Fairytale (1669 words)
Do you know the kind of people which play video games and do things that you should not do inside them?
Most call them Hacker or Cheater, but there are some that don't belong into that category.
They are people which do not change the way the game is working, nor do they break the rules.
The reason as why they are able to perform feats beyond the normal is because they understand the game more than even the creators themselves.
With a mind that is able to find bugs and errors in the system of the world and ideas that make use of them, they rise swiftly in power and walk the path of a legend or even a god.
I call them Exploiters.
And yes, I myself am one of them.
I do what I do not to make fun of the people that create these awesome games, but to prof myself that I'm not a complete failure.
Antisocial and a shut-in, no friends to speak of and a nice family that pity's me for my situation.
But now it doesn't matter anymore, I died silently and fast.
Car accidents aren't something rare even in this age, the world has advanced, and many things have become possible that no one thought would be.
VR technology is at its rise and that is almost everything I know about the current state of the world.
I'm a shut-in, already forgot.
Anyway, after my death I arrived in a dark space where I promptly fell asleep, I have read enough novels to know that this can only end in two ways.
First, I meet a powerful being and get my wishes fulfilled.
Or second, I will remain here for a very long time till something happens.
With my attempt to fall asleep, all of my senses shut down and my consciousness drift off into oblivion.
An unknown amount of time later I awoke and open my eyes.
To my surprise my eyes actually open and a green forest appears in my vision.
Big trees with twisting branches and lush green leaves form a roof over the grass and bushes underneath.
Many colorful flowers grow everywhere, be it on trees, bushes or the ground.
The whole thing looks like out of a fairytale.
I push myself into a sitting position and realize that something isn't right with my body.
The size is completely screwed up and the coloration also doesn't match with my memories.
My surprise didn't last long because as a hobby novel reader I have read about lots of different scenarios that could occur in this situation.
I calm down and give myself an all over inspection to get an understanding about my new body.
A light brown shirt and pants cover my body and nothing else.
Concerning my size, I seem to be a in a child body around the age of 12 and my skin color is very light almost pale if not for the rosy tone to it.
My hair is reaching down to my shoulder and golden blond in color, an interesting thing is that my hair doesn't follow the law of gravity as strictly as the rest of my body and is a complete mess.
If we are already by hair, I noticed that any kind of body hair is absent except for my head.
Following this, I hastily go over my body again and come to the conclusion that this body is very similar to how an anime character looks like.
No body hair except on the head, completely smooth skin without any birthmarks.
It could just be me going crazy, but my guts are telling me that I'm not completely wrong.
With a light sigh, I stand up and stretch my limbs a bit before starting to wander through the forest.
I hope that I come across a river or pond so that I can take a look at my face because I suspect that mirrors aren't something easy to get here.
Aimlessly I wander around and pick up interesting looking branches or stones, only to discard them again once a new object of interest appears in my sight.
There is no haste in my steps as I lazily walk around.
After a while, I hear the sound of flowing water and start walking into its direction.
My bare feet step onto the soft grass and cold ground while I play around with a cool looking branch who has an interesting pattern on one end.
Even with my slow walking speed it barely took two minutes to arrive near the small stream of water.
The water in the stream looks strange, different from the water I know, this water is shimmers light blue.
I frown a bit at the definitely not normal color of the water before I dip my index finger into the water.
Coldness washes around my finger, but nothing else, it just feels like cold water.
My frown disappears and I put the wet finger in my mouth.
It tastes a lot better than the old water I drank.
With this thought I abandon my concerns and start drinking from the stream.
The water is really refreshing, and I feel full of energy after drinking it.
I stand back up and start walking against the current of the stream in hopes of finding a lake.
My journey wasn't exciting or anything, it was just plain walking and playing around with sticks and stones.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, it reminds me of my childhood and all the fun I had with random objects.
Sticks that turn into the most powerful of weapons and stones that are deadly artefacts that explode into the most epic fashion.
Good times, truly good times.
My feet's come to a stop when I saw the edges of the lake in front of me, the dark blue water with many small shadows near the surface, turn the sight into a beautiful picture.
A small smile spreads out on my lips as I start moving again.
The pure beauty of the place just makes me smile, its surrealism is something I appreciate.
I arrive at some big rocks at the bank and climb on top of them.
Standing on top of the rock I look at the view while taking deep breaths.
Then an uncomfortable feeling appears in my stomach area.
My smile disappears and I vigilantly survey my surroundings.
Not a second later, a strange creature crawls out of some bushes not too far away.
It has no skin and the bare muscles are in plain view together with some blackish mucus that seeps out of a wound on its back.
The strange creature has a slight similarity to a boar in its body form, but there ends the similarity.
I slowly sit down on the rock on which I stood, there was no fear in my actions as I have seen much worse things than this before.
The horrors of VR are only limited by the fantasy of the game designers, and you can be sure that they have lots of it.
Grotesque, eldritch nightmares with way too many limbs and eyes have scared hundreds of poor gamers to the point where they had nightmares.
Back to the current situation, I make sure to move very slowly so to not alert the creature.
The thing didn't notice me and walked closer to the lake, where it starts to drink.
I silently observe it from my rock and wait.
Suddenly a big shadow appears in the lake and moves with high speed to the boar like creature.
The boar lets out a loud screeching sound and turns around to flee, but before it manages to move away the surface of the lake broke apart and revealed a giant eel with turquoise skin.
The eel jumps out of the water and bits down on the boar, killing it in an instant.
He then proceeds to eat it in two bits and slowly turns its head to me.
I still don't move and instead look the giant eel directly in the eyes.
To my surprise the then starts to speak.
"What are you doing here little one? It is dangerous so far out in the woods. "
His voice was deep but friendly.
My eyes narrow a bit before I decide to reply.
"I awoke somewhere in the forest, I do not know who I am, what I am or where I am."
My voice has a childish tone to it, but the way I spoke and the calm expression on my face tell the eel that I am serious and do not joke around.
He remains silent for a moment and returns into the water where he then proceeds to swim closer to me.
The giant head of the eel is now directly in front of me.
"That is a problem little one. Your kind isn't safe in these parts of the forest. Many beings would want to hunt you down and use you for various terrible things. "
I could clearly hear the concern in his voice as he spoke.
"You are to weak to travel back safely, I know one of your kind that resides somewhere nearby, he comes here sometimes. You should stay here till he comes again and then ask him to bring you with him. "
A deep frown appears on my forehead because I didn't gain much information from him at all.
I sigh and ask him directly this time.
"What am I?"
My question confuses the eel a bit, but he still answered.
"Your kind is called Fey, normally you should be inside the spirit realm, that is also where the king and queen of the Fey reside."
That a lot better, at least I know now what I am.
Not finished yet I continue asking.
"Where are we right now? "
This time the eel answered faster than before.
"We are at northern side of the great Nelam forest, on the continent Amera. "