The Dream Quest

     She uncurled herself from the chair she had slept on and got busy with neatly folding the blanket Eleus had lent her. Behind her, she heard the fire crackle back to life. Eleus said, “Solanza, once you have finished with that, I would like to try something. I want to determine whether you have any magical abilities.”

     Solanza whipped around so quickly that her head spun. “I’m ready!” she said eagerly. “Where do we start?”

     Eleus chuckled. “I have basic wands from each of the five types of magic. I’ll let you test each of them, and we’ll see which one you have the greatest affinity for. If you’re ready, I’ll go gather them now.”

     Solanza could hardly believe her luck. She was going to get to do magic! Real, actual magic! In her NeoQuest game, she had spent most of her points on Shock magic. Maybe that would be the one for her?

     But what started out as excitement quickly turned into disappointment. Every wand was inert in her hands. She hadn’t expected anything from the Spectral wand, but she couldn’t even produce static electricity from the Shock wand. Fire, Ice, Life, all dead in her hands. She was fighting hard to keep the devastation from her face when Xantan returned.

     “Hello, Solanza, Eleus. What are you doing?” Xantan asked brightly. The Lupe had a hefty bag on his back that he set down on the floor.

     “Failing to have any magical abilities,” Solanza said, striving to match Xantan’s cheerfulness but not quite meeting the mark, judging by the look on his face. “Sorry in advance for the burden I’m going to be on our quest, Xantan.”

     “If it makes you feel any better, I had already anticipated that.” Solanza gave him a flat stare. “Not better, I see.”

     Eleus had shuffled into the other room to stow away the wands, but his hearing was still keen and his voice was still clear. “Solanza, most people have no magical powers, myself among them. I forge magical weapons that I can never wield. And yet I have still found success and fulfillment.”

     Solanza dipped her head in acknowledgement. “I know. It’s just disappointing. I had so much fun choosing the best powers in NeoQuest that I thought it would be cool to get to actually use them here. But, like you said, I’ll get over it.”

     Xantan gave her a friendly nudge. “You might not be able to cast fireballs, but you did fall out of the sky from the future, so I would say that is already impressive enough.”

     Solanza laughed. “I guess you’re right. Hey, what kind of supplies did you get in town?”

     “Food, an extra sleeping roll, and a cloak in case you wanted to… blend in a little more,” Xantan said. “At least while we’re in the city. We shouldn’t run into too many people in the wilderness, but I’m sure it wasn’t fun having everyone stare at you and try to touch your fur.”

     Solanza looked down at the swirling colors of her fur and grimaced. “That’s very thoughtful of you, thank you. Eventide is a pretty popular color where I come from, so I’ve never really had people react to it like that before.”

     “Eventide,” Xantan echoed thoughtfully. He smiled almost wistfully. “The future must be a very beautiful place indeed.”

     “It is,” Solanza said, and was struck by a crushing wave of heartache. All along, she had held onto the hope that this was all just a dream, a very long and intricate dream. But she couldn’t keep denying it any longer. This was her reality. She was stuck in a world a thousand years behind, and she had no way to get home. She was alone and she was afraid. Her vision blurred with tears, and the room swam around her.

     Suddenly, Xantan was beside her, laying a gentle paw on her shoulder. “I know what it’s like to miss home,” he said softly. “My home was attacked by pygmies when I was a child, and I was the only one to survive. I miss my parents every day.”

     “How did you survive?” Solanza asked in horror.

     “My parents hid me in the cellar. A neighbor found me there afterwards. She took me in and raised me alongside her son, who was about my age. He was one of the first people to disappear when the monster attacks began again.” Anger and grief cracked across his face. “One of Jahbal’s first victims.”

     “Then we must stop him,” Solanza said firmly. Xantan’s story had opened her eyes to the small-minded selfishness of her own. So what if she couldn’t wield magic? She could still do her part to help the people of this land against Jahbal so that no one would have to suffer like that ever again.

     Xantan met her gaze with a fierce grin. “I am ready when you are.”

     Eleus entered the room then, his cane tapping dully on the floor. “So you’re heading off then, are you? What is your destination?”

     Solanza thought back to her NeoQuest game. Dank Cave was unnecessary with this world’s Xantan beside her, but he would need a stronger weapon if they were to face Jahbal. The next stage had been… “The Jungle Ruins.”

     —

     Xantan had never been to the Jungle Ruins, but he knew how to get there. They said their farewells to Eleus, hoisted their bags onto their backs, and started the journey south. The plains were beautiful and open, without a soul in sight, and Solanza soon shrugged off the itchy cloak that had hidden her Eventide fur in the city and did a little twirl in the sunshine while Xantan laughed at her.

     “Do you not have sunlight or grass where you come from?” he asked jokingly.

     “We do, but there are many more buildings, and there are more trees. We don’t have these wide-open grasslands like you have.” She took a lungful of clean, sweet air and sighed with pleasure.

     “There are few here who would prefer the open plains to the safety of the city.”

     “I guess I don’t usually have to worry about fending off monsters all the time.” Solanza pondered that for a moment. “Hey, Xantan, can you tell me more about the monsters? You said they were created by Jahbal?”

     Xantan looked around them, as if to ensure she hadn’t jinxed any monsters into being by mentioning them aloud. “We knew peace for a long time. About ten years ago, some of the villages near me and my adoptive family were overrun. From what we were able to tell, it seems like wild animals from all across the land had been transformed somehow into beasts. Unthinking, unfeeling, feral creatures. Most of the people who survived fled to the cities for protection.”

     “Wild animals?” Solanza asked.

     “Yes, like Bearogs. Some people, too, I suspect. Boraxis tried to heal a few of the ones who were captured, but whatever magic had turned them into ferocious beasts was too strong. There was one he was almost successful in healing. All that poor creature could say was ‘Jahbal’. But Jahbal’s hold over them was too strong, and they succumbed soon afterwards.”

     “I remember the story of the Jahbal in my game, but what is the real Jahbal like in this world?”

     “He was a very powerful wizard a thousand years ago, part of the Circle of Twelve. He turned to dark magic and unleashed monsters upon the lands, but the monsters disappeared many centuries ago. People believed he must have died or lost his powers, and there was peace and prosperity for a long time. But he must have somehow regained his powers and started his evil acts again. I’ve heard rumours that-”

     Xantan suddenly halted. Solanza, in confusion, stopped a few paces ahead of him. “Shhh,” he breathed, though she hadn’t spoken. “Come closer to me. Slowly.”

     Cautiously, Solanza took a step back, then another. Her head swivelled from side to side. What had Xantan seen that she could not?

     And then she heard it. A low growl rumbled in the air. She had a split second’s warning before something huge burst out of the tall grasses. Gray fur bristled along its back, and its yellowed teeth were bared in a vicious snarl. The creature stalking towards them looked almost like Xantan, but its eyes were alight with malice.

     “We mean you no harm!”

     Solanza and the Lupe-beast both turned at the sound of Xantan’s voice. His paw was raised in a placating gesture. “Please, we know these are your lands, and we do not intend to challenge you for them. We are only passing through. Please permit us to pass unharmed.”

     The beast tilted its head, and for a moment actually appeared to be considering his words. Was Xantan’s suspicion right? Was there really a person trapped inside of there, their body and mind warped by Jahbal’s curse?

     But if there was, the beast was in control. With a ferocious snarl, it charged.

     A fireball slammed into its chest, knocking the beast to the side. Xantan was holding his wand, drawn so rapidly from its holster that Solanza hadn’t even seen him move. The Lupe-beast let out a fearsome cry of anger and pain and leapt to its feet.

     “We do not wish to harm you,” Xantan said firmly. “Please let us pass.”

     The beast snarled and sprang at them again. Its jaws flashed in the sunlight, snapping at Solanza’s neck.

     Another fireball hit the beast and threw it back a few yards. The air stank of burning hair, but the beast regained its footing with little difficulty.

     “What if it doesn’t back down?” Solanza cried. She had defeated hundreds, probably thousands of enemies in NeoQuest, but no game could capture the reality of battle: the race of her heartbeat in her ears, the sickening dread in her gut, the chaos and clarity of it all.

     Xantan looked grim. “I will have to knock it unconscious so we can escape.”

     The beast lunged towards them again, and Xantan hurled another fireball at it. The fireball struck the beast in its side and knocked it again to the ground. This time, the beast did not rise.

     “Quickly,” Xantan urged, nudging at Solanza. “We need to make it far away from this place before it wakes up. In my experience, we usually have a fifteen minute head start. That should be enough time to allow our scent trail to cool before- Solanza, why aren’t you moving? We need to leave!”

     Solanza couldn’t tear her eyes away from the fallen Lupe-beast. “Is… is that supposed to happen?” she breathed.

     The Lupe-beast’s fur was growing lighter before her very eyes. No, not just lighter, but transparent. She could see the prairie grasses crushed beneath its body. Within seconds, the beast had completely faded away.

     After a long silence, Xantan finally spoke. “Solanza, in your game, what happens when you defeat an enemy?”

     “They… they disappear,” Solanza said, her horror slowly growing.

     Xantan tore his gaze away from the empty ground to look at her. “Eleus said your presence was altering our reality. I thought he was just talking about me, but maybe this is what he meant. I think… I think this is happening because of you.”

     Solanza shuddered, sick with guilt and revulsion. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I don’t know why I’ve been trapped inside of this nightmare, but I never meant to bring an evil upon your world.”

     “You misunderstand me,” Xantan said, his eyes glowing. “If we defeat Jahbal together, maybe he will disappear forever, too. No more hiding in the shadows, no more second chances. Maybe he’ll fade into the mists and no one will ever be harmed by him again.”

     “But what about us? Xantan, if either of us are defeated, what if we fade away forever, too?” She thought of Domria, her beloved sister still in the real world, never learning what had happened to her, and fought back tears of despair.

     His eyes were still fire-bright as he said, “Then we’ll just have to keep each other safe.”

     It was a long journey to the Jungle Ruins.

To be continued…