The Chinchilla

I wonder if this is what it feels like for drug addicts, the rush of the familiar and comfortable after dealing with nasty experience without your drug of choice. There may be some truth to María's words, but I can't deal with them now.

The world goes black and I'm in the void-like menu area. I spell out my login name and password, and the voice tells me the game settings will begin to download.

"We hope you experience the time of your life," it says, and the menu interface disappears. Then I'm falling into the blackness. I can't feel my body, but I sense air swooshing past me as gravity pulls me down. Soon I feel my limbs materialize, and I have a head, torso, arms, and legs again. I blink and a bright light blinds me. A few seconds later, I sink into a deep turquoise liquid which I assume is water and I swim up to the surface.

Looking at my arms as I paddle, I realize I'm now Stormborn, my in-game avatar. The water isn't deep, and it glistens in the light that filters through an oval-shaped shaft above. I swim towards a rocky shoreline and I crawl out, taking in my surroundings. I'm in a small cave with no apparent exit. In a twisted turn of fate, my dripping gear sticks to my body, and I feel the urge to log out just to feel dry for a few freaking minutes.

Sand and pebbles crunch beneath my boots as I move around the cave, and I shudder when I reach a cooler shaded area. I thought I'd appear in the grasslands where I killed Lobison last night. Unsure of what to do next, I say "menu".

"Welcome back, Stormborn," says a sharp voice behind me. I turn, and there's a chinchilla hanging on to a rope pulled down from the shaft above us. Letting go of the rope, he lands on the ground with a grace that no animal as fluffy and round should have.

I've misjudged these creatures before and I don't want to get slayed by one of them again, so I back away, realizing I have no weapons or know how to use any skills with the headset yet. There's no name or level marker above the chinchilla's head. Thankfully, he's only wearing a tiny leather vest and no visible weapons. My back hits the cave wall, and he raises his tiny paw.

"I'm not here to hurt you. Although you've hurt my brethren before," he says, clearing his throat. "I see you've come far from that fateful encounter many months ago. I am envoy for the Yauyo of the sierras, and I'm here to offer you the power of Aerokinesis."

He closes his eyes, sticking his tiny paws behind him. "You are now close to reaching your full potential, and you must choose a path to continue. With the unparalleled might of air you will master the wind and its currents, the…"

I didn't know that we'd have to pick a class mastery before reaching level 101, and I regret not reading the forums before logging in. But then again, no one must know this information yet. O-light never announces the content they will implement in future updates before it's live. Some say it's because they leave everything to Amo, and even they don't know how the AI server will carry on their instructions. O-light gives Amo the rules, goals, and parameters to work with, and the server does all the work.

Aerokinesis isn't my first choice for my class mastery, so I stop listening to the chinchilla. Back when I had time to spare, I'd read all the quest prompts, making an effort to keep track of all the game's storylines. Now I just want to get back to work.

The chinchilla keeps going on about the might of air, and I can't resist the temptation of feeling its soft brown fur, so I approach him and pat his belly. My hands melt into his coat; it's the lushest thing I've ever felt.

"How dare you disrespect me this way? I am not a pet," he says, twitching his large ears. He slaps my hand away with his tiny paw.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd react," I say, backing away. And I'm indeed surprised at this level of realness.

Apparently, NPCS now value their personal space.

"I warned the Yauyo council about you. You are not to be trusted. I will make this short, so I can send you on your way. But if you choose this path, know that we won't make it easy for you. You have much respect to earn from the Yauyos for all the pain you've caused us before," he says.

"Excuse me? You can't blame all of it on me. You attacked me first."

The head miner in Chimstad had given me a quest to find the rare dysprosium ore, but he forgot to say anything about the spiteful chinchillas who didn't want the metal to be mined.

"And what gives you the right to mine in our mountains? Just because you're a Perpetual doesn't mean you can take what you want from our lands."

"What did you call me? A Perpetual?"

"Those who won't die permanently. You come back," says the chinchilla.

"Oh, you're talking about the players. Does that mean that NPCS now suffer permanent deaths?

"I don't follow. What is an enpeecee?" he says, tapping his little hind paw on the ground as if he were impatient to leave. "Would you like to choose the path of Aerokinesis, or not?"

"I thank you for offering it to me, but I'd like to analyze my other options first," I say, trying to unstick my robes from my body.

"Very well. If you change your mind, you must make your way back to Yauyo on your own," he says, grabbing onto the dangling rope. Someone pulls him up, and he's gone.