Forest (Gaia's Rebirth Book 1)

by Caiden Walker

  Ash looked at her thin wand in consternation. “Do I have magic to use?”

  “You can pull up your inventory by looking up and to the left.” She waited until Ash had done so. “Now you can sort through the menu items with either hand, just as you would a touch screen. Your skills are listed there as well. Right now, it looks like you have a basic fire spell. Should do well enough against whatever creatures we face at this level.”

  “Very cool,” Ash said. She did some rough calculations in her head. “And it looks like I’m starting off with thirty mana and the spell takes three MP per use. So I’ve got ten spells before I run dry.” She looked to Nika. “I’m assuming my mana regenerates as we go?”

  “Yes.” Nika looked to Dean. “Unlike arrows, I’m afraid. You’ll have to reclaim them after use or buy more at the shop. We should be able to earn some gold from the creatures we face.”

  Nika gave them both a hard look. “We have a big job ahead of us, are you ready to begin our quest?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Dean shouted, raising his bow into the air. Ash just smiled and nodded.

  “Then let’s start looking for those missing supplies.” And Nika turned and walked into the thickness of trees.

  It wasn’t long before Ash spotted a roll of bandages. Hanging in the air just above the item was a small almost translucent tag reading ‘medical supplies’. She picked it up and the gentle voice in her ear said, “You have found a quest item.”

  A second later, it disappeared from her hand. She pulled up her inventory menu and there it was. Well, that was easy.

  Of course, immediately after having that thought was when she heard the blood-curdling scream behind her. Not a feminine scream either, but a masculine one. Well, coming from a masculine voice, anyway.

  Whirling around, she blinked at the sight before her. Dean was entangled in a series of what appeared to be sticky string and a huge creature, far bigger and uglier than any Ash had seen outside of a zoo, was making its way across the strings toward him.

  She looked to see what was holding the strings in place, thinking to loosen them to enable Dean to escape. Finally, she saw where they connected to the trees and as she pointed her wand and yelled, "Fire spell!" she saw Nika sprint past her.

  As soon as one side of the web was ablaze, she turned to fire on the other.

  When the webbing broke loose from the stationary trees, the creature lost its footing and fell to the ground. Dean was running toward her, trailing the sticky string behind him, and she couldn't get a good shot at the creature, which was now heading for Nika.

  The tall Amazon started circling the monster, which Ash finally realized was a giant spider. Damn. It was the size of a very large dog.

  "Get out of the way, Dean!" she cried. But as he finally slowed down enough to turn to see how Nika was faring, another creature, even larger than the first, started climbing down a similar webbing a few trees over.

  Ash looked up and saw an entire network of webs lining the tree tops. Swallowing, she didn't think that ten shots of magic would be enough. Especially since she was already down by two. A glance at Dean showed him still not engaging, rather just standing there brushing himself furiously trying to rid himself of the web.

  "Get yourself clean later, we have to take care of the spiders now," she called. Did she really have to spell it out? "Use your bow, damn it!"

  Dean visibly shook himself and brought his bow around, clumsily notching the arrow that suddenly appeared. Seeing that he was finally on board with the program, even if she had severe doubts of his being of any help, Ash turned again to the tree top webs.

  Choosing her shots carefully, where they would do the most damage, she fired four more spells setting the webs on fire. Happily, the spell only affected what it hit, so while the webs caught fire and the flames raced along them, the blaze did not spread to the trees they were attached to. Good to know.

  Down to just four spells, she stepped out around Dean to check on Nika. The creature she had been facing was lying still on the ground, the health bar above it now gone. Even as she watched, the creature disappeared in a small shower of glitter. Go, Nika, Ash thought.

  The second spider was rapidly making its way toward her when it suddenly sprouted an arrow in its side and turned to target Dean instead. Before it had made more than a few steps in his direction, but not before he gave another not so manly scream, Ash lit the puppy up with a fire spell and watched as its health bar dropped to zero and then vanished along with the creature itself.

  Nika jogged over to them and they stood with their backs together, weapons in hand, searching the trees for more creatures. After a full two minutes passed with none appearing, they finally sheathed their weapons and turned to face each other.

  "Good thinking setting that web on fire," Nika said. "Well done."

  Ash blushed. "Thanks. You did awesome taking out that spider on your own. I don't think I could have done that. Long distance fighting is definitely more my speed."

  "A spider?" Dean squeaked. "Is that what that thing was?"

  "Not your usual garden variety of spider, but yes, that is what it was." Nika picked up a large leaf and started helping Dean clean off the webbing still sticking firmly to him. Most of it clung as if it had a life of its own. "I'm afraid we aren't going to be able to get that off without you hitting the shower."

  "Now that you mention a shower, do you hear running water?" Ash asked, not quite trusting her own ears.

  Nika paused. "I do, and I think I know where it's coming from too. Follow me."

  And off she went through the trees.

  Dean gave Ash a scared look, and she took pity on him. "You go next and I'll watch your back," she said. "Nika will have your front. Just walk where she does and you shouldn't hit any more webs."

  He nodded. "Good idea. Thanks."

  They traveled several yards before the trees broke at a large lake. At one end of the lake was a waterfall streaming down from the hillside and into the water.

  Ash was awe struck. It was the single most beautiful sight she had ever seen in her life. Places like this just didn't exist anymore. At least not ones that people of her financial class had access to. Parks weren't for the public anymore, only the rich and famous were allowed into nature itself. Ironic actually as their families were mainly the ones who had caused the fall of nature in the first place.

  She stepped from the trees and up to the water. Kneeling down, she let her fingers trail through the cool liquid. Then she looked up to Nika.

  "Is it safe to drink?"

  Nika pointed across the lake and following the direction of her finger, Ash spotted a small deer and his mother drinking from the other side of the water.

  "Guess that means yeah, huh?" she said, not really as a question. She didn't remember seeing a cup or glass in her inventory, so she cupped her hands the best she could and dipped them into the water.

  The water was cool and totally without taste. The good stuff. No, that wasn't quite accurate. The good stuff back home couldn't hold a candle to this.

  Nothing back home could hold a candle to any of this. She glanced around to see how her other party members were doing. Dean was making his way slowing over the rocks to the waterfall, nature’s very own shower. And Nika looked like she was examining the bark on a nearby tree.

  Ash grinned and sat down on the grass, letting one hand ripple through the supple blades, enjoying the feel of their softness against her skin. She closed her eyes and let her other senses take over and explore the new world on their own.

  She could smell a fresh scent that seemed to be coming from the large green trees that she recognized from her history books as Pine. So that was what pine really smelled like. Too bad they couldn’t get it right back home. She wouldn’t mind this scent.

  Her ears picked up a chirping melody of tiny voices. She cocked her head to try to determine the direction they were coming from, but they seemed to surround her. Opening her eyes, she gazed up into the tree
s and was rewarded by seeing more nature. Birds sat on almost every overhead branch looking down at her, chirping all the while.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you,” she said softly. “But I do love what you are saying all the same.”

  Ash jumped as Nika spoke right behind her. “Their song is lovely, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know how you did all this,” Ash said. “But I’ll never be able to pay you back for letting me come here.” Her head ducked down. “I wish I never had to go back. I wish I could stay here forever.”

  Nika opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, her head slanting sideways. “Prepare yourself,” she said as she bounded to her feet.

  At first, Ash couldn’t determine what had alerted her to danger, but then she realized something was missing. The birds had stopped their song and all taken flight as one.

  Their eyes traveled over to Dean, still scrubbing himself under the waterfall. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary in that direction.

  “Spiders?” Ash asked.

  Nika’s eyes were roaming all around them. “I’m not sure. But something spooked those birds.”

  Then they saw a glint of sunlight on feline eyes between the trees. Eyes that were on a level with Ash’s waist. She checked her inventory quickly. Her mana had regenerated back up to twenty-one. “I’ve got seven spells,” she said quietly.

  “Good,” Nika said. “I don’t think I’m a high enough level to take that beast on in close combat. Not without some serious damage dealt to him first.”

  A huge black and white striped tiger started walking slowly toward them. His eyes locking with Ash’s.

  “Does Dean see this?” she asked, her heart pounding.

  “No, and the waterfall is blocking him from hearing us too.”

  “So the two of us, huh?”

  “Looks like.”

  Then the cat did something startling. It sat down.

  “Is it trying to decide which of us would taste the best?” Ash asked.

  Nika gave a snort which got the cat to look at her. “Maybe we got lucky, and it’s not hungry?”

  “I’ll take that answer. Do you think it will let us walk away?”

  “I’d say we’d give it a try but even I would feel bad leaving Dean to face him alone.”

  Ash thought for a minute. “Yeah, I guess maybe that would be a not so nice thing to do.” She hoped she managed to take the wistfulness out of her voice because on the inside she would very much like to do just that. Maybe it would wake him up a bit. It wasn’t like they could really die out here, right?

  “Let’s try moving into the water’s edge and going around to the waterfall. Just have your wand in hand, okay?”

  “You lead, I’ll follow,” Ash said.

  Nika walked to the water’s edge and felt with her foot to be sure there was still ground under the edge of the water, then she started around the cat, giving him as wide a berth as possible without going into the lake itself. Cats might not like the water, but they were decent swimmers all the same. Their odds were better on land if he decided to get frisky.

  As they passed him, the cat’s head turned to watch their progress but he didn’t move to get up or give chase. Foot by foot, they made it to the stone leading to the waterfall just as Dean came out from under it.

  “Hey, gals,” he said. “You next for the shower? It’s great,” he said. Then he must have caught their expressions, or maybe just the fact that neither of them were paying the least bit of attention to him. “Did I miss something?”

  Ash raised one hand, index finger pointing.

  His eyes followed the direction. “Shit!”

  Dean dived for his bow, but Nika stopped him before he raised it. His eyes locked on hers. “What?” he asked.

  “I don’t think we are high enough level to fight him and win,” she said.

  Dean gulped, his frantic eyes moving to the feline. “Then what is the game plan?”

  “Look, the game has changed in some pretty profound ways that I wasn’t privy to, so I really can’t answer that. As far as I know that beast shouldn’t be here at all.”

  “Maybe he will let us go back the way we came?” Ash asked. “He doesn’t seem aggressive.”

  “No, but I’m betting that would change if we pointed a weapon at him,” Nika said. “So let’s not do that, okay?”

  The other two nodded their agreement.

  “But if we go back the way we came, won’t we have to go through the spiders again?” Dean asked.

  “Yup, but at least we know we can handle them. And besides, we want to level up, don’t we?” Nika said.

  “Sure,” Dean said. He didn’t sound so very sure at all.

  The three of them melted back into the trees, and the cat simply just sat and watched them go.

  At least until they were out of sight.

  Chapter Five: Leveling Up

  When they reached the little clearing where they first encountered the spiders, they realized their mistake. Obviously, these woodland spider beasts were nocturnal, for instead of only having to deal with two, there were now eight. Worst of all, they seemed to be ready and waiting for them.

  They had spun a new web covering the entrance to the clearing from the direction they were coming. It wasted one of Ash’s precious spells, but it couldn’t be avoided. She blasted the webbing, and the three entered the clearing to face the spiders.

  Staying at a distance, Dean starting firing at them. Luckily his character was sufficient at marksmanship and his arrows always found a home within a monster. The problem was that it took more than one arrow to kill it.

  To conserve arrows, and spells, they fell into a system. Dean and Ash would do their thing from a distance, and then Nika would step in and finish them off. Once they were weakened, it wasn’t hard to end their health bars.

  They managed to get seven of the eight spiders down, but the eighth was larger and its health bar was ridiculously long. Far too much health for Nika to tackle in hand to hand combat, especially since it, out of all the hideous creatures, had a poison icon hovering over it.

  “Do we try to run from it?” Ash asked.

  Nika hesitated, doing a quick check of the party’s group inventory while at the same time eyeing the monster slowly coming toward them. Ash had already fired two spells into it, and the health bar had barely budged. And it was sporting two of Dean’s arrows, and he was fresh out of new ones. He hadn’t seemed interested in collecting the ones he’d spent.

  Worse yet, Ash was out of mana. No more fire spells until her mana regenerated a bit.

  Then the monster reared up and gave a battle cry, rushing toward them. Nika said a brief prayer and ran to meet it, giving a WarCry of her own.

  Then a third battle scream filled the air and a furry flash dropped from a high tree branch directly onto the queen spider’s back. With a quick slash of its claws and one incredibly fast tear with its teeth, the spider was done.

  Nika, who had already been almost to the spider when the cat jumped, jumped back toward the small group. She might have been willing to try to face the spider, but not the great black and white beast now staring at her with blood dripping from its feline fangs.

  The cat shook its head, dislodging some of the blood which splattered into the surrounding grass, gave them what for all the world appeared to be a sad gaze, and turned and walked back into the trees.

  “So the tiger is a good guy?” Ash asked.

  Nika shook her head, her gaze still looking at the point the cat had entered the forest. “I have no idea, but he definitely earned a few friend points today.” She shuddered. “I’m not at all sure that I could have taken down that Queen.”

  Then she turned and looked at Ash, who was now holding a giant stick and much nearer to her than she expected. Nika grinned at her. “But it looks like I might have had a little help after all, huh?”

  Ash dropped the stick and shrugged. “I’m not sure how effective out of the box thinking would be
in the game, but I was sure as hell gonna give it a try.”

  Then they both turned to Dean. He was dry retching in the grass at the center of the clearing. Probably too afraid to get close to the trees for fear of facing another creature.

  Truth is, he had a point. Technically they hadn’t yet saved within the game, and Nika wasn’t quite sure what would happen if they died before getting back to town and the save point. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell them that.

  Normally it wasn’t an issue as, if you were about to die, you could simply log out. Now that didn’t seem to be an option. Log outs were not functioning. She knew because she had tried. At least a half dozen times.

  In the future, entrants into the game would be instructed to hit the save point before embarking on their first quest. It was far better to be safe than sorry.

  They waited until Dean had himself back under control. To save time, and give them a little extra fire power, they gathered up Dean’s spent arrows as they waited. They managed to recoup a half dozen of them, and the time they spent refreshed Ash’s mana pool up to three. So at least once the three of them headed back, they weren’t totally unprepared.

  And best of all, while they gathered the arrows, they found the other four items from the doctor’s clinic. Apparently, the monsters had been carrying them.

  “You have completed your quest. Please return the medical supplies to the town doctor for your reward.”

  Nika gave Dean a hand up and then passed the arrows over to him.

  He wouldn’t meet her eyes but muttered a thanks at least.

  The three of them headed out along the path toward the town, all quiet and listening for any sounds of an incoming monster. But for once luck seemed to be with them.

  As the town, or at least what was left of it, came into sight, Ash finally spoke.

  “You know,” she said. “We killed a lot of spiders today. Shouldn’t we have leveled up?”

  “God’s yes, please make us stronger. Give me a better bow and more arrows, something,” Dean moaned.

  Nika cocked her head, her universal sign of thinking. “I’m betting we’ll level as soon as we turn in the quest. That should earn us each a good chunk of experience and put us over the points we need to hit level two.”