Four fuzzy green cuttlefish wandered through a deep dark wood. Camping bags on their backs. Their large plastic eyes darting every which way, sometimes moving in opposite directions.

“This place is ...wrong.” said Ashley. The young kaporka gazed upwards at the tilted, off-kilter, trees.

Henrietta chuckled.

“I don’t think one needs supernatural senses to figure that out. The trees in this part of the forest are all made of plastic, metal piping, and wire. At least half of all dirt we’ve been walking on is rubber. The grass and weeds are all some kind of artificial turf…”

“And if I know my tv...and I do...We’ve been hearing canned sounds for the last couple hours.” said Thomas.

“The question is...why...The rest of this place is real enough. Why to make this particular part of the camp so obviously fake?” said Margot. Joining the conversation.

“I don’t know...Maybe it’s just to fuck with us?” said Thomas.

“Maybe but...Huh?...Honestly, I kind of wanted to say that that’s not a reasonable guess, but damn if this whole fucking place hasn’t been that weird, and awful, the whole damned time.” said Ashley. Shaking her head and making the pupils of her googly eyes float every which way.

There was a silent assent from the group. Then they continued to walk in silence. Keeping as quiet as they could be, because even if the forest was fake, the beasts and monsters living within the forest were real. What’s more, they also had the campers from all the other cabins to be wary of.

*************************************************************************************************************

Sometime later, when they’d made it deeper into the part of the wood all the campers had been assigned to, the group of four stopped.

“Hey, M? You have a plan for this too? Right?” said Thomas.

“...Y-, Yes. Why wouldn’t I?” said Margot.

“Oi, Madame Leader...You’re not sounding too confident there.” said Ashley.

“I...It would have been a lot easier if they hadn’t ‘helpfully’ stuck us with these camping bags and bracelets.” said Margot.

All the campers had been given camping bags, complete with tents, emergency supplies, and rations for the trip. How helpful the actual contents of the bag were varied since the bags had been randomly packed. There were bags that were filled with everything an outdoors aficionado could desire. There were also bags that were filled with fifty to sixty pounds of literal trash.

The missives couldn’t help because the bag’s contents remained random until the moment a bag was chosen and opened. Thus it was genuinely just down to luck that the green cabin had ended up with one bag of semi-decent supplies and three bags of utter garbage.

All this could be worked through, or even ignored, if the only issue was a lack of supplies. The problem was that the bags also served as burdens. Each bag came with a bundle of red cylinders capped with a blinking sensor. Each bundle came with a bracelet that the bag’s owner had to wear.

Margot imagined the “players” outside the game, had seen what her green cabin had been getting up to and had finally decided to try and fence them in a little. Adding something that would keep them from straying too far from the range of play.

If one left the designated portion of the forest, then the bags would explode. If one tried to leave one’s bag behind, then the bracelets would explode. Either way, it’d mean dying horribly.

Still, every problem had its solution, and even this circumstance had been predicted within the missives to some extent. Margot just had to put together the pieces and make a proper plan.

*************************************************************************************************************

Hours later, the group would huddle in the shadow of a tree. Waiting for a gloomy party of yellow ducks in basketball jerseys to pass before stepping out of the overgrowth.

Once the ducks were gone the green cabin’s cuttlefish emerged from the shadow of the tree. Thomas turned to Margot his googly-eyes spinning in agitation.

“Any explanation for why we had to hide from those clowns?” said Thomas. His normally irreverent tone strained by his frustration with the situation.

“Multiple reasons...First)We’re trying not to make a target of ourselves till we’ve firmed up our position...Second) There’s something here that we need to acquire and getting into a fight would have ruined things...Am I correct?” said Henrietta. Supplying an answer.

“Pretty much.” said Margot. Nodding.

“Mhm...Gah...Fine. But I’m starting to feel like we’re being hunted here.” said Thomas.

“Well, technically, we are being hunted...but that’s neither here nor there. Also, it looks like you’ve got your wish.” said Margot. Her tone growing more curt as the strain got to her as well.

“Huh?...Oh, shit!” said Thomas. His tone going from frustrated to panicked as he saw that the last red wolf was coming the group’s way. Its hulking, burnt-out, frame looking like a vision from hell.

“Tommy, You and Ashley, run defense. Henrietta, you watch my back during the extraction but maybe stay light in your toes in case, Tommy and Ashley get in over their heads.” said Margot. Immediately stepping towards her goal while Thomas and Ashley ran towards the tall, red, figure approaching from the distance.

The last of the red wolves appeared. Thomas couldn’t help wondering how a figure as large as the wolf was, could move around so quietly. The ten foot tall canine was a vision of hell, with most of its fur scorched black and the portion of its costume that wasn’t already burnt into charcoal, now presently on fire.

The normally cool-headed young man felt his blood begin to boil. Great blue-white worms of crackling electricity appeared running and down his costume.

He glanced to his side and saw that Ashley was just as ready to fight. Their frustration and anxiety after days of madness and randomness finally boiling over. This was something the two of them understood. This was something they knew how to handle. This was a fight. A clashing of skill, power, and strength, that could wash away the bad taste that playing as mostly helpless pawns in a game of immortals had left in their mouths.

The wolf howled, arching its back, and lifting its head up towards a sky that was thoroughly hidden by the treetops.

“Ora!” roared Thomas.

The wolf charged towards the group of cuttlefish. Thomas and Ashley surged forwards. Meeting the wolf in the middle.

Thomas was almost immediately sent flying. Ashley managed to resist the wolf’s strength the small portion of her powers that Margot’s goodies and hidden treasures had been able to unseal, allowed her to resist the red-wolf’s superior strength.

Youth, training, and just a hint of resilience boosting serums had Thomas quickly up, on his feet again. He created two short-swords made of electricity and neon-blue light. Then charged at the wolf. Slashing at its plush hide like butcher carving beef from bone.

The wolf cried out in pain and fury, its aura swelling and exploding, charring everything in the wolf’s surroundings.

This time Thomas was ready, grounding himself so that he only slid back a few feet. Ashley matched the wolf’s furry with a roar of her own. Electricity sparking from her form as she pounded at the costumed figure with punches augmented by electricity and her force-boosting abilities.

The cuttlefish and the wolf traded blows. Plush fists landing like extinction causing meteors. Ashley worked the red-wolf over, and Thomas took advantage of the openings she was making to try and literally get his pounds of flesh from the man inside the costume.

Inevitably, the red-wolf grew incensed. Bellowing in frustration and fury. It knocked Thomas to the side and used a straight kick to the solar plexus to put Ashley through a tree. The skeletal hound stepped backward and took a deep breath. Preparing to blow a great molten blast from its hoary maw, so it could reduce the two malingering mollusks to ash.

Just as the curtains were about to close for Thomas and Ashley, Margot and Henrietta jumped in. Henrietta got Ashley and Thomas out of the range of the wolf’s molten blast. Margot countered the wolf’s attack with an attack of her own. A dazzling and blustery explosion of wind, water vapor, and electrical energy that lifted the red-wolf off its feet and sent flying far back into the woods.

The wolf yelped as it flew into the distance and once the red-wolf was gone, silence returned to cuttlefish' part of the forest.

“...What the hell was that?” said Thomas. Out of breath.

************************************************************************************************************

“What the hell was that?” said Lamont. Standing up and leaning towards our window into the game world.

“Was...Was that the storm element?” said Darla.

“I can neither affirm nor deny that.” I said. Carefully keeping my expression blank.

Inwardly, I was doing a happy dance. I should have known that Margot would have used being trapped inside what was essentially a body that could only use electrical powers to attain yet another level of magical mastery. I suspected that picking up that last item after she’d made her deal with the purple cabin had hastened the process.

“Shit!... I should have bloody known your piece wouldn’t be a regular one, if you were willing to come in here with just the one.” grumbled a disgruntled, betrayed looking, Barnabas.

“Tell me one thing…” said Julian. The dark-skinned, dark-eyed spirit of desire glared at me.

“Okay…” I said. My brow furrowing as I felt something dangerous in the man’s aura.

She’s not an immortal is she? ‘Cause last I heard, only immortals and those on the verge of becoming immortal can use the higher elements. And since this was supposed to be a competition for mortals that would make you and her a pair of bloody cheats ...And cheaters go to hell you know..” said Julian. The heat and anger finally entering his voice, his aura surging filling the air with the scents of blood, and sex, and flame.

I frowned not like the implied threat to Margot one bit.

I looked down at the drunken man across from me. I considered how to respond to Julian’s far from subtle accusation, feeling the eyes of all the other immortals in the room fall on my shoulders.

“Nah, mate. That girl is as mortal as they come...She’s just really good at magic. Even mortals can touch the higher realms and truth with enough luck and talent behind them. That being said, I’d advise you to pace yourself with the drink, friend...Before you end up saying something you regret.” I said. My tone just a touch sharp. My own aura surging colliding with the Spirit-King’s.

Julian’s face spasmed. At first, he looked like he was going to jump up and challenge me to a fight. Then he clapped his hand over his mouth and ran out of the room. Barely managing to make it to the hallway before he began vomiting.

We all watched through the open door as Julian vomited into a trash receptacle. Continuing to spew the contents of his innards till his insides became outside, and a pool of viscera floated in the trash can. Then the young spirit-king keeled over. He wasn’t dead, just very drunk. Alas, inexplicably he’d managed to get seriously injured, without a single soul in the room laying hands on him.

For a while no one in the lounge said anything, then Lamont broke the silence by saying.

“Well...Looks someone couldn’t hold their liquor.”

I chuckled. The two of us meeting each other’s eye and coming to a wordless agreement after a moment of assessing each other through senses both mundane and supernatural.

“You know how it is, with kids these days...We coddle them all their lives and then they go wild with their first tastes of freedom.” said Darla. Smiling in a way that gave a me a feeling that she was simply pleased to see someone bleed.

“Tut-tut. Too true...Such a shame, such a shame.” said Lamont. Clucking his tongue, and shaking his head, as he joined me in my nonsense. Then he turned to our good host Barnebas and said,

“Oi, Barney...Aren’t you gonna call a ride for young Julian? He clearly ain’t in any condition to drive, fly, or teleport.” said Stefanos

“Huh? B-, But…” said Barnebas.

“His last piece just bit the big one. And the lad doesn’t look like he’s in any state to stick around...The least we can do is get him sorted.” said Lamont. Pointing to the aperture we were watching and having it zoom in on the crumpled, smoldering remains of the red-wolf. Who’d died from a combination of his crash landing and the several million volts of electricity that had made him airborne to begin with.

“I...Yeah…” said Barnebas. The little demon quickly caving to the one-eyed man’s pressure.

“I’ll do it.” said Darla. Pulling a smartphone from her purse and then favoring me with a measuring smile.

Soon a group of attractive young men and women appeared. A gaggle of spirits and demons who served whatever power the Spirit-king Julian worked with.

They came and took the Spirit-King away. Warily eyeing us but not daring to ask too many questions. Especially, when they saw their young lord covered in his own vomit, and blood, still clutching a bottle of immortal-level liquor.