I awoke in a cool room with a thin blanket and incents burning. The floor was cement and the walls white wallpaper. A pair of cabinets and a sink were in one corner. There was nothing else other than the bed I lay on a stool and a Norman Rockwell painting of a golfer on the wall. I stood and walked over to the window and looked down on an alley. There was a man sleeping on a pile of garbage and another pacing and talking to himself. A toddler rounded the corner from the street and waddled past the rambling man to the sleeping man.

I looked up the alley for the kid’s mother but could not see her. I looked back at the child no older than three. The baby crawled up the trash heap. He found a half-burnt cigar lying beside the man and stuck it in his mouth. I smacked the window. “Don’t eat that,” I shouted through the glass.

Tootsie buzzed in through the door like a phantom. “Finally awake.” She hummed. “You really crashed hard. We carried you seven miles south. You snored like a sawed oak. Thank you for apologizing, by the way, it was past due. All that I have done for you.”

I shot her a surprised glance and then turned back to the baby. He had found a lighter and was trying to strike it with his little pudgy hands. I stepped back and furrowed my brow. What kind of baby was this? I saw the lighter finally light and the baby held the lighter to the end of the cigar, puffing in with his puffy cheeks. Was he a midget, that I had mistaken for a toddler? I stepped forward and cupped my hands on the glass sticking my forehead against the window. He looked up at me and dragged in deep with his dimple cheeks turning red. Then blew out a cloud like a fog bank. There was no mistaking it, he was definitely a toddler.

I smacked the glass again and he held up a fist with one tiny finger pointed up. I stepped back and gave a shocked chuckle.

“Aren’t you going to thank me?” Tootsie flew over to look at whatever was outside the window.

“For what?” I said still watching the baby. He had bent over the man with the cigar in his mouth and reached into his pouch. I saw the baby’s hand disappear into the invisible pouch and pull out some coins and a bottle. The baby tucked the coin into his own invisible pouch and took a drink of the dark liquid in the bottle.

“For leading them here.” Tootsie said.

“Who?” The kid went back to pulling items from the passed-out homeless man's pouch. He tossed a few things to the side and pouched some others. “You, filthy little thief,” I said through the glass.

“Your tribe, dummy, how do you think they found the embassy? Blind luck?” Tootsie laughed.

“I’m going to come down there and, what?” I turned to Tootsie. “I thought you said they can’t see you?”

“They can’t unless I want them to.” Tootsie grinned. “Shia fell on her face before me. She is carving a stone hummingbird right now in my honor.”

“You really get under my skin sometimes Tootsie.” I clenched my teeth.

“I know isn’t it great. Big angry Ork and his sweet little hummingbird.” She twisted her hands together and straightened her arms twisting her shoulders side to side with a blush.

“Yeah, you are real cute Tootsie.” A knock came at the door, and I looked up as the dragon lady walked in. She winked at Goar, who appeared to be standing guard at the door then closed the door and fanned herself. She smelled of layers of fruit and flower perfume. I tried to keep the grimace on my face from showing. I failed.

She straightened and looked me up and down. “You seem to be doing much better.” She duck-walked over to the bed and sat down my robe and helmet.

“I feel great thank you.” I waited for her to step back and slipped the red Caster’s Robe back on. I tucked the helmet under my upper arm. “I should be going then.”

“As you wish, there is only the closing out of your account to settle then.” She held out a hand.

“Of course,” I reached into my pouch and felt for the coin.

$3,640

The amount of coin showed in the side of my eye. “How much do I owe you?”

“Eighty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-three dollars. Her forked tongue darted about in her mouth as she spoke.

I let go of the coin in my pouch. “Eighty-six thousand?” I coughed out a laugh. “Are you out of your mind?”

She straightened and her eyes grew cold. “You shall pay the amount in full or go before Hermes.” A smile twitched on her face and one scaly brow raised. She kept her hand held out.

“I don’t have it,” I answered flatly.

She spun and charged out of the room. Her long tail curled around the door and pulled it shut behind her. I slipped my helmet on and peeked out the window again to see the baby had left the alley and walked to the door. “Guess I may have to bash my way out of here,” I said to Tootsie.

“Not advised.” Tootsie hummed.

I walked over to the door and pulled it open. Goar turned to me and patted me across the shoulder as I stepped into the hallway. “You look strong, Magus.”

“I feel strong Goar, where are the others?”

“They went to the Kill Shot for drinks and a hot meal.” Goar answered, “All but me and her.” He pointed behind me to Mia. She was asleep sitting on the floor on the other side of the door. Her knees were tucked up with her arms crossed on them as a pillow.

I squatted down and gently stirred her. “Mia.” I whispered.

She opened her eyes and yawned wide her flat rough tongue curling up in her mouth. Her whiskers stood straight out. She blinked then threw her arms around me rubbing her cheek on my face. “You were out for days.” She purred in my ear. “We were worried sick.”

“I can see that.” I looked back behind me at Goar. I stood lifting her to her feet. “We have to go quickly though before the guards arrive.”

“Guards?” She said quizzically.

“No time, we gotta go.” I pulled her arms from around my neck and turned back to Goar. “Do you have my Shade Tail?”

“No.” His bottom lip pouted as he said, “She wouldn’t let me hold it.” I followed the big bull's eyes back to Mia.

She reached into her pouch and pulled the long spine out blade first. “He just wanted to play with it. I kept it safe.” She smirked.

I held out my lower arm and she wrapped it up my arm then set the blade in my hand. She kept her slitted green eyes on mine as she did her work. I blushed and pulled her head forward with my upper arms to kiss her forehead. “Thank you for keeping it safe.” Tootsie acted out hacking up a hairball on my shoulder.

I led us down the long hall toward the glass doors at the end. I shoved them open and stepped out onto the street. A cold wind made us stagger to the side. Dark shadows crept up the street and I watched as the citizens rushed into buildings. Above us, black clouds raced to cover the blue sun, and drops of cold rain began to fall.

“Which way is the Kill Shot?”

“Down that street, Magus.” Goar answered pointing to a street that intersected the one we were on.

As he pointed armed guards rounded the corner turning toward us. Not a few. Forty guards rounded the corner, armed with assault rifles, and dressed in black leather armor. They marched directly toward me and stopped. A man with a stubble beard and dark glasses stepped out from their midst with a shotgun on his shoulder and a sword on his hip. “You are summoned to an audience with Hermes.” He sounded official but I smirked at his eighties grunge rock outfit.

“And you must be our escort?” I let the shade tail drop to my side, I heard the blade and extra length hit the pavement.

The man smiled and lit a cigarette. All he was missing was a motorcycle and a girl on his arm with a mound of hair on top of her head. “No, he is.”

I looked over my shoulder at a three-headed black dog. He growled down at me with all three heads. Then he snatched me up from the ground with his teeth around my waist. I squirmed but the big hound bounded off with me in his mouth like a chew toy.

I pressed out with all four arms trying to pry open the hound’s mouth. He bit down harder drawing blood from my belly with his teeth. I stabbed at him with the blade through his lip and he clamped down hard enough for me to see the fangs sinking beneath the surface. I began to grow faint and my arms dropped to my sides. I flopped around like a Raggedy Anne doll as the hound carried me off through the city.

I closed my eyes and sought the tree but before I could transport the sound of the hound's claws clacked across marble floor, and he spat me out on the ground. I had no strength to stand, and I wondered if he had broken my back. I stared up at stone pillars as tall as castle towers in a circle around me. The floor was a blood red and black marble polished smooth. The ceiling was a painted battle scene. Orcs, demons, angels, elves, men and creatures I had never even imagined slaughtered each other as a pair of eyes watched from beyond the stars above them. The room about me was immense. You could fit a town inside it. The detail in the stonework and the painting was so marvelous it stole the breath from me.

Boots clapping on the floor tore my eyes off the painting. I turned to see a man walking in the shadows beyond the pillars where the light did not reach. I could only see his silhouette when he walked from behind one pillar to the next. He had glowing red eyes, and a full brim mobster hat. He was as big as I was and appeared to be carrying a scythe with to handle. The sound of his boots hitting the marble made him sound as if he carried the weight of a dozer on his back.

He circled me saying nothing only looking at me with his glowing red eyes from the darkness. When I turned my head to follow him as he walked behind me, I saw the hound sit and tuck his tail tight to his body. The three headed hound whined and closed his jaws ducking his heads low.

Shadow began to pour out from between the pillars like black smoke. Thunder rumbled deep outside. I tried to stand again but the blood pooled around me making the marble slick. A wave of fear washed over me. Like it was emanating from him. It was more than anxiety, more than my heart slowing. It was the feeling of standing at a cliff edge with the wind at your back or the type of fear a mouse would feel when a cobra circled it in. I felt genuine danger. I tried to swallow it down, but it caught in my throat.

He kept circling slowly, his boots hitting the floor at the pace my heartbeat in my chest. The ground began to tremble beneath me. The hound lay down on his front paws and whimpered again. I watched the man a long time. My eyes burned from not blinking. He walked all the way around to where he started then stopped and turned to face me.

“I never made a four-armed Orc.” He said. His voice rumbled through the cavernous space in waves.

I sat still in my blood; my tongue stuck to the roof of my dry mouth.

“How is it you are waking?” His voice shook the muscles in my chest.

I had no idea what he was talking about so once again I did not answer.

“We have to keep sedating you because you keep stirring in your bed.” I listened to his voice bounce off the walls and reverberate back to me. He wasn’t shouting but his voice was like thunder or the rumbling of an earthquake.

The shadows continued to draw closer to me and the hound curled in on himself tighter. I wondered what was in the shadows and what could make the monstrous hound so terrified.

“Who is helping you, Brent Barker?” I covered my ears as he raised his voice. “Do you have any idea how much this system costs? How many man hours are poured into it every year? I don’t like when people tamper with my things. I am not impressed. This is my world. I created it. I rule it. Here,” He stepped out from between the pillars, and I saw it was not a scythe in his hand. His hands were like that of a praying mantis. I could make out the mandibles on the sides of his mouth. “I am God!” He boomed.

I had to clutch the sides of my head as his voice became like a deep train horn blast. The fear amplified on me so that I felt like I would faint. I began to pant and scramble back on my hands. Shadow crept up his legs and billowed up behind him. His face remained in the dark.

“Answer me, Barker!” He boomed again and I clapped all four bloody hands to the sides of my head to keep the reverb from popping open my skull.

“I don’t know. I am just playing the game. I don’t know what I am doing.” I cried out like a scared child.

He stopped walking toward me, and I relaxed a little.

“I have been looking in on your game from time to time.” He sounded as if he were smiling as he spoke. His voice was much softer. “I find you entertaining. Peculiar. Irrational.” He raised one of his mantis arms and the hound scrambled from the room, “but entertaining.”

Confusion and uncertainty coiled around me. I was afraid not to answer him, so I blurted out, “thank you?” Second guessing myself as the words passed my lips.

He stepped back toward the pillars again. “You are already in debt your first day in the game Barker. You didn’t read the fine print did you.” He made a clucking sound with his mouth. “This is real money in the game. You can win big,” his voice then dropped an octave, “or lose everything. I am not a man that lets someone walk away with debts unsettled. I will get my money. All of it.”

“I was going to pay her. I just have to go out and do some things first. Earn some coin. Maybe find a dungeon or something.” I was scrambling for anything to satiate the man. I couldn’t be sure what he meant; I was too terrified to even truly process his words.

“I covered the debt. All debts are owed to me in the end anyway.” He stepped back again, and the shadows receded with him beyond the pillars. “I better not find out you are cheating, Barker, this system is mine. Whatever you are doing, stop. I will send the admins after you the next time I suspect cheating. It’s a fair game. Everyone has skin in the game. Everyone gets a fair shake. I will not tolerate anything less. You may go now Barker. Thank Tootsie for bringing you to the embassy and saving your life. See Lizzie again before you go. Get those wounds looked at. Then get me my money.”

He vanished like a blown-out candle flame. I peed on the floor. I sucked in a mouthful of air as the room regained its light. The terror fled from me, and Tootsie appeared at my side. I clambered to my feet and looked sourly at the hummingbird. “I never thanked you Tootsie, for bringing me here.”

“Oh, you don’t have to big guy.” She punched me in the shoulder playfully and blushed.

I slipped my hand into my pouch, “no, I really need to,” I pulled out the dragon mask and watched her jaw drop. I slapped the mask on my face and blew the hummingbird away.