ornate carvings were scrawled upon the walls, ranging in size and depiction... But as Kacha looked closer, he saw that there was a single repeating motif: that of an unsettling, large eye staring back at him.

Alice looked up at Kacha and promptly stuck her tongue out at him. But she seemed to take his warning, and began to poke and prod the chest with her claws. Nothing... Looking back up at Kacha she shrugged. "It didn't jump at me or bite me." A mischievious smile came to her lips. "Soo... Let's have a look see!"

Hovering two fingers over the treasure chest she pulled down the menu and selected the 'open' option. The treasure chest clicked open, and Alice lifted the lid. Promptly the menu stating what the chest held opened before her, she began to read it out for Kacha.
"We have found... Some Runecloth, some small obsidian ore, Era's leather gloves and..." Alice stared at the item list, not sure what to make of the last item. "Waking Key?"

"Never heard of it. Runecloth gets a lot of money, obsidian ore... Eh. The gloves'r leather. It's hit and miss. Mostly miss." He shrugged. If it was a random key, odds were it was a good haul, if they could find what it unlocked. And "waking key" wasn't helping much at all.

"Lets find a way out..." he mumbled, looking around. Nothing but the rocks, and those looked like they weren't gonna be moving anytime soon. "Alice. Get your ass in gear, we need to find a way out. Quick. I have no idea if the oxygen meters apply to when you're trapped under rocks in a mountain."

"Alright, alright!" Alice said angrily as she sent all the items to her inventory. "Jeez."

Standing up, Alice dusted herself off and looked to the left. "I thought I saw another hole or something over there..."

Alice finally took a good look at the room they were in. "Whoa... The glowing walls are really eerie and..." She leaned closer to one wall. "Are those eyes? Gross..."

She made a face before walking over to the side of the room and bent down. Sure enough there was another hole and Alice couldn't help but giggle. "Hey Kacha... It's gonna be a tight squeeze for me, let alone you if you keep your wings on. But I think this hole is our only choice, think you can handle tight spaces? Because we are gonna have to crawl our way through here."

Kacha's eyes darkened. "Tight spaces... Yeah. I'm used to stuff like that. No worries. you gonna go first?" He took off the sword to make it easier, but hesitated on the wings. "Well? Come on, go already!" he glared at Alice impatiently, still not taking the wings off.

Alice shrugged. "Fine, but if you get stuck don't blame me or expect me to help you jerk."

Slidding on to her stomach, Alice began to pull herself in to and along through the dark hole. After awhile the ground got softer and the smell of mold was overwhelming. "Oh god... It stinks!" Alice coughed and pinched her nose closed while continuing to pull herself with her free arm.

"Amazing, that. They actually took the time to put something this foul in a game... Sick bastards..." He mumbled behind her, as he folded his wings against his body so that they hugged him and scraped his way through the hole. It, too, had the same glowing walls and eyes among the carvings. How or why people decided to carve this tunnel, he didn't know. But they were creeping him out. A cold air brushed against his back, as though something were breathing against him. He jumped slightly and shifted uncomfortably. Every time his foot caught on the rough wall, he was sure that something was grabbing it.

"... Alice. I'm getting the feeling something's weird about this tunnel. If you see anything, try to tell me what it is before you die."

Alice twisted herself so she was slightly on her side, so she could look back at Kacha, while pulling herself forward. "Kacha, this whole place is weird! Please, enlighten me as to why the hell we are here in th--"

Alice cut off when she suddenly dropped out of the hole, in to water. She felt herself immersed in the pool of water, and while holding her breath for as long as she could, looked around, before resurfacing.

Taking in a gulp of air, Alice kept herself afloat and looked around. The walls still glowed, eyes of all sizes everywhere... Same as it was below the waters surface. Swimming back to the hole she pulled herself up to be face to face with Kacha.

"Well I didn't die and the water feels nice!" Alice said with a smile and giggle.

Kacha slid out of the hole beside Alice and dropped into the water, resurfacing and smoothing back his soaked hair. "Well, we should probably be sinking to the bottom now in reality, but oh well." He glanced back at the unnerving tunnel, glad there wasn't any more... "Fuck."

Beneath the surface, on the completely black, smooth rock-face on the bottom of the pond, a green eye glowed eerily. The water itself was far too clear. Even in the game, it usually wasn't this easy to see through. It was like rippling glass. glowing stalactites hung from the ceiling, illuminating the huge, black cavern. "Let's find a way out. I still have a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah, yeah..." Alice muttered, looking around at the large circular room. On either side of them, there were two rock platforms, each with more glowing wall tunnels. "Well we got two options, you choose. You probably have a better instinct then I do."

Kacha looked at the room. On closer inspection, it was completely symmetrical. Unlike the earlier room and tunnel, which had random carvings and primal drawings, this was neat, down to even the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
Kacha gritted his teeth and sighed. "Lets try the right one." He said on impulse. He shivered. Alice had said the water felt okay, but suddenly he felt like it and the room were freezing cold and suddenly the clear water didn't seem so much clear as dark and foreboding against its black background. He climbed out quickly and hopped from foot to foot, trying to dry off.

Alice nodded and swam over to the platform on the right and pulled herself out. While on her hands and knees she shook herself, as a cat would, before standing up and wringing parts of her dress so it didn't drip with water. Using her fingers she attempted to comb her hair out of her face before looking over at Kacha.

"Are you cold or something? You're shivering and I highly doubt it's because your scared." Alice gave him a cat like grin.

Kacha shot a half-hearted look at her. "How the hell are you not cold? It's freezing in here..." He shook his head and walked into the pathway to the right. It was a rounded hallway, lined on either side with engravings of blue-glowing eyes. "These eyes are starting to really annoy me. What the hell is with them...?" He mumbled to himself.

Alice lightly jabbed Kacha in the side with her elbow. "Relax, the game designers probably put them in here to try and scare players, personally the spiders scare me, not these. Also... I'm probably not cold because I have thicker clothes than you, I am wearing leather remember?"

Alice moved ahead of Kacha and ran a hand along the wall. "Wonder what else has laid hidden down here, what other secrets do you hold eh?" She asked while looking at the eyes and glowing walls.