But the most important part was that now, he had a human mouth and voice box. He could talk. And man did Nika ever want to hear just who the hell he was.
The weird thing was, as the transformation continued, he was starting to look very familiar.
Chapter Seventeen: The Tiger’s Story
It was odd, watching his body re-form right before his very eyes. Luckily, it didn't hurt. Not like it would if his body was really changing like this, anyway. There was a strange tingling, but that was about the sum of it.
The problem was, he had no real idea of what was going on. He hadn't been able to communicate with the party at all, and unfortunately, they hadn't been able to communicate with him either. He knew within reason they were speaking his language, English, but to him it just sounded like a garbled kind of mumbling. Nothing that could be deciphered by his feline brain. He’d been going off body language and gestures, mostly.
But as he transformed, his heart began to race with excitement when he realized that the mumbling was now growing distinct. He could understand them!
Then the truth of the matter really hit him. As it looked like he was turning into a cross breed of human and tiger, chances were good that not only would he be able to understand but talk as well.
When he finally stood before them, as a full out tiger/humanoid creation, he looked to Nika. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, and then she gave a cry before running across the room to throw her arms around him.
He returned her embrace, ecstatic that he now had the arms to do so. For a minute they just held each other tightly. But finally, Nika stepped back and looked at him, her hand touching his furred face gently.
"So, did it work?" she asked. "Can you talk?"
He shrugged and grinned, almost afraid to try it out. It was something he wanted too badly. But then, there was only one way to find out, wasn't there?
He cleared his throat and spoke. "I'm not sure," he said, his voice almost unrecognizable to even him. It came out far deeper than his normal alto tone and had a touch of feline growl to it, even with neutral words. But the important thing was that words came out.
Looking to Nika, he saw that she understood them too.
"Let me guess," she said. "Your mother-in-law didn't really have a massive heart attack?"
"What?" Then he realized what must have happened. Blake would have had to tell her some fabricated story as to why he wasn't there to lead the party.
He shook his head slowly. "Not to my knowledge. I thought something was odd when Blake put me in a separate player's lounge and wanted me there hours early." Now the tiger's growl was even more evident as his anger grew. "The jerk put me in the game hours before you all arrived, and there was only one class to choose: Tiger. I tried to back out, but..."
His eyes traveled over Nika, blushing. Actually, he'd been blushing ever since he first saw her in that getup, but now he was afraid that she could see it. Hopefully, the fur remaining on his face could hide it.
Nika glanced down at her long, and mostly unclothed body and gave a growl of her own, Amazon style. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I had the choice of Amazon or Priestess, but the wardrobe was pretty much the same for both. And yeah, we're locked in here until, or I should say if with all the game modifications we've been running into, we finish the game."
He flexed his hands, trying out a fist. It worked, but he could feel the sharp edges of the barely hidden claws within his blunt fingertips. "Just wait until I get my hands on him..."
"Ahem." Ash cleared her throat, and he turned to her, only now remembering the rest of the party probably didn't recognize him. After all, they had only known each other a day before all this chaos began.
Then his eyes fell on the pixie, and the growl deepened.
Nika's hand shot out onto his arm. "It's okay. She's a friend."
His eyes met Nika's. "Are you sure? She could be a spy."
The pixie rose up to her full height, which might have been more impressive if she'd been taller. "Hey, I'm a hacker and a thief, but I'm no spy."
He looked back to Nika, his forehead rising in what he hoped passed for raised eyebrows.
She nodded. "I believe her. She's come in pretty handy so far in the game play, too. We would be back at Travis Town and square one if she hadn't managed to keep the blood elves off our backs until we reached Riser's Creek. A spy wouldn't have helped, would they?"
He still wasn't certain, but he trusted Nika's judgment. Then again, she had chosen Blake Nolan for a husband, so maybe he'd still keep a close eye on the pixie.
Ash cleared her throat again. "Okay," she said. "You two obviously know each other, but maybe some introductions are in order here?"
Nika smiled at the girl. "Actually, you've met before too. Ash, this handsome tiger man is Evan Taylor, your original guide for the beta test."
Ash's eyes widened as she finally recognized him for who he was. "Really?"
He smiled at her, trying to hide the longer tiger teeth which was harder than it sounded. "It's me, alright. Sorry I let all this happen. I should have questioned Blake's motives more."
Nika's hand rubbed his arm. She must like the feel of the fur, which was fine with him. He was married, but Nika had always been his one true love. If she hadn't been so far out of his league, things might have worked out far differently. But now wasn't the time for what could have beens.
"If anyone here is to blame for this fiasco, it's me," Nika said. "I'm the one that married the bastard and put him in a position to pull this off."
Evan shook his head. "Your only crime is being too trusting." His eyes shot to the pixie, but he bit back the words. He'd watch for now and act if necessary.
The pixie girl swallowed under his gaze. Good. They understood one another.
It took a while for Nika to catch him up to speed on just what had occurred so far in the game. Basically, with not being able to understand them talking, he had just been along for the ride.
The picture she painted wasn't a bright one. When she finally told them all about Blake's message, her tears started up again.
Evan reached out and gathered her into his arms. God but that felt good. It was something he could never have done back in the real world.
"Don't worry, we'll get through this," he said. "You said you shut off the camera feed after the reboot, right?"
Her head nodded slightly as it rested against his shoulder.
He gave her a gentle smile. "Then they don't know about the pixie, or my new personage. Those blood elves were damn powerful, and I'm guessing they were meant to reboot us back to Travis Town. So, as far as the traitor knows, we are stuck in an eternal loop of rebooting until we can grind sufficiently to beat the elves. That's a good thing, right?"
"Yeah," Ash chimed in. "If they think we are stuck in the beginning areas of the game, then that should be where they focus all of their surprises." She gave Evan an admiring look. "That's actually a very good point."
Evan gave the pixie a steely gaze. "So, I take it that the pixie is the one that performed this miracle of change?"
She nodded, returning his steel with a defiant look of her own. The girl had spunk, he'd give her that. Of course, in real life, she could be anyone. Including a fifty-year-old balding man covered in tats. But here she was what appeared to be a teenage girl, and he was going with that. For now.
"My name is Louella, not Pixie," she said, her small head rising into the air. "And yes, I used my hacked connection into the game to make the changes." She must have seen his look. "And, no, I can't get us out. Trust me, I've tried."
Nika's head raised, to Evan's slight dismay. He'd liked it right where it was.
"You know how Dad was, Evan, with all his grand security measures," she said, wiping her eyes. "Louella managed to get into the program to create classes, but that's as far as she got. She said that alone took her weeks."
He grunted. At least that sounded plausible. That she'd been able to get in at all was a minor miracle of
its own. Nika's dad had been a genius when it came to security measures.
"So, she can keep trying right? It would be good to have a Plan B just in case they decide to lock us in here forever."
"I'll keep trying, alright," Louella said. "But I'll need a distraction here in a bit. You think you all could help me out?"
"A distraction?" Nika asked.
The girl nodded. "My thinking is this. They shut down the communication station in Travis Town, right?" She waited for Nika to nod. "Well, they probably kept this one open just so the jerk could deliver his message. Who's to say that now that is done, they don't shut down all the stations?"
"She's right," Evan said, grudgingly. "That sounds like something they would do, in fact."
"But the only real purpose that the stations provide is the use of the computers, right? I mean, we're in the game, it isn't as though they can lock us out of the internet. Shoot, we are the internet."
Nika gave her a slow smile. "I think I see where you're going with this." She looked over at Evan. "We need to help her."
He nodded, once again for better or worse trusting in Nika's judgment. "Okay, so what's the plan?"
Dean had been silent through all the conversation, but now he gave them a cocky look. "That clerk out there was making googly eyes at Ash here when she wasn't looking. I say we use her as a distraction. If she could lure him off, Louella could make off with the computer while they were..." He made kissing motions with his lips.
"You want me to seduce him?" Ash's voice was a bit higher than Evan remembered.
"Not all the way," he said, laughing. "But if you could keep the boy occupied in conversation and away from his desk, it might give the pixie time to make away with a terminal." He thought for a minute. "I don't know why I didn't think of it, actually. It might not work, but it sure as hell is worth giving it a try."
“I do have one last confession to make,” Louella said. “I was hoping one of you would suggest it, but I’m tired of waiting. So I just made the change to me, not all of you.” She hesitated. “Even if it is cheating a little, we really need that map so we can see what we are running into. So, I upped my level to five.” She looked around at each of them. “I can do all of you, too, if you like.”
Evan laughed. “You really are a little con, aren’t you?” And for once, he didn’t mean it in a bad way.
He glanced down at Nika. “Personally, I think that’s a great idea,” he said, not sure how he felt about being on the pixie’s side. “And, truthfully, if it hadn’t been for the unfair modifications to the game, we’d all easily be at level five, anyway.”
Evan saw Nika’s gaze travel over to Ash. Yeah, if any of them had an issue, it would be her. She was really into the game.
Luckily she was smiling. “Okay by me,” she said. “Evan’s right, we’ve earned that level. Why should they be the only ones cheating?”
"There is one more thing," Louella said. "Once we make off with the computer, we are pretty much going to have to leave town. So if we need anything from the market, we should get it now. Has anyone had a chance to visit it yet? I know I've been out of it for a while."
Nika nodded. "Dean and I hit it while you did your thing with Tigger here," she said. "And Ash did too. Is there anything you need before we head out?"
"No," she said slowly. "But we are probably going to need camping gear. Staying in town won't be an option." She looked over at Dean. "You okay with that?" she asked. "I'd say we'd wait until morning to steal the terminal, but if they decided to close the station overnight, we'd lose the opportunity."
"We can't risk that," Dean said. "I'm with all of you." He thought for a minute, "But there is one thing we need to do before we get on with this."
The others just looked at him, waiting.
"It'd be a real bitch if we got rebooted back here and he turned back into a four-footed tiger."
Damn, he hadn't thought about that. Now he couldn't get to the save fountain fast enough.
Chapter Eighteen: Mage Seductress
While Louella keyed away, making them all raise up in rank, the others spread out and found the three quest givers. Ash was thankful that she’d found their locations already. It was short work for each of them to take one and accept the quest for the party.
This town had three quests available that were vital to the game. Upon completion of the quests, they would each be awarded a powerful weapon. One not available anywhere else in the game. Well, the original three party members, anyway. As the game hadn’t been designed to accommodate pixies and tigers, they were out of luck. Good thing they were strong to begin with.
The Ranger’s Quest would award an incredibly strong Elven Long Bow. The Amazon’s Quest prize was a double-sided ax that would give their leader far more reach in battle, not to mention simple blade length and more attack power.
The Mage’s Quest would give Ash an upgrade from wand to staff, which she really, really wanted. And the staff itself was a decent one although it was pretty basic until she got to the point of being able to add gemstones to its core. That generally happened around level ten. She couldn’t get there fast enough to suit her tastes.
Hopefully, they were right in thinking that the traitors back home would still be concentrating on the beginning areas with their surprises, but Ash wasn’t counting on it. If it was her, she’d be playing all the angles, even the unlikely ones.
Then again, their progress this far would never have happened if it hadn’t been for the pixie, and they didn’t know about her. Maybe there was a little room for hope after all. It would be nice if the game played liked it was supposed to.
Once all the quests had been accepted, the four gathered at the save fountain and saved their progress. Now, if they rebooted, they wouldn’t lose their gains. And the tiger would stay a man-beast hybrid, which Ash found strangely attractive.
It was hard to keep from touching him. She was dying to know how soft the fur was. If he had still been a tiger, she wouldn’t have hesitated but things were much different now.
“How are we going to give Louella time to save?” she asked. “I’m not that experienced at distracting men. It might not even work.”
“Oh, trust me, it’ll work,” said Dean. “You are quite the cute little mage, you know.”
She blushed and turned away. In the real world, she sure didn’t get that kind of attention. And she hadn’t even altered her looks when entering the game like Dean had. With her, what you saw was what you got. Looks had never really been an issue for her, simply because she didn’t have them. She knew she wasn’t exactly ugly, and she’d had a few boyfriends along the way, but there just wasn’t anything special about her.
She gave Nika a jealous glance. Now if she looked like Nika, distracting the clerk wouldn’t be an issue. Shoot, she could distract the Pope himself, she was that gorgeous.
The tiger obviously thought so, too, as he hadn’t left her side once. Of course, he was her employee, so that might put him out of the equation anyway.
“And if it doesn’t work, there are five of us and only one of him,” Nika said. “So don’t get too worried about it. Just have a little fun, okay?”
Ash nodded. That did make it a little easier. She’d hated the thought that the success of the plan rested on her. Of course, she didn’t know why they didn’t just go that route to start with. As soon as they stole the computer they would be outcasts, so tying the clerk up and locking him in a closet surely wouldn’t make that big of a difference, would it?
But she wasn’t the leader. And in the end, she’d do what Nika asked of her.
Knowing that they weren’t going to make it back to the civilized, and free, town buffets for the foreseeable future, they each stocked their inventories with as much food as they could carry. Unfortunately, there wasn’t room for all that much with all their potions.
Standing outside the station, Nika looked at each of them and lowered her voice. “Okay, once inside Ash will strike up a conversation wit
h the clerk. We’ll go in and check on Louella and make sure she’s ready to go.” She met Ash’s eyes. “You good?”
Ash hesitated but nodded.
“Okay, try to get him over on the far side of the room, if you can, with his back to the work room. I’ll stay with the computer in the work room until Louella makes it to the save point and back. Then we’ll let her take the computer and run. After all, she’s the thief.”
It made sense. She didn’t have to like the plan for it to work.
She let the rest of the party enter the station first, and sure enough, the clerk’s eyes immediately went to her as she walked through the door. Picking her over Nika? What kind of judgment did this kid have, anyway?
Ash gave him a small smile and looked at the other side of the room. There, that might do.
Along the back of the room on the wall opposite the work room door, there was a large display case of town history. Windmills prevailed. She pretended interest in the display and it worked. Within a few minutes, the clerk was standing beside her.
“Any questions I can answer for you?” he asked. And just like that, she had him.
Her first question was how the windmills actually worked, figuring that would be a lengthy answer. She was right. As he was explaining their function, she watched over his shoulder as Louella crept out with Dean. It made her feel better that Nika and the tiger... no, Evan, she reminded herself... remained behind with her.
The clerk pointed out one picture after another in the case and had actually moved on to the town’s history by the time the two returned. She watched them disappear into the work room and braced herself. It shouldn’t be long now.
The system’s soft voice spoke in her ear. “Congratulations, you have reached level four. Your fire spell is now at level three. Your heal spell is now level two.”
Then seconds later the voice was back. “Congratulations, you have reached level five. Your fire spell is now at level five. Your heal spell is now at level five. You now have access to area map.”
As much as she wanted to pull the map down and take a look at it, she restrained herself. That could come later, but she did have a horrible thought. They’d gone to all this trouble so that all of them could save, and now what if they rebooted before they saved again? Would the new level be gone?
Forest (Gaia's Rebirth Book 1) Page 14
