[PP - F2] A Second Meeting [Alkor] {Complete}

[Lessa 1]

Hello!

When you have the opportunity, would you mind meeting me at the High Fields of Crossing on floor two?

Thank you.

The words hovered over her as she re-read the message for the umpteenth time. She certainly had not meant for them to sound so cryptic, and she hoped that he would not hurry over. There was no rush, and she was not in any danger. She hoped that he would understand that, and travel to this place at his leisure.

But if she had not been in trouble, what was Lessa's reasoning for sending the message? Honestly, she had difficulty answering that question herself. Earlier that morning, she had been wandering the crowded streets of Starting City. The sheer number of people rushing at her from all directions, and the hurried looks on their faces had taken a toll on her. Despite her love of being around people, even the social butterfly had begun to feel overwhelmed. She had asked an experienced player for a quiet place to rest, and he had recommended the High Fields of Crossing. It was safe, he had assured her. She would be in no danger.

But as she traveled to this serene place, she had realized that quiet was not necessarily what she needed. No, what she lacked was not silence, but comfort. Familiarity. She had not been in the game for long, so when she thought about what would make her feel better, the answer came quickly. It was not a place, or a thing, but a person. Alkor.

So she had quickly conjured up a message, and sent it to him without much thought. Now, as she lay in the sweet-smelling grass, she found herself worrying about how he might react. He was a very shy person, and perhaps her request would make him anxious. Maybe it would backfire, and upset him rather than calming her. She frowned. Had she made a mistake?

A cool breeze whipped across the mountain's flat top, and she could not help but close her eyes and enjoy the sensation. The long blades tickled the skin of her cheeks and bare arms, and the smell of flowers hung like perfume above the meadow. With her eyes closed, she would have never known that she was not back at home, in a field near her house. For the first time since entering the death game, she found herself feeling a bit more at home. She lay there, with her eyes closed, waiting for her companion who may never come at all.

[Guest]

Hello!

The message flashed across his Heads Up Display vibrantly, and Alkor froze in his tracks. It wasn't often than a message came to him from anywhere, let alone another player. He toggled the screen open and read through the words, recognizing immediately it had come from that player he had helped on the first floor, Lessa.

It had been some time since then, and he was glad to see she was surviving well. At least, if she was sending messages, she was still alive. Secretly, he wondered how she was doing while he did his own thing on the higher floors. The fact she had made it to floor 2 was positive enough that he decided he'd meet with her, if only to see how she as progressing. Not that he'd admit if he were worried.

He stepped out onto the High Fields of Crossing with a quiet air of confidence in his movements, his face betraying nothing of his thoughts or emotions. Alkor had never been exceptionally good at conveying things between himself and others- even body language didn't come naturally to him. Instead, when he spied Lessa down the way, his eyes lit up and he raised a hand to wave.

...maybe she didn't see him? Were her eyes closed? Alkor couldn't quite tell from the distance he was at. There weren't any other players around, so it was only awkward to him that he was trying to call attention to himself in silence. This would probably make a good comedy, he mused as he let his hand drop once more, looking about himself.

When he found his seat several feet from her, he folded his legs and placed both hands quietly in his lap. "You look well," he said, staring mostly at the flowers beyond her. Obviously, he'd glanced over her prior to saying this, but he didn't want her eyes to open with the image of him leering over her. "Interesting choice for a meeting place," he commented. It was certainly a change of pace for him, between all the level grinding and battles. It was nice to just relax. It was almost a forgotten luxury.

While she doubtlessly spent much of her time among others, Alkor's brief stint on the first floor had been to get on his own two feet. The time they'd shared was his first real attempt to help another player, and he'd only done it once or twice since. Speaking was still not his strong suit, and though he was not uncomfortable now, he usually was when it involved groups. "Your message seemed... maybe not urgent, that's not the right word..." he grasped at the language for something to convey what he meant. "...troubled?"

His eyes flitted across the digital butterfly that stopped to rest on the pommel of his sword. His lips twitched, almost into a smile. The creature flew away. "How can I help you?"

[Lessa 1]

Her blue eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice. She had not been sleeping, but her mind had been so far away that she might as well have been. Later, she would scold herself for letting her guard down to the point she did not hear him approaching. But for now, she was just surprised that he showed up at all. Surprised, and pleased.

"Mmm, yeah, I'm alright." She replied happily, slowly sitting up. She pulled her legs underneath her, mirroring his seated position. At the mention of the meeting place, the woman gave a shy shrug. "Another player recomended it. I thought it might be a nice change." She took a brief second to look around, then added, "I know I'll be coming back here. I already love this place."

Troubled? She thought to herself. Is that how her message had come across? "Well, you're not wrong," she admitted. "I was a bit troubled." She gave an embarassed laugh, reaching down to pluck a blade of grass. She twirled it absentmindedly between her pointer finger and thumb. "Not really sure what it is, to be honest with you." She looked up at him, and pulled a face. "Weird, right?" Then she shook her head. "I think maybe I'm just lonely, I guess. I think this place is just finally getting me to me. Just all of the people, off doing their own thing, trying to survive on their own, without stopping to see how others are doing. I don't think I can handle living in a world like this." She was rambling. Her lips twisted into a troubled frown. "I think maybe I need to stop thinking."

There was silence, then she sighed. It was then that she noticed the beautiful butterfly perched on Alkor's sword. It brought a small but genuine smile to the corners of her lips. "So I thought of you. Since, well, you were the first to help me."

[Guest]

"Yeah," Alkor agreed, "too much thinking will do you in." It had been the bane of his existence at the beginning, letting himself drown in thought and despair. For longer than he cared to admit, the concept of being stuck inside of a video game forever had terrified him. Eventually, he realized that he was getting nowhere fast thinking that way. Now, he took it one day at a time, and Alkor had become his real self. For now.

When she said he was the first to help her, Alkor's eyes snapped to her, and they remained there. It was obviously something he had never considered. "It's not a habit of mine" he said slowly. "Just happened to be in the right place at the right time, I guess."

He looked away, back out toward the flowers. There were few times where he could really stop and think about everything, and when they came, they were sometimes overwhelming. Right now, he felt completely unsure of himself. The times he had a sword in hand and the only option was to fight his way through, Alkor knew exactly what to do. When faced with people, words, and social constructs, he was a disaster.

Not that he ever meant to come off as disrespectful or heartless, he just seemed to give off that feeling. "It can be stressful," he said finally. "I can't begin to understand what you're getting at- I've heard of it. Like... being surrounded by people, but feeling completely alone? I guess I feel that way, but..."

He was rambling. Alkor bit his lip and cut himself short. "It's never really bothered me," he said concisely. "I guess I've just always felt that way." It sounded more depressing than it was, in his head. "I mean, being alone."

Alkor let out a laugh suddenly. "Now I'm doing it, huh?"

[Lessa 1]

When he mentioned that he did not make a habit out of helping people, her blue eyes narrowed slightly. That actually surprised her. Yes, the boy was shy - she picked up on that immediately after speaking to him the first time. But she had thought that helping people was also in his nature. That would have made the most sense, considering how willing he had been to help her that day in Starting City. So, why me? Puzzled, she continued to play with the piece of grass. What is it with him? Why is he so hard to figure out? 'Right place at the right time' just did not seem to to tell the whole story.

Listening to him speak made her sad, for a number of reasons. First, it made her think of home, a place where she never felt this alone. "Back home, everyone knows everyone. It would be impossible to feel alone in a place like that." Then she hesitated. Were people supposed to talk about the outside world? Was that frowned upon, especially considering the deathly circumstances? "I'm sorry if we aren't supposed to talk about the real world," she said finally, "but I find my thoughts constantly returning there."

Another moment of silence, and then she finally lifted her gaze to meet his. "I'm sorry that you feel alone," she told him, simply. His rambling did not bother her, but what he said did. She hated to see anyone so comfortable in their loneliness. It just did not seem right to her, and as she always did, she had an urge to remedy it somehow.

[Guest]

"It's alright," he said softly. "I think all of us do, trapped here the way we are. It's hard some days to remember where we come from. All the rules changed when this became a fight to survive." His eyes swept over the grass introspectively, and he leaned his weight back onto his arms to relax. "If we can't talk about the outside world, what can we talk about? Fighting monsters and leveling up? That's not who we are, it's what we wanted to be. And now that we have it, we recognize that what we had was precious. That's the real comedic thing about all of this."

His sarcastic smile faded quickly into a grim mockery of itself. "I never made that many friends," he admitted, "in this world or before it. I lived with my mother- my father left when I was very young, and my sister and I stopped talking when I was much younger." He found himself staring hard out into the horizon, as if to peer beyond the edge of the world, into something far beyond. "I've never gotten along with my family. I think that's where it started. That translated into every other one of my interactions."

Alkor never spoke up about his relationship with his mother, nor did he delve into why he and his sister lost contact. The only context he gave was that his interactions with them must have been poor, because he never related well to others. "It's not that I didn't want friends, I don't think," he said, "it's just that I never really... made them. The ones I did just sort of," he paused and turned he words over in his mind before giving them voice, "happened, I think. They never had any expectations of me, and I never did for them, either."

He knew there was more to friendship than that, but he couldn't explain it. "Where I'm from," he said, abruptly changing the subject, "the beach stretches for miles, and people come from all over just to relax." He looked around suddenly, "but, I stopped going to the beach when I was young. My grandfather used to tell me stories, about pirates and the city the way it was when he was a boy. The beach changed. Everything changed," he said in a sad voice. "I wanted those stories, but they died while I was still a boy."

Alkor glanced back over at her, wondering if his lengthy soliloquy had helped her at all. It was more than he usually said, and there was a rosy color spreading through his face that felt warm. He thought that talking at length might help her calm her thoughts a bit, if maybe she could focus on someone else's thoughts for a bit. If that made sense? He wasn't so sure that it did.

"Anyway," he said, "I saw you there, on the first floor, and I saw that you were having trouble figuring things out." Alkor tried and failed to regain his lost composure. "I had the same struggle. I would have died, probably, if someone hadn't shown me how to put one foot in front of the other. I guess I was... paying it forward? Maybe?"

[Lessa 1]

A soft smile crept across Lessa's lips as she listened to him speak of the outside world. She really did like his outlook on things, especially in regards to thinking about the outside world. He's right, she found herself thinking. Once, they had all wanted this. Now that they had it, all they wanted to do was clear the world and return home. It was a bit poetic, in a way. You never know what you have until it is gone. She bit her bottom lip gently. Isn't that the truth. All she had wanted was to enter the Sword Art Online world before her brothers did. Her competitive nature may just be the thing that ends her after all.

As he spoke of his family, she found herself wanting to apologize for what he went through. She knew it was not her place, and she had no right to do so, as she had no idea what the situation was. But hearing stories of broken homes always hit a chord, as her family was everything. She knew that they were the source of her strength. The thought of not having that support system was a terrifying one. The woman gave Alkor a comforting nod as he spoke of his family, but said nothing more. She would have to proceed with caution when discussing her own family, so not to make him feel bad. Would bragging about her perfect family upset him? Maybe not. But it was better to wait, and learn more about him, before she spoke of them.

"Relationships are strange that way." She leaned forward a bit, resting her elbows on her knees, and cupping her chin with her hands. "You certainly make friends here differently than you would in the real world. There's no social media, school, or clubs here. And in the real world, you probably would not ask yourself 'should I make an alliance with this person so I survive the night?'"

She fell silent, as her mind worked through the concept. "Yet, there are still friendships here. And even marriages and the like." Another pause. "So I suppose that means that friendships can come out of anywhere. There are not really any prerequisites, or any fool-proof formula." It probably sounded as if she was stating the obvious, but hearing herself say it made her feel better. Even in such a cut-throat world as this, she could still make friends.

"Well, I am certainly glad that someone helped you once," she told him finally. With a broad smile, she added, "I'm glad you're still around. I really needed help that day in Starting City. Plus," she laughed, "if you weren't around, who would I send my stupid meeting requests to?"

[Guest]

"Could be anyone," he said with a measured dose of nonchalance. "I'm sure someone would have helped you; there are plenty of people like that fellow Kiluia, for one." Alkor only scarcely recalled the man's name, despite having fought alongside him. He chalked that up to being less than impressionable. "But, you wound up with me, I guess."

There was a brief moment where Alkor found himself laughing as well, but it passed just as quickly. "Whether it's people who help you get stronger, or people who you meet when you get there," he said, "there are all kinds of people in this world. Not all of them have good intentions," he told her. "But most of them have that hard truth ingrained in their heads. "What would they do to me if the roles were reversed?" It takes a very twisted sort of person to be a player killer."

Despite not getting along with others, he lacked whatever darkness those people harbored that made them want to end their fellow man. He held no ill will toward anyone. "But I guess it's just as hard to want to make friends when all anyone cares about is surviving," he stated. It was just an observation, because he wasn't the sort of person who went out and met people for his health anyway. "Just one selfless act might well turn into outright suicide."

His lips split in a smile as his eyes slipped shut and he shook his head. "I'll bet I sound ridiculous," he said, "if not misanthropic." The truth of all this was, Alkor was a man who never talked to anyone. Here he was keeping someone company, going through the motions of friendship even though he didn't know the first thing about it.

"It makes me wonder, when I look at the names on my friends list," he said, referring to the short list that denoted people he'd interacted with more than once. "Will they make it? Will I see them again, when all of this is over? Will I actually have friends? Real friends?" The look on his face was ever distant, except it lacked the sadness someone saying the words Alkor was saying ought to express. "I don't know." He shrugged. "I can't know that til this world ends."

He looked over at her. "There are people here who had lives before this, and there are people like me, who never lived until now. I want to finish this game for all of us. For the ones who had lives, so they can go back, and for those who didn't, so they can finally start living."

[Lessa 1]

"Mhmm, I'm stuck with you. Lucky me." Her words were spoken with an obnoxious amount of sarcasm, allowing even the most literal person to understand she was being light-hearted. She gave him a goofy smile, and then laughed. "You're not so bad," she told him, after her laughter died away. "If you were, do you think I would have asked you to come out and meet me? No way." She held her arms out wide, stretching her upper body. The warm sun, the soft grass, the smell of the flowers, and the ease of the conversation were making her a bit drowsy.

As Alkor switched the conversation to a much darker topic, Lessa pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and perched her chin on her knees. It was a position that had always brought her comfort, and she found she returned to it when she grew anxious. Her brothers used to tease her about it, asking if she was trying to give herself a hug. Truthfully, that was sort of what it felt like.

"No," she replied softly, "I can't imagine either. What would drive a person to do such a horrific act?" Her small frame shuddered, despite the warmth of the sun beating down on her. "I don't think I could ever bring myself to trust a player killer." The young woman fell silent for a moment, then sighed. "No, I don't think I could do it. And I like to think that I am one of the most accepting people around. How could you kill another player in cold blood like that?"

As he continued to speak of the risks of befriending people, she gave him a wry smile. "Aren't you just Mr. Positivity," she quipped. Then she shrugged. "But I know what you mean," the woman admitted to Alkor. "I've had those same thoughts. 'Can I survive without giving up everything I believe in? Will my kindness be my end?' It is not fun to think about."

She watched him as he spoke of losing people, and again, she found herself thinking of the sadness it would bring her. Both Alkor and Kiluia had mentioned loss, and the thought of it made her uncomfortable. She drew her strength from her loved ones. The relationships and ties that she would forge would be what helped her through the game. What would I do if I lost someone? Watching him, she asked herself, what would I do if I lost him? The thought startled her. Why did it bother her so much? She hardly knew him, and this was only their second time meeting. It was at that moment that Lessa realized she was beginning to truly trust him. As dangerous as that was, she was growing attached.

"That's a very noble goal," Lessa told him softly, with genuine admiration. "I've been thinking about that a lot myself, lately. It is actually one of the reasons why I am working to open my own shop. I cannot just sit idly by, while the real world goes on without me. We are all being left behind, the longer we stay here." She looked out over the miles of grass, swaying gently in the wind. "It is beautiful," she went on, "but we need to go home." Then, her gaze dropped to Alkor's blade. "I'm not strong enough yet. But I will be. And when I am, I'd like to help being everyone back."

[Guest]

He listened to her thoughtfully in silence, and when she spoke about not being strong enough, his eyes slid shut. "None of us are," he said. "No one is. If we were, this game would have already been beaten." His hand fell to his sword and rested there, where he felt a drop of familiarity. "There's nothing wrong with supporting others," he said, and nodded his affirmation of the sentiment. "It's supportive players who help make the strong players strong. Every role is important, right down to the foundations."

Alkor placed both hands in his lap once more and took a deep breath. "Just doing that might be safer," he suggested, "you wouldn't have to worry about dying in the front lines." The truth was, if Alkor could pummel through enemies and make his way to the top alone, he would. No one would have to die if he could do that. There would be so much less risk. But, that wasn't an option.

"Not that you can't take care of yourself," he said quickly, catching the possible misconception before it had time to run away with her. "I just figure... you have something to go back to, right? You can't afford to die." Could any of them? Alkor wasn't sure he could say he had much to do if he ever made it back home. Maybe this game was the entire reason he'd been born. Maybe the greatest thing he would ever achieve was putting an end to the death game. Then what? Quiet, half lived life without meaning.

No, he resolved, I'll do something bigger than that. "What I mean to say is, it's good to open a shop. That's a noble thing to do."

[Lessa 1]

The slightest flicker of a smile swept across her lips, then disappeared. "I do have something to go home to," she told him. It seemed the topic of her family would come out after all. "But so does everyone else. So do you." Before he had time to argue her point, she spoke again. "Every life is worth living, Alkor. Despite whatever hardships you face in the real-world, you still have just as much right as I do to make it back there." Suddenly fearing that she was doing too much preaching, her voice softened. "You have made a difference in this world. I think that means that you have just as much power to do so back home." She hugged her knees tighter to her chest. "And that, I think, is reason enough for you to make it back safely." Was she understanding him right? From the way he spoke, he felt that she had more right to live because she had something to return to. The thought made her cringe.

"Look," she started hesitantly, picking her words carefully before voicing them. "I don't want to die. Not at all. The thought terrifies me." Her cheeks lost their color, and she dropped her gaze to the ground. For a fleeting moment, she thought she might actually cry. But she went on. "But I also don't want people to fight on my behalf. I can't just twiddle my thumbs while people die for me." She grew quiet. "And it is even worse to think that some are fighting because they think they can 'afford to die.'"

Not quite finding further words to say to express how she felt on the matter, she concluded with, "so I guess my shop is noble. But it is only something to occupy my time until I am ready to fight."

[Guest]

"Well," he said, "I'll keep fighting, because it's all I know how to do."

It wasn't that he didn't know how to open a shop, or obtain a profession, it just seemed like a side note to the rest of the world around him. Sure, there were benefits to it, but there were benefits to just doing quests and grinding, too. He caught on to the fact that what he said had bothered her, and he let his gaze wander further away from her. It wasn't often that he realized when something he has said moved a person onward any particular sentiment. The idea that life was worth living occurred to him, once. It wasn't necessarily that he wanted to die, it was more that he wasn't sure how to go about living. Sword Art Online had snapped him out of the doldrums he had been living in and awakened him to the realization that he would need to move on. What would he do with life when he had it, at last?

What if he failed at it? Alkor sat in silence for a long time. Part of him suggested this might be the proper time for an apology, but the rest of him remembered that he had no idea what he would be apologizing for. Maybe this was why most guys complained that women were so confusing and difficult to understand? Alkor could absolutely sympathize with that, if it were the case. He hadn't second guessed himself in a long time. "Do what you feel is right," he said. "That's all anyone can do. No one can ask them for more than that."

He refused to press the issue any further. If she wanted to fight, he couldn't stop her. He'd just have to fight harder so that no one else had to die. "I think a lot of people logged into this game because they thought it would be a better world. Maybe they thought it would be easier. Maybe they just wanted to escape." All those thoughts were tragically ironic. "I know why I did. But I think everyone who's still around probably started to learn things, about the game, and about themselves."

His voice had grown quiet and the sky looked like it had begun to stretch lazily out, hints of orange pricking at the horizon. "When I make it out of here, I probably won't be a hero." He didn't dance around it, he just put it out in the open. "I'm probably never going to do anything spectacular ever again. That doesn't mean I won't try to live the best way I can. As dark and twisted as this game is, it gave me back a life I'd had stolen from me a long time ago. I won't waste that gift dying as a stream of data and consciousness. Not if I can help it."

His hand gripped the scabbard housing his blade tightly, and he looked over at her. "While I'm here, though, I'm going to do something big. That's my small way of repaying the debt. I'm going to fight so no one else has to die. I'm going to fight." He repeated the words as if he didn't sound convincing enough. "I just don't want you to risk anything that's precious to you. To me, being Alkor is the best thing that's happened to me so far. That's precious to me. It would be a massive letdown if I didn't make him... erm... make myself the best I could possibly be."

He felt his grip relax. "And maybe I'll end up coming to your shop."

[Lessa 1]

Lessa snorted softly. "You want the honest truth?" She finally uncurled her body, stretching her legs out in front of her, and leaning back on her elbows. The wind tugged at the folds of her light pink clothing, but she paid it no mind. Instead, she looked out at the landscape. "I don't even like games like this. All of this multi-player, fantasy stuff. I'm a shooter girl myself. And I did not join to escape anything, or to find something." She sighed. "I bought Sword Art Online because my brothers wanted it. And I put on that stupid nerve gear just so I could say I did it first." The woman closed her eyes. "And look at what all of that foolish competition got me. Trapped in a world I know nothing about." With a groan, she threw her arms out to her sides, and let her torso fall to the ground. Now, lying back in the grass, she stared up at the sky.

"You're a good guy, Alkor." The words sounded so cheap, but they were the first that came to her mind. Without moving her gaze away from the virtual heavens, she said, "I know you have good intentions. But 'some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions.'" Her eyes widened, and she added, "I don't know why I just had a sudden urge to quote Jurassic Park 3. I guess it just felt right." Her voice trailed, before she finally turned to look up at him. She knew people like him. People who were willing to sacrifice themselves for what they perceived to be the right thing. Without stopping to consider other alternatives, they threw themselves into the thick of it. She feared he might be one of those people. "Just don't do anything crazy, like get yourself killed. Throwing your life away because you think it might save others won't do any of us any good."

"But I like your passion," she added. "And I like that you're going to visit me sometime." She brought the back of her hand to her forehead, feigning a swoon. "Can you imagine, the infamous Alkor, in my little shop?" It had seemed that, just maybe, Alkor had gotten the worst of it off his chest. Maybe a little humor would be appreciated. She tossed him a wink.

[Guest]

"Heh."

Alkor stared out over the field still, but he found himself starting to wonder how they'd ended deviating this far from the reason she'd messaged him in the first place. "Sounds like you're feeling better" he commented. The air felt cooler as it washed over him, and he reached out a hand as if to touch the wind. "I'm not planning on dying."

He withdrew his hand after several moments. "You don't have to worry about me." Alkor pushed off both hands and found himself on both feet once more. While the rest had been much needed, he didn't like to stay prone in one place for too long. He would find a place to sleep for the night, at some point.

The sun painted his face a gentle shade of red, and he shielded his eyes from the glare. "Just make sure to have good items when I come," he said, "I'll have tons of perfect items from all the bosses I'm slaying." He glanced back at her and gave a thumbs up, then slid his fingers along in front of him to open the menu. He selected his minimap, then toggled for it to zoom to a full floor view. "Hmmm... Caelam wanted me to meet him on floor two..."

His lips turned into a slight frown. "Field boss?" He cocked an eyebrow. "He's a lower level than me. I'll send a message back..."

Alkor flipped through his message inbox and his eyes narrowed as he started writing the reply. "I'll try to keep being a... what was it...?" He smirked and peered at her out of the corner of his eye. "Good guy? Yeah. That." He'd never really been called anything like that before. "Did you need anything else before I head off?"

[Lessa 1]

"Hmm?" She propped herself up on her elbows again. "Oh, yes, I am feeling better." And she was. Despite the depressing topics that the pair had discussed, she did find that she no longer felt quite so alone. Who knew how long it would last, but for now she was satisfied. "Thank you for asking. And thank you for coming." Lessa gave him a small smile, to show she meant it. "Really, it helped."

He stood, but she remained in the grass, soaking up the last rays of the dying sun. "I will worry." She responded, after a moment of thought. It probably was not what he wanted to hear, but she would be honest with him. "But that's just how I am. It isn't just you." Worrying really was in her nature, especially when it came to those she cared about. For better or for worse, she cared about Alkor. But she also cared about Steel, and Kiluia, and the others with whom she had interacted. Once a person touched her life, it was permanent. Alkor could scoff at her for it, but he had spoken of the same thing just moments before. She would always wonder what had become of the people she met. And she would worry for the young man that stood above her.

"A field boss already?" Lessa asked, slightly impressed. Though she had never met this Caelam, she had heard of him. "Sounds like a brave soul. Good luck." When he spoke of being a good guy, Lessa simply gave her companion a small smile. "No, I'm alright. You take care of yourself."

[Guest]

He watched her with a blank expression when she said that she would worry, his face unreadable. After he closed the menu and turned to face her straight on, Alkor folded his arms. "Did you want me to walk you back to the city?" He asked her because the area they were in was considered safe, but the path back to the actual safe zone was not necessarily. "I don't have a teleport crystal , yet, so I'm going to be walking either way."

Alkor had never been one for long conversation, and apparently when he did it, his pessimistic side showed. That was something he'd just learned about himself. Well, you're definitely good at warding people away, he jested, and the thought made him smirk. A good guy. Caelam would have made some kind of joke about him getting "friend zoned" if he'd heard her say that.

Caelam had always been kind of a jerk, that way. The two of them had been friends for a long time. They were both sort of socially rejected, so it sort of made sense when he thought about it. "I'm probably going to try to talk him out of it," Alkor added casually, as if to reassure her, "not without another person. It wouldn't take long for the boss to eat through our health bars at our levels. Two manning a field boss at a low level is suicide."

Maybe that would let her know he wasn't throwing caution to the wind, and maybe it would make her feel better about the whole situation. Alkor wasn't sure what else to say. "Anyway," he said, as if to close the topic. He turned from her, and glanced up. Night was starting to creep it's way in.

[Lessa 1]

Lessa opened her mouth to deny his request, but after a second of hesitation, she thought better of it. Asking him to walk her back may look like a desperate attempt to spend more time with him. And hey, maybe it was. But it would also save her from the frightening walk home in the dark. Even if they were only on the second floor, being jumped by a mob did not sound like fun. "That would be great," she told him, climbing to her feet. She brushed the dirt off the seat of her pants, then turned to him.

"As for the whole field boss thing." Her cheeks warmed, and she spoke shyly, as if trying to decide if she should be speaking at all. "I wouldn't mind helping out." She put her hands up, and shrugged. "I mean, assuming that you need my help at all. But I'd be more than happy to lend a hand." Without waiting for his answer, she began to move toward the city.

The grass crinkled pleasantly under her boots, and as darkness continued to creep across the mountaintop, the chorus of night sounds began to grow louder. Lessa took a deep breath, savoring the crisp air. "You may have had beaches," she called over her shoulder, "but we had nights like this." She closed her eyes, and walked blindly for a few steps, imaging she was back home again. "The wind through the trees, the toads by the river, bonfires every saturday night." I miss it.

[Guest]

Alkor considered her offer and mulled it over as she continued to speak, about nights with a river and trees. "On the nights when the tourist season had ended," he said as he walked along beside her, "when the hotels weren't quite so busy, you could walk on the boardwalk for hours and never run into another person." It lacked the natural beauty of a woodland area, but the waterfront had been majestic in its own way. "The wind would get to beating on your face so hard, you couldn't hear anything else."

It didn't sound that appealing to someone who hadn't done it, he supposed, but Alkor continued nonetheless. "You would wrap up real good, just so you wouldn't catch a chill, and walk alone right next to the water, and the waves would come up and then flow back away. When the moon glowed down on them, you could practically see like it was daylight out."

He frowned a little. That's how it was when he went into the game, but it had been different once. When he was a boy, the light pollution hadn't fought with the moon for control of the night sky. He could see the stars when he walked. "There's another beach, though," he said, changing to something a bit more upbeat. "No hotels for miles. No tourists. Black as pitch when night rolls in, and you can see every star there is. The waves roll on like time doesn't matter."

Dull bronze eyes flickered over the girl as Alkor spoke to her. "I don't mind you coming along," he said. "It'll be a good experience for you. Bosses are different from the enemies you've fought so far."

His hands slipped into his pockets and he closed his eyes. "I'd have liked to see a bonfire again," he said after a moment, "I've only seen two in my life."

[Lessa 1]

Blue eyes opened, and she glanced over at Alkor. As he spoke of the beaches, the waves, and the nights on the boardwalk, her mind drifted to the vacation that her family took down south. The amount of people during the day had been overwhelming, packing the beaches, the pools, and the shops. But as night fell, and people wandered back to their respective hotel rooms, she had ventured out to the beach. The moon over the waves was a sight she would never forget. They did not have views like that where she came from. With a sad smile, the young woman spoke. "That sounds incredible."

"I'll have to see that beach one day. The one without all the people." Lessa wrapped her arms around herself to keep out the chill that was creeping across the mountaintop. "When I get out of here, I'll put it on my list." For Alkor's benefit, she added, "I have a list of places I'm going to visit before I die. Historic places, mostly. But there are a few spots that are just too beautiful not to see."

When Alkor mentioned his limited bonfire experience, her eyes widened. "Only two?" This shocked her. "Back home, we have them all the time. All summer long, and into the fall. Heck, we will shovel out a clear spot in the snow if the need for a bonfire strikes us." As if from a memory, the scent of smoke came to her. She gave a content sigh. "They were what brought the whole community together. A pile of wood, some matches, a keg, and you have all the makings for a town get-together."

"And thanks for letting me come along," she added suddenly. "I need all the experience I can get."

[Guest]

He nodded slowly and listened to her talk about bonfires, his eyes closing as he felt the memories flow back to him. His first year of college had almost flown by him without any semblance of realism. Most days when he wasn't sitting alone in his room, he was walking inconsequentially around the campus. He remembered that large fire, surrounded by people, but he saw only the flames."The city I live in doesn't have a whole lot of wide, open spaces," he said. "Your neighbor lives the next house over, less than a thousand feet away. The fire marshall has major laws against open fires."

Alkor watched her as she spoke about places she wished she could go before she died, and he sighed. "I never really had those kinds of aspirations," he admitted quietly, "whenever I said I wanted to go places, my mother told me there was no place better in the world than where I was." It was the way his family had always felt. They never wanted to leave, and they didn't want him to leave.

"I've been plenty of places, on my own, though." He'd been plenty of places, though, and he'd liked most of them. "We don't get a lot of snow where I'm from."

He yawned. "Yeah, no problem," he replied when she thanked him for letting her come along. "Thanks for going. If you didn't, we probably wouldn't." Alkor lacked most of the delicacy that most people had when dealing with people, but he did his best to smooth himself over in this situation. It wasn't the best attempt.