My night at Lilly's house passed by uneventfully. She got me dinner as she promised by sneaking a tray once her dad had gone to bed and we both fell asleep early as she'd instructed.
For all the life-like features in this game, sleep was quite mechanic. Once I'd closed my eyes for a few minutes, wondering where unconsciousness was, a notification sound went off, prompting me to open my eyes to see what it was.
[Go to sleep?]
[Yes] [No]
I selected yes.
[Initiating sleep mode…]
The loading icon rotated for a moment and then the world around me went blank.
***
Seemingly the next moment, I could see again except this time, someone was shaking me.
"Finally, you're up!" Lilly said, bending over me. She stood straight again. "Fuck, I woke up later than intended but it's okay. Just— Oh my biscuits, why the hell are you still laying down?" I ignored her and sat up to look outside her open window. Still dark. I turned to look at her, a dead look on my face.
"What?" She asked.
"I think you're a bit too panicked. Relax."
Lilly inhaled deeply, so deep I could see the action and became scared for my life, then exhaled, ultimately choosing to ignore me. "There's a bathroom down the passageway where you can wash your face and take an early morning shit because I will not stop on our way for anything. Do whatever else and get back here. And don't. Make. A sound."
And so, still under the cover of a night sky, Lilly and I left the house and made our way out of town. We're both quiet which leaves me to my thoughts. I wondered what the hell I was doing going back to that forest. I should have been content living a poor, homeless life on the street, and maybe if the game allowed me, doing odd jobs for the townspeople. But no. Here I was following some girl to seek out my early death.
This was the perfect time to delete this save file and start afresh, but I had a feeling that somehow, I would still end up like this. And so I continued on.
We got nearer and nearer to the forest and as we walked, I watched Lilly through the corner of my eyes. She was like a warrior, marching with no fear. Now, I didn't expect her to be trembling or anything like that but she could at least show a little caution and wariness. We were so close and my body twitched with fear at the slightest rustle or noise. It didn't help that there was only very little light from dawn.
Finally, we got to the outskirts of the forest. We'd even passed the clearing where I met those two kind adventurers when I just started the game.
"You remember what it looked like, right?" Lilly asked, breaking the silence. "Y…" I paused in my reply. The thing was so fast all I caught was a black blur because of how fast it attacked and how I never even looked back while running for my life, but I had a general idea, so I continued, "...es. Yes, I do."
Lilly slung her backpack off her shoulders and crouched low to the ground and I followed, the scent of wildflowers and the musk of the earth filling my nostrils. I was a little alarmed at her sudden movement and asked in a whisper, "What?" She looked up from the now open bag to me, a scrunched-up look on her face. "Nothing. Why are you whispering?"
"Uh," I replied. She didn't waste another moment and went back to searching the bag.
"Here," She said and started pulling out something. My eyes widened in excitement when I saw it was the hilt of a sword but when she pulled it out to where the blade should have been protruding out… It ended there. It was just a sword hilt. She passed it to me and I stared at it in my hands with obvious disappointment.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
Lilly rolled her eyes, "Wipe that ugly look off your face. It's still a sword. You just to press that button."
I examined the item. The hilt was wooden and rough and appeared to be made from an old, gnarled tree branch. Its surface was etched with intricate glowing symbols that seem to shift and change. It wasn't anything too special but despite that, it looked solid and functional and that was good enough for me.
The issue was, I didn't know how to use a sword. I probably just had to swing it around randomly and hope it landed somewhere nice
I found the button Lilly was talking about, a smooth, round little wooden ball held firmly by the surrounding wood, and scooched back a little to avoid Lilly before pressing it. Immediately, I felt a sudden rush of energy from the item in my grip and a flash of light burst out from it, gold and shimmering. Once the little display of magic cleared, protruding from the previously empty hilt was a silver metal blade. It was sleek and finely crafted, double-edged and reflecting my dim image back at me.
"Woah," I said.
"Cool, right? It's an elfen creation, donated to Woodpine's library by the elven themselves."
Elves, a fantasy species I was familiar with. I studied the sword. "The library lets anyone borrow even things like this?"
"I stole it," Lilly said and I blinked at her.
"I am not even surprised. I bet you stole the documentation machine as well."
She grinned and pulled out a boxy, metal thingy. "I'll get them back so you don't have to worry."
That meant I wasn't going to get to keep the sword. A pang of sadness went through me but there was nothing to be done about it because it wasn't hers to give.
Lilly zipped her bag up and the both of us stood. She didn't have a weapon and I knew the one she'd given me was the one she was meant to use herself. That meant I had to take my job of protecting her seriously.
We'd only resumed walking once more when a beam of light shot up from the sky through some tall and thick trees a distance ahead. Lilly and I looked at each other and immediately began to run in that direction. We dodged trees and stomps and bushes and just as we finally got to where the light came from, a deep screeching sound reached us and we were nearly blown back by another blast. Light and clumps of dust and bark flew past us and we had to shield our faces from it all.
"What the fuck?" I mumbled, struggling to get closer.
In the midst of everything was a girl. Everything around her was nearly almost leveled to the ground leaving ample space for her to dodge and run circles around the monster she was facing — a giant, squirming worm. It was so early in the morning; did adventurers not sleep???
She fought using blasts of some glowing, pulsing force that lit up the area like it was midday. One of her missed blasts flew towards Lilly and me and by some speed I didn't know I possessed, I ran toward her to grab her and jump out of the way. The attack went some way past and when it finally hit a tree, it boomed, lighting up that area and felling surrounding trees.
I let Lilly go and we stood again, watching with sweat rolling down my face and chest at the heat that came from the fight. It took blow after blow, the worm fighting back viciously but after too many hits, it was taken out.
The body of the dead monster disintegrated into tiny balls of light that flew into the body of the girl. Experience points, I assumed. The fight was done.
The girl, a petite person with an expressionless look on her face, looked around the area, not a strand of hair out of place and seemingly unseeing of the destruction she'd caused. Lilly and I were still hidden and so she didn't see us immediately but she did eventually, and I looked at Lilly, unsure of what we were to do.
Lilly was grinning. A mad grin. A scheming grin. And I knew she was about to do something dumb.