Canterlot High's D&D Club

by 4428Gamer

(13) Character Introductions

"Seventeen."

Rainbow sat back, arms folded behind her head. "Twenty-two," she countered.

Gilda scoffed. "Oh. Are we counting other sports too?"

"Hey, I don't hand out the trophies Gilda," Dash defended. "I just win 'em. But if we're counting stuff other than soccer and basketball then I have twenty-eight."

Gilda groaned, falling back onto her part of the bleachers. "That means we're tied then. I got twenty-eight."

"Not counting participation, right?"

"Duh." Gilda smirked. "There's the seventeen from basketball. I got three more from baseball in the summers, four from fishing. Bass mostly," she bragged with a shrug. "One from skeet shooting, and the other three in track."

"Since when did you fish?" Rainbow asked.

"Not too long back," she admitted. "My Dad's a huge survival buff and he dragged me into a boat with him a couple years back. Said it always helps him with his anger problems so he figured it'd work for me."

"Anger problems?"

Crap. Gilda's stared back at Dash and her friend for a second, suddenly feeling much more self-conscious. "Uh. W-Well, um. Ya see." The tension didn't last long though as she drooped forward, supporting her elbows on her knees as she closed her eyes for a second and took a breath.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've kinda had a. A few times," she trailed off. "I've gotten better at it but every now and then it catches up to me. Good for whenever I'm doing something active but when it's anything else, that's when it starts gettin' bad."

"D-Does." Fluttershy tried to speak up, fighting through her own tension. "Does the fishing help?"

Gilda thought about it for a moment before bobbing her head back and forth. "I mean, not really? It's not like I blow up at nothing. If I'm already out fishing then there's nothing there that's gonna set me off, ya know? It's dealing with crap on a daily basis that makes me lose it. People standing me up or getting in my way, a string of bad luck, bad grades or too much shit piling up on me. Gettin' yelled at when it had nothing to do with me? And then when people look at me like I'm mental or remind me to breath, like I wasn't already."

She paused to take that exact advice, taking a deep breath when she saw Fluttershy leaning back a little. "...Sorry. I'm rambling. I don't usually know someone enough to talk about all this stuff. At least, not many people that don't already know."

"Nah, it's cool. I understand," Rainbow assured her with a smile. "And is Story one of the people that know?"

"Yeah. He knows." She nodded. "I talked about it after a couple weeks of joining that group of his."

"The Wednesday one?" Fluttershy blinked.

"How'd you end up playing a game like this?" Rainbow added. "It doesn't really sound like the kinda thing you'd look for. The only reason I'm in it is cause we were trying to help Story."

"Yeah, I heard about that." Gilda looked back at them. "After I heard what those three thick-skulled morons did to his crap, I was ready to come down here and wreck house myself. They transferred from the same school Story and me...Well, that I still go to. From what I heard, their parents chose for them. Something about while Appaloosa has sports high on their list, Canterlot's more..." She paused, thinking of a word.

"Well-rounded?" "Academic?" Fluttershy and Dash were quick to toss their own in.

"...Sure," Gilda allowed. Sounds better than 'Nerd-focused,' she thought. If Gilda wasn't going to ask Dash to drop her school pride then why should she? "Let me guess. Those idiots tried wedging themselves into teams they don't fit in?"

"Ohhh yeah." Rainbow and Gilda shared a grin. "I think one of them fit into a team but the others are tossing themselves around."

Gilda nodded. "Sounds about right. But back to the nerd-game thing, I fell into it without even knowing what it was called. When." She paused for a moment but fought through it. "When my attitude started going overboard, my parents figured I needed an outlet that wasn't physical. So they started throwing all these garbage hobbies hopin' they'd stick. Fishing was one of 'em.

"Eventually, when they ran out of ideas they started listing off ideas from online until, one day, they sent me to this board game group. It was nothing but old ladies and the most boring games you could think off." She took a second to huff as she imagined the memory.

"So I'm sitting there, bored outta my mind as some lady's trying to read the rules for the fifth time, when all of a sudden I hear someone describing, in this action movie detail, a dozen zombies getting burnt alive before another guy punches a giant zombie's skull so hard he caves in the front of it with his bare hands. While both the zombie's eyes are dangling like chandeliers, it eats the guy whole before he tries punching a hole through its guts just to climb out and punch it in the face again."

Fluttershy started shrinking back from Gilda again but the excitement from her was infectious to Rainbow Dash. "After about five minutes of listening in I'm thinking that game sounds way better than this one! So I ditch the old ladies and go to the back room where I see Story from school, who I sorta knew, some guy who was as big as I was, four other people and a war map filled with an army of zombies. Some of them bigger than my hand! They let me watch and by next week they gave me this character with an axe so I could help cleave more zombies. Turns out they were marching towards a mountain to kill a would-be lich before he actually became a full on lich. Oh yeah, and some of his zombies could fly!"

"How does a zombie fly?!" Rainbow challenged.

"They were harpy zombies," Gilda told her. "This lich was turning harpies and giants into his own minions."

"Wait-wait-wait." Rainbow waved her hands. "So when you said giant zombies—" "I'm talking twenty-foot tall rotting corpses eatin' you alive," Gilda told with bloodthirst in her voice that scared Fluttershy into a shaking heap neither of them noticed. "And guess what was inside the giant zombies?!"

"More zombies?!"

"More. Zombies," Gilda bellowed, making Fluttershy quickly slide away from the two. "They were freakin' walking zombie beehives, Dash! We'd kill one and then a dozen more zombies came crawling out of its throat and wounds! And when we finally reached the base of the mountain, we met this platoon of griffon riders trying to take down the lich too. But we were way better than them! So one of the other guys talked the griffon riders into carrying us up the mountain with 'em. Well. That is. 'Cept for me," she clarified.

"Wait, you didn't wanna ride a griffon?"

"Oh no. I rode a griffon." Gilda grinned like a mad woman. "I shoved that rider off his bird, looked it dead in the eyes and tamed the Griffon for myself. I flew that griffon all the way with me to the peak, mowin' down dozens of harpy zombies!"

"Awesome~" Rainbow hummed, picturing this Valkyrie-like scene in her head before another thought came to mind. "Is that what Story was talking about with that 'Glinda the Griffon Tamer' thing?"

Gilda let out a satisfied sigh, sitting back down after she realized her and Dash were standing. "Yeah, that's it. I didn't want to bring up the Glinda part. I just wanted to fight zombies so I didn't try thinking of a cool name for her. So now, every time I'm about to do something cool, the guys keep rapping on me with that dumb name."

"Man, I so wanna fight zombies now," Dash admitted, her mind dancing around the idea. "All we've fought is a bunch goblins and a bugbear. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was awesome but it doesn't sound like anything compared to flying zombies."

"I mean, you just started, yeah?"

"Yeah. We only now got to level two." Rainbow sat back. "What level were you then?"

"Like fourteen." Gilda shrugged. "It was kind of hard figuring how all the numbers worked but they walked me through it. That game ended like a year or two ago. We started a new one after a while and since then I got a new girl. Her name's Gekio. Better than Glinda ever was too."

"She got an axe too?"

"Nah. Been there done that. This time I'm loaded with spears and a glaive."

"Awesome." Rainbow Dash took a moment to imagine the kind of carnage that would come from that. She wasn't as into the same level of destruction Gilda was but Dash knew a good action scene when she heard it. And from the few fights Story described with their characters, Rainbow was warming up to the game a little more.

"Hey, you should hear about Fluttershy's character," Rainbow told Gilda, pointing a thumb to where she thought Fluttershy was still sitting. "Her character has this scythe on her back and some crazy vine-snake thing on her arm."

"Cool. I'm up for it," Gilda approved.

"Yeah! Fluttershy, tell her all ab. Out...Fluttershy?" When Rainbow Dash finally turned around to let her other friend get to have her turn, Fluttershy wasn't sitting next to them anymore. Instead, Fluttershy much further down the stands and about five rows up, shaking like a leaf as she tried to get the image of vivid zombie armies out of her head.

"Oh boy," Rainbow breathed. "I think we might've gone little bit overboard." She got up and started walking over to calm down the terrified girl as Gilda scoffed at the scene.

"Aw, come on. There's no such thing as 'overdoing' zombie slaughter," she said with air quotes. "There's not doing it enough and then there's constant zombie slaughtering."

Dash rolled her eyes, snickering as she tried calming Flutters down.

As Gilda leaned back, setting her elbows on the bleachers behind her, Story had started walking in view with a girl Gilda had never met before. "You told them the Mlezziir's Mountain story, didn't you?"

"Hey, they asked," Gilda defended. "Wanted to know why I'm friends with some drama nerd. Is that my coffee?" She pointed at the sealed cup in his hand.

Story smirked and passed it over. "Right down to the sugar and cream. You are way too picky about that stuff."

Gilda made quick work of the tab on the side of the lid and took a second to smell the drink. Even as the heat built against her hand, Gilda took a slow sip and let out a heavy huff of steam and approval. "You pass."

"Thanks. Glinda," he teased.

"I will splash this in your face."

"But then you wouldn't have coffee anymore." Story settled in a cocky smirk as Gilda mumbled something insulting before taking another short sip.

"Sunset, this is Gilda; local jock of all things sports and a barbarian," Story tacked on. "Gilda, this is Sunset. She's in a band with Dash and she's magic." Sunset's face looked as though a thousand alarms were going off before suddenly realizing he was only talking about the game.

"Mmm," Gilda hummed, tossing up a half-baked wave as she set his drink down. "Wait, you said band?"

"Vocals and guitar," Sunset semi-gloated.

Gilda considered it, sizing her up for a second before nodding along. "Good to know Dash still has cool friends. Story, why can't you play a real instrument?"

"The piccolo is a real instrument." He frowned.

"Yeah, real nerdy instrument."

"You said the clarinet's the nerdiest instrument."

"...Touché," she admitted.

"Hey Sunset," Rainbow greeted as she and Fluttershy finally came back over. With more friendly faces, Fluttershy had an easier time calming down. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see how everything was going and ran into Story on the way," Sunset explained, mostly telling the truth. She handed over Rainbow and Fluttershy's drinks that they had asked for over text. "We interrupting anything?"

"Nah, not really," Rainbow told her as she cracked open her soda. "Besides, Gilda and I got too much catching up to do to fit it into one day."

"Not to mention we need to pick a day where I can start kicking her butt at every sport we know. We're long overdue for that," Gilda told them.

"Only overdue because that's never happened," Rainbow snapped back. Both of them stared the other down, looking as if they were about to name any sort of competition they could imagine.

"Huh. Guess we are interrupting something," Story mocked. "Sunset? Wanna double back to that café?"

"Yeah, sure! Their music was pretty nice." she played along before the both of them turned as though they were about to walk off.

"Yeah, right, get back here ya dorks," Gilda ordered, snickering along with them as they slowly turned back around. "Like we said, we'll deal with showing who's better, A.K.A. me, later," Gilda laid out. "Besides, I can't run all out in these jeans and I want Dash to see just how badly she really lags behind."

"Uh-huh," Dash hummed sarcastically. "You just want an excuse to train up 'cause you're not at my level yet."

"That a fact?" Gilda stood up, the two staring down in a deadlock again.

"Story, what have you done," Sunset asked quietly with a smile painted on her face. "Now there's two of them."

"I know. Complete utter madness," He celebrated as he pulled a water bottle out of a side pouch from his bag. Meanwhile Fluttershy, who was watching all four of them simply giggled to herself.

After a little more competitive teasing, Rainbow finally backed off and turned to Story. "So. I guess you kinda knew all along, huh?"

"Yeah."

She settled into a sad smile. "For what it's worth, I'm really sorry for picking on you back then."

Story shook his head. "It wasn't anywhere near as bad as you think it was. And we never got upset about it. I think we actually laughed about it a couple times."

Rainbow gave out a low chuckle before walking over and holding out a hand. "So...We cool?"

"We're cool," he said, shaking her hand. "Besides, Gilda was way worse about it."

"Still am," she stated outwardly. "Probably not gonna change."

"Would be weird if you did," Story admitted. "So Dash. Did you still want to talk about that character or did you just wanna hang out with everyone today?"

Rainbow leaned back on her heel, considering it for a moment. "Well...If we're talking about my person, do they have to leave? Cause if not, why not do both?"

Now it was Story's turn to consider it. Out of the three of them, Fluttershy was the only one with a full backstory but even then that was only because her character was a loner in the forest. Not too many details to iron out aside from key points and a few characters.

As for Gilda? Well, the group she was in was in a whole other country where none of this mattered. Gilda also wasn't the type of person to keep information she didn't need to know. Besides, by the time any of this would become important on Wednesday, if it ever did, Gilda would have forgotten it.

Finally, Sunset's character wasn't completely ironed out either. She and Story could have talked about it at the café but it never came up. Like Story said yesterday, a single hobby's an obsession. Besides, it was nice to actually know the girls that joined his club. But if she wanted to work on it here then why not? Sunset had enough to know how her character would act but there wasn't much for Story to pluck and weave into the main plot.

"You know what? You're right," Story decided, slipping his backpack off. He traded out his school supplies for D&D supplies on the way here just in case. "Let's make a thing of it."

"Alright!" "Fine to me." "I think I have my stuff with me," the girls replied, all walking over to sit down on the bleachers.

"We're all in agreement then," Story stated the obvious, pulling a binder out of his bag. "Let's start a story."

The moment he said those words, Fluttershy and Sunset all donned a look of utter terror. They started looking between everyone, for any sign of magic appearing around them. However, that never happened. No magic table, no glowing dice or papers, not even aura coming out of their hands like every time the magic started before. The only change was Gilda letting out a heavy yawn before its contagious sound made Dash do the same.

But Gilda soon chased her yawn away with an expletive and another sip of coffee as Story opened up a binder full of papers brand new and somewhat yellowing at the edges. Information that he obviously had held onto for years. And the splotches of mud and water damage on the binder showed Sunset that this was something that nearly got tossed in the sewer when they first met.

As Story started to read and Gilda and Dash still seemed completely fine, even contributing to the conversation a bit, Fluttershy seemed to write it off as a false alarm as Sunset started to do the same.

He said the words though, she thought. Every time someone has said that, the magic started up...Well, when there was dice involved, I suppose, Sunset realized. Each time the club started, out in the hallway when Rainbow Dash set it off, and even at lunch when, again, Rainbow was holding a die, that's when the magic went off. This time, there was no dice in sight.

I guess that's something to keep in mind. Sunset let herself relax as she pulled out the character sheet she still had in her bag. It was only a thin folder with notes about what background she made up about Stostine as a character so it took up virtually no space. I guess that means we can enjoy a day off from crazy.

She glanced over the Rainbow Dash who returned a smile; thankful that everything worked out. Too bad she wasn't actually smiling. In fact, what Sunset and the others saw might have been Rainbow Dash and Gilda watching and responding normally but in their minds, they were somewhere else entirely.

I opened my eyes and the sharp pain of the low firelight that came from the fireplace forced me to cover them up tight. I took in breath like a hiss and on top of my brain aching somehow worse than the hole in my stomach that hadn't healed at all in the twenty-four hours we had been sitting here.

It was weird how all of this worked. We didn't need food or water like one needed when regular time passed but we still got tired. Not only that but I've found that if you don't eat or drink anything, your mind tricks you into thinking that you are hungry or thirsty. One full day of fighting goblins had now stretched into four. If our metabolisms froze like time had been I can only imagine what our diets must look like when we're out of limbo.

"Awake?"

I sat up, tensing from the pain before trying to open my eyes again. Stupid alcohol, I cursed, the fire still too bright. But I was able to manage long enough to spot an elf adorned in vines staring at me from the other side of the room.

"Y-Yeah. I'm. I am awake," I corrected. I decided to keep my eyes half closed as I scanned the room.

Ricven was drooling on his shoulder as he sat pretty in that chair, Glemerr was using a log to keep her neck elevated as she slept with her arms wrapped around her body, and Vareén was somewhere behind the pile of stolen goods where no one could see her. Elves meditated rather than slept and apparently Vareén didn't appreciate others watching her.

The others, Platick, Ravathyra, and Thorn Wielder, were already awake. I suppose I was the next lucky contestant.

"You almost let it slip," Platick warned me lazily.

I closed my eyes and took a slow breath. Going right into this, are we? "Why. Whatever are you talking about?"

"That tone of yours," he kept pulling. "You let it drop after you drank one too many. Talked just like a peasant. I almost got whiplash hearing it."

I rolled my eyes under my eyelids, the action still twisting my migraine, before looking at him. "Drop it. Please. We're. We are not being controlled by our Players. We do not have to go through this act of pretending there is some budding rivalry between us."

"Obviously," he concurred. "But you see, that's not what this is. I think the farmer and leader girl want to make this some sort of rivalry where, if the gnome's to be believed, probably ends in some friendship nonsense. But me? I just don't like you."

"I gathered." A statement laced in as many thorns as Wielder's vines. "So then what would you like me to do about it? Because it is not as though I can change my history. Sunset seems perfectly fine in keeping the key points of my life locked in place. And I, even with all the ridges and flaws I possess, approve of it. Can you say the same?"

Platick rolled his jaw and stared at the flames. "Can't say that I do, no. Especially since that farmer didn't bother writing in anything good."

"'Least she wrote somethin'," Rava lulled. She was sipping yet another cup of Dwarven ale. Dwarfs had a high tolerance level for poisons, pleasant or otherwise. "Whatever it was, it's makin' ya hate this lass pretty well. Sounds strong enough."

Platick turned his frown to her. "I meant it literally. She literally did not write anything good. Good. Nice. Positive. None of it. All I got's a terrible tragedy and a name everyone shuns. The only one who's acting like they're in my corner is some psychotic woman I hardly trust."

My brow furrowed into a frown that looked more sinister thanks to my squinted eyes. But I rolled with it, dropping my 'tone' for him for a moment. "Is that what's making ya whine like a brat? Your life's bad?"

He glared as the glint of my teeth shone under a thin smile. "I guess we are rivals after all, Fortuna. Because I got even less than that."

"Is that a fact?"

"Indeed. You want to know my whole life's story?" I let my smile drop. "My mother's dead and I hate my small town mayor of a dad. Thus why I am not 'living it up' as you seem to think I am. The end."

I groaned in pain as I reached behind me and unhooked the waterskin from my hip. It was under my robes along with some other smaller belongings of mine.

Platick scoffed. "That's it?"

"Yyyyeah," I droned out, unscrewing the cap. "Not even an explanation as to why I have magic. On top of that, my Mom doesn't even have a name. I didn't forget, it just...doesn't exist." I took a long drink of refreshing water. Like the keg of ale, the waterskin it didn't feel any emptier. "Which do you think is worse, Platick? Not having family? Or having memories of family that don't have faces?"

Platick opened his mouth to speak but nothing came. Instead, he settled back against the wall and looked at Ravathyra. "Well. On a lighter subject, that brings up something I've been meaning to ask. Ravathyra?"

"Let me guess. On 'ow Ah don't 'ave a face, aye?" She asked. "Ya sure that's sunnier than yer contestin' edgy backstories?"

"...What's it like?" Platick asked. "Does it...Can you feel anything?"

Thorn Wielder, who had remained quiet the whole time, took her time staring at Ravathyra. Ravathyra said she didn't have a face but that wasn't...entirely true. She did have a face but it was wrong. Her face had simple lines that made up basic facial features. Indentations where her eyes would be, a plain nose and a thin line that acted as her mouth. It looked like someone traced a line in a block of wood with a knife.

it seemed as though her entire head was that of a teal blue mannequin. No hair either. Whenever she spoke or drank something, the sound or liquid would faze out of her drawn on mouth would shift from smile to frown with no in between. Everything was like an illusion an amateur mage had not yet perfected.

We weren't sure what the rest of her looked like thanks to the full set of chain mail armor she wore. I had my theory though when I healed her with my hands. I had her remove her gauntlets and we saw that her hands were the same, lifeless teal blue. And they felt as cold and metallic as her armor. Like a metal statue in armor.

Ravathyra's mouth abruptly changed to a smile. "Ah feel whenever Ah need ta. When Master Story describes the magic healin', err me gettin' hit from them mossy freaks we downed? Err the ale. Best part so far," she stated, taking another sip. "Ah got all me senses jus' da same. So it's more a side effect a' that Rainbow girly never givin' me a story. But don't start feelin' sorry on my account."

"I do not think she would do this to you on purpose," I assured her. "From what I have seen, if she saw what happened to you, this Rainbow Dash would most likely work to remedy this until it was done."

"Oh, Ah know it," Ravathyra promised, her smile unmoving. "It's why Ah ain't angry. It's also why Ah'm certain that them girls don't know 'bout us. We'd 'ave it much better elsewise."

"Awake?" Thorn Wielder called out.

"Hmm?" I turned to watch her eying Platick. "What's wrong?"

Thorn Wielder said nothing. Instead, she stood up and walked over to Platick before waving a hand in front of him. He sat there, staring at Ravathyra. Not blinking or breathing.

"Platick? Y'alright?" Ravathyra asked, walking over towards him as well. "...He's still."

"Still?" I took my time getting up to my feet, clutching my abdomen all the while. "What do you mean?"

"I mean like Sildar," Rava explained. Then, with her gauntlet, she leaned forward and started knocking on Platick's cheek. "Jus' like 'em. Solid as a brick."

I watched him carefully before walking over to Ricven. Thorn was already moving towards Glemerr and Vareén was on the other side of the room. So as I reached him, I put a hand in front of his mouth and watched his chest. There was no breathing and his chest didn't rise. And as I touched his forehead, his skin was immovable. I couldn't even move his hair.

This is what happened with Sildar and the goblins. You couldn't even move their equipment. Glemerr even tried to rip a goblin's sword out from its belt loop. She nearly pulled her shoulder before giving up.

"Glemerr statue," Thorn declared.

"Same with Ricven. Do either of you see the haze? Hear the. Voi..."

There was no warning to it. In one blink the three of us were checking the others and walking around a stone cave with a fire being our only light. In the next blink we were all beside one another in a clear bright sky with two suns shining above us and the ground nowhere near us as we stood on thin air dozens of miles in the air; the planet so far below us we could see the globe's curve.

Thorn Wielder and Ravathyra started screaming bloody murder as if they were falling but we weren't. Thorn even went as far as to hold onto my arm for comfort. She didn't have any footwear so to be standing on something and not feel anything must have made the sight that much more terrifying.

I would have been scared too but my focus was on my head and my side. My hangover was gone the moment we were somewhere else, giving my mind sudden clarity as I realized my side no longer hurt either. All my injuries were gone.

"What is this?! Where are we?!" Ravathyra's accent shouted. Her face still had that plain mannequin expression. The only difference was that line acting as her mouth was somewhat frowning.

"Down! Down! Down!" Thorn Wielder repeated the word in frenzy, refusing to let go of my arm.

"Girls, calm down," I pleaded, fear still obvious in my voice. "We. We're not falling! We're okay! Look!"

"No look," Thorn refused. "NO. LOOK!"

"Where's da ground?! Where's da blessed gro-ho-hound," Rava sobbed.

I bit my lip and scanned the area. The ground was where the planet was; below us. We seemed to be completely still in the air and there was no sign of walls or floor to keep us aloft.

Desperate for answers, I began verbalizing arcane words as careful as my fear would allow as I brought my hand up beside my face. Then, with a flick, I waved my hand over my eyes and my eyes were layered with a light blue aura that wisped off of my eyes like flames. The spell was called Detect Magic and did exactly as the name implied.

Only two things seemed to glow at once. The first was my spellcasting focus; a small gem stitched inside my robes at the cuff. The second was Thorn Wielder's vines; glowing with an aura that gave off an unsettling necromantic glow.

Something to ask later, I decided. However, despite what I had hoped, we were not standing on any magical barrier. Unless the magic was too strong for a simple first ring spell to detect. Although, as I kept looking, I began to pick up some other magical signature. Multiple signatures. All of which were behind us.

I turned on my heel, forcing Thorn to do the same and attracting Rava's attention at the same time. Ahead of us, about thirty feet away, was a figure. They stood as tall as Klarg had but was more filled out in terms of muscle tone. They wore furs and pelts that did little for protection but plenty for warmth as a heavy black cloak with shimmering silver trim lined the edge of it.

They stood there, head down, holding onto a menacing glaive with both hands. It wasn't pointed at anyone. They held it perpendicular to the direction they stood; towards us. From her stature and face I could tell that they were a Goliath; a race with giant blood in their veins. It was the closest any humanoid race was to being a giant themselves.

"...Now who's this?" Rava's voice cracked. "What's goin' on?! Who are ya?!"

"I should be asking you that," they said in a growl. The voice was gruff but it was certainly female. "Where am I? How'd I get here? Start talking." She brought up her glaive and drove it into the nonexistent ground. The blade was still visible but I could tell it sank about six inches deep before she let it go.

"You think we did this?" I asked, my heart pumping three times faster. "We only now arrived. We are as scared as you are."

A crackle of lightning ran from her wrist up to her neck before we spotted her toothy grin from under the hood. "You think I'm scared?"

I heard the sound of shifting metal before Ravathyra stepped out in front of us with her hammer and shield out. "Ah ain't gonna lie an' say we ain't, lass. We want no trouble. If anythin', we want as far outta yer sight as you do. So 'ow's about we play nice now?"

The woman stared down at us, sizing us up one at a time only for her smile to fade into unimpressed. "You know. This isn't the first time I've been summoned to kill. Won't be the last either. But it's the first time he's given me such a sad, easy job. Every other time it's been a challenge."

He? I blinked. Who is she...Wait. "Hold on," I begged, holding up my hand. "Wh-When you say he, are you referring to. To..." I tried picking my words carefully. The woman sounded like she held 'him' in some regard. "To the Master?"

That made her lean back, tilting her head up so she could down on me further. "Master?"

"Y-Yes." I looked to Thorn and Rava. They were giving me this look that told me they had nothing to add. "The Master. We. We hear this voice. His. He controls what's going on around us. Is that the voice you hear?"

She kept watching us without changing her expression. Although I could see the gears turning in her head. She definitely didn't expect that but it was enough to make her stop.

Okay, maybe it's not the same thing, I realized. Still. The crazy murderous psychopath paused. I bought us some precious seconds at least.

The three of us waited until the woman started chuckling. She seemed to have figured out something. "Okay. I think I know what this is. This is a hazing thing, isn't it?"

"Haze?" Thorn perked. "You see haze?" Not that kind of haze Thorn.

"Lord Deniz did say he was seeking an army of warriors," she told us. "Aside from the creepy turquoise one in the armor, you look a little frail to fit in. Then again? I guess I was like you. Once."

She reached over and set her hand on the pommel of the glaive. "When I let go, this glaive will vanish after a minute. You got that long to show me a good time. Bore me and the three of you will be meeting its business end all at once. Got it?"

Rava sighed. "Yer crazed."

"Oh, I better be." She grinned once more. "Because when Lord Deniz makes a move for Umberlee's crown? He'll need the craziest of them all leading you small fries. That's gonna be me."

Lord Deniz? Umberlee? What is going on? I took one last look around us. No one else was showing up. The others from the group weren't here and we were the only ones in sight.

Ravathyra tightened her grip on her hammer as Thorn pulled out her scythe, ready for the obvious fight about to break out. The woman watched in anticipation, lightning surging up and down her entire body.

"Just. Just one more question," I said as I held up my hands in preparation to cast a spell. "Who are you?"

"Good question," she complimented. With her hand still on the glaive, she reached behind her with her other hand and removed the hood from her head to reveal raven black, braided hair and war paint on either side of her face that crackled with static electricity.

"My name is Gekio. Sole survivor of a dead clan from the northern shores of Skel. Kingdom of Giants." Gekio drew a spear from behind her back. "Oh. And your new leader. Get used to it."

Gekio released her glaive and opened her eyes wide, allowing the crackling lightning dancing across her skin to burrow into her sockets. As her gaze glowed with a wild static, she gave out a battlecry as a boom of thunder rolled across the area, startling the three lesser adventurers.

Thorn Wielder accepted the challenge. The two ran forward, meeting in the center. Thorn Wielder put her momentum into a twirl to put some strength behind her scythe. But as she brought it forward, aiming to severe Gekio's ankles, she wasn't there.

Instead, Thorn Wielder could only watch as Gekio brought a knee into her jaw, cracking it before using her weight to send Thorn Wielder onto her back, her head taking the brunt of the fall before Gekio went into a roll and came rushing at Stostine and Ravathyra without any speed lost.

Rava dove in front of Stostine, using her shield to deflect Gekio's spear and soon the Goliath herself as she tried shoulder checking. Rava stood firm, her feet only sliding an inch or two before the electricity leapt from Gekio and across Rava, frying the Dwarf.

Without a choice, Stostine rolled out from behind the shield and shot a Fire Bolt point blank into Gekio's face. Instead of making the Goliath step back, Gekio took it with a laugh. Then she bent backward before throwing herself forehead-first at the thin mage.

Thinking fast, Stostine held up her hands and formed her spectral Shield, catching Gekio's headbutt. But as she got ready to pull back, she was forced to keep her hands up, keeping Shield active as Gekio pulled out a second spear and used both of them to try forcing her way through the barrier.

By the ninth hit, Stostine vision became clouded with blood as one of her eyes turned red. The amount of magic she was forcing herself to spend all at once was wrecking her but it was better than being skewered again by an even stronger monster.

Still, the cracks on her Shield were forming and Gekio saw them too. So in an attempt to lay it all out, the barbarian pulled back both spears for a pincer strike. She brought them forward with a shout, electricity condensing on the ends.

But one of the spears was pulled backwards out of her grip by a thorned vine, the spearhead cutting into Gekio's thumb and fingers. Only one spear was left to strike the Shield, shattering the protective spell to pieces. The resulting force launching Stostine across the floor in a slide away from the woman.

The Goliath didn't pursue. Instead she turned around, admiring Thorn Wielder as she stood there, nose broken and bleeding as her vines kept wrapping tighter against the spear shaft until a loud crack symbolized the weapon's destruction.

"Very good," Gekio growled with a Cheshire smile. "You didn't die yet."

Just then, a heavy hammer slammed into Gekio's side, nearly knocking her off her balance before a radiant flash and a cold blast of energy fed into the woman's bones. That extra power was enough to force the Goliath back as Ravathyra pulled back her still glowing hammer.

"Ye might be stronga," Rava told her. "But ye ain't walkin' away from a three v. one without a few new scars."

Gekio let smirked and fixed her footing before pulling out yet another spear from under her cloak. "I wouldn't have any other way. Tell me turquoise. What's your name?"

"Ravathyra," she obliged.

"Ravathyra what?"

"...That's it," she admitted in a huff. "Ah don' got a full name. Consider it a workin' title."

Thorn Wielder cut the talk short. As she closed in, Gekio spun around and tried impaling her with one stab after the next. Thorn responded with her scythe, spinning and twirling it in one direction or the other to parry the strikes. Within the whirlwind of blades, the hairs on the Goliath's hairs stood on end before she swung her spear behind her like a bat to slap away an incoming Fire Bolt.

Before the next one could come, Gekio caught Thorn Wielder's scythe in a clamp with both spears and ripped it out of her grip before bringing the heel of her boot into Thorn's gut, making her double over. At the same time, another burst of lightning enveloped Ravathyra' stunning her long enough for Gekio to steal her shield and use it to start blocking a barrage of Fire Bolts as Stostine staring walking closer.

After one more Fire Bolt, Stostine changed it up. She brought two fingers to her tongue and drew them outward as her saliva crystallized into ice. With Gekio behind the shield, no one was able to watch as Stostine essentially became a sword swallower, pulling a complete Ice Knife out of her throat.

Remembering how Platick did it all those times with the goblins, she flicked her wrist and the Ice Knife cut through the air before embedding itself in the ground at Gekio's feet. The barbarian glanced down for a second to stare at the object before it burst like a grenade, sending dozens of shard of ice across her torso.

She cried out in pain, dropping the shield as tried wiping away the shards that were already melting away to leave open cuts. "Alright. Now this is what I'm talking about! I'm starting to see what our Lord saw in you three."

"Oh shut it, ya scrote," Rava screamed through the static. "We ain't 'ere cause a' this Lord Numbnuts! We were dragged 'ere jus' like you!"

"How dare you insult the might of Lord De—" Gekio brought up her spear to finish off the Dwarf at her feet only to freeze mid attack. "You...You're not?"

"No!" Rava stared back up at the woman twice her size. "An' you weren't either! This is all cause a' Master Story an' dem Players!"

"Master Story?" She blinked. "And Players? What Play..."

The three watched as Gekio's anger melted away as the lightning coursing against her had slowly begun to fizzle out. Her jaw slowly fell further open and the grip she had on her spears went slack enough that one of them rolled out and tapped along the invisible floor next to her foot.

"Master...Story...Master Story," she repeated. "Master. And P-Player? Player...Gil-Gil. Gilda? Gilda's my...what?"

As the last of the lightning sputtered out, Gekio's eyes became visible again. Her irises were a bright blue that betrayed the dull grays and blacks that made up most her appearance. Even without the lightning, they gave off this attractive glow to them as they seemed to be filled with a clarity Ravathyra and the others recognized on themselves.

"Where. What's going..." Gekio suddenly looked very unnerved, looking around her before realizing that the only three people around her she had nearly beaten to a pulp. And as far as Thorn Wielder was concerned, she was beaten to a pulp.

"I. My name. I-I'm...Huh." She cupped her chin in her hand and thought hard for a second. "What's going on?"

"You just woke up didn't you?" Ahead of the Goliath, Stostine approached her carefully and kept her hands folded in her sleeves. She didn't want to startle the giantess. "Don't worry. It's supposed to be confusing."

"Y-Yeah?" Gekio blinked. "Are you sure? 'Cause this feels," she trailed off. "It. It feels like a lot."

"Let me take a crack at guessin'." Ravathyra chose to stay on the ground and sat up. "Ya got this whole life story a' who ye are but ye also got memories a' yer Player. Gilda ya said? An' ta make matters worse, everythin' about yer world that ya thought mattered suddenly don't no more. Am Ah spot on?"

Gekio didn't say anything and instead gave a worried nod.

"Don't worry. It gets easier," Stostine assured her.

"It does?"

"No." And Thorn Wielder destroyed that hope.

"Well I am choosing to think so. We are only four days your senior." When she got close enough, the mage extended her hand formally. "Stostine Swordhand. I and my acquaintances here were previously in Leodaav."

"Gekio," the barbarian said stiffly, enveloping Stostine's entire hand as she shook it. "I was in Skel. But I think you already heard me say that. Well, me being...um..."

"We know what you mean," Stostine assured her with a chuckle. "Welcome. You have many questions."

As Stostine began to introduce Thorn and Rava, the two taking their time recovering or nursing their new wounds, the three amateur adventurers started answering every question Gekio had. As they did, they began asking her a few of their own. Most of them were aimed at how much Gekio had remembered. However, once they discovered that she had existed for a while before waking, the questions soon became more lighthearted as they asked about who she was personally.

The four found small comfort in talking to a new face thousand of feet in the sky. If only the four of them could see the two other faces that had been their the entire time. One of the faces belonging to a girl with rainbow hair and a storm cloud symbol on her T-shirt while the other was a larger teenage girl with an aviator jacket and hair that ended in purple tips.

These two had been there the entire time. And just like Gekio they had so many questions.