Healing Incorporated

His eyes widened. Monstrous beast? He glanced around nervously as he entered the forest. Rufus bounded ahead happily through the trees, and Eli bent down to pick up a sturdy-looking stick with some weight to it. It didn’t have a pointed end or anything, but maybe he could use it to bash whatever his opponent turned out to be.

What he really wanted was to turn around and run back to the group. He felt very alone, even with Rufus as his companion. It made his chest feel tight. The mention of a beast in the quest made the hair on his neck stand on end, and he scanned the forest floor, searching for any signs of danger. Running wasn’t an option. He couldn’t just abandon Amy out there. She’d never find her way back.

He heard someone utter a very loud, "Ew!" and thought he recognized the voice. At the same time, part of the quest text changed.

Your friend is in distress. Find her, then defeat the monstrous beast and bring her to safety.

That was strange.

“Amy?” he shouted, running in the direction he thought he’d heard her voice. Rufus eagerly sped ahead.

“I’m over here! I’m stuck!” came Amy’s voice, faint but clear, from somewhere off to his left, deeper into the woods.

He found her in a small, grassy clearing covered in fragrant flowers in white and pink. Tall, leafy trees surrounded the spot, reaching far into the sky. Amy sat on the grass, one leg stretched out before her. Most of her bright-red colored hair had fallen forward into her face, and she was breathing hard, frightened.

“Are you alright?” Eli asked, kneeling.

“God, am I glad to hear your stupid little voice,” Amy said, brushing the hair out of her face with a relieved chuckle. “I’m fine, but I stepped on something, and now I can’t move my leg. Some critter tried to nibble me, but I think I got it.”

Eli’s eyes widened when he saw the squished, large rat lying beside her, obviously dead.

“Whoa,” he said, impressed. “How did you do that?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” she replied, running her hand along something in the grass, a long staff with a hook at the top.

“What is that?” Eli asked.

“The description says it's a shepherd's crook. That's my class, shepherd,” Amy said, her unseeing eyes turned toward him. Tears welled up in them. “I can’t move, Eli. My leg, I mean.”

The leg looked fine, but it was sitting on top of something. "Don't worry, we'll get you out. Stay brave, like when you bashed that rat."

“I didn’t bash the rat,” she corrected. “I think I tamed it, but it was so disgusting that I told it to die. It just sort of... popped. I got a level out of it.”

Eli inspected her. She was indeed level two now. Human Shepherd.

“That’s crazy,” he breathed.

“Yeah, you’re telling me. What's your class?"

"Haven’t picked a class yet,” Eli said. “They told me not to.”

“Who are 'they'?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Mr. Harn. They're all here, Amy. Well, maybe not everyone, but most of the corporate office is here. Jimbob and Dragon both made it.”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s good, maybe? Power in numbers and all that.”

“Maybe,” Eli agreed, “but it’s kinda strange to be in a game world, or whatever this is, and still have to listen to your boss. As far as power fantasies go, this is a bit lackluster.”

Amy chuckled. “Maybe, but at least we’re not dead. I was really scared, Eli, seeing my body just sitting there.”

“You saw it?” Eli asked.

“Well, yeah. I did. For a moment there, I could see. Not anymore, though," she said, the words dripping with sadness. "The blindness even shows up as an ailment."

Eli inspected her. A screen popped up, confirming her ailment: Blindness.

“Yeah, I see it."

“Way to rub it in,” she teased.

“That’s not what I meant!” Eli stammered.

Amy laughed. “I’m just messing with you.”

“So, why did you pick Shepherd?” Eli asked, changing the subject.

“The screen thing said I had to pick a pet class, or Rufus would disappear. The only ones available were Shepherd and Beastmaster. I think that’s some sort of ranger type. Pretty sure Rufus doesn't count as a beast."

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Eli said, inspecting Rufus. The dog’s description popped up: Rufus. Dog. Level 1.

“So, Shepherd it is,” Amy continued. “What kind of class are you leaning toward?”

“But my stats kind of lean towards intelligence, so maybe a spellcaster of some sort? Throwing fireballs sounds cool, no?”

Amy nodded. “Sure, why not? But I think you should give it some thought. Whatever class you choose will probably reflect the kind of person you can be here, to an extent.”

“I’m not sure I fit the dashing knight type,” Eli said thoughtfully. “But I’ll think about it. You’re taking this whole waking-up-in-a-new-world-stuck-in-a-trap-thing pretty casually, Amy. You didn’t hit your head or anything, did you?”

Amy shrugged. “Right back at you. You're awfully calm. Also, I’ve been through stuff. This doesn’t even rank in my top ten."

"Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. Like we're in shock?" Eli said.

"If that's it, then I'd like to get my leg unstuck before I start to panic."

“Right, sorry.”

Leaning over to inspect whatever she'd been trapped with, he saw that it was a plate. It was rectangular and made with some gray-ish material that almost looked like rock, but with the sort of lines you'd expect to see in a piece of wood. Markings covered much of the front, but Amy's leg made it impossible to see.

Inspect.

Trap.

"It just says trap."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"If you focus on something and think Inspect, a window pops up and gives you some information. So far, it's been pretty useless."

"Oh. I don't think that'll work for me."

He looked up at her face and saw her eyes again. They looked like any other person's eyes, blue and quite pretty, but there was something about them that made you just know Amy couldn't see. Perhaps it was the way she never quite met your eyes when you spoke with her.

"So how did you manage to pick a class, anyway?" he asked, putting his head down closer to the trap to see if he could spot some way of disarming it.

"It's pretty strange. There's something in front of me, calling my attention to it."

"That'll be the pop-up windows."

"Yeah, but I'm not actually seeing them, you know? Instead, there's braille in the air that my fingers can't touch, but my thoughts can, if that makes sense? When my mind sort of rubs up against the bumps, I understand them."

"That's cool, like accessibility options."

"Something like that. Maybe this won't be so bad, after all? If I can get out of this stupid trap, that is. Haven't played a game in years, not since I lost my sight."

Eli didn't see any obvious way of disarming the rune but he did find it a little awkward, being so close to her pale, bare leg. The rough, brown shepherd's dress with dark gray details, she wore didn't go past her knees. "So you weren't born, uh, blind?"

"No," she answered, her voice low. "Been this way half my life now, though. Lost my sight at fourteen."

"I'm sorry," he said, unsure if he was supposed to ask about specifics.

She sighed. "It's fine. By now, I've almost forgotten what it was like to see. Well, until I was floating in the air, that I guess. I'm not going to lie. It's hurting more than usual now after being reminded of what it was like."

Eli swallowed hard, not knowing what to say. "I'm going to try something with the trap."

"Thank you," she said, wiping at her eyes with the long, fluffy sleeve of her dress. "Sorry for getting all weepy on you, dude."

"No worries," he said, getting his trusty stick. "Let's get you out of this trap."

"What are you going to do, exactly?" Amy asked.

"I'm going to break it. That should free you."

"All right, careful not to hit my leg."

He drove the end of the stick down onto the plate. It shattered, and an explosion erupted, throwing him backward with a sharp yell of pain. Amy screamed as well, her leg burned by the flames. Everything hurt.

His face and arms felt like he was still standing in the middle of a fire. They were both throbbing and surging with pain. His ears were ringing, but he still heard screams nearby. His lungs hurt, and he could barely draw a breath, coughing violently after each attempt, worsening the effect.

"Eli!" Amy shouted, but he couldn't reply. He couldn't speak. His lips were cracked and his tongue useless.

He felt something pressed into his fingers and he numbly grabbed it. His hands were too big, swollen, horribly deformed.

"Drink," Amy said, sounding a thousand leagues away. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t see. Oh god, he couldn’t see. She pushed his hands to his face, and a cool liquid splashed over his face and mouth, with most of it going down into his throat. Eli swallowed, gasped and coughed again, this time able to breathe. He felt his skin regenerating and even his hair growing back. Tears rolled down his face as his vision was restored, and he sat there panting. The pain was gone.

"What happened?" he asked, looking around wildly, breathing so fast and hard he couldn’t think straight.

Amy wrapped her arms around him and stroked his hair. "You're okay, Eli, you're okay. I gave you a health potion. You're fine now."

"What health potion?"

"From my inventory. I got a few when I picked my class. Just breathe, okay? Calm down."

He sat there in her arms for a moment, steadying his breathing. "The trap... It was a trap," he finally said. "Either that, or all traps work that way, blowing up in your face. We have to be careful."

His eyes widened, and he looked down. "Your leg!"

"It's fine," she said. "I drank a potion, too."

"What kind of fucked up place is this?" he asked, unwrapping his arms from around her shoulders.

"We’ve been dropped inside a game, Eli, or a game-like world. I don’t know why or how, but I intend to find out.

"A black hole pulled us in. Something went wrong at the Event Horizon Dynamics," Eli said. "It's probably not just us. I saw people from all around the plaza. Other buildings."

She squeezed his shoulder. "We'll find everyone. But first, maybe we should get out of here now. We don't know who put that trap there, or if they were alerted when it was triggered, or when you broke it."

"You're right," he said. Rufus was lying across both their legs, and Eli hadn’t even noticed. He scratched the dog's head gratefully. "Good boy. Okay, let's go."

"Shouldn't you pick a class?" Amy said.

Eli looked down at himself, at his lack of clothes. The wrappings around his waist were blackened somewhat. "I will. Soon. Let’s just get back to the building first. You know, safety in numbers."

A sound broke through the trees, a low animal grunt.

"What now?" Eli asked, looking around for his stick. But no, that had been blown to splinters in the explosion.

"What was that?" Amy asked.

"I don’t know, but I don't like it. Let’s go."

Rufus didn’t seem too concerned, panting happily at Amy's side. Thankfully, his harness had stayed on him when going through the black hole. Curious that. With Rufus at her side and Amy was confident enough to just walk while holding onto her seeing-eye dog. With the shepherd’s crook for extra support, she trudged through the underbrush, almost matching Eli's speed.

They heard more animal sounds. Birds chirped in the trees. A hind's eerie cry somewhere deep inside the forest. He hadn’t picked up on the sounds before, but he’d probably been too concerned about Amy to listen properly. Squirrels scurried up the tree trunks and startled rabbits sped away at their approach. The sun was still out, and it was a beautiful day. With the grunting sound not repeating, the forest didn’t seem quite as dangerous anymore.

All this wildlife made Eli hopeful. They'd need to hunt for food and even start in on crops and the like if they wanted to survive in this new world. They were settlers in Aryxia now. Could they be successful ones?