Twisted Destiny

We spend the rest of the day improving our camp a little more, making our huts look nicer, starting to build a couple of fences at some places and Hilda even starts the early parts of what is supposed to become some kind of shower. 

Time surely flies by when you are busy, especially since we’ve already spent a big part of the day practicing magic. 

When the sun starts setting we eat our last dinner of this other world trip. 

“Are we going to continue the camp next time we log on?” I ask as I eat my roasted fish on a stick. 

“We don’t have to.” Hilda replies. “I can imagine that you don’t want to be basebuilding for the next month or so.” 

“That’s not untrue.” Sam chuckles. “As much as this is a very nice experience, apart from the poison part, having a good old adventure, on the road and traveling with friends, is a bit more my style.” 

“We can try to meet up with Carol and Max next time.” I reply. “We have been somewhat promising to do that with them.” 

“That’s true.” Sam nods and then looks over to Hilda. “Then I think the two of us will be doing that, feel free to join of course.” 

“Hmm.” My sister scratches her cheek. “How about we make a deal?” 

“What deal?” I tilt my head. 

“Next time we log in, we teleport to the city Max and Carol are in. From there on, Hilda, Nikki and I will go on our own adventure. And when we meet up again you just teleport us back to our base in the Dwarger Capital.” 

“Oh, right, I kinda forgot you could teleport by yourselves.” I chuckle. 

“It’s just the Dwarger continent that’s not really accessible that way… yet… and without evil means.” Nikki says. “We might want to find a non-evil solution for that problem though. That way we are less tied to one-another. Not that I think that’s bad…” 

“I know what you mean.” I nod. “You three have other friends from back in the day right? From the Alpha test?” 

“Exactly, and we wouldn’t want to drag you two along constantly just to teleport us back all the time.” Nikki nods. 

“Let’s put that on the agenda as a quest for us to unravel.” Sam agrees. 

“And as for messaging, we can still use the message system this ‘game’ has.” Hilda ads. “I sometimes forget that’s a thing…” 

“So do I.” Lise replies. “But then again, since we’ve always been this close to each other, we’ve not really had to use it in quite some time. Probably would’ve been useful to have remembered that when I got yeeted into the trees though.” 

“Arguably not.” Hilda shakes her head. “It was way easier to find you by following the direction your voice came from… But there’s definitely been situations where it could’ve been useful…” Hilda nibbles on a piece of fish too, appearing to be in deep thoughts. “Maybe we can try sending each other a message every morning. So we don’t forget next time.” 

“Immersive worlds need imaginative solutions.” My sister laughs. 

“Exactly.” Hilda then looks to me. “Ami, I task you to make sure we remember to do that next time.” 

I chuckle. “Sure. And you know what? Let’s send a message to Max and Carol to bring those good intentions into practice already.” I try to find my way to the message interface. But I do approximately remember where that’s supposed to be. 

“Wait, do you even remember their names?” Sam asks. “Well, their usernames.” 

That stops me in my tracks. Hovering with my finger over the interface. “Ah…. Good point.” 

Sam starts laughing. “Oh well, we can ask when we wake up. It’s no biggy.” 

I give her a nod. 

 

We finish eating our meal after which Hilda gets up and starts covering the fireplace with sand. “I’ll use a ward to make sure our camp doesn’t get affected by weather too much. As long as a typhoon doesn’t hit, at least we won’t have to redo a lot of our work. 

“You know that now that you mentioned a typhoon, one’s definitely going to come and pay a visit, right?” Lise looks around the camp. 

“It’ll be fine.” I smile. “She was touching wood while she said it.” 

“Charcoal counts?” 

“According to me it does.” I nod confidently. 

“Well if my sister says so, it’s fine.” 

Hilda shakes her head and rolls her eyes with a smile. “Alright, give me a minute to ward up this place and then we can teleport back.” 

“Aye aye.” I salute her. 

“Everyone has their stuff gathered?” Élise beckons us over to the walker. Not a bad idea to take it back with us. 

“Yep, I even have an uncomfortable amount of sand with me.” Nikki replies. 

“Yeah… let’s take a bath when we get home. That’s one thing I definitely miss. At least until Hilda’s shower thing is done.” 

“You assume that’s going to be with heated water?” Nikki frowns. 

“...” My sister looks over to me. “Surely…”

I shrug. “She hasn’t said anything about that.” 

“Hilda!” My sister turns around and shouts in the direction of the camp? 

“What?” Hilda pops around the corner of a hut, rubbing her hands. “I’m just done setting up the ward.”

“Is that shower thing you are making going to be with warm water?” 

“Well… I wouldn’t want to get ahead of ourselves…” She walks over to us. 

“So that’s a no?” 

“It’s not a ‘yes, definitely’.” Hilda replies. “First of all I need to figure out how to get water in the thing, after that we can see if I can make said water heated or not. I just want to tackle one thing at a time for now.” 

My sister pouts. “I suppose…” 

“You can always shower when it’s the hottest part of the day, sis. Maybe then it’ll be nice to have some cool water.” I try to lift her spirits. 

“I know… but… warm water.” 

“And we really need to, I’ll teleport you to the house so you can take a hot bath.” 

My sister takes me in for a big hug. “Hear that, everyone. My sister really has a heart made of pure gold, doesn’t she? Best little sister ever.” 

“We knew.” Hilda laughs and gets seated on the walker. Although she doesn’t bother turning it on. “Let’s get going?” 

“Yes!” My sister lifts me off my feet and puts me on the walker after which she climbs on herself. “Let’s go to take a bath!” 

Both Nikki and Sam roll their eyes, followed by a burst of laughter. After which they both get on the walker too. 

“Ami, if you please.” Hilda smiles. 

“One teleport, coming right up. Hold tight everyone.” 

I close my eyes and image the spot where the walker was parked before we left the capital. A couple of seconds later a small gust of wind and a soft clanking sound signals to me yet another successful teleportation had transpired. 

 

Back at the mansion we all take a bath as it’s pretty welcome for all of us. As it’s already pretty late we decide not to waste too much time around the mansion apart from maybe watering a couple of the plants. See you next time, Ami, Sam. And a good night as well, of course.” Hilda pats my head as she walks past with a watering can. 

“Good night!” We both reply before we head into the room. 

Sam just plops down into the bed. Remembering me of the night before on the beach. “I kinda don’t want to go to bed yet.” 

“Why?” I sit down next to her. “Because uni?” 

She turns her head to look at me. “Yeah… I know education is important but that still doesn’t mean I terribly like going to uni pretty much every day.” 

“Do you have basketbal tomorrow too?” 

“Yeah… at least that’s something that I can really look forward to.” She quickly takes her clothes off and beckons me. “Come, take your clothes off, I want to hug my cute girlfriend.”

“Please?” I stick out my tongue. 

“Come, quickly take your clothes off, I want to hug my cute girlfriend. Please.” 

“Good enough.” I chuckle and start undressing as well so I can get underneath the covers with my handsome, beautiful, very cool girlfriend, Sam. 

 With snuggles now acquired Sam hums contently. “Okay, maybe going to uni tomorrow isn’t all that bad.” 

“What about I come and deliver you some food during the midday break?” 

“Sounds great. What kind of food are you thinking about?” 

“A cup of nice warm tomato soup and some pesto pasta?” 

“Yum.” Sam nuzzles her face in the nap of my neck. “That sounds great already.” 

“Hehe. You better be waiting for me with a great appetite!”

“I’ll eat nothing all day so I can have the biggest appetite for girlfriend delivered food.” 

“But that’s not healthy Sam.” 

“Alright, then I’ll just have a snack now.” She nibbles my neck. It tickles but in a way also feels very good. It makes me purr. 

-Does that mean I’m the purrfect snack?-