(c) 2007 - 2008 by LFox
A World Apart
Chapter 03: Silk Seekers

The next day in the afternoon the bell chimes signally the end of class.  Everyone quickly packs up their belongings and heads out of the classroom.  The gang heads through the hallway walking side by side as they begin talking.

“So we going to Eden now?” asks Jessica.

Nathan shakes his head and looks at her.  “We have club activities remember?  Besides we were going to teach Elisha how to use a sword a bit”

Jessica puts on a sad face.  “Oh yeah”

“I appreciate you guys taking the time to teach me” says Elisha.

Nathan smiles.  “No problem”

They continue walking through the school passing through a door into a large open white assembly like room with a brilliantly polished white marble floor.  Inside a dozen or so people are busy practicing with each other with long thin wooden swords.  Nathan walks over to the side of the room and sets his bag down before grabbing two thin long wooden swords off a table.  Jessica takes a seat against the wall on a bench and watches as Elisha and Nathan head a clear area a short distance away.

For the next hour Nathan instructs Elisha on how to properly fight with a sword.  Jessica jumps in from time to time to give pointers or comments as she watches.  Finally after a long session they call it quits.  Elisha lets out a sigh as Nathan comes back from putting the wooden swords away.

Jessica smiles at Elisha.  “So, what do you think?”

Elisha sighs.  “Definitely a lot more work than a bow”

“We'll take some time out every now and then to teach you, don't worry you'll pick it up in no time” says Nathan.

Jessica looks at them hopefully with almost a pleading look.  “We can go to Eden now right?”

Nathan smiles slightly and nods.  “Yeah, yeah we can go”

In Eden in the middle of the busy streets of the city of Ralion thousands of white particles quickly appear and form together making up the bodies of the three of them as they arrive in Eden.

Jessica glances at them in turn.  “So, what are we doing today?”

Nathan rubs the back of his head as he tries to think.  “I dunno I suppose we try to find another quest”

Jessica puts on a droopy expression.  “Mmm so any idea where to look for a quest?”

“The handbook said many shops are usually in search of materials to make items so that would probably be a good place to start” explains Elisha.

Jessica glances around at the various shops nearby.  “Mmm that still doesn’t really help.  What do we actually look for?”

Nathan turns to the side and motions his hand at a shop.  “That I guess”.  Elisha and Jessica turn to look at the shop which has a sign in the window saying “Materials Wanted Apply for Job Inside”.  Nathan walks ahead and waves them over.  “Come on let’s check it out”

As they head inside the shop they find it’s an Elven clothing store.  Hundreds of dresses, cloaks, capes, shirts, pants and all kinds of clothing line dozens of racks along the walls.  All of the clothing is of the highest quality, elegant and practical for adventuring specially crafted to be worn on frail athletic Elven bodies.  Busy sifting through the racks are several female elves as well as the odd male or two that have been dragged along to give comments on the clothes they try.

Up in the back several booths stand with large curtains giving privacy to shoppers changing.  Finally nearby behind the counter is a tall female elf with long blond hair wearing an elegant stylish green and white dress.  The gang looks around the shop briefly somewhat dazzled by the large selection of clothing.  Gathering themselves they head towards the counter.

“Hi we’re here about the sign outside” says Nathan.

The elf woman looks at them a little surprised.  “Uh, well, you see I’m actually looking for some people that are somewhat experienced.  You see I need some people to gather spiders silk for me and it’s actually quite dangerous”

Jessica smiles brightly.  “We may be new but we're not inexperienced.  We're all pretty skilled fighters”

The elf woman bows.  “Sorry, that’s fine then.  Oh pardon me I forgot to introduce myself I’m Sethren owner of this shop”.  The three of them quickly introduce themselves in return.  “Now the job I have is to collect spiders silk from Silkwood Forest”

Jessica looks at her confused.  “What’s so dangerous about spiders silk?”

“The spiders I’m talking about aren’t the tiny little things you find in houses.  These are massive beasts as large as horses.  Still interested?”

Jessica turns a little pale hearing her explanation.

“We are” says Nathan.

“Okay then.  The spiders themselves aren’t poisonous at least the ones around the edges of the forest which are the ones I want the silk from.  Their strong, their mean and they can be very silent when they want to be.  I'd like you to bring back two bags full of silk each if you can manage that” says Sethren.

“That’ll be fine.  Do you have any bags for the silk?” asks Elisha.

Sethren smiles.  “Of course”.  She reaches under the counter and pulls out six handbag sized brown leather bags with a shoulder strap that are very well crafted.  “Now listen carefully because this is very important.  I want only fresh silk that hasn't been ripped or damaged.  You can get it from actual webs but cut the edges and carefully put the silk in the bag.  The best quality silk though is fresh from the spiders themselves.  You'll have to cut them open and pull out the bundle of silk that they have stored up.  And do be careful their silk can be rather sticky”

Jessica looks disgusted.  “Yech that sounds so disgusting”

Elisha ignores her.  “So, how much does this pay exactly?”

“I’ll give you 1,000 Ethian per bag and I'll provide a free token for gatekeeper travel for each of you.  And I suppose I can throw in a town portal scroll for each of you” says Sethren.

“We’ll do it” says Nathan.

Sethren smiles and takes out three gatekeeper tokens and three scrolls out from under the counter.  “Please be careful”

“We will”

They each grab two bags and a town portal scroll with Nathan grabbing the gatekeeper tokens.  As they come out onto the street again Jessica looks around.

“Which way was the gatekeeper again?” asks Jessica.

Elisha glances around briefly as she thinks then points down the street.  “I believe it was over in that direction”

As they head over to the gatekeeper they see her sending off another group of adventurers.  Nathan quickly takes out the tokens and holds them out.

“Excuse me we’d like to be teleported out to the edge of Silkwood Forest” says Nathan.

She takes the tokens from Nathan and looks them over briefly before smiling at them.  “No problem.  Are you all ready?”.  They quickly nod their heads.  “Alright one moment”

She concentrates for a moment then motions her hands at them causing them to disappear in a rush of white particles.  Moments later those particles reform just outside Silkwood forest as they arrive.  Ahead of them is a massive forest with lush green trees as tall as skyscrapers.  Large bushes, plants and flowers surround the area with only a small dirt trail that has just barely escaped being overgrown by foliage.

Nathan quickly pulls his map out and looks it over to check their location.  “That’s Silkwood Forest” says Nathan.

Elisha turns to them with a serious face.  “Listen, let's all be very careful giant spiders is a pretty big leap from goblins”

Nathan and Jessica nod their heads in agreement and together they enter the forest.  As they step inside the atmosphere grows slightly dark with jets of light streaming in from various corners as the sunlight fights to make it past the mass of leaves.  Overhead and around them the sound of birds and leaves echo through the forest.  Elisha walks ahead leading the way taking them on a detour off the path in hopes of finding the spiders they need.  After only a few minutes of walking massive white cobwebs as large as or larger than people start appearing up and around the trees.

Jessica glances around them at the webs looking slightly worried.  “I’m guessing, we’re getting pretty close?”

Nathan nods.  “I guess so”

As they continue walking the cobwebs become increasingly more frequent and start appearing over bushes, flowers and even on the ground itself.  As they continue Nathan and Elisha duck under a large web that’s situated between a pair of trees.  Jessica however busy looking around and not paying attention walks face first into the web.  She lets out a scream causing Nathan and Elisha to turn around.  They watch for a moment as she struggles feebly trying to escape the iron grip of the web.

Elisha sighs and shakes her head.  “Pay attention where you’re walking”

“Never mind that just get me loose before something comes” yells Jessica.

Nathan ducks under the web to get on the other side behind.  “Can’t you get loose yourself?”

“No, it’s, it’s like super glue or something.  It’s like I’ve got my arms encased in concrete”

“Alright hang on” says Nathan.

He pulls out his sword and starts deftly cutting the webs around her.  As he does Elisha ducks under the web to get to them then stands with her back to them as she looks around the area.  She turns around to see how they’re going and quickly notices a massive horse sized spider overhead of them slowly sneaking its way down one of the trees.  The spider looks bright orange with red stripes or vice versa.  Its massive legs have sharp dagger like points perfectly for attacking its prey.  As it silently creep forwards its massive eyes lay tightly fixed on Jessica and Nathan.

“SPIDER” screams Elisha.

Nathan stops and turns to her looking shocked.  “Where?”

Elisha points at the spider as she looks at it.  “Above”

Nathan turns back around to look at the spider.  Meanwhile Jessica glances up as best she can to see it heading straight for her.

“Get me loose, get me loose” screams Jessica.

Elisha drops the bags for the silk to the ground and readies her bow with an arrow.  She takes careful aim and shoots the spider in the face catching it in one of its eyes.  The spider lets out a loud shriek and glares down at her angrily.  Despite the force she put into firing the bow the arrow barely dinted the spider it stays hanging in only by the sharp edges of the arrowhead.

Elisha stares at the spider in shock.  “Oh you gotta be kidding me”

Nathan hacks at the web frantically as he tries to free Jessica.  “Come on you stupid web”

The spider leaps off the tree and lands in front of Elisha.  The arrow hangs out of its eye with blood dripping down its face as it glares at Elisha with a menacing look.

Elisha gulps down in fear as she takes a step back.  “Get her free I’ll, I’ll keep it busy...I think”.

As Elisha readies another arrow the spider lunges at her.  She quickly steps to the side avoiding it and backs away.  As it turns to face her she readies her bow and shoots it in another one of its eyes.  The spider shrieks angrily but shows no signs of slowing as it glares at her.

“Why the hell won’t it die?” yells Elisha.

Nathan glances back at the spider.  “The arrows probably aren’t going deep enough”

Elisha quickly readies another arrow on her bow.  The spider leans back and strikes at her with its two front legs.  She quickly dodges them standing her ground leaving her standing between its legs staring at its face.  She holds her bow up with the arrow an inch from the spiders face.  She lets the arrow fly and it plows into the spiders head stopping with only half the arrow hanging out.  The spider collapses to the ground and lies there motionless.

Elisha lets out a heavy sigh.  “Got it”

“Hurry up” says Jessica.

“I'm working as fast as I can.  You just had to walk face first into the thing didn’t you?” says Nathan.

Elisha looks around at the trees around them and overhead keeping an eye out for other spiders.  “Try to hurry.  I got a feeling more will be coming soon”.  A large shriek sounds out as a spider appears behind them hanging on the side of a tree.  Elisha turns to look at the spider.  “We got another”

“GOT IT” yells Nathan.

Jessica quickly pulls free of the web, dusting the few strands off her head.  Nathan and her drop the bags and ready their swords.

Elisha draws an arrow from her quiver.  “I’ll back you two up”

Nathan and Jessica rush the spider with their swords held tightly.  The spider drops to the ground and rears its front legs as it lets out a loud shriek.  They ignore the spiders cry and instead charge straight for its head.  The spider lowers its legs and jumps at them swiping its sharp clawed legs are their heads.  The pair of them both step to the side narrowly avoiding being hit.  Jessica quickly backs away getting some distance between herself and the spider.  Nathan however slashes at the spider’s leg taking it clean off with his sword.

The spider shrieks out in pain and backs off slightly as blood flows from its severed limb.  An arrow flies past Nathan hitting the spider right in one of its large eyes.  The spider shrieks out again and backs away as blood pools down the side of its head from its skewered eye.  Not wasting their chance Nathan and Jessica quickly rush forward and together stab the spider in the head with their swords.  The spider lets out a deafening shriek, its limbs flail around in the air briefly before it crashes to the ground dead.

Jessica shudders as she looks over the massive hairy body of the spider.  “That thing is so disgusting”

Elisha turns to look at her with a smirk.  “Would you prefer a giant leech?”

Jessica turns pale and shakes her head silently.

Elisha turns her attention back to the trees, glancing around as she wearily looks for further attacks.  “Keep your eyes open I’m pretty sure at least a few more will be coming”

Overhead a spider slowly descends down a thread of web towards Jessica.  Once it’s only several feet above it detaches itself as it lands on her knocking her to the ground.  Jessica lets out a scream as the massive weight of the spider lands on her quickly getting the attention of Elisha and Nathan.  The spider raises itself off Jessica with its front legs in the air ready to attack.

Nathan dashes towards the spider and slices one off its leg off.  Startled by the pain the spider stops in its attack and lets out a loud shriek.  Across from them Elisha readies an arrow quickly on her bow.  Jessica turns over underneath the spider and thrusts her sword up into the spider’s stomach.  Blood pools down the length of the sword as the spider lets out a long pain filled shriek while its arms and head flail about.  As the life drains from its body it goes silent and collapses on top of Jessica half crushing her under its massive weight.

“Get this thing off me” screams Jessica.  Together Elisha and Nathan lift the spider up in the air just enough so Jessica can manage to crawl out.  “Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.  That was so disgusting”

“Quit being a baby” says Elisha.

A pair of loud shrieks ring throughout the forest as two spiders appear on trees on either side in front of them.

Nathan glances to his side at Jessica.  “I’ll take care of one.  Jess you take care of the other”.  Jessica nods her head.

Elisha holds her bow ready with an arrow.  “I’ll help both of you as best I can”

As Nathan and Jessica rush ahead an arrow flies past.  The arrow whirls through the air and hits the spider Nathan’s heading for in one of its eyes.  The spider looses its balance on the tree and crashes to the ground but quickly recovers before Nathan reaches it.  Nathan dashes forward, he swipes his sword at the spider while carefully dodging and side stepping its legs to avoid being injured.  Despite his efforts though the spider manages to duck or step away from every one of his attacks to avoid being hit.

Across from him Jessica isn’t having much better luck as the spider ducks under her sword.  The spider comes close to hitting her as its legs hit with lighting speed missing by mere millimeters as she dodges.  Behind them Elisha readies an arrow.  Just as Jessica steps to the side she shoots at the spider nailing it right in the forehead with an arrow.  While the spiders occupied with the suddenly flash of pain Jessica seizes the opportunity to step forward and slash one of its front legs off.

As Elisha takes aim with her bow again a spider slowly lowers itself behind her.  Just as she’s about to fire the spider drops on her knocking her to the ground.  Her arrow flies off ahead just barely missing the side of Nathan’s head and stopping as it skewers his spider’s leg.

“Hey watch it” yells Nathan.  He quickly turns around pausing in shock as he sees the spider poised over Elisha.  “ELISHA”

Seeing he’s distracted the spider quickly smacks him to the ground with its legs.  His sword flies out of his hand and skids off along the ground stopping several feet away.  Elisha turns over and looks up fearfully at the massive dripping maw of the spider as it looms over her.  It quickly raises its leg and strikes down at her.  She just barely moves her head away in time to avoid being killed.

Meanwhile Nathan rolls away from his spider.  He snatches up his weapon and charges the spider sinking his sword right to the base in the spiders head.

Jessica ducks quickly narrowly avoiding being pierced by her spider’s clawed leg.  She hacks off one of its legs causing it to collapse to the ground as it loses its footing.  Seizing her chance she stands up and stabs downward on the spiders head as it tries to stand back up killing it instantly.

The spider looms over Elisha causing her to close her eyes in fear as it strikes down with its leg, the blow heading straight for her forehead.  A mere inch before it hits the spider’s leg bounces off as it hits an invisible surface with a metallic clang.  Elisha opens her eyes and gazes upwards.  A human woman quickly materializes holding a massive black scythe that’s shielding Elisha’s face.

The woman stands at a little over 6ft tall with very short black hair cut in a boyish style.  Her menacing yellow eyes seem to pierce the very soul of Elisha as she looks down at her.  The woman’s body is adorned with silver.  She has several bracelets on her arms, crosses hang from her bracelets, ears and neck.  On her face three teardrop tattoos run down the side of her face below her right eye.

The clothes on her body seem to give off an almost evil aura.  A pair of long black leather gloves go up to her elbows.  Her top is nothing but a skimpy piece of black leather with a matching skirt that leaves her belly visible.  A set of 6 inch high black leather heeled boots go up to her thighs.  On her back she has a massive black cape that hangs from her shoulders and crumbles on the ground from its long length.  Most eye catching of all though is the set of large black feathered wings on her back.  In her hand she holds her scythe a massive 8ft tall weapon with enormous spikes stretching off from the scythe head and the long jagged spear like base at the foot of the weapon.

The woman suddenly whips her scythe around whacking the Spider in the air with the base of her scythe.  She then whirls it around cleaving it in two with a single strike.

Elisha sits up looking at the woman almost speechless.  “T-t-thank you”

The woman glares down at her silently and unmoving as her scythe comes to rest against her shoulder.  Nathan and Jessica run over to Elisha and drop to their knees as they begin to check her over.

“Are you okay?” asks Nathan.

“Are you hurt?” asks Jessica.

Elisha shakes her head never loosing eye contact of the woman.  “I’m, I’m fine.  Thanks to her”

The woman glares at them coldly.  “Your teamwork is horrible.  You’re far too spread out and once more you left a vulnerable person like an archer unguarded”.  She turns her icy glare solely on Elisha.  “It’s clear you have no idea how to use a sword.  I suggest you learn and fast.  Next time there won’t be anyone to save you and from now on watch your back”

With that the woman turns and begins walking off.  Jessica jumps up and stares at her back.  “Just who the hell are you?” asks Jessica.

The woman pauses and turns to look at them.  “My name is for my friends.  Everyone else just calls me Death”.  With that she turns and continues walking.  As she does her body begins to fade from existence.

Jessica turns and looks at her friends seeming confused by her words.  “She didn’t mean THE death did she?  As in reaper?”

Deaths voice rings without the forest around them.  “That’s exactly what I meant”

An icy chill runs over Jessica from fear making her shudder.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you” says Nathan.

Jessica puts on a sad face.  “Yeah, me too”

Elisha shakes her head.  “No, it’s okay, I don’t know what happened I just.  I just froze up, I didn’t think to fight with a sword…  From now on I think we better be more careful.  There is no restarting or loading in this game.  If we die…it’s for keeps.

“Don’t worry from now on we’ll make sure we don’t get separated so much” says Nathan.

Elisha gives out a long heavy sigh to calm herself.  “Well, let’s get the silk so we can head back to town before more come”

Nathan nods.  “Good idea”

Nathan holds out his hand and helps Elisha to her feet.  He grabs up a set of the silk bags then goes over to a spider and cuts its backside open.  He rips it open with his hands revealing the pinky flesh inside with a massive white ball of gooey silk stored inside.  Being careful not to touch it too much he carefully puts the silk into the bag.  Nathan and Elisha quickly go about harvesting silk from the other spiders.  Jessica however stands over a spider with her sword drawn.  She raises her sword slightly then lowers it, raises it and lowers it again.

Seeing what she’s up to Elisha glares at her.  “What ARE you doing?”

Jessica turns to her with a weird face.  “I can’t do this it’s, it’s too disgusting”

“Ugh, baby.  Gimme that”

Elisha takes the bag off Jessica and swiftly slices open the spider.  Seeing it’s pink insides Jessica holds a hand over her mouth and turns away.  Elisha quickly closes bag that’s now filled with silk as she looks over at Nathan.

“How much more silk we need?” asks Elisha.

Nathan walks over to them with three bags strapped to his shoulder.  “I got three bags full.  How many you got?”

“I just filled the last one”

“Alright grab your arrows and we’ll head back”

Elisha waves her hand.  “Forget them.  Their too low quality they’ll probably just break if I try to pull them out and even if they don’t they’ll be too brittle to fire again”

“Alright let’s head back then”.  Jessica turns around and nods while still holding her mouth.  Nathan looks at her confused.  “What’s with you?”

“Apparently she finds cutting open dead spiders nauseating” says Elisha.

“Right”.  Nathan pulls out a scroll of town portal and opens it up revealing several paragraphs written in black ink.  “Let’s see.  You just read the text right?”

Elisha nods.  “That’s what the manual said”

“Wait, what’s that?” says Jessica.  They quickly turn around to see Jessica looking to the north so they focus their attention to where she’s looking.

“What’s what?” asks Nathan.

Jessica suddenly looks shocked.  “Oh my god.  It’s a woman”

Nathan perks and starts looking closer.  “Where?”

Jessica points ahead of them.  “There”

Nathan and Elisha both look where she’s pointing.  With their Elvin sight their able to focus their eyes to pinpoint precision almost a mile ahead of them.  High up in the tree is an elf woman strapped down by a mass of spider webs.

“She’s stuck in the spider webs” says Elisha.

Jessica looks at her friends expectantly.  “We gotta help her”

Nathan nods in agreement.  “Yeah but listen.  Let’s be careful there’ll be plenty more spiders around”

Together they sprint off ahead until they come to a stop at the base of a massive tree where the elf is trapped nearly a hundred feet above.  They stand around briefly looking up at the elf woman.  She has long white hair down to her shoulders with a ripped and tattered high class blue and white mage outfit on.  Her arms, legs and mouth are all covered in thick spider webs that don’t allow the slightest bit of transparency.  The woman herself looks horribly pale and her thighs are covered in dried white fluid.

Nathan rubs the back of his head.  “How are we gonna get her down?”

Elisha drops the bags of silk she was carrying then glances at her friends.  “I’ll climb up”

With that she dashes at the tree and jumps up.  Within a few moments she’s already 10ft off the ground.  She climbs effortlessly up the tree, grabbing onto vines, bark and small grooves in the tree to get higher.

“Wow, I forgot how good she is at climbing” says Jessica.

“So did I” says Nathan as he stares blankly at Elisha.

Within a few minutes Elisha climbs up next to the elf woman.  She quickly draws her sword and slices off the webs around the woman’s mouth.  The elf woman’s eyes open and she turns her head slightly to look at Elisha.

“Ple-please…help…me” mumbles the woman.

“It's okay, I'll have you down in a sec.  Just as soon as I figure out how” says Elisha.  Hearing them a spider crawls out from around the side of the tree above them screeches loudly.  “Oh crap”

Elisha quickly slashes the webs around the woman’s arms and legs.  The remaining webs holding her quickly give way from her weight and break causing her to fall out of the tree.  Elisha sheaths her sword and dives off after her grabbing her in mid air.  The two of them look up at the ground as it speeds towards them.

“This landing is really going to hurt assuming we live” says Elisha.

“Oh crap, their falling” says Nathan.

Jessica looks at him horrified.  “What’da we do?”

Nathan looks back at her.  “I, I don’t know”

With no time to form a plan or get anything to break their fall the two of them stand ready hoping to catch them as they fall.  As the ground rushes up to meet them their bodies start glowing with a hue of white energy causing them to fall slower.  Ten feet before they hit the ground the hue vanishes causing them to fall full force on top of Nathan.

Jessica kneels down as she looks over them.  “Uh, are you guys okay?”

“Y-eah” groans Nathan.

Elisha quickly looks around seeing spiders appearing in the trees around them.  She carefully gets off Nathan and helps the elf woman up so she’s leaning on her.

“Make a portal now” says Elisha.

Nathan quickly gets up and pulls out the portal scroll.  He reads over the text quickly and as he finishes the scroll disappears in a flash of white particles that quickly move away from him and turn into a massive blue portal.  The portal itself looks like a huge puddle of rippling water as it shows a reflection of the town it leads to.

“Let’s go I don’t think these things stay open long” says Nathan.

Jessica quickly grabs the silk bags lying on the ground while Elisha and Nathan help the elf woman through the portal.  On the other side they come out into a large circular stone room.  At the one and only exit a pair of human guards stand idly by to prevent anything hostile getting into town.

Seeing the state of the elf woman both of the guards look horribly shocked.  One of them quickly runs toward them.  “Are you alright?” asks the guard.

Elisha looks up at him.  “We need a healer for her badly”

The guard nods.  “Follow me.  We’ll take her to the church”

Nathan picks up the elf woman in his arm and together the group runs over to the church with the guard leading the way.  As they run through the streets overhead the sun slowly sinks down over the horizon leaving the sky in a brilliant wash of orange and red.  As they dash into the church several female priests wearing matching elegant short white mage outfits quickly head over to them.  They direct the group to a room in the back where a dozen other people are lying in beds wearing bandages or looking sickly.

The priests quickly take the woman and lie her down on the bed.  Immediately three priests go to work on her using magic to heal and restore her strength while a fourth priest looks over her carefully to access the damage.  Once she’s made a quick inspection she runs over to the gang.

“What happened to her?” asks the priest.

“We found her in Silkwood Forest.  She was strung up in a spider’s web high in a tree” explains Elisha.

The priest bows to them.  “Thank you for bringing her here”

Jessica looks at her somewhat worried.  “Is she going to be okay?”

The priest glances back at the elf woman.  “I…I can’t say yet.  She’s, she’s in very bad shape.  She’s dehydrated and weak from hunger.  She was probably up in that web for days, maybe even weeks.  Please wait outside for now I’ll let you know how she’s doing soon”

The gang heads out of the room and waits out in the hallway.  After about twenty minutes the priest finally emerges from the room to talk to them again looking somewhat relieved.

“She’ll be fine.  She’s awake and would like to speak to you” says the priest.

Inside they find the elf woman lying in bed under the covers awake and weak.  She does however look far better than she did, she’s no longer pale and instead of tattered clothing she’s wearing a soft white patients robe.

“How are you feeling?” asks Jessica.

“Weak, exhausted but good thanks to you three.  My names Aelvinua”

“What exactly happened to you?” asks Elisha.

“A spider crept up on me, stung me, paralyzing me.  It put me up in its web, I was stuck there for days.  With my mouth gagged I couldn't log out either or call for help”

Nathan looks shocked.  “You’re a player?”

Aelvinua nods.  “If it weren’t for you three I think I would have been stuck in that web for weeks, maybe months.  The injection things good and all but, stops you from starving to death”

“The spiders they…” starts Elisha.

Aelvinua nods.  “Yeah, you’d think being food was bad enough.  I’m still pretty sore and tender still from it but, I’ll be okay.  Word of caution, if play a female character watch out for the horny things of the world”

Elisha nods.  “I’m glad we found you”

Aelvinua pulls her hand out from under the covers.  “I want you to have something”

Elisha shakes her head.  “You don’t need to thank us”

“NO, I want to.  You saved my life, for real.  It's not much, but maybe you'll find it useful”.  Aelvinua takes one of her rings off and hands it to Elisha.  An elegant crafted gold ring with a large sapphire grafted to the center.  Elisha stares at the ring silently.  “That ring is a one of a kind called the Stone of Jordan.  It's a ring with a magicka well that has infinite power.  Just don't use too much magicka from it at once otherwise you could hurt yourself”

Elisha looks up at her.  “You know, we really have no use for this.  We can't even cast spells”

Aelvinua smiles.  “That's okay.  I'm sure you'll find a use for it eventually.  If not you can sell it if you like.  Last I checked it was worth one hundred million”

Elisha looks completely shocked and her eyes turn to saucers.  “YOU’RE KIDDING RIGHT?” yells Elisha.

Aelvinua smiles softly and shakes her head.  “Take good care of it”

Elisha looks at the ring and at Aelvinua seeming confused by her great generosity.  “You’re sure about this?”

Aelvinua nods.  “I’m sure.  Once again thank you.  Maybe one day I can repay you better”

“I’d say this is more than payment.  Well anyway you better get some rest”

With that they head outside onto the street.  By now it’s already dark with stars shining brightly overhead and lanterns lighting the almost dormant streets.  As they walk along in the cold night air Elisha puts the ring on her finger and looks over it.

“I can’t believe she gave you that ring” says Jessica.

“I know, one hundred million?” says Elisha.

“Well she went through a lot”

“Yeah, but luckily you spotted her.  You want the ring?  It is rightfully yours”

Jessica smiles and shakes her head.  “You keep it for now.  None of us have any use for it at the moment anyway”

Elisha nods slightly in agreement.  “Let’s go turn in the silk”

They head through town until they come to the clothes store.  As they walk in Sethren spots them and breathes a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad to see your all back safely” says Sethren.

Nathan rubs the back of his head.  “Yeah well, it was a hell of a trip”

Elisha sighs.  “I guess you could say we learnt quite a lot”

Jessica nods in agreement.  “Yeah but more importantly we managed to save someone”

Sethren looks at Jessica seeming confused.  “Save someone?”

“We found a woman strung up in spider webs she’d been there for days”

Sethren springs back and puts a hand to her mouth in shock.  “Oh my, is she alright?”

Jessica smiles and nods.  “Yeah, we took her to the church and she’s gonna be fine”

Sethren breathes a sigh of relief and smiles.  “I guess she’s lucky you three went out there.  By the way did you manage to get the silk?”

“Yeah, six full bags” says Nathan.

They all take the bags off their shoulders and drop them on the counter.  Sethren quickly checks through the bags to see if the quality is what she’s after.

“Oh this is beautiful, this is perfect.  It’s great quality.  Thank you so much.  As promised here’s your money” says Sethren.

Sethren pulls take six large gold coins and hands them to Nathan.  They all quickly thank her before leaving.

“Hmm, I suppose we should all spend our share however we want” says Nathan.

Jessica smiles.  “The first thing I’m getting is a decent sword”

“I need a decent bow as well as some high quality arrows and a good quiver.  I also need a better quality short sword or a dagger” says Elisha.

Nathan rubs the back of his head as he thinks things over.  “That’s a lot.  I need a sword as well and I could use a shield.  I guess armor has to come later.  Although…”.  Nathan looks down at the money in his hand.  “I don’t think we have enough for all that.  To be honest we probably barely have enough for one decent weapon with all our money together”

Jessica turns around to look at him.  “How much do we have anyway?”

Elisha puts on a serious expression as she thinks.  “Let’s see, there’s the 500 from each of our starter quests.  Except I spent 450 of mine on bows and arrows so that’s 1,050.  There’s 1,550 from the goblins we killed yesterday.  Then there’s 6,000 from the silk we just turned in”

“Which brings us to 8,600.  Like I said probably only enough for one weapon.  Question is, who’s stuff is most important?” says Nathan.

They all look at each other as they try to think.  Jessica thinks for a moment then says “Well I can make do with my sword for a while.  It’s just a starter weapon but its decent enough quality”

Nathan nods in agreement.  “Same goes for me”

They turn their gaze to Elisha.  She looks back and forth between them.  “What?  No, no I think Nathan should get his weapon”

“I can make do.  You’re the one that really needs it.  Your bows affecting your fighting, the arrows barely went through the spiders skin”

“But…”

Jessica smiles brightly.  “Trust me this is the best way”

Elisha lowers her head in defeat.  “Alright”

Nathan looks at the shops around them.  “So where should we look for your stuff?”

“Well, elves tend to be the best with bows so, an Elvin bowyer I suppose”

Jessica looks at her confused.  “What heck’s a bowyer?”

“Someone who specializes in making bows” explains Nathan.

“Oh”

Elisha takes out her map and looks it over.  “Let’s see, ah there’s one over on the east end of the city”

“Let’s check it out” says Nathan.

As they walk along the streets a small alarm suddenly plays and a female computer voice rings out around them.  “Play Timer entitled Stop Playing has expired”

“Hey guys the timer just expired we should get going” says Elisha.

Nathan smiles at her.  “We’ll head back after we get your bow okay?”

Elisha blushes slightly and nods.  They continue walking along the streets to the east side of town until they come to a stop outside a small shop called The Silent Archer.  Upon walking inside they find the walls are lined with all sorts of bows and quivers while dozens of different types of hundreds if not thousands of arrows sit in boxes on shelves.  Up against the wall behind a counter is a young female elf woman busy checking over the last few things before she closes her shop for the day.

Sensing someone the woman turns to the group and smiles.  “What can I do for you this evening?”

Elisha walks over to the counter while looking over her selection of goods.  “I’m looking for a bow as well as a quiver and about one or two hundred arrows”

“And how much are you looking to spend?” asks the woman.

“About 8,000 all up” says Nathan.

“Okay, oh you know if you want you can pay with real money as well”

Elisha looks surprised.  “Uh, really?  What’s the exchange rate?”

The woman smiles.  “1 to 10, 1 real dollar will get you 10 dollars”

“People actually pay that?” asks Nathan seeming a little skeptical.

The woman nods.  “Mmm hmm, in fact I made 50,000 just yesterday selling an S grade bow.  Granted it took me several weeks to make but I think you’ll agree that’s a hell of a profit”

“So you’re a player and this is basically a career for you?” asks Nathan.

“That’s right, this is the best thing that ever happened for me”

“Well we’re not rich enough to pay with real money” says Elisha.

The woman nods.  “I completely understand, honestly it’s usually only the really rich people that do it but boy is it good”

Elisha points up at a bow on the wall.  “Can I have a look at that one?”

Jessica sighs.  “This is gonna take a while”

For the next ten or fifteen minutes Elisha and the shop keeper talk about the bow and its quality.  They leave the shop only briefly for Elisha to test the bow out herself on a small archery range outside the back of the shop.  In the end she buys a D grade archery set for 8,000 which consists of a carefully crafted large silver colored steel bow, a silver colored steel quiver with a sturdy suede strap and 100 solid steel arrows with special arrowheads that have spikes on the underside to make it painful to pull out.

As they finally leave the shop Jessica lets out a heavy yawn.  “Man that was boring.  All she did was talk and talk”

Elisha glares at Jessica.  “Why am I not surprised?”

“Well anyway we better get home it’s getting late” says Nathan.

“Yeah I guess so”

To be Continued

Please send any comments/suggestions/death threats to [email protected]

Please address your email with the title of the story in the subject line otherwise there's a good chance your email will be deleted by accident.