Chapter 2:

Is This Just Fantasy?

FLIPSIDE

Chapter 2: Is This Just Fantasy?

I’ve never seen lands like this.

An oasis in a singed land.

Makes me think I’m dreaming? But I don’t remember going to sleep. I look at my wrist, still bloodied and damaged.

I don’t think dream me would keep this gashed arm. But then again, how can I believe this is real. Seconds ago I was in a dreary arcade, now a vast desert. Those two things don’t correlate at all in the slightest.

Perhaps I fell into an old arcade cabinet, became a video game character, and now a part of this world, I have to save it.

For one my attire has changed. No longer am I dressed in the scraps of comfy clothing I thrifted from across countless stores. I definitely appear more like a video game character, fully equipped with a cool navy blue cloak, poofy shorts, and a sweet feathered cowboy hat.

Although my arm is physically damaged, I don’t really feel it. Like really there is no pain at all.

Maybe I’m the strongest in this world?

I think that would be pretty cool.

I’ll believe that for now.

With the hope of new adventures burning at my feet, I lift the silver shovel from the ground, striking a valiant pose.

Fwooosh–

The shovel flies upward into the air, landing across my shoulder.

“I, the master gamer, King, shall vanquish all evil from this world!”

“First mission, the desert oasis.”

“Goal, defeat the bad guys.”

“ALRIGHT, time to game, teehee!”

~ ~ ~

After a short trek, I take my first step into the oasis. Looking back that little patch of grass that I awoke upon is now just a speck of green in a vastness of yellows and golds.

This oasis is massive, and not really much like a normal desert oasis. From the looks of it there’s just a big forest of trees. Which is odd. Why is there just a plot of trees in the desert? Makes no sense. Like rivers in the desert, they’re not real.

The grassland sort of just cuts through the desert landscape. There’s no gradual turn, no fade in of patchy bits of grass. Nope, just desert then grass and trees. One of the trees sitting on the edge of the border is unnaturally formed, like its cut straight down the middle. Its leaves are there toward the grassland, but any part that reaches into the desert is just flattened into nothing.

How strange.

Then again if this is truly an old arcade game, maybe the devs didn’t have enough processing power to make the environments make sense in realism. Those assumptions will guide my journey onward. Maybe I’ll even find answers somewhere deep within the strange forest!

~ ~ ~

Without a real path to follow the uneven trees make traversal a bit difficult. Sun rays light the way through the leaves above giving this place such a whimsical feeling. Turning a trunk I come across my first encounter with another being.

There ahead appears to be a small dirt path. Along that path is a man. No wait.

Those are horns.

He’s a.

Daystar?!

An alien from outer space.

Did this game predict the future?

No no, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Depictions of horned humans have existed forever. This game must be about devils or something.

I reach for my head. No horns.

Maybe he’s a bad guy?

But he’s not doing anything, threatening.

It looks like he’s just foraging. There’s a big wicket basket sat by him, he seems to be tossing mushrooms and other odd flowers into it.

He looks like someone of higher standing, or at least some sort of noble in this world. Wearing a clean white uniform accented with a blue velvet cape, his hair is short and white, and he’s got those black horns sticking up from his head.

On the ground a short distance away from him lies an elegant golden staff.

“Oooooh.”

He might be dangerous, so if that staff is his weapon I’ll yoink it before he can use it to attack me.

Readying myself for the stealth mission, I crouch down and map out my route.

I see a path, just like any heist before it, this one will be a piece of cake. Since the staff is sitting unattended in the open just asking to be picked up by me.

And with the route routed. I make my move.

As the noble devil dips down to forage some more red cap mushrooms. I swoop through the small clearing. Making sure to avoid any dead leaf or stray branch, I stealthily lift the golden staff and make way back into the forest. As I disappear behind a tree and then another, I look back through to the clearing, to see the man none the wiser.

“MISSION COMPLETE!” I whisper to myself.

I make a quiet hurray, pumping my shovel and newly acquired staff into the air.

“Now for my epic escape.”

Turning back toward the forest, I dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge my way through the trees. Using the golden staff to pole vault over fallen logs, and jumping from branch to branch like a chimpanzee.

This is crazy, I was never this acrobatic! I’m moving like a speed demon through these trees. This is the coolest thing ever! I gotta get the boys on this.

As the thought passes my mind, I pause.

How do I go back home?

This game world is cool and all but, I can’t stay here forever.

It’s no fun, if I hoard this game all to myself.

But before I can even begin to imagine my escape plan, something comes around to interrupt my fun.

SNAP!!!

RIP!!!

CRACK!!!

GRAAA!!!

The roar of a beast tearing its enormous claws through an entire tree appears before me.

It’s some sort of mega bear, huge in size and power.

And for whatever reason, it’s pissed off.