Red and gold streaked across the night sky in a shallow arc, fading into a soft glimmer at the edge of the pale yellow horizon. The lights of Denver set the hovering clouds aglow, but out on Norah’s farm, we could see the meteor shower without obstruction.

Another golden sparkle raced across the dome above and Elise gasped. “Did you see it? I think it’s starting!”

I turned back to the wide-open cellar door and shouted down to the others, “It’s starting!”

The clamor of girls and grown ups scrambling to get their binoculars and jackets replied. I looked up to the twinkling stars above and sucked in a breath of cool November air. Frost ebbed at the edges of our nerdy enclave, but the fire pit on the patio burned it away. Still, I rubbed my hands together and blew into them as my gaze hunted across the black.

“I think I can see Jupiter, too!” I pointed to the sky.

“Pfft, we see Jupiter all the time, Claire,” Piper, my short, brown haired-haired, buck-toothed friend said with a hint of dismissal. She passed me to the telescope, zipping up her oversized black hoodie. “We won’t get to see the Leonids Meteor Shower again for ninety years!” She raised her hands and leaned back, opening herself to the sky.

Norah’s mother and father, Beth and Zack, emerged from the cellar, steaming cups of liquor-laced apple cider in hand with a blanket wrapped about their shoulders. “Did we miss anything exciting?” Zack asked as he positioned himself next to the fireplace, dragging Beth along with him under the blanket.

Zack and Beth were both minor-league astrophysicists. They were both excited about this meteor shower with the recent random activity going on out in space. The fact that we would be chaperoned, and hanging out in a cellar, was just about the only reason our all our parents had let us come out to Norah’s farm.

Though many reports from the President’s press secretary had stated there was no reason to be concerned, and everything going on out in space was well under our control, laughable as it was to think we could control space, the scientific community was on fire with theories, curiosity, and some caution.

Justified caution, in Zack and Beth’s opinions. Amalthea, one of Jupiter’s closer orbiting moons, disappeared from its orbit only to reappear five days later, back in its normal orbit, as if nothing had happened. Telescopes all over the world confirmed its absence, while skeptics declared there was some obstruction, or an issue with the instruments.

Next was Mars. The planet’s atmosphere developed new elements in a matter of days. Storms raged and covered the hemispheres in black clouds that bode ill will for little Earth. Some people even went so far as to say it was the signs of The Rapture; some biblical event that would end human life on earth.

Still, the scientific community was more curious than fearful, and so with the blessing of the television’s “safety report,” we were allowed to participate in the data gathering Zack and Beth were doing. Machines measuring all sorts of things like atmospheric pressure, and a bunch of other stuff Beth said that I didn’t understand, were sitting out in the field of culled corn where they had the most unobstructed view of the sky.

“Another one!” Norah pointed, dimples forming in her pink cheeks from a wide smile. She pushed her straw colored hair back, and pinned it under a purple hat with a blue puffball on top.

Elise beckoned me with a wave, and I plopped down on the warm stone next to her near the fire. She looped her arm through mine, and gave me a two-missing-teeth smile that lit up her dark skin. She motioned for Piper and Norah to join us.

A bright light flashed behind us and I turned to look back. The signature cha-chlick of a phone snapping a picture sounded, and when the blinding light faded, Beth was smiling. “You girls are just too cute. I’m so glad your parents let you come over tonight. Meteor showers are magical, and beautiful, and life changing.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at the sky.

“Seems like that cider is pretty magical too,” Norah said with a snicker, and we giggled.

Beth waved her off. “Cider or no, space is the greatest unknown with the greatest potential for the most wonderful things. You girls will never forget this night.”

With that, we fell quiet, and tipped our heads back to watch the show.

The night breezed by at the same pace of the meteors we watched, arms linked and wonder building. Was anything special going to happen? Beth yawned, long and loud, for the tenth time and we realized it was well past a 5th grader’s bedtime. Not that it mattered, school was canceled until scientists could confirm no calamity ensued from the anomaly passing us by.

“Well, looks to be about over for tonight.” He checked something on his laptop, then sighed with defeat. “Nothing happened, so well head back up to the house and leave the dungeon to your sleepover. You girls don’t stay up too late.”

“We won’t,” we chimed together in our innocent voice. Oh yeah, we had voices. How else could we get our parents to let us go to Norah’s farm on the night of humanity’s not-so-certain destruction.

Nothing had happened, except the amazing Leonids meteor shower. I’d tried to drink it all in, enjoying the first and last time I’d ever see it in my life, but I was more excited about the game.

Terra’s Heroes.

I’d gotten it the weekend before. My mom always took me to The Dragon’s Horde after she’d done something she felt guilty for. This time, it was forgetting to get me from school. Not like I was upset, I just went to Elise’s house and we played Halo. But the reward for her forgetfulness was a brand new RPG game. Elise was more into the FPS, but she indulged me with my tabletop needs, especially when it was something new and shiny.

We retreated to the cellar after extinguishing the fire with a bucket of dirt, and dragged the telescope down with us to the depths. My greedy hands went straight for my ruddy gamer backpack. I pushed past bags of dice, play mats, and full notebooks to pull free the new, cellophane wrapped box. I didn’t even want to let the smell of fresh cardboard and paint out without sharing with my closest friends.

The four of us gathered around the old wood table at the center of the carpeted concrete dungeon. There were shelves of canned goods around us, Norah’s parents being avid preservers as well. They were prepared for anything, it seemed. There were two bunkbeds at the other end of the room, farthest from the stairs, which were divided by a cloth privacy curtain we would pull back before bed. They weren’t the most comfortable, but it was the most convenient for sleepovers.

Elise clicked the tiny space heater to life, then joined us at the game table. I slid my fingernail between the box and the lid, cutting the thin clear wrapping and ripping it off. My fingers traced the art on the front of the box. It was stunning. At the forefront was the character I wanted to play; Raven Gressahla. Their backstories were all amazing

She was a half-demon Skro, with black horns that snaked down to her cheeks, decorated in gems, metal cuffs, and teeth of her defeated enemies. She could see into the minds of others, and wielded the truth of all things. She was the spiritual leader of a village destroyed by the war of two neighboring cities. Her people, the Skro, were destined to lead nomadic lives, unwelcome in either kingdom.

Behind Raven was Groff, the giant Tree Ogre. He was cursed to live a dual life, one of light and the other of darkness, paying for the crimes of all those who came before him. Tree Ogres were long lived creatures who developed deep anger for the spreading races, Humans, Foxians, and Sky Elves, for what the Tree Ogres perceived as mistreatment of the land. Groff was the sole survivor of his tribe when they assaulted a heavily defended Human city at the base of their mountains.

Flanking the Raven and Groff were two other females; Xebaria Dark-Dancer, and Penelope Denetore.

Xebaria sported daggers to the teeth, tight black leathers and a mask that obscured everything but piercing blue eyes and tall, pointed ears. She was a Sky Elf, dubbed as such for the floating islands on which they made their home. The legend of Terra says the Sky Elf were one of the older creatures on the planet, but when they saw change coming, they retreated by magic means, ripping their cities out of the earth and keeping them out of the reach of those who’d bring them harm. The Sky Elf lore went deep on the internet, and I hadn’t had time for all that…

Then there was Penelope Denetore, the character I knew Norah would nab. Penelope was decked out in gold and bronze bandoliers, a short skirt exposing orange tinged legs and a fluffy tail sprouting from her behind. She was a Foxian, and kinda cute, but I thought it was just a cheap ploy to reel in the Manga readers.

Beside the fact, that wasn’t why I thought Norah was going to pick her. I knew Norah had also done her research on Terra’s Heroes, and I could tell that throwing grenades, whacking enemies with lightning rods, and shooting pistols was going to be right up her alley. The Foxians had a cool bit of lore to them, though they’d been subjugated for a long time under the heels of the more “civilized” species, they’d eventually won their freedom, about four hundred years before the game takes place.

The cast went on and on, about ten other playable characters with their own story arc and potential resolutions, but those were the highlights. I pulled the lid back with a fthp fthp fthp as the air slipped past the tight seal. At the top was the manual, crisp and pristine. I grabbed it as the other girls went in after the figurines.

“Terra’s Heroes: The Master’s Guide.”

This was one of the first games that provided a basic guide in the box, and then over six hundred pages of lore and story information online. It allowed us to all play together, without a game master, since we’d be using one part chance, and two parts internet.

We didn’t need a computer to get started tonight, though, so I pulled open the first page to the table of contents, the copyright information on the left side.

Introduction

How To Play

Modified Rules

Characters

Abilities

Spells

Spell Modifications

Resolving Play

Armor & Weapons

Loot

Main Story Quests

Side Quests

Towns

Ascending

Cool… Under the character sheets in the box was the Encounters, Enemies, and Creatures handbook, but I could look at that later.

“I want to be Xebaria Dark-Dancer!” Piper declared as she slammed her game piece down on the table. It was the black-clad Sky Elf. I wasn’t sure a high DPS, low health class was for her, but she was almost eleven now, it was time for her to make her own choices.

“I will be Penelope Denetore,” Norah said as she grabbed the Foxian figurine and I smirked.

Something, fear maybe, made my hand reach out an snatch up Raven Gressahla and put her out on the table. Elise looked up at me, her mouth slightly open. I couldn’t guess if it was the character she wanted… but I wanted her. She grimaced, and grabbed Groff.

“I’ll be the ugly ogre, I guess,” she said, her voice downtrodden.

I put the booklet aside. “There are more girls, you know.”

Elise nodded. “Yeah, I know. But you idiots are always getting in trouble and you’ll need a character like Groff in your party. He has healing magic and can harden his tree-person skin to be strong as stone, like a tank.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Elise seemed to hate my tabletop fascination, but she’d actually done some research on the game, and she knew the same as I did that two DPS and a Mentalist hybrid would be doomed without some muscle.

“Thanks, Elise.” I gave her a fist bump.

Norah followed, then Piper, adding, “Way to take one for the team.”

The energy in the room was palpable as Elise smiled, happy to be the martyr this time. We’d all taken turns being “the boy” since so many games didn’t provide enough female characters for an all-girl group to play. There was always Dungeons and Dragins, or Vampyre the Masquerade, which allowed us to play whatever character we could design, but then one of us had to be the game master. We wanted to take on the challenges together.

I sat and pulled the game booklet closer. “Alright nerds, lay out the board.”

We got to work setting up the first campaign. There were dungeons and cities and groves, but our main home base would be The Tower of Zewan. There we would train, upgrade our skills, and get quests. We could get quests, train and upgrade out in the world too, but it was mostly for specialized training, or quests outside of the main campaign.

The board was placed. Markers set. Characters poised for entry.

“Tonight,” I started in my gameteller’s voice.

“This morning,” Elise interjected.

“This morning,” I started again without missing a beat, “we embark on a journey to defeat the Cursed Arborium. Who dares?”

“I dare!” Elise declared loudly in a low pitched, gravely voice.

Norah smiled, raising her hand. “I dare!”

“And me!” Piper finished and we put our fists together over the table.

“Let the game begin!” I threw the two ten sided dice onto the table to determine where we would begin our journey.

The dice came to a stop on four and eight. Twelve it was, though the dice trembled defiantly as if that was not what they wanted to choose. I grabbed the encounter booklet and looked up twelve in the starting combat spreadsheet: Shapeshifters in the deep. I scan the highlights, being well versed in guiding our ragtag gang through many RPGs, then set the book aside.

“Outside of Terrasil, on the road to the next great city of Feldaust to begin a trade barter, our great Company is of high spirits. But danger lurks in the shadows of the tall trees, and creatures with fangs that stab deeper than any sword wait for us in the darkness.”

The dice on the table shook, and the picture on the wood paneled wall, and the antenna on the old T.V. There was a rumbling coming from overhead. Was it a plane? We looked up to the cellar door as light, first deep red, then orange, and yellow, pushed through the cracks in the wood.

The table bounced from leg to leg and I slapped my hands down to stop the game board from being upset. My chair trembled and shook my body, causing the nerves in my stomach to tighten. The T.V. wiggled off the stand, its glass face shattering on the carpet covered concrete floor. Glass jars from the canning shelves shattered, splattering preserved tomatoes across the wall, and the rumble grew to a roar. The light outside the cellar pierced through the cracks and filled our little space with white.

“What’s happening?” Piper yelled as she reached out for Elise and Norah. Their hands found mine on the table, and my wide-eyed gaze jumped from terrified face to face. It was hard to see them, and my eyes burned from the blinding light.

“Get under the table!” I screamed over the noise and slid down my chair. I remembered the training from school and followed through the motions with fear as my friends crowded around me at the center of the thick wood table. I wrapped my arms around them, putting our heads together.

“It’s going to be okay.” I whispered softly knowing it wasn’t true as the white and the sound swallowed us up.