by Sean Oswald
“Jessica’s mom doesn’t ask her twenty questions like this…” began Mira in a whiny voice before being cut off by Emily.
“Jessica is a wild child, and don’t ever think that just because Jessica gets to do something that you will get to do something. You are lucky that we even let you hang out with Jessica, and I only do that because I hope that someday you will be a good influence on her. Maybe I misjudged you, and it’s you who is being influenced.”
Mira’s response was more of a screech than any articulate words as she stormed out the door and pushed past her mother while heading out of her room.
“Where do you think you’re going, young lady?”
Emily might as well have been speaking to the wall for all the response that she got as Mira continued down the hallway and then stomped down the stairs, making her long dark hair bounce against her slender back. Seeing no other option, Emily began to follow her downstairs, eventually grabbing her arm in the kitchen and telling her, once again, to stop.
Mira jerked her arm away and plopped down in a chaotic jumble, the way only a frustrated teenager can do. At that moment, Emily heard Dave enter the house. She knew because he was the only one who came in the front door. He steadfastly refused to clean out the garage enough to fit his car into its spot right next to hers. Emily drew in her breath and hoped Dave would support her in this, all the while staring at Mira. She knew Dave was horrible at reading a room, and so he likely wouldn’t even recognize the tension between her and Mira. Sure enough, as he walked in, he came right up against her with one of his sweet little butt pats. But no, she couldn’t let herself get distracted from the issue at hand.
She loved Dave. In some ways, he was still the man of her dreams. He worked hard for the family, paying almost all the bills out of his salary so that her income from nursing could go to all the charity projects she loved so much. She loved how good of a dad he was, and even after all these years of marriage, he still tried to make an effort to compliment her. She knew that she wasn’t the pretty young thing that he had married, and that despite countless hours of Pilates, her figure wasn’t going to be turning any eyes. Maybe that was why things had seemed to cool between them in the past few years. Maybe that was why when it came to their time, Dave always seemed so distracted. Maybe that was why Dave chose to bury himself in imaginary game worlds with people he met online and would never have a real relationship. Maybe she hadn’t tried hard enough to keep him interested.
God only knew that she had tried. Everything from buying younger hipper clothing, to a new haircut, to proposing couples counseling. None of it had stuck though. A part of her knew that Dave loved her but somehow, she didn’t feel like he was in love with her. But how did her mind end up going there? She needed to focus on the issue with Mira and not let Dave make her mind go to mush, so she turned to him, asking for his support.
Mira watched her dad walk in and practically grope mom in front of her. Gross. Her internal mental reaction was the equivalent of “get a room.” However, her keen teenage instincts told her there was a way to turn this to her advantage. If things played out right, Mom and Dad would end up arguing with each other and she would be off the hook, which was why she was so surprised to find herself sitting in the backseat of the family car squished up against the doorway to get as far as possible from Sara’s hands, which were sticky from the bubble gum she was playing with.
Emily and Mira both heard Sara’s scream, but Emily reacted faster, as only a mother could. Turning from her argument with Dave, God help her, why did that man have to go all lawyer and argue everything with her? She turned toward Sara to discover what was the matter. Then it registered with her where Sara’s eyes were staring at and from the expressions that suddenly came over Mira and Jackson’s faces—expressions of shock tinged with horror—that the problem wasn’t with Sara but was rather with something outside the car.
Having turned so far to face Sara, Emily barely had time to register the glowing silver disc hanging in the road before their car passed into the light at sixty-five mph.
The next thing that Emily was aware of was that she was aware. Hmm, this was not at all what she had expected heaven to be like. Some people talked about heaven in church. Some people even thought about it privately, but Emily was a true believer. She lived her life according to what she believed God wanted of her and she fully expected that when she died, she would end up in heaven. She didn’t know if it would be streets paved in gold or if that was simply symbolic language, but she knew as only true faith can know, that it would be absolutely fabulous beyond anything she could imagine.
Instead of the blazing glory of God or the relaxing music of angelic choirs, she was greeted with a nothingness of gray smoke which reminded her of Brenda Perkin’s sixteenth birthday party many years ago. Brenda’s dad had gone way overboard on the dry ice machines, trying to be cool and failing epically. Brenda had barely shown her face at school the rest of the year as kids had taken to calling her the Ice Queen.
While she was struggling to understand what was going on, she was greeted with a glowing screen that appeared in front of her.
Welcome to the world of Eloria. You have been transported here from your home world. The process of transferring you here has resulted in the complete destruction of your body and all possessions you had on your person at the time.
Eloria follows some of the same laws of physics that you are accustomed to, but not all. It is a world of magic, not science. It is a world more akin in functioning to what you know as a video game. Learn and respect the natural laws of Eloria just as you respected the law of gravity on your home world. Death is still very real and very permanent here.
You will be provided with a new body just as you have been provided with a new soul using the deconstructed material of your body. Think carefully and be wise for the choices you make here will be permanent. In Eloria, life is conflict.
All other individuals with you are simultaneously experiencing this same process.
She had no idea what that meant. Was this some joke that Dave had worked up? It sure sounded like one of the games he was always trying to tell her about, but as quickly as that thought entered her mind, it was just as quickly rejected. This was way too involved to be some simple prank. She reached up her hand to pinch herself. She remembered having read somewhere that you couldn’t pinch yourself in a dream but that willing it would sometimes wake you up from a particularly vivid dream.
That was when the real freak out began. She didn't have a hand! God in heaven, what was going on? She looked back at the screen floating in the air, reading it a dozen more times, each time trying to hold back a scream of panic. Where were her children? Where was Dave? Was this some sort of hell? No, that couldn’t be. She knew where she was going when she died. After each subsequent reading of the words written in the air in front of her, she began to accept them a bit more. It was almost as if she were being soothed from the outside. She began to take it in stride as the peace of God helping her to accept an impossible situation.
On her most recent reading of the floating message, she noticed that down in the bottom right corner of it there was a little symbol like the page turn symbol on her e-reader. She went to reach out to touch it with her hand, but again, realized she didn’t have a hand. She didn’t have a body for that matter. The thought passed through her head in an instant that she had wanted to lose some weight, she just hadn’t expected it to happen like this. Pushing that stray thought aside, she willed the page to turn and somehow, it did, revealing a second portion to the message.
Daughter of Truth, take heart. Though you may not have sought this trial, yet your faith will be the way in which you may prevail. Yeah, not only prevail but overcome.
Just as Job was tested, so this is your test. It is for the rest of your life, so it is for you to learn wisdom and do the will of your Creator.
Emily wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but she took it to be a personal message from God.
She would not fail. Now she only had to figure out what she was supposed to do. Hmm… so this world, what was it called? Oh yeah, Eloria. That’s sort of a silly name. It really does sound like it comes out of one of Dave’s games. She almost wished that she had paid more attention when he would ramble on about his game but perished the thought that he should ever hear her say that. She racked her brain, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do next.
Almost as if in response to her uncertainty, a new screen popped open in her vision allowing her to see racial options. Each of the races was represented by an image of what she would look like as a member of that race and then followed by various statistical data about the race, their pros and cons, so to speak. She didn’t understand any of it, but she could see the pictures. It became clear that she was to choose one of the races. It was easy for her to eliminate the spiderkin with its glossy skin and alien features as well as the green-skinned orc, the short, bearded dwarf woman, and the scaly winged dragonkin. Some of the races didn’t even warrant looking at; the burly minotaur was horrifying and the thought of choosing to look like that left her hand trembling. Once she eliminated the ones too horrible to consider, she looked at the human, sun elf, and moon elf images. The image of the human appeared to look almost exactly like she did, only when she was twenty-five, not her actual thirty-nine. The thought of being able to go back to looking like that was tantalizing.
Her eyes also went back to the sun elf. The face had some similarities to her old face back on Earth, but the cheekbones were higher, more regal. The ears were elongated with a pointed tip, and the hair was golden. Not golden blonde, but true gold-colored, lustrous, long and thick beyond anything she had ever seen on earth. The color was more like one of the kid’s cartoons rather than a real woman. She could try life as a blonde, but in the back of her mind, she recalled Dave’s great interest in her dark hair. So she threw out the option of sun elf.
The last choice was the moon elf. The image of herself as a moon elf was compelling. Raven black hair, the same sparkling green eyes, high cheekbones, and refined beauty, taking what she had been born with and enhancing it. The moon elf was at least four inches taller than her original 5’4”. This moon elf would have been a model back on earth with tan skin, exquisite features, and a perfect blend of height and curves. Before she knew it, she had willed the choice of moon elf. Her body started to form as soon as the choice was made. After being reborn into this new figure, her feet touched upon the ground. It felt as though she was barely standing, more as though she were floating. There was a gracefulness to how she moved that exceeded anything she had ever experienced, even as a dancer and gymnast when she was young.
Once she had examined the new body, a series of notifications popped up explaining how her old life skills had transferred over to this new world.
General Skills
Running: 1, +10% maximum speed and duration, the results of her early morning jogs.
Swimming: 4, +40% maximum speed and duration, high school swim team.
Speak Languages: 2- base: Elven, Human, due to her parents’ insistence on her learning their native Spanish.
Knowledge- First Aid: 8, +80% to related checks, from nursing training.
Rogue Skills
Balance: 30, +150%, a benefit of gymnastics.
Stealth: 5, +25% chance, racial trait of moon elves.
Melee Skills
Short Blades: 5, +25% attack rating, +5% damage, racial trait of moon elves.
Emily read each of the notifications as they popped up and, if she understood correctly, she was getting skills in this new world based upon the skills she had possessed back on Earth. A new screen popped up as soon as she had read the notifications.
Name: Emily Nelson
Race: Moon Elf
Age: 39
Level: 1
Movement: 45
Alignment:
Factions:
Guild:
Stats
Core Attributes
Regen Rates:
STRENGTH: 5
Health: 70
1.4/hour
DEXTERITY: 13
Mana: 110
255/hour
AGILITY: 19
Stamina: 2.5
2/hour
CONSTITUTION: 7
Fury: 3.5
.7/hour
ENDURANCE: 10
Teamwork: 3.9
1.3/hour
INTELLIGENCE: 11
Bravery: 1.5
.5/hour
WISDOM: 18
Faith: 5.1
1.7/hour
CHARISMA: 14
Base Defense: 5
LUCK: 0
Base Attack: 10
Total XP: 80
Unspent Stat Points: 2
Unspent CP: 4
XP to Next: 100
After reading the screen, Emily was confused. So many different things to look at and try to understand. What were stats or core attributes? She smiled thinking that Dave or Jackson probably would have laughed at her for not understanding these things, but the humor of that thought only lasted a second before worry began to set in. She had assumed that after she chose her race and got a new body that she would leave this place and be rejoined with her family. The first message had said that everyone with her was going through this same process.
Not knowing what else to do, Emily started calling out for help. She couldn’t help but be amazed by how her voice sounded. For lack of a better word, it was musical, such that even fear-laden cries for aid still had a lilting tone to them. In response to her cries, she was greeted by another screen.
Watcher’s Aid: This will only be given once to each who ask.
You have called for aid, and in consideration of the extreme shock this transition has caused for you, aid will be afforded to you within certain preset limitations.
The best aid which can be provided to you is an automatic allocation of your stat points and character points to best mesh with your racial aspects and prior life experience.
Accordingly, one stat point will be assigned to both Agility and Wisdom. Character points will be assigned to Essence Magic (1), Light armor (1), Dual wield (1), and Double Strike (1).
Know that these skills can only be increased by gaining additional character points. Character points can only be earned through conflict.
In Eloria, life is conflict.
Essence Magic: the most respected and feared of magics. Essence is the life force of all living beings and can be used to perform wonders of healing, and in extreme cases, even resurrection. Yet Essence Magic is open to corruption as what can give life can also take it away. Effect: Determines the highest tier of essence spells available to you as well as increasing the effectiveness of those spells by 1%/level. 3x 1st tier spells gained.
Minor Healing: Restores 20 health plus 2/level to a single target within 30 feet. Cooldown: 1 minute - 1 sec/level. Mana: 30.
Minor Blessing: You and all allies within ten feet of you are imbued with extra energy of life, granting each 5 bonus health/2 levels and increasing attack and dodge chances by 5% + 1%/level. Duration: 10 minutes. Mana: 50.
Minor Cure Poison: Attempts to remove a poisoned condition from target. Base chance is 50% + 2%/level. May be affected by the potency of the poison. Range: Touch. Cooldown: 1 minute. Mana: 25.
Emily read the notice, and while reading, she felt the knowledge of these skills literally upload into her mind. The shock of it was enough to make her eyes go wide. As the awareness of these new skills settled into her, a grin crept across her lips. She was pretty bad-ass.
She remembered a conversation with Dave years ago when he had first tried to get her to play one of his computer games with him. He had been explaining her options for her character, and she kept frustrating him by insisting that if she was going to play the game, then she wanted to be a ninja. Dave had tried to explain to her that ninja wasn’t an option. Well, looks like in Eloria she could be a ninja, and better yet, a nin
ja with healing. She was gonna rub that in his face next time she saw him.
She was thinking of Dave as she started to glow while making the final transfer to Eloria. The last thought to cross her mind before opening her eyes was one of horror. She remembered Dave’s old computer game character, an ogre that had a penchant for picking at his backside every few seconds. Emily just hoped Dave hadn’t picked a race like that because she didn’t want her children to be half monsters.
Chapter Four
“The measure of a man is not in the length of his axe handle, the strength of his swing or the sharpness of his edge. The true measure of a man is in his persistence to never stop till the tree is felled.” —A common expression in the logging villages in Northern Albia.
The Chenhou Forest, as it was known by the Moon Elves living deep in the heart of the ancient forest, spread over much of the northeast of the continent Talus. It was an old wood, rife with magic and fey creatures, a place where the natural order was a cruel mistress. To the south of these ancient woods, filled with the oldest and most majestic trees upon the entire continent, was the human kingdom of Albia. Compared to the time the elves had been in the Chenhou Forest, the Albian kingdom was a mere babe in swaddling clothes, but it was ever the nature of humans to expand and to never be content.
It was for this very element of human nature that the moon elf royal family had first started to pull back further into the woods, some fifty years ago. The forest wardens and hunters were brought closer to home, and even the druids restraining influence was lessened. A swath, fully thirty miles in width, was “given back to the land” as the elves thought of it. No longer were the dangerous animals that lived in this area of the woods hunted or their populations thinned out by the wardens. The hunters no longer sought game in this portion of the forest to serve on the tables of the elven royalty. Moreover, the druids directed as many of the hostile animals as could be handled to take up residence in this area of the forest with the result that in no other portion of the lands claimed by the moon elves was there such a dense concentration of monsters and beasts.
