《Stepping Through》We Play the Game – 27 – You are the Murderball Player of the Age
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Greta laughed.
“Of course not,” she said. “That’s not how it works. Has Devon told you nothing about what these excursions are truly about.”
Tina took a sip of her drink. It was cold, just like it had just been in a fridge, but of course that couldn’t be, right?
“He says his compass picked me because I have to fight for this hammer,” she admitted. “It sounds crazy, but its starting to make a kind of sense, if anything in this makes any kind of sense.”
“And does he trust you to keep up your end of the bargain?” Greta just came out and asked.
“Um, what?” Tina replied, not liking the implications behind those words. “Look, I was hired for a job, and this is not it, so there was no bargain. And I haven’t even decided if I’m going to play that crazy game firebomb throwing it turns out he wants me to. I wasn’t asked until I was already here. So it a bit hard to answer your question the way you made it sound.”
Was ever time traveller some kind of manipulative game player?
Greta held her gaze, seemed a little amused, not to mention judgmental.
“Let me put it another way,” she finally said. “Do you think he’s up to this task he set for himself?”
Tina put down the goblet of Sangria. For some reason, at that moment, Tina reminded of the sphinx of all things, speaking in nothing but riddles. She recalled the Greeks also had sphinxes in their myths along with the Egyptians.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“What’s in all our best interests. To secure the hammer for my own client and perhaps get you back home where you belong. Isn’t that what you want?”
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“Um.. yes,” Tina replied. “But…”
“Of course this will mean you must come and join my team, at least for the time being, so we can win the hammer. Then you can go home and forget about all this sorry business.”
“That doesn’t sound much different than the deal I’ve already been offered,” Tina told her.
“Oh, but it could be so much more,” Greta replied. “Your home could be much closer to what you want. What you truly want, not the string of dead end jobs and amateur athletics. If you are the murderball player you are purported to be. If you are what the compass actually told Devon you are, you could get the world you desire, not the one you were dumped in.”
“Purported?” Tina said, feeling again a little insulted by Greta’s tone, enough that she didn’t really pay much attention to what the woman said after that. “What do you mean I could get whatever world I want?”
“Apparently you are the Murderball player of the age,” Greta offered with a dollop of obvious sarcasm. “I’ll admit, you don’t look like much, but I’ve been wrong before. And I’m willing to take a chance on you. If you are willing to set aside your preconceived notions.”
“What do you mean by ‘what I truly want’?” Tina asked. “And what did you mean about what the compass told him?”
Greta laughed again.
“Oh, the dwarf hasn’t told you how stepping through actually works, has he?”
“No…” Tina started. “Although he did tell me this is a Constantinople, not the Constantinople. Is that what we’re talking about?”
She really didn’t like the idea there were so many things going on not only didn’t she know, but was that she didn’t even know the right questions to get answers to. What were the right questions? Her mind was reeling.
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“Hmm…” Greta gave her another appraising look. “Perhaps there’s more to you than meets the eyes after all. Very well, here’s-”
Artemis burst out onto the patio.
“Your glory,” she gasped out. “Varangians have broken through the gates.”
“Damn that dwarf, he has friends everywhere!” Greta swore. “You are going to have to make that choice Tina. Now!”
“Now?!” she said, getting up as the older woman did.
Suddenly, several quite hairy, well-armored Viking-looking warriors armed with axes and swords burst onto the patio right on Artemis’ heels. And they did not seem friendly at all.
“In the name of Alexios, Emperor of the Byzantines, you will hand over Tina Rutledge or face the consequences,” their red bearded leader yelled, brandishing a lethal looking double bladed axe, which to Tina’s horror was dripping blood.
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Legendary Farmer (available on Kindle July 2022!)
NOTE: Legendary Farmer is now COMPLETE. The first book, Clearing, was released on Kindle Unlimited July 5, 2022 with significant edits. I will post the first chapter of Clearing, as well as three chapters of Cuckoo's Dream, another novel in the LF universe, as a stub, with a link to the first book, so if you love LF and want me to be able to keep writing consistently, please go give Clearing five stars! In the VRMMORPG, Veritas Online, things are getting a little stale. Since the game launched, only one world- wide event has occurred, and that was a year ago.. The players are still having fun, but everyone agrees it’s about time for something big to happen. Everybody tends to forget that big things grow from small things, and little things are always changing in Veritas.The human country of Quarternell is at peace for the first time in... ever. Aspen, a former war hero, feels like he’s earned a quiet life together with his animal companions. They’re tired of fighting, and other people in general. They plan to live peacefully, far away from the city. As soon as Aspen figures out this farming thing out, he’s never going to go anywhere again. Unfortunately for Aspen, his country and his goddess aren’t quite done with him yet.Rouge the Rogue is a casual gamer in Veritas Online. She’s just a kid, and her focus is supposed to be on school and hanging out with friends. Emphasis on ‘supposed to’. She’s already pretty good at the school thing, and she doesn’t actually have that many friends. What she really loves is exploring all the cool ways the developers of Veritas found to make their game unique and realistic. Then she’s offered a very special quest, and an opportunity to go beyond the average player. She’s never been that much of a rule follower anyway....Clearing is appropriate for most ages. It has minimal foul language, no sex, and some violence. It is LGBTQ+ friendly. (P.S. IMPORTANT! This book contains very mild profanity, no sex, and is meant to be FUN. Yes, the characters sometimes think Deep Thoughts, and idealism pretty much runs rampant, but, in the end, I hope you just enjoy reading it. Laugh, cry, share it with your kids, read it to your dog, whatever makes you happy. My goal is for it to be accessible to everyone from ages 12ish on up, so you could definitely consider it YA, but with lots of big words because I don't believe in talking down to my readers.) Book Two: Harrowing (Starts after the original Chapter Fifty, now Sixteen, since I condensed chapters from the same perspective together.) Zoey has started her summer internship at Veritas Corporation, and she can honestly say that being an adult is boring. Until she starts learning secrets she was never supposed to know. In game, Rouge is finally making progress on her big quest. Apparently Duke Penbrooke took too long to return to the world, so the world is coming to get him... in the form of a few assassins. Aspen is going to have to face the life he left behind, and deal with the fact that it's not as easy being 'dead' as he thought. When what he'd hoped would be a short trip back to civilization to resupply turns into a whole lot more, he'll have to fight for his life, his friends, and his kingdom. Book Three: Sowing Rouge and Aspen have reached Bright, only to find that their enemies were already expecting them. They will have to quickly unravel the mysteries of who their opponents actually are, because they're already ten steps behind. Rouge and Aspen are finally home, but that doesn't mean they can return to their peaceful days of farming. Their enemies are hot on their heels and determined to destroy everything they've managed to achieve. Join them and all their friends for the final volume of Legendary Farmer.
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