Dreamland

Accessing Calamity Lara/ Short name Cala Level 95, Title: Warlord, Class: Assassin.

Statistics:117.527 kills; 3 deaths

Status: Active

Warning low HP: 34/1725

Warning: low HP : 34 out of 1725!!!

"What? Oh, my HP is really low? Does my low HP have anything to do with the world's situation? Could there be some world unraveling that's killing me?

After the initial panic subsided and I realized my HP wasn't rapidly decreasing, I tried to think it through.

"No, wait... I do have more kills. Maybe I was in a fight; that would explain my low HP... but fighting whom? Or what?"

I attempted to orient myself. Annoyingly, I didn't receive any memories from Cala as I should have, leaving me blissfully unaware of what had happened and my current situation. Even more frustrating was the fact that I couldn't see anything! I blinked, but it remained pitch black.

The complete darkness and silence were unsettling! Only the occasional drip of water in the distance broke the silence, resembling the beat of a distant war drum.

For a moment, I thought that Cala might be blind. Could that be possible? But then I should remember how this happened! That damn memory, whatever it was, should have already flooded into my mind!

"I don't see anything and I don't remember, because the game functions cannot provide me that information! It's like the end times for the game! Could this be how the real world ends, in silence and darkness, your HP dropping slowly into nothingness?"

I almost chuckled at the notion, then took a deep breath...

"Ow, that hurts..." I couldn't suppress a pained moan.

The sensation of pain arrived instantly, without any delay. It didn't seem like the game was experiencing technical difficulties...

“Oh, Okay, but if the game works why do I not remember what had happened? When I login, Cala's memory should flow into my mind!” I almost yelled in anger trying to make it happen.

I struggled again to remember, but the memory of the past days did not come to me. Why that? Was there something wrong with Cala? I mean, yes, I knew there was something wrong with her being in the low HP, but being low HP did not mean I should not remember what she'd done...

I was completely and utterly confused. I took another deep breath, and was reminded that it truly hurts bad!

I tried to move my hand. That just resulted in more pain.

I sighed, but even the simple act of breathing hurt like hell.

"I should heal myself!" was the next thought that crossed my mind, yet I didn't heal myself because some gut feeling was blocking me.

Unnerving feelings were invading me, confusing me. Was this another type of game error?

I tried to understand and analyze them. There was fear, stress, but also relief. There was pain and confidence, and more stress.

Such a level of stress that it even hindered me from healing. Why? I just wanted to heal myself, and yet I hesitated again, and a thought came to my mind: the spell to heal would light me up like a beacon.

Yes, true, if it was darkness that surrounded me and I was not just blind.

"Does it matter?" I thought. "Yet, my fear told me that it did." Fear is a feeling. Feelings...

Why couldn't I remember the situation clearly? I tried to recall, but all it did was cause me intense pain.

"Oh, damn it, I hate headaches."

This was one of those terrible headaches when your brain itself turns into literal pain!

Why? I wanted to cover my face with my hands, but I could hardly move them. Why did remembering cause this pain?

"Instead of memories, all I get are these damn feelings!" I almost shouted, but then it struck me: damn! These feelings were the memories!

And with that realization, the real memory became a little bit more clear. I closed my eyes and embraced it.

Pain. Every movement was agony. Something was piercing my flesh! Arrows. Damn arrows lodged in my body. I remembered. I recalled those arrows vividly! The memory of that pain was there deep imprinted in my brain.

Orcs. They were the source of this agony! Brief bursts of fire illuminated their contorted faces, brief skirmishes, and periods of fleeing in the almost total darkness.

More and more of these haunting images of cruelty and pain flooded my mind. I must have battled orcs almost continuously in the past few days, yet I didn't dread them. I almost welcomed them. Oh yes, I almost craved them. Slaying them had given me a sense of purpose. Because somehow, I had lost my purpose.

That was the memory. Why such a twisted recollection? Why everything packed in feelings in an almost incomprehensible form? Something was deeply amiss with Cala.

I tried to look around as much as I could move my head, hopefully I would see somewhere a mote of light. There was darkness everywhere, not a shred of light.

Somebody was breathing behind me. An almost inaudible, pained, slow breath. The wall behind me moved a little.

There was a furry paw covering me. A familiar paw. The paw twitched a little and pulled me closer to the furry carpet I was lying against. The shaggy rug that was giving me confidence.

Oh yes, the Lynx is here!

I was afraid to make any noise. Why was I afraid? Was I afraid of the orcs?... No. I was anxious about losing my brain. I was so scared! I was worried I would never be sane again.

I took another breath, as much as the sticking pain allowed me and leaned against the furry wall holding the furry paw with my two hands. It was the thing that kept me sane, the thing that had given me confidence.

"Oh fuck!"

I've never heard White Flower speaking like this. Speaking like Cala.

"What?"

"I think that we ripped Cala's brain when we left."

"What?"

"Don't panic. It is slowly restoring now. I feel it. We need to heal. Why don't you heal yourself?"

Yes, I was feeling it. Slowly, I was remembering more of the hallucinating, crazy last days.

I wondered what I must look like if the system was giving me only 34 HP points? But I still feared to heal.

“There is great danger here and healing would make us visible.”

“Let me heal. I will make a slow heal that does not emit light. Almost no light. The Lynx needs immediate heal!”

Yes, true. And I needed immediate healing too. I hesitated to give her the lead, but I could not do such a slow heal. Almost no light doesn't mean no light, but it is better than rising a beacon.

“OK, you do it!”

Switching to her did not improve my vision as I hoped. Even with her in the lead, I continued to see nothing but then slowly my hand started to glimmer. It was the light of an almost extinguished fire, a feeble ember light, and yet it was almost as a beacon of light for my eyes. Light, hope and fear.

It was slow, but yet as the healing light passed through me, I started to remember; I relived more pieces of the long fight. Segments slowly accumulated in my brain.

I felt the Lynx's paw twitching. It was now a controlled twitch to let me know he had regained his consciousness. Flo was tense, memories further gathering into my brain, and suddenly as I felt an immense relief, I also felt the shock, the fear we would all die soon. Imminent death was there with us.

The relief was Cala's feeling as her brain was fixing itself. It was slow, but it worked. That was an immense relief and a shock to me at the same time. I never saw Cala as anything else but an extension of myself. But she was there, alive: she had her feelings and passions. And she had her mind. Her mind that had been busted and was now fixing itself again.

Flo took a deep breath.

Pain. Fuck, I still have those damn arrows stuck into my flesh. Most did not go deep but were painful. I started to remove the ones I felt under my fingers.

But that was not our biggest problem. The problem was that we were not alone in the darkness. There was something dark and terrible together with us. That was why no orc dared to follow us in here. Something was there, something that had been sealed through a formidable magic barrier.

A one-way barrier.

And the last memory unfurled itself.

Tina and Spartacius were since long no longer by conscience. Were they still alive? I didn't know.

Alice had carried Spartacius and the Lynx Tina. Sometimes I did that, but I could no longer. I was close to death. So very close. Hello Tenebra, long time no seen! Where are you?

Yet I still chased our followers from the darkness and killed them. That was my job. That was who I was!

I heard the belling hounds on our trace.

And then I leaned myself against the wall. I could not move anymore. The end was finally there with me.

It was Alice that had dragged Spartacius and Tina further away, and then she wanted to fire that last arrow.

A hound had followed us; a hound had tried to bite us, and in a fraction of a second, something gigantic had snapped it in the air and took it away. We heard only a very short yelp and then the crunching sound of a giant mandible chewing the beast. Bones breaking like straw.

In the feeble light of a burning arrow I saw only a glimpse of what had happened, but what I saw was enough to drown any hope.

The arrow that she no longer fired as she collapsed unconscious. The Lynx had tried to warn her not to enter there, then he sighed and collected me. He lifted me in his mouth like a cat would lift its cub and followed her. He rested against the wall near the three collapsed people.

That's all I remembered from the last moments. Then the fire arrow that Alice had lighted went off, and a furry paw had covered me.