Jane

Jane gasped in horror as Quill and the monster sank into the earth. “No!” she cried out.

When the towering, ancient tree had toppled in the past, it had torn some of the root base right out of the ground and left a hole behind. Over time, soil and leaves and other forest detritus had built up atop the remaining broken-off roots, forming a layer over the hole. Saphire’s rain had weakened that layer. Then the great weight of the grizzleclaw stomping down had broken a section. And down the huge animal had gone, with Quill underneath it.

However, the hole created was tight. Just as Saphire and Quill had become trapped, so too did the grizzleclaw.

For now.

The head remained free and it roared and snapped its huge jaws at the teddybear knight.

The teddybear continued to valiantly thrust and swat at the enemy with his wooden sword, dancing about, jabbing at the grizzleclaw’s furious brown eyes. This only served to infuriate it even more.

Jane looked at Saphire, who appeared to be just as shocked as she was. “Aim for its head! Use those glowing blue arrows!”

“But Quill!”

“Do it! I’ll attack its back. Hurry!”

Saphire nodded quickly and drew another arrow. It charged up as she aimed, then a shining blue ray shot through the air and the arrow nailed the grizzleclaw in the face.

It roared, but remained helpless. Not for long though. With its great strength, it would soon tear itself free.

Jane knew they had to act fast. She circled around the monster’s head towards its back. She had to step carefully, testing the ground as she went, lest she, too, become stuck and helpless. It still rained here. The soil was wet and soggy and sank under her weight.

When she reached the edge of the hole, she knew the rotted roots below wouldn’t hold her if she tried to get any closer. She wouldn’t be able to stand let alone swing her sword. There was only one place she could go if she wanted to be able to attack freely.

Taking three quick breaths, she took a step and jumped onto the beast’s back.

The grizzleclaw bellowed and tried to shake her free.

Rain made the surface slippery. She grasped a handful of long, brown fur in one hand. With the other, she stabbed the bear as hard as she could, over and over.

Saphire fired a steady stream of arrows at the beast, a look of determination almost masking her fear.

The teddybear knight, on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of his life, darting in and out as he attacked with relative impunity. The black stitching of his mouth smiled almost mockingly at his prey.

Jane fought to hold onto the moving animal as she did her best to hurt it. She knew her attacks were weak. And with her pathetically low Stamina, she had to stop and take frequent breaks, chest heaving as she breathed. But with Saphire’s help, the HP bar whittled down, ever so slowly.

Would they be able to do enough damage in time? Or would the grizzleclaw free itself and eat them both?

From her earlier experiences with the wolves, she understood that attacking weak spots made the HP go down faster. For the wolves, it had been real-life vital spots, like the neck or inside the mouth. Maybe it was the same here.

Scared of falling, but more scared of failing, Jane threw herself up the grizzleclaw’s back, grabbing a tuft of fur with one hand, pulling herself up, and then repeating the movement. She managed to get between its shoulders. But this location was even more volatile and it was all she could do to hold on. She jammed her sword tip into the grizzleclaw’s neck. Then again. And again.

Saphire’s look of concentration seemed to deepen, perhaps as she took extra care not to miss and hit Jane with a magical arrow.

The HP bar drained down. Slowly, slowly, it went. And the grizzleclaw struggled mightily. The hole widened. It gained more room to move. It flung Jane off.

She landed with a plop in the mud. Anxiously rising, she threw herself at the monster’s side. It was almost dead…almost… Jane shouted and stabbed.

The grizzleclaw growled one last time and then wilted. The huge head dropped to the ground and stayed there.

The teddybear knight thrust his wooden sword to the sky in triumph. They were victorious!

Jane panted from the effort. With her meagre Stamina and low levels, it had taken forever. But they’d done it. They’d actually done it. She laughed in relief.

Saphire cautiously approached, watching her footing. “We did it…?” She seemed uncertain.

“Yeah. We did!” Jane was nearly bursting with excitement. “I don’t even know how high level that was. And we beat it. That’s insane!” She laughed again. What a rush!

“Yes…” Saphire tried to smile, but her expression failed. “But Quill?”

Jane nodded. She looked around. “Yeah. Where is he? I thought he would have respawned and run back by now. Strange.”

Saphire picked up the teddybear knight and hugged it tight. It seemed well satisfied with itself.

Something caught Jane’s attention. A voice? She concentrated.

There it was again.

She jumped to her feet and stared at the area under the grizzleclaw. “Quill!”

“…out!”

She threw back her head and laughed. “He’s alive!”

“He is?” Saphire looked startled.

“He’s still under the bear!”

“Oh wow,” she breathed.

Jane stared at the carcass pinning her partner down. “We’re gonna have to chop the bear up to get him out.” She paused, then sat. “Later. I’m exhausted.” And she flopped onto her back, uncaring of the mud and muck. Because they’d beaten it.

🗡 🗡 🗡

In the end, Jane and Saphire had to leave the forest and acquire villagers to come and help with butchering the grizzleclaw carcass. Only with the help of eight others chopping away with axes were they able to reduce the body to a heaping pile of bones and meat.

Quill emerged some hours later, utterly drenched in grizzleclaw blood thanks to the butchering process.

Jane snickered, then laughed. “Oh my gosh. You look straight out of some 80s horror movie.”

He gave her a flat look. “Yeah. Thanks for that.” He wiped the blood out of his eyes. Or he tried. Mostly he just smeared it around.

Jane, sitting on the ground where she’d been resting while the villagers worked, bounced in her seat. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“I levelled!”

His eyes widened. “Again? Already!”

“Yes!” She was so happy and excited.

He looked blown away. “Wow. Congrats; that’s awesome.”

She hesitated. “You didn’t?”

He just shook his head.

She tried to hold back her joy. “Oh. Whatever. You probably will when we turn in the quest.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged, then smiled, and it seemed genuine. “I can’t believe you two killed it. That’s incredible. Really.”

“Ha! I think it was mostly Saphire’s doing. I had to rest every two or three strikes. But she kept pumping these cool, magical, blue arrows into it. She was amazing!”

At the mention of Saphire’s name, all the NPC villagers sagged.

Quill looked at the young woman. “Good job, Saphire. Thanks for saving us.”

Saphire had an odd look on her face. It had been there since contacting the villagers and bringing them back here. She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted.

An old woman stacking bear meat shook her head, a picture of sadness. “Oh, Saphire. What a loss.”

Other villagers chimed in, agreeing with sad voices:

“Poor girl.”

“She was so lovely. Watered my garden anytime I asked. She’s the reason my tomatoes are so big this year.”

“And my corn. I’ll miss her rain arrows.”

Quill seemed taken aback. He glanced at Saphire, then Jane. “What’s going on?”

Jane frowned. “That’s weird. They were acting strange in the village, too. Like they didn’t even see her.”

Quill turned to the woman stacking the meat. “What are you talking about? Saphire’s right here.” He pointed.

But the old woman, and all the NPC villagers, didn’t even look up. They just continued to lament:

“We should hold a funeral. Even if there’s no body.”

“Agreed. Should do something for her. Such a nice girl she was.”

“I’ll miss her rain.”

“Her smile.”

“The way she always showed up in such high spirits, cheering everyone up, even on gray days.”

“That adorable teddybear she carried around.”

“Her tight bum.”

“Alrek! Don’t be a dirty old man.”

“What? It’s a feature too. No? Oh, fine! What pretty eyes she had! Happy?”

“It’s a shame we don’t have a body. She had those piercings.”

“Navine! That…ok, that’s practical. Those gems would be worth quite a bit.”

“I do have to buy a new cow.”

“I could use a new coat of paint on the barn.”

“That dressmaker in the city has some beautiful new fabrics in…”

Jane listened to the villagers, confused and appalled. “How can they talk about Saphire so disrespectfully? And why do they think she’s dead?”

They looked over at the woman in question.

Saphire’s face twitched in deep confusion.

“Saphire? You ok?” Quill asked, concern in his voice.

She looked at the villagers. “I…” She approached one of the farmers and touched his shoulder. “Mr Jenkins.”

He didn’t respond.

“Mr Jenkins?” she repeated, a little more desperately. When he refused to acknowledge her, she tried the others, but they all refused to so much as flinch at her touch.

“It’s like she’s a ghost,” Jane muttered. She was confused, but also getting angry. She liked Saphire and she didn’t like the way they talked about her, nor the way they seemed to be ignoring her.

Bloody Quill looked thoughtful. And like a horror victim. “Maybe it’s a bug.” He gestured to the ground. “Remember when she fell into the sinkhole? Maybe she wasn’t supposed to survive that. Maybe in the quest she was supposed to die. The grizzleclaw eats her while the adventurers escape.”

Saphire mumbled to herself, staring at her hands. “I’m…dead? Not dead. Dead?”

“Oh oh,” Jane said, growing worried at Saphire’s strange behaviour. “She’s not handling this well.”

Quill looked worried too. “Maybe the devs didn’t plan for this eventuality? Or didn’t finish designing the quest? We didn’t get a proper quest marker before discovering the mission, remember?”

She frowned. “That’s not cool. What’s going to happen to her?”

“I’m guessing most quest givers are on loops. That’s how they’re able to give the same quest to lots of adventurers. If a character in the quest is meant to die, they’d eventually respawn so others can get the quest later. But this could be a unique quest. Or…maybe we broke it when she didn’t die?”

She grunted, frustrated. She wanted Saphire to go back to normal. “I wonder if she’s going to reset?”

Saphire shook her head and frowned. She clenched her fists open and shut, still staring at her hands. “Dead? Not dead? Dead!”

Crap. “She’s getting worse.” Jane stood.

Quill spoke tentatively. “We could…kill her?”

She gave him a sharp look. “What?”

She shrugged, obviously not thrilled with the idea. “So that she resets?”

“I’m not killing her! Neither are you,” she snapped. That would be…wrong.

“I certainly don’t want to. We did save her, remember? But look at her.” He gestured.

Saphire was breaking down. Something was wrong in her mind. She began trembling and her voice rose in volume and pitch. “I’m dead. I’m dead. But why am I… I don’t understand! Don’t— Why—?” She turned to the villagers and grabbed them by the shoulders, violently shaking them. “Not dead? Dead!” But the villagers didn’t answer.

Jane felt her heart break. She rushed over to Saphire’s side. Grabbing the girl’s shoulders, she turned Saphire to face her and saw the crazed look in the archer’s eyes. Jane took hold of her face. “Saphire! Listen to me!”

“Use a calm voice,” Quill told her, using one himself.

Right. People instinctively react to the emotion in voices. She calmed herself, at least in tone, though she was worried for the other woman. “Saphire, calm down. It’s ok. You’re ok.”

“I…am…”

“Yes.”

Her eyes widened. “Dead!”

“Alive. You are alive.”

“Alive?”

“Yes. You are. You exist. You are here.”

“But the villagers. They said—“

“They’re wrong,” Jane told her, believing it and willing Saphire to believe it too. “You’re here. I see you. Quill sees you.”

“But—“

“I’m touching you right now, aren’t I? We’re talking.”

Saphire blinked. Something came back to her eyes, a sense of intelligence. “Y-yes.”

“You’re ok, Saphire. You’re not dead. You’re alive. Trust me.”

Saphire looked at her hands again. Shakily, she nodded. “I’m…alive.”

Jane smiled to reassure her. “Yes. We fought together. We beat the monster. And everyone’s alive. Well, except for the monster.”

Saphire looked directly into Jane’s eyes, searching for something. Tears welled. But she nodded.

“Good.” Jane released her. As Saphire wandered off, still in thought, Jane turned to Quill. “That was weird.”

“To say the least. I don’t really know anything about programming. I’m not really sure why she’d be like that. I mean, the other NPCs all seem like they’re on fixed, pre-programmed loops.”

Jane knew something about this. “They probably are. But full-dive games also use a lot of AI. You know how we thought she was different before?”

He nodded.

“I think she’s AI driven. They use it to give characters and bosses personality and less predictable behaviour. So they can have more realistic conversations with players or when you’re fighting they can adapt and your fights aren’t the exact same every time.”

“And we corrupted her AI? That doesn’t sound good.”

Jane glanced at Saphire. She had an uneasy feeling. “Maybe she just needs time to adjust? For the AI to learn and adapt?”

“Maybe. Or maybe she’ll reset on her own.” He spoke hopefully, though it was a bit forced.

“The villagers are kind of jerks, and I don’t want to leave her alone with them. Especially in this state. I think we should take her with us,” she decided.

“Again, she is an NPC.”

“I think we’ve both established that that doesn’t matter to either of us, haven’t we? We don’t want to steal their clothes. We just risked our lives, or, our XP, to rescue one.”

“True. Ok then. Fine with me.” Then he snapped his fingers, which just sprayed bear blood everywhere, as he remembered something. “We should finish the quest though.”

“Right.” Maybe she’d even level up again!

After the grizzleclaw had been completely butchered, the villagers were happy to buy the bones and meat for a surprisingly hefty sum.

“And you should check with the adventurer’s guild!” an old man pointed out. “Could be a bounty for this here critter.”

“Ahhh!” Quill smacked his forehead. “This was probably a higher-level bounty quest.”

“Adventurer’s guild?” She looked at him. “We never saw that, did we?” She tried to recall, but surely they would have spotted it during all those lame fetch and delivery quests, right?

“I guess we haven’t really looked though, right? I didn’t even know there was one. We should do that now.”

The villagers presented them with the head. They would have to haul it back to town in order to collect the bounty. It was, however, just about as big as Jane was. And they were both weak.

She looked at Quill. “We could try rolling it?”

“Past all those monsters out there?”

“Rolling it quickly?”

He chuckled. “We can try.” Then he sighed. “I can’t wait until we get bags of holding.”

“Wait.” Jane approached the young woman still standing off to the side still looking confused and a bit scared. “Saphire? You ok?” She placed a reassuring hand on her arm.

She blinked a few times and had trouble looking at Jane. “I…don’t know.”

Jane smiled in a friendly way. “We’re going back to the city. You should come with us.”

Saphire looked at Jane for a long while. Then she blinked and nodded. And a tiny, weak smile of her own formed. “Ok.”