The plan was stupid and if Meg had taken more than ten seconds to think about it she could have come up with something a lot better but she hadn't and now Shaynala was walking towards the bandit lair with her sword hidden behind her back and no shirt on.

She was trying not to look too hard but the sight of the shimmering blue blade of her scimitar against the dark flesh of her back was a little distracting. Meg tore her eyes away and looked at Bruce. He slunk behind her, using every bit of cover he could to stay hidden.

To her surprise he wasn't even looking at Shaynala. His eyes were locked on the two guards in front of the cave. Meg couldn't see them with her body pressed against the wall of the mesa and she was too worried they would see her if she stole a peak around the corner.

Master Leroy inched closer to her and whispered into her ear. "This will get messy fast," he said. "we must move quickly when she strikes."

"Can she pull this off?" Meg said.

"The six guards out here do not worry me," Master Leroy said. "The ones inside hearing the battle is what concerns me."

Meg nodded. Ten to thirty bandits worried her too. Images of Tang and Liang, or rather what was left of them filled her head. She looked back at Shaynala with a sick feeling in her belly.

Everything is going to be fine, she told herself. Nothing bad has even happened yet. She is just walking. Worry when it happens not before.

Halfway to the front of the bandit cave Shaynala stopped. She shifted her weight and stuck her hip out to the side, emphasizing the curvature of her hips. There wasn't a lot to emphasize however. Shaynala was trim and fit. Even from this distance Meg could see the lines of her back muscles as if they were carved from stone.

A memory of how she had looked as she took her shirt off distracted Meg. She remembered a small brown belly button beneath the ridges of her sculpted abs and the small firm globes of her breasts. She blushed and threw the memory away. This was no time to get carried away in day dreams.

Shaynala raised her left arm above her head and waved. She yelled out to the guards about needing help and how her camel had thrown her during the sandstorm. Meg half expected an arrow to be their response but the stat God was kind to them and the bandits must have had a low INTELLECT score.

The two guards jogged down from their post, sweating in the heat by the time they reached Shaynala. The men were short and brown from the sun. Their skin clung to their bones. Their hair was wild and black with grease. They wore hemp pants and sandals. Both were armed with a simple spear and a backup dagger.

Meg smiled. They couldn't even be level one yet. Eight hit points max. Stamina as bad as her own. Worse even. Meg looked at the scimitar on Shaynala's back. They wouldn't even need Bruce's spell.

Shaynala spoke to them. The men stared wantonly at her naked breasts and then they yawned and blinked and fell over. They were snoring before they hit the ground. Shaynala stepped over them and yelled at the four others guarding the corral.

"Something is wrong with your friends," she said.

The men stirred from their conversation slowly. Then they saw Shaynala and their friends on the ground and ran down the slope towards her. They were just as malnourished and poorly equipped as their friends and none of them expected a thing.

As they approached Shaynala leapt into their midst and whipped the scimitar out from behind her back. The men yelped and shouted, scrambled for their weapons but their spears were of no use at this range. Shaynala thrust her sword through the belly of a man, spun him around and yanked her blade free then brought her sword up and down, cleaving through the shoulder and arm of another man.

Blood spilled across the sand. A bandit threw his spear down and fumbled for his dagger. It caught in the waistband of his pants and he looked up, terrified and sad, as Shaynala swung her sword. The blade carved through the flesh and meat and bone of his neck and his head plopped onto the ground. A split second later a fountain of blood erupted from the stump of his neck and rained down on top of Shaynala's beautiful toned body.

The last man standing threw down his spear and dropped to his knees. He clasped his hands together and bowed his head. He spoke too fast for Meg to hear the words he'd chosen to save his life. Whatever those words were, they didn't work.

Shaynala jammed her foot under his spear and kicked it up into the air. She caught it with her left hand and launched it through the air. The man raised his head to see if his pleading had worked and saw the tip of the spear seconds before it punched through his eye and out the back of his skull. The force of the throw bent him backwards at the knees and he folded up like an accordion, as dead as all his friends.

Meg stared at her with a whole new sense of respect and awe. Farook was a lucky man.

Shaynala circled around the dead and looked down upon the sleeping bandits. There was no hesitation in her eyes. Only a brutal and detached fury. She wasn't seeing a human being. She was seeing Tang and Liang. Their bloody mutilated bodies strewn across the desert like chum for the buzzards. She stabbed them both through the stomach and waved for Meg and the others to approach.

As Meg and Master Leroy stepped away from the mesa wall the men snored. Bloody -3's leaking from their wounds as they slept. It was a hard way to go. She had been playing long enough to see worse. Human players were a lot more inventive and cruel than the npcs. But nevertheless she avoided looking at them for too long. She already had enough bad dreams.

"I guess we were worried about nothing," Meg said.

"At least the plan worked," Bruce said.

"Eyes up mister," Meg said.

"Speak for yourself," Bruce said. "you spent more time staring at her than the bandits."

"Did not," Meg said.

"You two can flirt later," Shaynala said. "my blade thirsts for the rest of their blood."

"Do you want to put a shirt on?" Meg said. "or wipe some of that blood off?"

"Let's not be hasty," Bruce said.

"Shut up and give her your jacket," Meg said.

"No. You give her your shirt," Bruce said.

"Then I'll be naked too!" Meg said.

"You're not naked if you're wearing pants," Bruce said.

"Silence!" Shaynala snapped. "If you are not ready then stay with the camels. I am going inside."

Shaynala turned on her heel and marched up the slope, her bloody blue sword whistling as she dragged its tip through the sand.

"I think that sword might actually be thirsty," Bruce said.

"That's creepy," Meg said. "I hate vampire swords."

"That makes two of us," he said.

The entrance to the bandit lair was a wide hole in the mesa. A ridge of rock hung down from the entrance forcing them to duck as they entered. Once inside the ceiling rose higher and they could stand upright again. It was dry and hot inside and the light of the sun dimmed behind them as they crept forward.

Slowly the cave narrowed into a natural tunnel that curved to the left and forced then to walk in a single file line. Meg volunteered to go first. Despite being the lowest level of the party the npcs agreed with her. She took her time exploring the tunnel. A lot of places in the last game had been booby trapped and she hoped to avoid being crushed by boulders or dropped into a spike pit.

At the end of the tunnel Meg stopped and raised her hand in a fist. The others halted behind her. Ahead of her in the dim torchlight was a tall scrawny guard dressed in a pale salmon colored robe. He leaned on his spear, picking at his wide white teeth with the tip of a curved dagger.

Meg flexed her fingers and toes. There was six feet of open floor between them. She could cross it in sixty seconds. Plenty of time for him to notice her and cry out. She turned and put her hands together then rested her head over top of them and shut her eyes. Bruce nodded his understanding and whispered something under his breath as he stared at the guard.

The guard inspected a piece of food on the end of his dagger then blinked and yawned. He wobbled on his feet and shook his head as if trying to rouse himself from his sudden exhaustion. But no amount of shaking could break the power of Bruce's spell. He yawned one last time and slid down the shaft of his spear and sank to the ground.

They crept forward. The man snored quietly on the cave floor, his face in the dirt and his ass sticking up in the air. Sometimes the developers had a sense of humor. But there was nothing funny about what Meg had to do next. She crouched over the slumbering bandit and placed one hand under his chin and the other at the top of his head. She took a deep breath and jerked his head to the left.

×4 SNEAK ATTACK BONUS

(4×4=16 DAMAGE)

His snoring stopped. The tension ran out of him and he was still. Meg let go of his head and pushed on. The others followed her.

1x BANDIT VANQUISHED:

+15xp

+3xp HAND TO HAND

+3xp STEALTH

The chamber beyond the tunnel was a wide low place with a small fire burning off to the side and two bedrolls next to it. Another bandit was tucked in and snoring with his mouth open and an open bottle of wine cradled in his armpit. Meg moved towards him. Each step slow and soft, barely leaving a print in the sand. The man snored and snored, his chest rising and falling, she hoped he was having a good dream.

Meg went to the empty bedroll and picked up the straw stuffed pillow. She carried it over to the sleeping drunk and knelt at the top of his head. She pressed the pillow over his face and leaned all her weight into it.

The snoring turned to choking and the man jolted away. He flailed his arms and kicked his feet. Meg shut her eyes and ignored the twitching of his body and held on tight to the pillow.

Little by little the air in his lungs went stale and his mind starved. His kicking slowed. His hands dropped to his sides and he died.

1x BANDIT VANQUISHED:

+15xp

+3xp HAND TO HAND

+3xp STEALTH

Meg didn’t bother to celebrate. Stealth kills had never been her favorite and she only used them during lower levels of play. Without a weapon and armor she wondered how much longer she would have to keep snapping necks and smothering people in their sleep. She definitely needed more lessons with Master Leroy.

She threw the pillow aside and caught her breath. There had been a time when her hands had shook uncontrollably after killing an enemy. But those days were long past. Her hands were steady now. The memory of his frantic clawing lingered in her mind though and she knew it would not be easy to forget.

At the rear of the chamber they found another tunnel and formed another single file line with Meg in the front and Master Leroy at the back. They followed the tunnel for ten feet and as it began to curve sharply to the right Shaynala grabbed Meg by the horn and pulled. Meg’s head leaned back and she grit her teeth and struggled to keep her balance. Shaynala let go of her horn and pointed over her shoulder at the ground.

Meg followed her finger to a series of rocks across the cave floor and nodded. Two of them were rough and uneven but the third was smooth and flat and buried an inch into the sand. Meg crouched and grabbed the ugly rocks and moved them out the way. The third rock was obviously a pressure plate. If she stepped on it some trap would be sprung and with no room to maneuver they would never avoid it.

I wish Dorian was here, She thought. He’s always good with traps.

She shifted onto her hands and knees and blew lightly on the plate. The red dust that coated it rolled away and she could see the vague hint of metal under the layer of rock. She looked up at the ceiling. There were no boulders waiting to roll down on top of her. And when she looked ahead of them she didn’t see any loose dirt. It wasn’t a spike pit either.

Meg stared at the plate and lost herself in thought. There were several ways to deal with the trap. She could step on it and find out the hard way what it triggered. She could make the others back up and trigger it with a rock from a distance. Or she could dig it up. The first two would result in injury or death or the bandits learning of their presence. The third was a delicate job, one she had never been particularly good at.

Meg unsheathed her claws and used her index finger to scrape away the dirt at the edge of the plate and worked her way around it. As a rule of thumb pressure plates only worked when a heavy weight was applied to them and then removed. As long as that didn’t happen she could avoid the trap.

When she had dug a three inch wide ring around the plate she dug down another two inches and slid her hands under the plate. She waited a moment. Let the tension and the anxiety roll through her and then banished it with steady breathing and the knowledge that she had done this before.

Meg lifted the plate out of the ground and found a long cable protruding from the bottom of it. She held the bottom of the plate in her right palm and used her other hand to pull the cable out of the ground. The cable ran for two feet and connected to a small tube that was embedded in the loose sand. Meg frowned. She hadn’t seen this kind of trap before.

Carefully she dug the tube up and lifted it out of the ground then aimed the barrel of it away from her and detached the cable. Nothing happened and she let out a sigh of relief.

“Looks like a fire cannon,” Bruce whispered.

“I’ve never encountered one before,” Meg said.

“They’re used by the military normally,” He said. “you step on the plate and as soon as your foot steps off, it activates a magical charge that launches a giant fireball at you.”

“Fuck me running,” She whispered. “we would have been toast. Thanks Shaynala.”

It doesn’t seem like a common trap,” Master Leroy said.

“I’ve been raiding bandits since I was a child,” Shaynala said. “I’ve never seen anything like this fire cannon.”

“I told you it's used by the military,” Bruce said. “These ruffians either raided an army caravan or they’re deserters.”

Shaynala grinned. “If these idiots are what the army has defending the realm then perhaps my people should stop trading and start raiding.”

“Stick to trading,” Bruce said. “It's far less costly to slay your enemies through their bank accounts than it is to run them through with your sword.”

“But not nearly as much fun,” Shaynala said.

“Hey Shay,” Meg said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m covered in blood,” She said. “how much better can I be?”

“Her sword is doing the talking now,” Master Leroy said. “we must get this over with quickly before she gets any weirder.”

“So we were right about the vampire sword,” Meg said.

“I’m not happy about that,” Bruce said.

“Me neither,” She said.

“It doesn’t drink blood,” He said. “It just craves it.”

“Cause that’s better,” Meg said. “Bruce, could you activate the magic in this tube?”

“Yes,” He said. “It's only a basic incantation.”

She held it out to him and he took it gingerly in both hands as if it were a turd. “I’m not going to activate it now.”

“Of course not,” She said. “when we run into a group of bandits, blast them and throw it away.”

“That sounds like a much better plan.”

Shaynala sighed and pointed down the tunnel. “I’m growing bored with this chatter,” she said.

“Cool your jets Bloody Mary,” Meg said.

She didn’t think there would be any more traps in that part of the cave but she took her time anyway. They rounded the corner and followed the tunnel to its end and stepped into a large rounded chamber with small outcroppings of rocks and ledges in front of them. Beyond them they could hear the chatter of several voices and the snap, crackle and pop of a fire.

Someone sang out of key, another laughed and Meg thought she heard someone belch out his ABC’s. It didn’t impress her. Her students did it all the time. One kid could even burp out his multiplication tables. Now that was impressive.

Meg led them up a small rise and came to a halt behind a cluster of stalagmites. Through the gaps of the stalagmites she saw a cluster of thirty poorly dressed men. All drinking and lounging around a large fire. They were armed with spears and knives and several clubs.

One of them however wore the lamellar breastplate of a military footsoldier. Unlike his comrades he was tall and broad shouldered with a thick chest and muscled limbs that strained against his pants and tunic. His hair was swept back and shiny with grease and instead of a wild beard he wore a fat black horseshoe mustache that would have made any fan of follicles weep with admiration.

He sat away from the fire on an old horse blanket with a large axe across his lap and a turtle shell shield beside him. With him was a young dark haired Zhanglao woman who had been stripped naked and bound with a collar and chain to a spike in the ground.

Her pale flesh was covered in fresh scars and she knelt in front of him with a bottle of wine in her hand, ready to refill his cup whenever he offered it.

Meg turned to Bruce and tapped the fire cannon and pointed it at the men seated around the fire. He nodded and pressed the cannon tube through the gap in the stalagmites and wriggled it into position. He placed his hand flat against the end of the tube and called his magic into his palm. She heard a sharp hiss and then a booming roar that shook the ground beneath them and shattered the stalagmites.

The fireball that erupted from the mouth of the cannon sailed through the air, screaming as it expanded, and smashed into the back of the bandit burping his ABC’s. It drove him face first into the bonfire and exploded outward sending molten fire twenty feet in every direction. Men screamed and flailed and threw themselves to the ground. But there was no putting out the magic flames that now cooked their malnourished bodies. After a short while they stopped fighting and died, their bodies smoking like green wood in the dusty chamber.

The man with the great mustache snatched up his shield and leapt to his feet. He raised the shield in front of him and stepped around the woman until she was between him and their only avenue of attack. Bruce dropped the spent cannon and they leapt over the broken stalagmites and into plain view. The man glared and pointed the head of his axe at them.

“How dare you enter Bolin Yi’s lair!” he said. “You shall die.”

“I don’t know if you noticed but you’re outnumbered,” Meg said.

Bolin Yi’s eyes darted to the charred remnants of his men and back to them. “If you come any closer I will kill her!”

The woman looked over at them, her eyes dripping wet with tears. “I don’t care if he kills me,” She said. “anything is better than being his slave!”

“Shut up dog!” Bolin Yi said.

“It would be a waste of a good woman,” Bruce said. Meg felt his mana charging up, his fingers weaving a complex rune in the air. “why don’t we leave him be.”

“Ah good you see reason, hey wait what are you doing with your hands?”

Meg blinked and when her eyes opened again Bolin Yi’s head swelled up to twice its original size. His eyes bulged and his cheeks puffed out and his skin stretched taut. And then his head exploded and chunks of his insides splattered across the woman and them.

Meg stared dumbfounded and covered in blood and brain juice and said “What the hell was that?”

Bruce stammered. “It was supposed to be a sleep spell,” He said.

“Good job,” Meg said. “He’s sleeping forever.”

“Oh man, I must have gotten the rune wrong. I circled when I should have squared. Shit.”

CLEARED THE BANDIT LAIR:

+50xp

+10 REPUTATION WITH CARAVANERS

AVENGED FALLEN FRIENDS:

+50xp

+20 REPUTATION WITH SHAYNALA

+10 REPUTATION WITH FAROOK

Meg wiped the gore off her face and sighed. “For a second there I thought we might actually have a fun fight,” She said. “I didn’t even get to throw him.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said. “I was distracted by the woman.”

The Zhanglao woman scrambled over to the spike in the ground and grasped it in both hands. She hauled back and groaned, her supple body coated in dirt and gore, and pried the spike out of the ground. Without it holding her down she ran over to the dead bandit leader and straddled him.

She held the spike above her head and stabbed down at him. The spike skidded off his armor and she adjusted her angle of attack. The wet squelching sound of the spike puncturing his corpse made Meg’s stomach roll and she walked over to the woman and grabbed her by the wrists.

“It's over,” She said. “you can’t make him suffer anymore.”

She struggled but couldn’t break free of Meg’s grasp. “Let me go,” She screamed. “I hate him. I hate him.”

Meg pulled the spike out of her hand and dropped it to the ground. The woman hunched over her dead captor and wept into her hands. Master Leroy removed his robe and draped it over her then carried her away from the body. Bruce wandered over to Meg and stared down at the man.

“At least she didn’t ruin the armor,” He said. “That’s worth five gold pieces easily.”

“How can you think of money at a time like this?” Meg said.

“Oh what am I supposed to feel sorry for a man with so little honor he deserted the army, raided who knows how many caravans and enslaved one of my people?” Bruce said.

“No, but she’s been through a lot. You can at least save the merchant talk for after we’ve gotten her back to the caravan.”

“You’re right,” Bruce said. “I’ll make sure she is okay while you gather the loot.”

“Be on your best behavior,” Meg said.

“I’ll make sure he is,” Shaynala said, sheathing her sword.

Meg started with the headless man. She loosened the straps of his armor then sat him up and slid the breast plate off him. She set it on top of the turtle shell shield and added his axe to the pile. At first glance everything was in working order. The shield looked rather new in fact and whoever had made the breastplate had learned their craft well.

She moved onto his pockets next and found a pouch containing two silver pieces and some dust. In a pouch on his belt she found five more silver pieces and a piece of beef jerky. She ate the jerky and pocketed the coins. The rest of the bandits were too cooked to search so she went through the chamber.

The bandits had not been very successful during their reign of terror. She found three horse blankets of poor quality, two kegs of Bolshoy ale, a small chest of forty copper, and seven dresses though only two were in any shape to wear. Compared to the Eagle it was a disappointing haul. But at least they had saved the woman and put an end to their raiding.

Meg piled everything together and took one of the dresses over to the woman. She was still crying but with Meg and Shaynala’s help she managed to get dressed.

“I don’t think there is any point sticking around,” Meg said. “Unless you want to cut them up or something.”

Shaynala glanced at her, all the fury gone from her face, almost as if it had never been there at all. “Why would I want to do a thing like that?” She said.

“I don’t know,” Meg said. “Because your sword hungers for chaos?”

“I am sorry if I frightened you,” Shaynala said. “the sword has quite an effect on the wielder after it has spilled blood.”

“It wasn’t any more disturbing than watching a man’s head explode like a water balloon.”

“Did you find much plunder?” Shaynala said.

Meg shrugged. “Not really,” She said. “we’ll need the camels to carry some of it.”

“I will go and see to them,” Shaynala said. “meet me out front.”

“Will do,” Meg said.

Shaynala left to check on the camels and Meg argued with Bruce until he agreed to help her carry the loot out. Without the fear of traps or attack they moved much faster this time and managed to carry their treasure out in three trips.

Outside the sun had climbed even higher and it’s harsh light felt like fire on their skin. The Zhanglao woman whimpered and stumbled forward. Meg dropped the keg in her arms and caught her before she fell.

She was a tall lean woman with dark hair down to her hips and wide green eyes that reminded Meg of a deer in headlights. Meg smiled at her, hoping to alleviate any lasting terror that might still be in her heart.

“When we get this stuff back to camp we’ll find you something to eat,” Meg said. “would you like that?”

The woman’s doe eyes scanned Meg’s face, no doubt looking for signs of a lie or the same cruelty she had just managed to escape. She didn’t find it. “It has been a long time since I had something in my stomach,” She said. “not since they attacked my caravan.”

“Were there any other survivors?” Master Leroy said. “we might be able to get you back to your people.”

She leaned into Meg and wrapped her arms around her and shook her head. “They came in the night while we were sleeping. The only reason I lived through it was because I was a woman.”

Meg adjusted her grip and tried to ignore the sensation of her frail body pressed against her own. The woman was too weak to squeeze too hard but the gentle pressure of her arms made Meg’s skin chafe and crawl. There were other things she felt but she did not oblige them. It wasn’t very heroic getting all hot and bothered over a traumatized slave girl no matter what her favorite fantasy novels said about the subject.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner,” Meg said.

The woman shifted her weight and pressed her body into Meg’s. Meg’s body warmed and she found it hard to breathe. She understood then that the developers had read the same books as she had and disagreed with the appeal of slave girls. If she wanted to she could have carried the woman back into the cave and spent the night in a heated embrace. But she wasn’t about to claim another person as a reward. Even if that person was made of ones and zeros, programmed to show her appreciation with the fruit of her body.

“Why don’t you go with Master Leroy while I load this keg onto the camel,” Meg said.

The woman’s grip tightened a little and she pressed her lips together, trembling in her arms. “I’m afraid.”

“Master Leroy is stronger than me by far,” Meg said. “You’ll be safe.”

DISMISS SLAVE GIRL?

YES/NO

Holy Macaroni, she doesn’t even have a name. Do better you guys, Meg thought.

She selected YES and Master Leroy took the woman gently around the waist and helped her over to the corral.

“Your morals are admirable,” Bruce said. “maybe you won’t make a fine merchant.”

“But I’ll sleep better at night,” Meg said, watching Master Leroy and the woman walk away.

“I wonder how long before Master Leroy puts the move on her,” Bruce said.

She swatted him across the ass with her tail and he jumped with a yelp. Shaynala smiled at her from the corral and shook her head. Meg didn’t bother to protest. When all the camels were looked over and given a clean bill of health Shaynala led them out of the corral and helped them load the loot onto their backs.

“How much of this loot do you want?” Meg said.

“We agreed to split it fifty fifty,” Bruce said. “Don’t give our profit away.”

Shaynala looked over their meager horde and sighed. “I would trade it all for my friends back,” She said. “I will take one keg and leave the rest to you.”

“You are most generous,” Bruce said, rubbing his hands together. “what about the woman?”

“What about her?” Meg said. “we aren’t slavers.”

Bruce wrinkled his nose and reared back. “I know that,” He said. “I just wanted to know what we’ll do with her.”

“She can stay with my people as long as she needs to,” Shaynala said.

“We might want to find out where she’s from,” Bruce said. “Family is important to the Zhangloa, they might send someone to fetch her.”

“Family is important to everyone,” Meg said. “But you’re right, we should ask about her people. And her name.”

With Shaynala at the front of their small convoy they led the camels back to their camp and relaxed in the shade. Shaynala wiped off as much of the blood as she could with a handful of sand and put her shirt back on. They made a meal out of jerky and the camel’s milk and ate in silence.

The woman tore into the food and chugged her milk. Twice she almost choked and twice she broke down in tears. Each time Master Leroy comforted her with gentle words and an even gentler hand on her back.

When her last fit passed Shaynala sat back and squinted at the sun. “We’ll wait for nightfall then make our way to the watering hole. After the camels have filled their humps and we’ve filled our waterskins we’ll head back to the caravan.”

“I would give my left ear for a pleasure barge right now,” Bruce said. “Velvet pillows, bikini clad women fanning me with big palm fronds, ten feet off the ground, luxury all the way to civilization.”

“Sometimes I think you live in a completely different world than us,” Meg said.

“It is hard to be rich,” He said.

“We’re all crying for you,” Meg said.

“Some of us are laughing at you,” Shaynala said.

“I did not realize you two were a couple,” The Zhangloa woman said.

“Get this through your heads,” Meg said. “We are not an item. We fight like cats and dogs because he’s an idiot and I’m stubborn. That’s it.”

The woman flinched and pulled her knees up to her chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Meg took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m the one who should apologize,” She said. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

She looked down at her knees and said “It is okay.”

It wasn’t but Meg didn’t have the energy to explain why. “We thought you might have family somewhere,” She said. “Somebody we could get a message to.”

She hugged her legs tighter and shook her head. For a moment Meg thought she might cry again and Master Leroy poised to comfort her. “There isn’t anyone,” She said. “I was born an orphan. I joined the caravan to get away from the gang I grew up in. It was fun when I was younger but I don’t like hurting people.”

“Do you have a name?” Meg said.

“The other kids called me Fantuan,” She said. “but they stopped when I got older. When I left they were calling me Nushi.”

“What do you want to be called?” Meg said.

“I don’t know,” She whispered. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

“The path is long and treacherous when you lose yourself,” Master Leroy said. “Even longer when you never knew yourself at all. But you have time to travel it. And I swear on my honor you will not have to travel it alone.”

Bruce bit off a piece of jerky and nudged Meg in the side with his elbow and winked. She rolled her eyes and took the jerky from him. She tore it in half and gave him the smaller piece.

“You are welcome to stay with my caravan for as long as you want,” Shaynala said.

“Thank you,” She said. “you are most kind.”

“You’ll work of course,” Shaynala said. “It will do your soul good to stay busy until your mind is ready to reflect on events.”

“I’ve never really worked before,” She said.

“What did you do at the other cara..never mind.”

Meg could do the math. A band of men and a pretty Zhangloa woman who’d known nothing but the streets. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why they had brought her along. It appeared the developers hadn’t lost all of their edgelord tendencies.

Meg finished her jerky and took out the coins she had found in the cave and counted them. In total she had seven silver and forty copper. She weighed them in her hand and held them out to Bruce. He frowned as he counted and scooped twenty copper pieces into his hand then took three silver as well.

+4 SILVER

+20 COPPER

(173 GOLD, 4 SILVER, 70 COPPER)

“Hardly a treasure trove,” Bruce said.

“That’s a good thing,” She said. “If there had been more that would mean more people had been harmed.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he said. He dropped his voice to a whisper and leaned in close. Meg felt the heat of his body ripple across her skin and shuddered. “What kind of caravan goes into the desert with forty measly copper, some horse blankets and two kegs of ale?”

“Think about it,” She said.

“I am and it is absurd,” He said. “There is no way they would have made any profit selling what they had.”

Meg stole the rest of his jerky and ate it. “They weren’t selling blankets and ale,” She whispered.

His brow wrinkled and then he leaned back and stared at her. She nodded and waited for him to fully process the arithmetic.

“OH,” he said. “They weren’t very good at it. A looker like her could easily ask for thirty silver back home.”

“I think they were dipping into their own product if you catch my meaning,” She said.

“Hard not too I imagine,” He said.

“Have you ever been in that kind of business?” She said.

Bruce straightened his collar and raised his index finger. “First of all there is nothing wrong with that sort of business as long as the workers are treated properly and fairly compensated for their services and provided with personal protection. Room and board, that sort of thing. Secondly I am insulted that you would think I would be involved in the pimping of vulnerable young women. And thirdly you owe me a stick of jerky.”

“I agree with your first point,” Meg said. “I apologize for your second point and wholeheartedly disagree on the third.”

“Apology accepted,’ Bruce said. “but you did steal my jerky.”

“Our contract states you have to provide room and board, that entails meals right?” She said.

“Yes but.”

“No butts about it Brucey Babey,” She said. “Your jerky is my jerky.”

“Never say that again,” Bruce said, wincing.

“What are you two whispering about?” Shaynala said.

“We were discussing her employment contract,” Bruce said.

“Oh sure,” Shaynala said. “If you don’t mind the smell of char broiled bandits, the cave back there is very private.”

“Perhaps we should avoid the topic of lovemaking for the time being,” Master Leroy said.

The Zhanglao woman realized she was the reason for his statement and looked sheepishly at them. “No it’s okay,” She said.

“I personally agree with Master Leroy because there is no way I’m going into that cave with him for any reason,” Meg said.

“She speaks for me as well,” Bruce said.

“Speak for yourself,” Meg replied.

Shaynala let out a hearty laugh and laid back on her bedroll. “You two should kiss already,” She said. “this bickering is getting annoying.”

“I’m taking a nap,” Meg said. “Move your bedroll over there.”

“Gladly,” Bruce said.

Bruce dragged his bedroll over by Shaynala and threw himself down. Meg rolled over in the shade and brought up her WAIT menu. She set the slider for nightfall and let it tick down.

Time moved on without her. She could have talked more to the woman or to Master Leroy and Shaynala but she was quickly running out of the will to socialize. A problem that occurred all too often in the real world. She couldn’t wait to be on the move again. Away from the blood and gore in that cave and the feel of people’s bodies pressed close to hers.

As she laid there, waiting for night to come, she thought back to the cave and to the men she had killed in her sleep. At the time it had been natural to her. She had killed countless enemies in the game and in a lot more violent ways than using a pillow. And she had been disappointed when Bruce had popped the leader’s head like a cherry because she had wanted to practice her new ability on him.

But now that the moment was gone and she could think without the fog of battle clouding her head she couldn’t stop seeing the sleeping bandit. She felt his hands on her arms, clawing and scraping at her to make her stop. She remembered leaning harder into the pillow to choke him with it and the abruptness of his death. Here one moment, gone the next. It was fucked up. So were a lot of the things she had done in the game.

It’s just a game, she thought. It doesn’t matter. Nobody is judging you. They like when you kick ass. But do I?

Meg chewed on her lip and saw the men burning and writhing and the slow bulging of their leader’s eyes as his head inflated like a bicycle tire. She shut her eyes and curled up into a ball. They were bandits. One hundred and ten percent evil and according to the game’s own narrative they were rapists and killers. So why did she feel so guilty? And why did she have to have this meltdown in front of her largest audience ever?

Meg forced her eyes open and turned off the WAIT timer. The sun lagged for half a second and started to creep behind the horizon as the system caught up with her. She sat up and focused on her breathing and the lesson Master Leroy had imparted upon her. It was just a game.

But she was a real person and she brought all of herself into the game. And the game responded to that. It had access to so much of her information it was mind boggling but there was no way around it. The system worked so well because it could tailor content to the user. She didn’t want to go back to playing old school games.

If killing was a problem she wouldn’t do it anymore. It was that simple. If somebody approached her and said “hey kill this person for me.” she would simply decline their request. The game would react. It would stop giving her murder quests. That’s what she had wanted from the start anyway. A way out of the endless meta gaming and the slaughter it entailed. She had to keep that in her head. It was too easy to fall back into her old patterns.

But what would happen when she couldn’t avoid it. There were some encounters that required the player to kill. She glanced over at Master Leroy and the woman. There were some encounters it felt wrong to ignore. She found her answer in the past. Reflection really was a powerful tool.

All she had to do was use her ZHUA GOU. If she learned more moves she could avoid killing her opponents. Sure they might not be able to walk or go to the bathroom without assistance but it was better than smothering them in their sleep. It was classic superhero logic and she felt stupid for not realizing it sooner.

Once again she had forgotten her path and wandered into all the wrong corners. At least this time it was in the game and not during parent teacher conferences. Meg got up and put her bedroll away then nudged Bruce awake with her foot.

“What is it?” He said.

“I need to talk with you,” She said.

“What are we doing now?” He replied.

“Not here,” She said. “In private.”

Bruce sat up and looked over at the others as they slept. “I don’t want to go to the cave with you,” He said.

“Not the cave you jackass,” She said. “Down by that rock will do.”

He started to rise and hesitated. “What exactly are you planning?” He said.

“I’m going to ask you for a favor,” She said. “It’s kind of embarrassing so I wanna do it away from the others.”

“Meg I’m flattered but I’m not taking your virginity,” He said.

“I swear to the Grand Elder, you always say the one thing that will piss me off,” Meg snarled.

“I get that a lot,” He said. “But you’re pretty good at it yourself.”

“Get up and come with me,” She said.

Bruce swallowed a lump in his throat and stood up. “Okay but I have to warn you. It has been a few months and I might not last all that long but give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready to.”

Meg clenched her jaw and glared into his eyes, fully prepared to give him a haircut with her claws. But then she realized the only reason she was upset was because she was embarrassed. She had been alone for a long time and in that time there had been countless nights where she had done nothing but read every halfway decent web novel about hot fantasy creatures shacking up with fair human maidens. A lot of them had been on the game’s fan fiction forums. She had practically begged the game to give her cheesy melodramatic sexy times.

It was another face palming realization and rather than press on with the charade she gave up. “Follow me,” She said.

She plodded off toward the look out rock and he followed fast on her heels. “No offense but your tone of voice doesn’t scream sexy,” Bruce whispered. “If we’re going to do this I’d rather you not sound like Master Leroy reading a fortune cookie.”

Meg turned abruptly and pushed Bruce into the rock and pinned him there with her arm across his narrow chest. “We aren’t doing anything,” She said.

“We aren’t?” He said. “I mean, not that I was interested in you or any of your goodies.”

“Can you please just shut up and listen for a second,” she said.

He pressed his lips together and nodded. She took a step back and removed her arm from his chest. The memory of his body against hers burned fresh in her mind and she shook her head. I really need to get laid, she thought.

“You were right about coming here,” She said. “I was caught up in being a hero. Putting down evil and standing by my friends. But we had no business being here.”

“It must cause you great pain to admit I was right,” He said.

“It isn’t time for you to talk yet,” Meg said. “I became a merchant so I could get away from the killing. The truth is for all my holier than thou talk I’m a pretty messed up individual. You burned down a haberdashery shop but I once lured a Devil mob into the CAMO-BOIS guild hall just because I was bored. Their strongest member was level fifteen. Have you ever seen a devil pull two people apart at the waist and fuse them together? Two tops. Two bottoms. It was awful”

Bruce’s eyes widened and he looked pleadingly up at the sleeping forms of Shaynala and Master Leroy. “I know I’m not supposed to talk right now but you’re what the orphan gangs call freaking out right now,” He said. “Do you want to try breathing. You martial arts types always like doing that.”

Meg took a huge breath in and held it. He stared at her, waiting for her to exhale. His eyes grew wider when she didn’t and he breathed in and exhaled, pointing at himself to guide her into the next step.

“Look, breathing doesn’t work if you only do half of it,” He said. “You’re brea instead of breathing right now.”

Meg let the air rush out of her lungs and gave herself a shake. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at having deep conversations with people who I find totally unattractive. And when I get nervous I wander and overshare. It's not important. I just wanted to tell you I don’t want to kill anyone ever again.”

“That pillow thing was a little rough,” He said.

Meg frowned. “You literally blew someone’s mind,” She said.

“That was an accident,” He said. “I was trying to impress the woman with some old fashioned rune magic and I circled when I should have squared. It's a complex technique.”

“We’re getting off topic again,” She said. “I don’t want to kill anymore but I have the tendency to jump into fights and take any quest that crosses my path. What I need you to do is make sure I don’t kill anyone when I do it.”

“That is a lot of responsibility on me,” He said.

“You’re my employer,” She said. “My behavior reflects on you.”

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Grand Elder, why didn’t you tell me I was hiring a psychopath?” He muttered.

“All you have to do is remind me of my vow whenever a situation arises that might end in me smothering a man to death in his sleep,” She said.

“You mean like I’ve been doing?” Bruce said.

Meg winced. She had been telling the game from the start she didn’t want to fight anymore and it had tried to steer her away from it only to give her more when she responded by fighting.

“Damn it,” She said. “Once again I’m my own worst enemy.”

“You should do what I do,” Bruce said. “Blame other people. It is a lot easier.”

“You’re right,” She said. “You kept telling me and I didn’t listen. Starting now I’m going to listen to you. When you say we’re merchants not mercenaries I’ll listen.”

“Excellent,” He said. “Now about my beef jerky.”

“You had better be talking about the jerky I ate or I’m going to go back on my vow so fast,” She said.

Bruce pressed himself against the rock and raised his hands up in front of him. “That’s what I was referring to. I swear.”

“Alright then,” Meg said.

DONATION RECEIVED:

DO YOU WANT TO READ THE ACCOMPANYING MESSAGE?

YES/NO

The pop up belonged to her streaming service and she selected YES.

DR.PLUMBUTT DONATED 100.00

SO GLAD I COULD CATCH THE STREAM, YOU'RE DOING GREAT. NOW KISS HIM!!!!!!

Meg sighed and closed the message. A hundred dollars was generous, especially with the no refund policy she had in place. And Dr.Plumbutt had been with her since the early days. They’d even run dungeons together. Ah what the hell, she thought.

“Hey Bruce,” She said.

“Yes?” He said.

Meg grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down to her level. She pressed her mouth to this and shut her eyes. Heat seeped out of him and spilled into her. He gasped mid kiss then relaxed and wrapped his arms around her. Their mouths softened and slowed and he leaned back against the rock, cradling her in his arms.

She hadn’t meant the kiss to last so long but once she started she couldn’t stop. She blamed all those darn Zhanglao fan fictions she had totally not been reading on her lunch breaks. Bruce’s arms coiled around her and crushed her to his chest. She went with it and put her hands on the lapels of his jacket and let his body heat join with hers.

They broke their kiss and moved in for another. The sun crept lower and the sky darkened. Bruce’s tongue slipped past her lips and into her mouth. She squirmed and sighed and felt her body tingle with heat and desire. Pressed herself harder against him and felt his own body respond.

Chat went nuts. Smaller donations poured in and subscription numbers rang up like a cash register on overdrive. Someone demanded she go all the way. Others told her she’d be better off chasing Shaynala or a camel. She barely saw any of it though. Her heart was pounding and for once in her life her head was quiet.

Her shaking hands ran down his jacket and pulled at the belt around his waist. His jacket opened. His kisses burned through her like the fire in her guts. She shoved her hands into his jacket, caressed the lean muscle of his chest, and reached for the hem of his tunic. She wanted it. Needed it. She deserved it. And millions of people would see her avatar role playing naked with an npc. She almost didn’t care.

Meg retracted her hands and pulled away from his smoldering wet mouth. “You’re right we should go to the cave,” he said.

Meg shook her head and straightened her tunic. “I can’t,” She said.

“You’re right,” He said. “Having sex by a headless corpse would be all kinds of weird.”

“It isn’t that,” She said, hiding her face in her hand. “I mean that’s part of it.”

Bruce put his hands out and caught her by the hips. He bent down and pulled her hand away from her face and smiled at her. She almost kissed him again.

“It isn’t the employee thing is it?” He said. “Because I can differentiate between work and play. And we both know you’ll put me in my place if I try to take advantage of you.”

“I’m going to wake the others,” She said. “we should get back as soon as we can. Farook will worry.”

She pulled out of his grasp and he stood in place and stared at her as she walked away. She didn’t look back. The game was really good at simulating emotions and she didn’t want to see the pain and confusion on his face or that sad primordial anger he sometimes got in his eyes.

WILL THEY WON’T THEY:

+15xp

+12 SOCIAL

+3 REPUTATION WITH BRUCE

At the top of the hill she woke Shaynala. The desert beauty woke up slowly with a long stretch and smiled at her. “About time,” She whispered.

“You were sleeping,” Meg said.

“Very lightly,” Shaynala said. “Don’t worry though your secret is safe from me. Unless Farook tickles me, then I’ll tell him anything he wants to know.”

“Is everybody in this desert horny?” Meg said.

“Everything is more extreme in the desert,” Shaynala said. “A flower blooms once a year. Maybe you should go back down there and sort him out.”

“I’ll worry about my flower,” Meg said. “you worry about the camels.”

Shaynala laughed and touched Meg on the cheek. “You remind me of my little sister,” She said. “So cute and stubborn. You’re a cactus with eyes.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that so she hurried over to Master Leroy and woke him up. He blinked twice and saw the night sky and nodded. And then he tried to go back to sleep. After some more shaking he finally agreed it was time to wake up. She left him to wake up the Zhanglao woman and helped Shaynala with the camels. Bruce joined them a few minutes later. His jacket was tidy, his belt cinched tight, and his hair swept back. All damage to his pride and heart hidden by his usual air of haughtiness.

The five of them set off down the hill, walking in step with the camels. Meg tried to ignore the tortured screams of her body’s carnal desires and the red hot embarrassment burning in her cheeks. Nobody seemed to notice her internal struggle though and Shaynala led them back around the mesa and they cut east across the desert.

The ground was mostly uneven hills that rolled on as far as the eyes could see. There were rocks and boulders and small pebbles that tripped them up but nobody complained. They stopped twice to drink and rest and a third time when the Zhanglao woman fainted. After that they put her on one of the camels and pushed on.

The night was cold and black. The wind slithered through the hills and rustled her scales but it could not put out the memory of Bruce’s lips or the taste of his tongue as it wrestled with hers. She shivered and pulled the straps of her pack tighter. It was just a kiss. And the audience had loved it. But the memory haunted her and pulled her back to the past. To a time when she had been teased and ridiculed and made to feel small.

She hadn’t understood why either. She had liked a boy in her class and announced it at Show and Tell. He had laughed at her. Everyone had laughed at her. And then the teacher had kindly told her it was inappropriate without telling her why.

The sound of their laughter and the jokes that followed had gutted her. The next day her friends had abandoned her to play with kids who weren’t so embarrassing and she still couldn’t figure out why. But her young mind learned one lesson that day and that was to avoid opening up at all costs. To keep her feelings to herself. To never kiss or hug or hold hands where anyone could see you.

It was a strange stigma to have when she spent half of her free time streaming to millions of people on the internet. But she had it and she couldn’t bring herself to engage with the emotions bubbling up inside of her. Master Leroy’s lesson had seemed so simple but now it failed her. Or rather she failed it. And that knowledge only frustrated her more.

The night passed in a dreary haze of conflicting emotions and self flagellation. The morning sun yawned and burned and turned the endless hills into an oven where not even the wind could provide relief. They tied the reins of their camels to a withered old bush and put out their bed rolls upwind of the animals.

They ate jerky though no one had an appetite and the warm camel milk was almost stifling. They could not afford to drink their water though. According to Shaynala they had another night before they reached the watering hole.

Nobody complained about the wait. They were tired and thirsty and nobody wanted to take another step in the heat. Bruce removed his jacket and laid down and shut his eyes. His tunic was a pale shade of yellow, woven of fine silk with two big buttons going down the neckline. He undid them and pulled his shirt open. She saw his bare chest and the sweat glistening on his muscles and looked away before the others noticed.

Shaynala lingered with the camels and Master Leroy lounged next to the Zhanglao woman. She hadn't said a word since being placed on the camel and now she slept as soundly as a child in its mother's womb. Meg passed the time by scanning chat and thanking people for their donations. A part of her wanted to strangle DR.PLUMBUTT. She knew it wasn't their fault though. She was the one who'd had the melt down. And now she was stewing in it.

Meg stood up and stretched. "I'm going to wander a bit," she said.

"Stay close," Shaynala said. "I heard coyotes last night. It might be too hot for them to hunt but if they're starving the heat won't stop them."

"I'll keep my eyes open," she said.

She left her gear with her bedroll and climbed to the top of the hill and down the other side. She wasn't sure what she was doing but she couldn't sit with them. With Bruce. Two hills away she found a large bush embedded in the hillside and sat down in its shade.

She crossed her legs and worked on her breathing. It was difficult to turn off her mind. There were so many things vying for her attention. The audience, her moderators, and her own embarrassment all swirled inside her mind like a whirlpool. It uprooted her and swept her away but she didn't give up.

There was sand and dirt beneath her a thick bush with large pink flowers, growing in defiance of the sun, behind her. The sky was blue and hot and the wind rustled her scales.

She focused on these things and grounded herself in the moment. She was no longer a child. No longer the butt of the joke. She was an adult who had lived and loved and survived. She could teach a room full of kids and entertain an audience of millions.

There was nothing wrong with kissing Bruce. She had wanted to do it. Her fans had wanted her to do it. No one was making fun of her and if they were she had no idea who they were. And anything they knew about her was a shallow facsimile. Not the real her.

Meg held a fistful of sand and let it slip through her fingers. It was just a game. She loved it because it allowed her to do things she couldn't in real life. To be and explore the aspects of herself that she had buried deep within her soul as a child. Total immersion meant living as if it were real.

That's what she wanted and that is what she would do. Anyone who had a problem with that, including her own inner critic, could go to hell.

Meg pulled up her chat and opened a channel to her audience. "Hi everyone," she said. "we've been playing for a little over eight hours now and I'm a little overstimulated. I'll be in chat for the next half hour with the mods but I'm calling the stream done for the night. If you want another streamer to watch, check out Dorian's stream."

Meg brought up her menu with a thought and initiated the exit protocol.

LOGGING OUT 5….4...3..2.1

EXIT COMPLETE