The sound of metal hissing against metal was unmistakable. Jonah quickly whipped around knives drawn flinging himself at the enemy in hopes of landing a critical hit and ending the battle quickly. There was no such luck as the level sixty six dark paladin swung his heavy battle axe in a deadly arc pulverizing his character in a shower of blood red pixels.
“It’s not possible!” exclaimed Jonah as he watched his avatar disintegrate into a puddle of pixels. Angrily, he threw down his controller and stomped loudly out of the den while assailing the nearest pillow with multiple strikes from his bare fists.
“Jonah, are you okay?” Mom’s voice echoed up the stairs from the kitchen. “I’m fine mom,” Replied Jonah as he quickly descended the stairs in search of an afternoon snack. “Are you still playing that video game?” questioned his mother as Jonah waltzed casually through the threshold. “Of course I am mom, what else would I be doing?” Jonah questioned. “All I’m worried about is that one day you’re going to get sucked into one of these games and never come out.“ Jonah’s mother said flatly.
“Oh don’t be so ridiculous,” scoffed Jonah as he grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and nimbly bolted out of the kitchen without another word.
“She thinks I’ll be magically and mystically beamed out from my house into some crazy videogame and die trying to get out,” thought Jonah as he ruthlessly walked out the door and onto the street. Happily munching on the apple, Jonah failed to look both ways and got plowed over by a purple Ford pickup truck barreling down the street. The last thought to go through Jonah’s head before he blacked out was “Oh crap,”
“Joseph, Joseph come on wake up already!” Jonah’s eyes slowly eased themselves open to find himself staring at the insides of a dirty straw roof. “What is going on?” Jonah croaked. “Oh fantastic Joseph you’re awake!” exclaimed a voice in the far corners of the room. Jonah slowly sat up and looked in the direction of the voice, and was surprised to see a girl dressed in dirty rags. He looked down and saw that he was wearing similar rags. “Come now Joseph we must get ready. The goblins will be here soon.” The girl spoke. Jonah questioned “Who are you and why do you keep calling me Joseph? My name is ...” his voice tapered off as he searched his mind for his real name. To his own surprise his search proved to be fruitless.
“Now Joseph don’t be silly.” The girl sardonically said.” The blow to the head you experienced in the battlefield must have jiggled your brain a little bit, I’m your sister you silly troll.” the voice giggled. “Joseph” Jonah thought “Yeah that’s my name.” Jonah now Joseph stood up, stretched and obediently followed his “sister” out of the room
Outside was a scene Joseph would never forget. A ragged gravel road cut through what seemed to be a small village. Across the dirt road was a large hog with mammoth sized tusks roasting slowly on a spit over a roaring bonfire in the front yard. Joseph’s sister dragged Joseph away and brought him to a wiry woman with stringy hair. Joseph’s sister said “Mother I have brought Joseph like you asked me to.”
The woman stared at Joseph for a long time only to say “Joseph you look absolutely terrible. Jade please take your brother to the river and wash him off, then give him a new shirt to replace that old tattered rag he’s wearing” Jade shot Joseph a look of disgust and led him through the village huts and to a large river that runs through the village.
Suddenly, Jade gave him a hard shove, and Joseph landed with a splash in the river. “Hey what’s the big idea?” Joseph protested as he emerged from the river. “Oh I’m sorry, I tripped” Jade replied innocently. Joseph gave Jade a murderous look and re-submerged into the river to shed the thick layer of grime cocooning his entire body.
When Joseph finally emerged from the river, Jade had run off and in a nearby mud puddle sat his clothes. “That little imp won’t escape me next time,” Joseph muttered to himself.
Suddenly a large horn was sounded followed by the screaming of dozens of women and children as they were all shouting “The Corruptors have arrived. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
Joseph didn’t know what to do; all his thoughts were shrouded in a thick fog inside his head. He desperately looked around for a place to hide, but he was inconveniently standing in a seemingly empty field.
He turned around only to see an evil looking cloud of dust forming on the horizon. As if by instinct, Joseph’s legs started sprinting across the landscape. Joseph did not know where he was going, but one thing was for certain, he was running away from the village.
Up ahead, Joseph spotted a shoddy hut made of large boulders and a tight straw roof. “That’s where I’ll wait this thing out” Joseph thought.
As he approached the hut, Joseph could make out a rough shape of an anvil, a furnace, and a large trough of water. This is one strange place. Joseph observed. When Joseph arrived at the door way to the hut an extremely ash blackened man ran out with a flaming hot bar of steel. “Get out of my way child,” the man exclaimed.
The man ran to the anvil and started to furiously hammer the metal into a long pointed rod. After what seemed to be hours of pounding, the man brought the now blackened sword to the water trough and proceeded to rinse the blade clean.
Finally the man said “What are you doing here child?” the man’s accent was very strange since he trilled his R’s. “I’m here hiding from the Corruptors,” Joseph responded. The man stared for a minute scanning Joseph for something. “Do you not know how to fight?” the man inquired. “I once did, but I lost it when I got knocked out of the battlefield.”
The man once again stared intently at Joseph as if he were searching for something. “Here take this” the man said. He selected a set of dual brawling knives off the rack. He also gave Joseph a sack of stale bread. “Take this too. If the Corruptors are in your village, you cannot go back. They will kill you.” The man handed a small shield to Joseph. “Now you must leave it is not safe here” the man belted.
Joseph walked reluctantly out of the black smith’s abode and set off foolishly into the dark cloud.
“Darkness” that’s the only thing Joseph could perceive other than the coarse dirt under his toes. He had been treading through the fog for many days. His bread has run out and most of his hope has been lost. Joseph thought to himself this was an extremely foolish mistake; I should have headed for the mountains if I had known that this cloud would be miles thick.”
Feeling one last sliver of hope that still clung to him tightly Joseph charged forward breaking into sudden daylight and a horrific sight. The village that he had lived in was in ashes. Bodies of the dead were strewn across the landscape.
Quickly scanning the village, Joseph located where his hut once stood now with a gaping hole in its roof. He peered in through the window. The bodies of his sister and his mother lay on the floor Many of their extremities were scattered both around them and out the door. Bite marks covered his sister’s body as if some savage creature gnawed at his sister like a slab of jerky. A spike of rage erupted like a volcano at the people who did this. Joseph swore that he would avenge his family.
A sudden growl from his stomach reminded Joseph that he was famished and he scrambled over to the hidden trap door in the floor that served as their ice box. Inside he rummaged through to find several slabs of meat and a loaf of half eaten bread.
As Joseph hungrily shoveled his meal down, he set off to gather tools to defeat this evil cloud of Corruptors. In a nearby hut he found his neighbor’s chain mail shirt and shrugged that on. He winced at the extra weight on his shoulders.
He also found a short length of rope, a courior’s satchel, and some more food that he wrapped up for later. Finially Joseph found what he was searching for, one of the village’s more tamed mares. He threw on a saddle and loaded up his belongings. At last he rode off on his quest for revenge.
The following day Joseph finally caught up with the black cloud. It was not very hard to track it. All he had to do was follow the obvious path of destruction through the small plain and into the forest. Joseph now stood parallel with the cloud the horse apparently terrified cantered at a safe distance from the cloud constantly veering away from the cloud of darkness.
The cloud suddenly shifted with amazing speed and quickly engulfed both Joseph and the horse. The sound of steel hissing against steel was unmistakable. As Joseph brought the horse around it was immediately mauled by a whirling battle axe. The force of the swing sent the horse one way and Joseph the opposite way. With reflexes like those of a feline Joseph was again on his feet and was unsheathing the brawling knives in the process.
It was either a sixth sense or some sort of an instinct but Joseph leaped back only seconds before the murderous battleaxe whirled back around. Joseph was taken by surprise as a massive club came at him from the side striking a glancing blow against his back knocking him to the ground. Joseph rolled as both weapons came smashing down at the earth.
The impact caused a minor earthquake and the ground under him opened up separating the two enemies from him.
The Dark Paladin bought Joseph a few minutes as the enemies cautiously advanced forward. “What to do” Joseph asked himself leaping back to another chunk of ground. “There has to be some weakness in their armor.” The Dark Paladin and the Monster ogre now stood to his left and right sandwiching him in the center. The Monster ogre slammed his hammer down. Joseph leaped into the air. The hammer pulverized the ground where he was just standing. Joseph leaped onto the Paladin’s helmet skipping lightly on his body armor. The ogre slammed his hammer down just after joseph leaped off the paladin. The hammer slammed into the paladin turning him into a pile of scrap armor. “The ogre was left up protected when it swings its hammer leaving him exposed to a knife strike” observed Joseph. “So I’ll use that weakness against him.” The next time the ogre swung his hammer joseph dashed forward thrusting his knives forward. The ogre bellowed as twin blades pierced his loincloth and into his flesh. The ogre blind with rage swiped his hand over to the paladin’s battleaxe and swung it in a deadly arc at joseph. The axe met its mark as Joseph was ground down to a pile of flesh and broken bones.
“Jonah,” said a voice into as it entered his mind. “Wake up,” a heavy jostle shook Jonah’s body as he weakly opened his eyes. “Jonah!” exclaimed the voice as Jonah sat up. Jonah looked around the room with squinty eyes as he was suddenly blinded by the bright lights of the sterile room. “Where am I?” Jonah croaked his throat as dry as if he had swallowed a spoon full of sand. His mother was sitting next to him in a chair.
“How do you feel?” asked his mother as she slowly took his hand. “I feel like I’ve been microwaved,” Jonah’s stomach roared “I also feel kind of hungry,” he added sarcastically.
“I’m glad you’re doing fine, that car that hit you was going well over the speed limit, and it’s a miracle that you’re still alive,” His mother said.
“Thanks for worrying about me mom,” Jonah replied flatly. “Do feel ready to leave?” questioned his mother. “Of course I am! I feel ready to take a kitten in a mock boxing match,” Jonah giggled. “Well in that case we’ll check you out of the hospital tomorrow just to be safe,” his mother cooed.
“That is fine mom,” Jonah replied. When Jonah was sure his parents had left the room, he laid himself down once again and enjoyed the silence.