Lilian's Proposal

The next morning was a confusing mess, with some people leaving while others tried to figure out where they would go and who they would go with. The recent event had broken as well as forged parties, and I was unsure where my own future would lie. Adding to the weirdness, Lilian came and made breakfast for us. Kyle seemed uninterested in conversing with either Lilian or myself, and Paelyn and even Leo seemed out of sorts.

“Has anyone seen Harold?” Paelyn asked at last.

“No, did he not come back last night?” I asked.

Paelyn shook her head.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” said Lilian–who didn’t know about his condition.

“After breakfast I’ll go and look for him,” I said.

Paelyn nodded. I think we both had the same thought. He might not have woken up yet, and may be lying in a ditch in some random part of the campground.

As I was about to get up Ori appeared. She smiled at me, but made no effort to talk beyond saying good morning, though it seemed she must have something on her mind.

“You must be Ori,” said Lilian, glancing up. “I don’t know that we’ve met formally.”

“No,” said Ori.

“I’m Lilian,” she said. “Have a seat, I’ll make you some eggs.”

“I know who you are. I remember you from the tutorial…” Ori said. There was a lot of meaning in the words although there was nothing in her tone to indicate what that meaning was.

“I hope I didn’t cause offense,” said Lilian, smiling sweetly.

“So, you and Bastian are in the same party now?” asked Ori.

“Not exactly,” said Lilian.

“She ditched us,” said Paelyn.

Lilian laughed.

“Are you almost done, Bastian?” Paelyn asked anxiously.

“Oh, yes, I am,” I said, standing.

“Where are you going?” asked Ori.

“To look for a friend of ours. It shouldn’t take too long,” I said, hoping to convince her to wait around. “Or you can come along if you like,” I added.

“Oh, alright,” she said, needing no further encouragement.

“Actually before you go there’s something I wanted to ask you all,” said Lilian. “Is Leo still around?”

“He’s in the tent, do you want me to fetch him?” asked Kyle.

“Please do.” Kyle returned shortly with Leo following.

“I know this may come as a bit of a shock to you considering our history, but I’m wondering if you all would consider teaming up with me, just for a few days. I have a treasure map which indicates there is a dungeon not far from here, but I’ll need a party to clear it. Is there any way I can talk you into coming along?”

Everyone seemed to be waiting for the others to speak. After a brief silence, Leo was the first to answer. “I’m grateful for the offer, and I don’t want you to think I’d decline because there is bad blood between us. I hope that there isn’t, but I think it’s time that I do something selfish. The recent event showed me I’m not where I’d like to be. I’m too weak, which makes me reliant on others. I need to upgrade my weapons, and I think I know the best way to do that, but I can’t ask any of you to undertake what would almost certainly be a waste of your time, so as of now, I’m going to go my own way for a while. Hopefully our paths will cross again someday, but for now, I’m sorry Lilian, but I have to say no.”

“Same goes for me,” said Kyle, “except for the no hard feelings bit.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Paelyn, “but first I need to find Harold.”

This left only Ori and I. I was still thinking about what I wanted to say when Ori spoke. “I’ll go if Bastian does,” she said.

I sighed. This was no permanent arrangement, but I couldn’t see the harm in teaming up for a few days, so I agreed.

“Go and look for Harold then, or whatever. He can come too if he likes…”

Paelyn, Ori, and I then set off. We decided it would be best to split up, so Paelyn took one side of the campground leaving the other to Ori and me. I told Ori I was surprised she didn’t want to continue in her present party. She asked in turn why that should surprise her and I related what Pasqual had said.

“That no good liar,” said Ori, and I could see she was really angry. “He was the one who encouraged me to party up with those people so we could do quests and share experience, I never dreamed he would use that as evidence that I was happy he split us up. Of course I wasn’t. How could you even think that I would be after everything we'd been through together?”

“It was only a little more than a week,” I said. “Not that I mean it didn’t matter to me because it did–a great deal! I just could imagine how you’d meet new people and fit in. I imagine you fit in just about anywhere you go...”

Ori laughed. “Fit in? If by fit in you mean playing mother to three overgrown children. Martin still introduces himself as an accountant, as if it's the most important thing about him. Like this is just a holiday, and he’ll be back to work come tax season. Youssef is an insatiable flirt who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer and Sammy–” here she had to break for a breath, “poor Sammy, well, I won’t say anything bad about him, for I think he may be the youngest person here, but he is a difficult child…”

“Is that Sammy the ranger?” I asked.

“Yes, do you know him?”

“He was on the green team with me in the first competition–we didn’t even know we had him until halfway through the tug-of-war event because he spent the whole day at the snack table.”

Ori sighed, “Yeah, that’s about how every day with Sammy goes…”

“So now you come crawling back to me, huh?” I said jokingly.

Ori looked at me with a strangely earnest smile, “Take me back?” she asked.

“Alright,” I said, but as she came in to give me a hug I felt a pang of conscience. Hadn’t I come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t stay together? Wasn’t that what I had been on the verge of telling her at the first competition?

“Hey, is that your friend?” asked Ori, suddenly releasing me.

I turned around. Sure enough, there was Harold–asleep in a bush. “Should we try to wake him?” she wondered.

“Nah, I’ll just carry him back to the tent,” I said.

“Shouldn’t we get someone to help us carry him?” she asked, looking around.

“I’ve got it,” I said, putting him over my shoulder.

“Since when have you been so strong?” she asked, squeezing my bicep admiringly.

“Since I’ve been able to actually use my hands, I guess,” I said. “Those barrels aren’t light, you know.”

“No kidding,” she said with a laugh.

I was surprised, when we got back to camp, to find Leo and Kyle were already gone. Paelyn was unwilling to leave Harold in his present state, so Lilian, Ori, and I set off together in search of the mouth of the dungeon. Our plan was at the very least to find the entrance, and perhaps get a feeling for the monsters inside. Then Paelyn and Harold were to come later on, when Harold had recovered, and help us to complete the dungeon.

“I was surprised to see Harold had so ingratiated himself with you all after I left,” said Lilian, as we walked along.

“It is kind of funny I guess, seeing the part he played in your leaving us…but it just sort of happened naturally. We ended up staying in Halcyon together right up until we got the notice about the second event.”

“So what happened that made you separate?” asked Ori.

“Let’s just say Kyle and I had our differences,” said Lilian.

“Oh, I was also wondering about Harold. Is there something wrong with him? I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just wake him up.”

“No, he’s just lazy,” said Lilian. “I don’t think there’s more to it than that.” I didn’t like hearing Harold called lazy, but I wasn’t about to contradict Lilian as it would risk exposing details of Harold’s private health concerns.

The way Lilian had described the dungeon’s location, I had assumed it would be nearby, but by midday she had led us far into the mountains, and from what I gathered we were still not actively looking for the entrance. I checked my map tab every so often, but the dot which marked Paelyn’s location never moved from the campground.

“I’m worried this is a long way to expect them to come based only on the map,” I said, when we stopped at last to rest. “Perhaps we had better go back for them.”

“Why? That would only waste time,” said Lilian.

“I’m sure they’ll find their way to us eventually,” said Ori.

At last we came to the place marked on the map. It was a little glade, where the woods opened up and a brook babbled along at the foot of a large rock formation. The cliff presenting itself as the obvious place for anything to be hidden, we began to look for a secret entrance, and before too long we uncovered a kind of stone door.

“Go on then, blow it open,” said Lilian.

“Don’t you know? He can’t. It would kill him.”

“That’s not my problem,” answered Lilian. Ori gave her such a nasty look for the comment that she had to retract it. “I was only kidding,” she said.

“What are these?” I asked, pointing to a strange arrangement of stones on the ground. They were all round and about the same size, smooth but unpolished. Some were red, others a grayish blue, and others a dark blackish color.

“It must be a puzzle,” said Ori, looking at the arrangement of stones.

Finally Lilian came over. “It’s missing a blue one there,” she said, pointing to an empty space. “Help me look for it.”

“How do you know?” asked Ori, squinting at the formation.

“Just help us find it,” said Lilian, impatiently.

“It’s probably in the stream,” said Ori, who was still trying to work the puzzle out for herself.

“You heard her, look in the stream,” said Lilian to me.

“I don’t see anything that color,” I said. “What does it look like wet?” I looked up when I heard no answer and found no one was listening to me.

“Wait, don’t we need a black one?” asked Ori.

“Here it is!” cried Lilian, raising the blue stone triumphantly. She walked back to the stone pattern and placed the stone in the empty space. Nothing appeared to happen. She then tried pushing on the door, but it remained shut.

“It isn’t working. Stupid door is probably bugged!”

“I think it’s the black one we need, actually,” said Ori.

“No, it’s definitely the blue one,” said Lilian, but she walked back over to the puzzle. “Black and red here means the blue one goes there."

“But if that were right there should be a blue one over here too, but there isn’t,” said Ori.

“No, it’s blue,” said Lilian, with a definitive air, returning to the door.

“I don’t see a black one either,” I said. I found a stone of the right size and shape in the water, but it was a dark serpentine green. “Could we use a green one?” I asked.

“There’s no green in the pattern,” said Lilian, testily.

“Try it there, where the black one goes,” said Ori.

Ori removed Lilian's blue stone as I put the other one where she directed. The next moment we heard a puzzle sound. “Hey that was it!” I shouted. I rubbed the wet green stone and spread some of the water onto a black stone, revealing its murky green color.

I turned to Lilian who was looking annoyed. “Let’s just go already,” she said.

Although the door led underground it wasn’t dark or cramped. Shafts of sunlight shone into the halls, and there were even great openings up in the rocks behind waterfalls, giving the place a fresh and not too dismal atmosphere. “What kind of treasure did you say we’d find in here?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Lilian, “the hint just mentioned treasure.”

“It ought to be good for all our troubles. First the hidden door and then the puzzle–and that just to get into the place.”

As we rounded a passageway suddenly I felt the stone under my foot give way with a click. “Guys, I don’t want to alarm you, but I think I just stepped on a trap…” I said, freezing.

At first nothing seemed to be happening, then I heard the creaking and crackling of bones–many bones. A minute later and the halls were filled with armed skeletons.

Lilian waved her wand, and the ground behind us became covered in razor sharp spines a foot tall and curved slightly towards the approaching skeletons. I watched as a skeleton tried to cross, splintered his foot, and then fell to pieces on the bed of icy knives. As I turned back, I found Lilian with her icicles and Ori with her photon needle attack blasting the army of skeletons to bits.

“Not too bad,” said Ori, as they sauntered on.

“No, that was easy,” said Lilian.

“You two are getting scary,” I muttered.

“What level are you now?” asked Lilian.

“I haven’t checked since the event. Wait, guys I hit level 2!”

“That’s amazing!” said Ori.

“I must have leveled up during one of the fights! I had been feeling a bit stronger lately,” I said, flexing my biceps.

“Congratulations!” said Ori, and we began to dance around in celebration.

“This has to be the saddest thing I’ve ever witnessed,” said Lilian, continuing down the hallway.

“So did you learn any new moves or anything?” asked Ori.

“No, it looks like I just got 25 more HP, wait, my attack went up too, and instead of ‘BOOM!’ my move’s now called ‘BOOOM!’ with a third ‘O’, so that’s something I guess...”

We explored the entire floor of the dungeon, but it was getting late, so we decided to put off descending to the floor below until tomorrow. We made our way back outside and set up camp.

“They still haven't moved,” I said, checking the map.

“Maybe they just wanted to take the day off,” suggested Ori.

Lilian scoffed. “Imagine willfully choosing to have less days than other people to win the competition."

“Not everyone is going to win,” said Ori. “Why not stop and smell the roses?”

“Oh, flower reference, nice,” I said.

Ori giggled and winked at me.

Just then we heard a scream in the forest. Ori and I started up, but we didn’t have to go far, because a moment later the ranger, Samuel, burst into the clearing, chased by a giant snake.

Ori struck it with her staff and finished it off with her needle attack while Samuel went to cower behind Lilian. Lilian picked him up by his collar like he was someone else’s dirty laundry and held him at arm’s length.

“Sammy! What are you doing all the way out here?” asked Ori.

Sammy could not immediately answer, but through sobs and snivels he eventually relayed his story of separation, of running into the snake, and then of running into us in fleeing the serpent.

“It’s alright Sammy,” said Ori. “You can stay with us.”

Lilian and I looked at her, and Ori shrugged as if to say “what else can we do?”

“Where is your party?” asked Lilian.

“I don’t know,” said Sammy.

“It shows them on your map. They are the little blinking lights.”

Sammy turned red. “They left me, okay? They don’t want me back.”

“I don’t know who they are, but if you aren’t good enough for them you certainly aren’t good enough for us,” said Lilian, shooing him away.

“How can you say that? After everything we went through?” protested Sammy.

“‘We went through’?” repeated Lilian. “And what exactly have we been through together?”

“The first event–I was with you and the green man,” said Sammy.

“You mean when you sat at the snack table while we did all the events? Are those our fond memories together?”

Sammy looked like he was going to cry. Ori went to console him, and I approached Lilian.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “Let him run off and find another snake.”

“You don’t mean that,” I said. “He’s not going to survive out here alone.”

“Curious…” said Lilian.

“What?” I asked.

“Only that I don’t remember seeing any giant snakes, and with all these tall pines, you’d think we’d be more likely to see a giant rattlesnake than a giant python–they’re usually fairly particular about that sort of thing.”

I shrugged. Having encountered centaurs, reanimated skeletons, and a manticore, I found it hard to quibble about where one found a giant snake. I told her as much. “They have them in Florida, you know. Maybe they’re invasive here too.”

Lilian looked at me doubtfully. We divided up the chores and soon we had a fire blazing and the aromas of the coming meal were wafting across the campsite.

“Mmm, that smells delicious, Lilian. I’m so glad you can smell here,” Ori rhapsodized.

“Why? What’s so special about that?” asked Sammy.

“It’s easy to take for granted, but every sense had to be painstakingly coded, didn’t it? Every object made rough or soft. If it’s a rock it had to be made to feel like a rock. And not just that, it needs to hold its temperature like a rock so that it feels cold when other things, say wood for example, don’t, and it needs to sound like a rock when it clatters against another. And after all of that. Making everything look and sound, and feel and taste the way it should, that they still took the time to make roses smell like roses and a pot of curry smell like curry,” here she took a deep breath, imbibing the aroma, “it’s just obvious what a labor of love this place is. Don’t you think so? Doesn’t it make you feel loved?” Ori turned to me, her face animated with a beautiful exuberance.

“I guess so,” I stammered, blushing.

“I think this place feels remarkably real. So real that I often forget it isn’t. Even so, there are things I do miss about the real world.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I miss all sorts of things, but especially mundane things. I miss having to tie my shoelaces. I miss doing my makeup and having to brush my teeth.”

“You miss brushing your teeth?” said Sammy, looking at her with a bewildered expression.

“Yeah,” said Ori, and she laughed. “No one has bad breath here, have you noticed?” she asked me.

I shook my head.

Ori leaned in and exhaled right in my face. Her warm, sweet breath filling my nostrils. “See?” she said.

I was too dazed to respond at first. “Wait, does my breath smell good?” I asked.

“No, you have goblin breath,” said Lilian, without looking up.

“Let me see,” said Ori. I breathed in her face and watched her blink hard. “Huh, I guess you do have goblin breath…” she said with a weak chuckle. Sammy burst out in a fit of exaggerated laughter.

“I hate this world,” I said.

“How did you know that Lilian?” asked Ori.

Lilian shrugged.

“Somebody’s been paying close attention to our friend, Bastian it seems,” Ori said with a significant look at me.

“Don’t make insinuations like that, please,” said Lilian. “I would never consider him romantically.” The unabashed, matter-of-fact way in which she delivered this line was more brutal even than a violent protest would have been, and this reignited Sammy’s laughter.

“You don’t have to be rude,” said Ori, covering my head with an embrace, as if to shield me from all the unpleasantness then assailing my ears.

“I appreciate the sentiment but to try and get Lilian to positively acknowledge me is probably the surest way to get me insulted.”

“That’s true,” said Lilian.

“I guess I’m still struggling to figure out your dynamic,” said Ori looking dizzy.

“So am I,” I said. “Anyway, is the food almost done? I worked up a real appetite with all that hard work I did today.”

“You did stop that one skeleton,” said Lilian.

“You saw that?” I said, puffing out my chest. “That’s what I’m here for, to occasionally be moderately useful.”

“And you do it better than anyone,” said Lilian.

“That was great, Bastian,” said Ori.

“Don’t exaggerate. You would have healed me up in two seconds even if the skeleton had gotten to me,” said Lilian.

“You have to remember, she set her expectations for me before I had hands. It’s easy to overperform when the bar is that low.”

“Alright, I’ll call this done. Bring me your bowls."

“But I don’t have a bowl,” said Sammy.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Ori will be happy to spoon feed you from hers,” said Lilian casting a smirking glance at the girl and myself.

“Hey, wha-what was I supposed to do?” Ori stammered, her face reddening.