Enter the Realms

The light, it's so... bright. What happened- wait... what's that scent? Something's charring. Did I doze while making ramen again? Oh gosh... this is new. 

As Malu opens his eyes, he sees the embers soaring through the air. The fire cracks as it devours the leaves nearby. He flinches up off the earth, his stature tall. As he looked around, his anxiety started skyrocketing.

Oh.. oh my. Why do I have to die first thing?! Wait... I can feel the fire. This is just a virtual reality headset, but this thing has crazy features! 

As he thought about his headset, he didn't notice a rather large beast sluggishly walking toward him. As the fourteen-year-old turned around, he swallowed a huge lump in his throat. 

"U-uh. Hello? Please don't eat me..." Malu begged of the dragon, only to get a roar in return. It grunted every time its heavy steps boomed throughout the ambience, sending a chill down Malu's spine. As the immense horror that was standing in front of Malu limbered closer, a loud rustling sound came out of one of the bushes that wasn't on fire.

A girl leapt out with a long sword glinting in the flames. Her blonde ponytail flowed in the breeze. She squatted in a fighting stance right before Malu, who was astonished. The harsh breeze blew her dark blue crop top and forest green skirt. 

"Stand back and watch. Don't need you getting hurt," she commented as Malu stared up at her with big stars in his eyes. "Go to that cave over there. It's safer."

Wow! How did she get such a good avatar? Mine looks like a wizard without the beard and wand. Her sword though! It's amazing!

Malu lumbered toward the opaque grotto as his elongated robe dragged against the dirt. He was walking as he spotted a porcelain rabbit on the ground; the rabbit was shattered. Malu picked up a piece of the rabbit as a roar was heard.

Oh, shoot! I forgot there was a huge man-eating beast out here! I'll pick up the rest of the pieces and put them inside my carryall before heading inside.

Malu hurriedly grabbed the pieces of the broken and white porcelain rabbit. He then walked into the deep, dark grotto. He looked around noticing it was completely shady. The fire outside- which was a few meters away- was the only thing he could see. 

A long, loud groan of painstaking agony was heard outside from the large dragon. Malu crawled out of the cavern to see the girl standing there with her sword in the dragon's chest. Malu inched closer to the lass as he noticed the green liquid on her once-clean sword.

What is that? Eww... don't tell me that's dragon blood. 

"Oh, I didn't notice you there. My name is Skipper by the way, what's yours?" Skipper asked curious about the new person.

"U-uh... my name is Malu," The boy stated as a grin grew across his face. "It's nice to meet you, Skipper!" 

Malu held out his hand for Skipper, and she eagerly grasped it, shaking it up and down quickly. Her grip tightened a little tighter as she yanked him toward her.

"Hey, you wanna join my team? I need some members for this long journey, so I can beat Jordan and his crew." Skipper asked, slightly mumbling the last part to herself.

"Umm... you know what, why not?" Malu flashed a cocky grin as he applied the same amount of pressure to her hand.

She's got a good grip. Maybe she works out? Also, I still wonder why everything here is so realistic. I'm pretty sure I cut myself on one of the rabbit shards too. My hand was bleeding. Also, is she an NPC or-

"Earth to Malu, you there?" Skipper was waving her hand in the center of Malu's face; for the boy had spaced out. 

"You know, spacing out isn't gonna' help you in a battle against any monster. Along with being a noob." The blonde girl stated quite seriously. 

Yeah, she's definitely a human.

"Yeah... I'll take note of that," Malu replied. "Besides, I'm a fast learner."

"Nice! That'll help out the team. Once we get one more player that is," Skipper stated with a bit of sadness etching her voice.

"Don't worry, we'll get another in no time!", is what Malu would say if he understood. Instead, he replied, "Mhm."

"I guess we'll best get going, we don't want the Rakkers to come after us."

"The... Rakkers?

"Yeah, they're huge dinosaur like birds that fly around, attacking every organism in sight. They kinda look like how a pterodactylwould, just with huge teeth and ginormous wings." She replied, the description sending a chill down my spine.

Great, now there's a chance I could be torn limb from limb by one of these creatures. What's next, magical ponies that try to stab you with their long horns.

"Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you to watch out for the unicorns."