Legend: Episode 2

Legend

Episode 2: A Quest!

<--Previous episode Next episode -->

                Maddie ran through the house to find her mother; she had been waiting all day to be let back on to Legend and now was her chance. She finally caught up to her in the laundry room, “Can I play Legend?” Her mom put down the basket of clothes she was carrying, “Are all your chores done?” Maddie nodded, “Yes.”

“Did you clean your room?”

“Yes.”

“Did you put your clothes away?”

“Yes.”

“Did you sweep the kitchen floor?”

“Ugh… Yes mom.”

“Did you….”

“YES, I vacuumed the living room.”

                Her mom smiled with amusement, “Ok sweet heart, you can go play.” Maddie fist pumped with excitement and ran to her room. On her way there her brother stopped her, “Hey, what you doin’.” “I’m going to play Legend.” Her brother straightened up with interest, “Can I watch?” She rolled her eyes, “Are your chores done?” He slumped over and mumbled, “No...” “That’s your answer.” She swung her door shut and her brother walked away disheartened.

                She clicked on the icon for Legend and swiftly typed in her password. A sweet tune played as Sapphire Shard rose out of the music box. Maddie once again squeed with excitement over her character. She clicked on the play button and set up her head set. For a moment she laid there, staring at the blank screen over her eyes. After taking a deep breath she said, “Let’s do this.” The screen flashed a bright white.

                Once again she lay in the field staring at the sky. Shakily, she got up onto her feet. It was amazing how quickly she forgot how to control her character. After a few more steps she started to get back to the point she was at yesterday. “I’m going to have to set up a stretching routine or something for every time I get on.” She thought.

                She slowly walked back to the scare crow, which still stood in the middle of the field. A few birds flew away as she approached. It was actually pretty cool to watch. Once she was in front of the scare crow she tried out some of her moves. That reminded her of Keith, “I wonder where he went.” She thought. Then she remembered him running off into the woods saying something about getting home. There must be a village just through the woods.

                She decided to head there next, she had hoped to get more exploring in or to get a quest. A village seemed like the right place to get either of those. And so, she headed off through the forest of pine.

She tried to imagine the forest being cool as she trotted over the undergrowth and pine needles. Taking a deep breath, she almost hoped she could smell the pine. But all she smelt was her stuffy room. She was about ready to log off and get one of her mother’s pine scented candles, but she didn't want to ruin the moment so she continued on.

                After less than a minute of jogging, she emerged through the trees into a village of brown medieval English style homes. The streets were a light gray cobble stone and a few NPC’s wandered it with baskets of goods. A large clock tower stood over a large court yard with colorful banners hanging all around, and there were also many stalls selling products of many sorts.

As she approached what she presumed to be the town square with the big clock tower, she began to see other players. They also had spared no expense in designing their character. Many of them were at stalls, buying things like food or what appeared to be magic charms or even guns. It was all so amazing she couldn't help but stare.

She looked up at the buildings around her in wonder; they looked like there were handmade and not created in a computer program. The building even had little quirks and details that set each building apart. She began to slowly spin around just looking at all of it.

In her state of wonder she bumped into a large male player character, “Hey! Watch where you’re goin’ mate!” She spun around, “Oh I’m so sorry! I didn't see you there!” He grumpily looked her up and down before smirking, “Its ok. You must be a new player huh.” Sapphire’s face lit up,” That I am! How could you tell?” He gave a hearty chuckle, “I could tell by the look in your characters eyes. Full of wonder and excitement.”

“I guess the game makers did a really good job modeling my character!”

“Yup, they sure did. By the way, my name is Mapledew.”

“I’m Sapphire Shard.” They shook hands.

“So, do you know the story of legend yet?”

She shook her head, “No, I didn't even know this game had a story.”

“Ah well, here’s a tip to get you going on the right path. Find the person who did your tutorial and take a quest form them.”

                This made sense; it was kind of what she was thinking about doing anyway. “All right, I guess I’ll do that.” Mapledew smirked and held his right hand in a fist over his heart, “Adventure onward Sapphire.” She tilted her head in confusion. “It’s a customary goodbye between players.” replied Mapledew. “Oohh.” said Sapphire, “Well, Adventure onward Mapledew!”

                They parted ways. She was very happy with how polite he was, she was a little afraid that other players might be mean to her because she was a noob but that didn't

seem to be the case, at least with Mapledew that is.

                She looked down the street of the village, how was she supposed to find Keith again? Even though the village wasn't that big, it would be a pain to look in every house. What was it that Keith has said? Then she remembered, “That’s right! He said he wanted to move away from the farm.” So he must be in a farm house somewhere. And it wouldn't make sense if the farm was in the middle of the town so she decided to look around the outskirts of the village.

                Sure enough when she walked out of the town she saw Keith swinging a hoe at the ground in the middle of a field. She did her best to get her character to wave at him, “Hello Keith!” He looked up from his work, “Sapphire! Fancy meeting you here!” He walked over to the fence that separated the field from the road. “I hope I’m not interrupting your work.” She said. He shook his head, “Naw, I was just finishing up. What have you been up to?”

“Not much, I was just exploring your village. It’s very beautiful.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way longer than expected.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

                Keith opened his mouth to reply when a shout from the field rang out. “Keith! You done?” A man that resembled Keith came walking up. “Yeah dad, I’m done I’m just talking to a friend.” So the man was his dad; he came up to the fence and mumbled a greeting. “Keith, IT took all of our seeds.” Keith looked taken aback by this comment, “What?!? No! That can’t be!” Sapphire stood there confused, “What? What can’t be?” The dad turned to her, “Why don’t you come inside, and I’ll explain.”

                Keith’s dad set out some bread on the table as everyone sat around. “You see, there have been monsters attacking the town.” This was beginning to sound like a quest to Maddie. Keith jumped in, “They took our seeds, and we can’t grow a crop without em.” His dad leaned back in his chair with a depressed look on his face, “And none of us are strong enough to stop them.” Sapphire rubbed her chin, “I think I might be able to get your seeds back. Both their faces lit up, “Really?!?” they said in unison. A message saying, “Quest accepted.” flashed across her screen. She stood up and summoned her sword, “Sure! What could possibly go wrong?”

                And so, she set off into the forest with a farmer’s livelihood riding on her shoulders. The trees were incredibly thick in the area Keith's dad said the monsters went. It was very dark and it felt like anything could pop out at any time. Glancing back and forth she began to wonder what these monsters looked like, no one had given her a description of any sort.

                After a minute or so of walking through the tall pines and undergrowth. She began to doubt that there was a monster this way. Everything looked peaceful and quiet, not what she would expect from a monster's supposed hide out. "Maybe I should try checking other parts of the forest." she thought to herself. Besides, she wasn't making any progress here.

                Just then she steeped on a twig, creating a loud, "Snap!" noise. Some growling emitted from the trees. A grey creature that was camouflaged in the trees leaped forwards. There stood a wolf like creature, It was relatively large. It had bore like tusks at the back of its snout and spikes all the way down its spine. It made another horrible growl as it stared at Sapphire Shard with its yellow eyes.

                A health bar appeared at the top left corner of her field of view. It was pretty small so she assumed it belonged to the wolf creature. It pounced and bit her, lighting the edges of her screen a light red. Now was the time to act, she leaped towards the creature and slashed at it a few times making its health bar drop a bit. The creature tried to attack again but she  swiftly dodged it and took to the air. It snarled and leaped up to try and get her but she easily  avoided it. She dived down and struck it hard on its skull, lowering its health bar to less than 1/3 of its total health. The creature began to slow down significantly and seemed to be trying to shield its self more, but it was by no means giving up. Sapphire ran forward and activating Sword-point Slash, completely draining the rest of its health.

                The creature froze in its final position and began to crack like a marble statue before exploding into dust which settled on the ground. Sapphire smiled and flew into the air and did a loop-de-loop, "Woo hoo! I did it! Bag of seeds here I come!" And with that she flew off to find the other monsters.

                She flew for a minute or two, just happy to be there. "Why didn't I just fly into that village, this is so much fun!" She tried another loop-de-loop but at the peak of the loop her wings froze up and she fell to the ground. Pushing herself off the ground and brushing herself off she thought, "I guess I can only fly for so long..." With a sigh she walked forward, she was a little embarrassed that she fell.

                Growling once again emitted from the trees, except it seemed to come from all around her. She summoned her sword and stood ready. More of the wolf like creatures sprang out of the trees, they had completely surrounded her. There wasn't any room to dodge them without leaving herself open to others attacks. The one in front of her attacked, she instinctively jumped back. The one behind her took the chance and attacked. She stumbled forwards. Another attacked, she tried to jump and fly but her wings froze up again, a wolf creature bit her ankle and threw her on the ground. The others were instantly on her, biting and scratching. There was nothing she could do to get them off.

                A slicing sound rushed through the air. All the wolf creatures froze and crumbled, covering her in dust. She slowly sat up and squinted around her, the red at the edge of her screen had grown and was now throbbing, making it hard to see. She eventually saw a man wearing dark colored samurai armor standing next to the closest tree. He was turned away from her so she couldn't see his face but she saw his black hair and red scarf wrapped around his mouth. He cared a scythe as well.

                "W-who are you?" Sapphire asked. He turned and looked at her with mysterious green eyes, "Shadow Wanderer."