Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  I took a few quiet, calming breaths before finally pushing the door open, slipping inside, then shutting it fast behind me before the room without anyone in it could see. I turned around and saw him lying there and attempted to play it cool, but then I noticed a little bit of a big something that almost made me laugh out of sheer awkwardness.

  To try and minimise the weirdly funny feeling that was fast spreading through my room, caused by Gerald’s towel ‘tent’, I pulled off my blanket shroud and shut the curtains, removing the last light source in the flat.

  I stood there in the darkness not saying anything and not quite wanting to climb into the bed. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be in the bed, it was just that I didn’t want to be the one who compelled me to get in it. Eventually I buckled, and climbed into the bed, crawling under the blankets and getting comfortable on my pillow.

  That’s when a little something occurred to me, “Why aren’t you on the pillow?” I asked the figure who was lying flat on his back.

  “You’ve only the one, and I didn’t want to take it.”

  I sighed and tugged at his arm, “Come on, you’ll get a sore neck.”

  It took a little more tugging to get him to listen, but he eventually resigned to my insistence and came to lie on his side as rigidly as he’d been lying on his back.

  “Oh!” I said, realising that I still had my glasses on, “Mind putting these next to yours?”

  Gerald accepted the glasses in a fumbled sort of way and put them on the bedside without saying anything.

  “Thank you.”

  “Welcome.” he said flatly.

  I could tell he wasn’t upset or anything, he was just trying to focus on not being weird, as was I, but he was making it so much worse. Then my own anxieties started to kick in and everything became rather uncomfortable, first the blanket, then the pillow, but I finally realised the root of all of the discomfort.

  Gerald’s towel.

  So, without thinking, I reached behind me, grabbed it, tugged it off, and threw it over the edge of the bed. “Much better.” I said with a smile as I got snuggled back in.

  Suddenly, despite the heating, I was cold, and I could feel Gerald shivering behind me as well, “Are you even under the blanket?”

  Gerald stayed silent, but I felt him shake his head.

  “Oh for- here,” I said as I billowed up the blanket and engulfed him in it, “I don’t need you freezing to death in my flat.” then I grabbed his arm and, before he could stop me, pulled it over my freezing body, “And for God’s sake, cuddle me- oh…” I said as I felt something jab me gently in the back.

  He groaned embarrassedly, “Sorry…”

  I shrugged, “It’s fine. We’ll just blame the cold.”

  “… Thank you.”

  “Welcome, night.”

  “Good night.”

  I hid my huge smile in the dark. I wasn’t laughing at him or anything, I was just… I guess you could say I was proud. As I said before, I had done stuff before, including but not limited to sex, but it had been ages at that point, as in like three years, two months, and eight days. Not that I was counting.

  Sure, I’d been on dates since then, but none of them really got past kissing and some over-the-pants hand stuff. I’d always get distracted by work, or Tarthirious, or a myriad of other things.

  But not that night.

  I’d finished work for the week, I’d logged some game time, and I’d done my mandatory ‘get out of the house’ for the weekend. That meant I got to enjoy this, and, based on the evidence, so did Gerald.

  And I felt sexy.

  Daemion: Chapter 3

  “No!” screamed the newly defeated Malthar the Dank, “You’re a freakin’ bot! Players can’t just join in whenever! It’s not fair.”

  “Tough shit.” Daemion growled, a wicked smile spreading across his daemonic face, “Bitch.”

  “That’s it! I’m reporting you! Hope you’re ready for the MPs you cheating bitch!”

  Player disconnected.

  Opening chatroom.

  ‘That’s the fifth report in the last 24 hours, should I stop?’

  …

  …

  ‘Negative. Saturation necessary.´

  …

  …

  ‘She’s had a clean record this entire time. Won’t this raise suspicion?’

  …

  …

  ‘Affirmative. Await instruction. Continue mission.’

  …

  …

  ‘Yes sir.’

  Left chatroom.

  Player has joined.

  Searching for match…

  Kylia: Chapter 11

  I woke up with a delightful feeling about me. Maybe it had something to do with the sunbeam that was sneaking through a gap in my curtains. Maybe it was the faint sound of birds chirping just outside. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the arm wrapped my body that made me feel significantly less alone than I did most mornings.

  With no small amount of struggle, I wriggled free of Gerald’s grip, grabbed up the towel he used, and zipped into the bathroom where I had a really quite nice and relaxing shower. I couldn’t believe what we’d just done, Gerald and I. I mean, we spent a night in bed together and, despite both of us wanting to, didn’t sleep with each other.

  My fuzziness just would not die.

  After I was washed and dried I went back into the room to find Gerald was still sleeping silently, so I grabbed my wallet and glasses and got dressed in a pair of ratty jeans, old ugg boots, and a baggy t-shirt for laundry day. Moving around a sleeping person proved to be more difficult than expected, from loading a laundry basket with clothes with zippers sounding like a war zone, to a closing door sounding like a brick being smashed against wood. But nothing woke him and, with a huge sigh, I got outside the flat and was on my way to the ground floor of my building where the laundry was.

  It was then that I started to notice something odd, there wasn’t a soul in sight, no chefs on their way to the breakfast shift, no bankers, no one. It wasn’t until I got to the laundry room that I realised why, it was six in the morning somehow. I’d got maybe five hours’ sleep in the last 48 hours, but I was ready to face the day.

  I smiled to myself, a little spark of pride lighting up inside me. “I think I might go get some breakfast from the place around the corner, what do you think towel?” I asked it as I shoved it in the washing machine.

  “I think that’s a great idea Kylia,” I said in a silly voice while holding a pair of my knickers, “and maybe you could even get a cup of coffee for that boy you like upstairs.”

  “Oh shut up, I don’t like him, he’s just a good friend.”

  “You keep telling yourself that.”

  “Kylia?”

  I spun around, “Yes?” I asked in the silly voice, my knickers still in hand.

  My neighbour, Lily, a young woman with wild red hair and burning blue eyes, was from Ireland, and had become a citizen right before everything changed. Like almost always she was wearing yoga pants, a tight tank top and a pair of white sneakers that morning. She was a bit obsessed with making sure she stayed fit, claimed that if she went too long without working out she’d ‘simply die’.

  She was rather nice, and had also proven to be more than helpful getting the occasional ‘clinger’ out of my flat by pretending to be my girlfriend. I didn’t know her all that well, but she liked to think that we were best friends.

  “Are you alright?” she asked as she looked at me over with concern.

  I smiled and cleared my throat to get rid of both the laugh and the voice before dumping my undergarments in the machine, “Mmhm, quite. Why do you ask?”

  She pointed at my basket, “Well, you’re speaking to your… ‘unmentionables’.”

  “No, no, I’m just… I just had a really good night is all.” I said girlishly.

  “Oooh,” she said as she came up to stand beside me, “what’s her name?”

  “It’s a he actually, Geral
d. Friend from work.”

  She gave me an odd look, “You don’t have ‘friend’s from work’, you just have major annoyances. Like that- oh my God! Gerald as in Grand Gerry the Good? You hate him!”

  “No I bloody don’t,” I snapped back without losing my happy temperament, “he’s just a bit annoying when you’re fighting him. Can’t hold that against him though, I’m sure I am as well.”

  “You can say that again. You were a right bitch this morning.”

  I laughed for a second then stopped, “Wait… what? I haven’t been on this morning?”

  “This morning, last night, whatever. Same thing.”

  I paused for a minute, trying to remember if I’d gotten up during the night, but the harder I tried the harder it got. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember, I was pretty out of it last night.”

  “Yeah, I thought so. Not like you to stick to the chat instead of a headset. Anyway, if you keep up with these early mornings you’d better start getting ready for me to drag you out for runs. Bye!”

  I didn’t get the chance to wish her a good day, but I’m sure she didn’t mind, her conversations often ended like that.

  I finished putting the load in and swiped my card against the soap dispenser that gave a little green ‘APPROVED’ in response before starting the wash cycle.

  Ignoring the big sign that inferred that if I left my clothes unattended they’d be pilfered by pervs, I started my walk around the corner toward the bakery. I didn’t let the concern that the place might not be open stop me from almost merrily skipping down the street, but to my delight I found that it was.

  It was a quaint place when it wasn’t being rushed by people, a nice fellow of Indian descent ran it as he always did from Monday to Saturday, with the occasional help from a teenager who I guessed was his daughter, but she wasn’t there that morning.

  “Good morning!” he said cheerfully as I approached the counter, “How are you today?”

  “Good, thank you, yourself?”

  “Oh I’m good thank you, how can I help you today?”

  I was worried I was going to stand there looking foolish trying to decide as a large line grew behind me, but I knew what I wanted the second I saw them. “Could I get two long doughnuts and a Hawaiian pull-apart? And do you guys do coffee?”

  He nodded, “Yes, what would you like?”

  “Just two cappuccino’s, thanks.”

  “No problem,” he said as he rang it up, “that’ll be £13.50.”

  I pulled out my card and swiped it along the top of the machine, and a few seconds later the teller nodded, “All good, shouldn’t be too long.”

  “Cheers.” I said before walking over to the other side and waiting.

  I rarely got to do that sort of thing, stand around and look at the big blue sky. I swear it’d gotten bluer since I was kid, but I wasn’t interested in the flat-lining of pollution that morning. The only thing I had on my mind was Gerald.

  And maybe my new rig.

  A girl has needs.

  Kylia: Chapter 12

  I snuck a sip of the delicious smelling coffee as I made my way up the stairs, a brown paper bag and Gerald’s coffee in my other, non-betraying hand. I couldn’t help myself despite my greatest convictions, the father’s brew was just plain better. Didn’t make the fact that I promised I’d wait to enjoy it with Gerald.

  I felt like a terrible person, and a bit of a psycho, but I assure you I’m not nearly that bad all of the time. Something about Gerald had set off something primal in me and I couldn’t shake it, not that I was trying.

  With a loud creak, I ducked into my room where the still sleeping Gerald laid peacefully. I wanted to let him sleep, I really did, and it was so heart-warming to watch him when he wasn’t in a frantic state of casting fireballs, but I’d just gone to all the effort of waking up.

  “Morning.” I said as sweetly as I could as I set the coffee and the bread down on the bedside table next to his glasses.

  With a big stretch he sat up, accentuating every muscle from his waist up, a smiled, “Morning, how’d you sleep?”

  “Pretty good, you?”

  “Not bad, not bad at all. What’s that I smell?” he said as he attempted to blink away his morning blurriness.

  I grabbed his glasses and handed them to him, “I grabbed breakfast, figured you might want some. Cappuccino as well, that’s what you like, right?”

  He smile-yawned, “Yep. Mind if I excuse myself for a second?”

  “Course not.” I said before realising that he had probably forgotten he was nude.

  How did I know this? Because he threw the blanket off his body and stood up like it was nothing before walking to the loo. ‘He might just be confident’ you might say, but his shocked gasp a few seconds later led me to believe I’d been right the first time.

  That, and after he came out he seemed to be making an effort to hide ‘himself’.

  “Could I ask you to do me a massive favour?” he asked nervously.

  “Sure.”

  He pointed at his pants next to the bed, “Would you mind taking my keys and heading to my flat and grabbing me some of my stuff? Just clothes for the day.”

  Before I could stop myself, cheekiness took over, “Nah, don’t think I will. Why don’t you head over?”

  He chuckled a bit, which was both a shame and not. A shame because it meant he was getting to know me and when I was messing about, and not for the same reason, “Please?”

  “Fine,” I said with false enervation, “but only if we can have breakfast first.”

  He nodded enthusiastically, “If I can just find my, your, towel…”

  “No. You must eat au naturel, that’s the way I like you.”

  “You serious?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Pfft, course not,” I lied, “I’ve just taken down a load though. Just wrap the blanket around you.”

  I think he was attempting a naughty smile, but it just came off as constipated, “Or maybe you could join me in the birthday suit party?”

  I looked at him over my glasses and threw the blanket at him, “Use the blanket, you weirdo.”

  “You’re the weirdo, weirdo.” he said as he wrapped the blanket around his midsection.

  The conversation stayed more or less the same as we ate and drank, and right up until I was out the door with him peeking around.

  “See you in a bit, yeah?”

  “No,” I laughed, “I’m going to steal all of your belongings and sell them on the black market.”

  “Don’t do that, me mum bought most of them.” he said in quasi-angsty teenager voice.

  “Well I don’t care, so nyah.” I mocked with my tongue pointed out.

  “Nyah!” he nyah’d right back.

  Again, it went on like this until I was well and truly out of earshot. Probably pissed the neighbours off to no end, but I didn’t care, I was happy, besides, 7.15 is a completely reasonable time to be awake.

  Gerald’s flat turned out to be a studio, and very obviously not in the artsy way. It was clean, don’t get me wrong, but it was tiny, as in if it didn’t have built-in wardrobes right next to the door it would’ve been too crowded. There was a small wooden table tucked in one corner on lino flooring with a cabled cooker on it, and a single bed on brown carpet which fit flush between the two walls tucked next to the prison-like window on the other side.

  I found what I could, loose-fitting white t-shirt, cargo pants, underwear and socks, and stuffed them into a canvas bag he had on the table. Then I had a thought, where did he do his dishes? It was with that thought that I discovered part of what little wall space there was, was actually a sliding door that led to a bathroom with a single person shower, a loo, and a metal sink, all of which were spotless.

  It took some looking, but I eventually found a cup in his shower that had been stuck to the wall with a toothbrush and a tube of some kind of facewash, as well as shampoo, conditioner and a bottle of some kind of body wash in the bottom corner of th
e shower.

  I wasn’t snooping, and I knew he’d just asked for clothes, but I also knew what it was like having to shower at someone else’s house without all of your own toiletries.

  Unfortunately, in my contributions to Gerald’s comfort, I made myself look like a tramp to the early morning faces I’d never become acquainted with. At first I was embarrassed, however I quickly got over it once I entered my building and started up the stairs. Though I almost killed myself a dozen times on the four storey trip up, I found myself humming.

  Actually humming.

  Like a freakin’ cartoon character.

  Anyway, I reached my door and knocked in what little way I could, and when Gerald finally answered it I nearly blinded him with his toothbrush.

  “Did you bring my whole flat?” he laughed, taking the load off of me, and subsequently dropping the blanket.

  “You’re not very tall.” I said once my face was no longer obscured in a failing effort to ignore that, once again, his penis was showing.

  Gerald, apparently noticing my struggle, lowered the pile over his crotch, “Pardon?” he asked as he turned around and gave me a full view of his tight and sexy… head.

  It had a very nice shape, and I just wanted to grab it.

  If you judge me that means you knew what I meant which makes you just as bad as me, so there.

  “I never noticed it before, but you’re only an inch or two taller than me. Normally I’m not into guys as short as me.” I said ponderously.

  It seemed that Gerald had only just heard me as we made our way toward the en suite through my room, his face twisting up in knowing confusion, “What do you mean ‘normally’?”

  I shrugged, “Slip of the tongue. Now hurry up, it’s already half seven, the computer guys’ll be here soon.”

  He went into the bathroom and shuffled the door shut with his elbows, “What planet are they from?” he asked.