“Anda honey, wake up!”
If my mom didn’t call for me, I’m sure I would’ve been woken up by the smell of Huevos Rancheros, my favorite dish, wafting through the air. I lazily roll out of bed and saunter out of my room, down the stairs, and to the kitchen to meet the hefty plate of food.
“HAAAAAPY BIRTHDAYYYY,” my mother shouts as she slides into the kitchen, unrolling a t-shirt as she goes.
“Oh heeeeey, Phils!” I exclaim at the site of the barbeque T-shirt.
“Now I know it isn’t close to being back home, buuut,” my mom turns around to fetch something off of the counter, “a postcard from your aunt”.
To Anda,
I hope you are having fun in your new home! We all miss you so much!
Love always,
Aunt Liddy
I read what was written off of a gorgeous picture of San Diego as it fills my chest with homesickness- or is that indigestion from the food? I shrug it off as my mom says my name.
“Look sweetie” she softly exclaims as she pulls open the curtain to look at our driveway.

Snow.

11 items
Dog added
12 items
adding bee…

“Alright class, we have a special speaker today. Her name is Miss Liza McCombs from Australia!” My teacher exclaims to the class, “please stop coding and pay full attention to Miss Liza”.

“Hullo there class, thanks for the introduction Miss Bronson,” an unfamiliar voice rings in an Australian accent. Suddenly, a tall figure stands in the doorway to match the unaccompanied voice. The woman was wearing a flowy skirt paired with a shirt that said game over on it, though it didn’t match with the Jeffrey Campbell “Nightwalkers” she was wearing, she rocked it anyway. Her hair was shaved completely on one side, while the other had long flowing black strands that moved off of her shoulder like a waterfall. Her thick eyebrows danced as she spoke, as did her bright red lips. “I’m a gamer and I kick arse. I organize an online guild that I believe a few of you chickens would love to join,” she moves her hand over to her keyboard, clicking to show a bright, intriguing setting in a video game.
“Coarsegold,” she smirks, “with it being the fasted growing multiplayer game in the world, and having ten million subscribers, I’m sure you’ve heard of it”.

Wow.

“Hey mom? There’s this online game I’d like to subscribe to and I need a credit card to sign up for it” I quietly say from the doorway of the kitchen.
“Online?,” she looks up from her paperwork, “Anda honey, you know I don’t like you talking to strangers online. It’s where perverts hang out to meet kids like you. I don’t think it’s safe. What’s wrong with your offline games?”.
“Please mom? It’s only $12 a month and I can get a job to pay for it,” I sit down, “Plus it’ll make my self esteem rise if I play with other girls. The guild is full of only girls anyway, no perverts allowed,” I look up to my mother's apprehensive face, “Please? For my birthday?”
My mother sighs as she pulls out her credit card. “You only talk to young ladies your age, alright?”
“No perverts, girls my age only. Got it. Thanks Mom!” I half shout, already going up the stairs.

Username: KALIDESTROYER
Password: * * * * *

Enter

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Choose your gender
♀•      ☿       ⚧      ♂

Choose your race

Human •

Undead

Pixie

Planton

Beast

Choose your class

Scholar

Warrior •

Hunter

Thief

Healer

Priest

     Your Weapons

Bluto’s Dagger  Battle Axe

Spiked Flail  Chain

Now Entering Coarsegold…

“I’ll trade you 40 for the elixir”

“How did you defeat her? She was a level twenty warrior and you’re only a level one pixie!”

“C’mon, get a move on you gold farmer”

My eyes flutter open not to be greeted by my familiar glow in the dark stars and moons I have on my ceiling, but a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds.
“What the- how did I get outside?” My ears pick up the amount of sound there is as I re close my eyes to try waking back up. I immediately open my eyes again and sit up on the soft, vibrant grass below me. I take in the landscape. There’s a grand, decaying temple sitting in front of me on a floating island.
“This can’t be real” I say to myself repeatedly.
“Miss, are you okay?”  A tall, purple ram with people clothing and a battle ax says to me, walking closer.
“AHHHHH” I scream, loud enough to get most of the figures to stop moving and look over. There’s a giraffe person with a sword, a lamb woman with a bag of money, a human girl with spears talking nonchalantly with a skeleton who has hair. I nervously look around at everyone, stand up, and take off into the woods behind me. Panting, I hide behind a tall tree with bright green leaves.
“Hey there, you okay?”
I whip around to face a young girl with short, pastel blue hair and a dead fox on her shoulders. She looks pretty normal.
“You okay there? I saw you freak out in front of the main palace and thought I’d go see what your deal was.”
“I- where am I?”
She starts laughing hysterically. I look at her, obviously confused. she stops laughing and straightens up a bit.
“You mean you really have no idea? Seriously?”
I shake my head.
“You’re in Coarsegold! Jesus, you must be a newbie”.
“You mean I’m in Coarsegold? How? Isn’t this just a game?”
She starts laughing again. “No way! This is as real life as it gets! Coarsegold as a game? Ha! That’s a good one,” she eases out of her laughter, “The name’s Lucy, but in my clan I’m known as Sarge”.
“I’m Anda. Did you say clan?” I question.
“That’s right. You seem like you can be pretty tough. What class are you?”
“Warrior”
“Perfect. Now lemme see those weapons of yours,” she stares at me as I stare back.
“C’mon, go to your inventory and check what you have”.

Inventory

Hairy Longpo Tusk

Lobok

Sky Elixir

Catseye

Pinecone

Beachstone

Ants Nest

Omusubi

Thyme

Bluto’s Dagger

Battle Axe

Spiked Flail

Chain

“I have a lot of items in here. Um, let’s see… I have a dagger, axe, flail, and - a chain” she looks surprised.
“Wow, that’s a lot for a newbie,” she mutters to herself, “it’s getting late. How about we meet back up by the lion tomorrow morning and we can discuss the clan then. For now you can explore around, go find a place to get some food and a bed for the night” she get’s back up off of the ground and whistles. A giant tiger runs to her side. “Good girl, Danisa,” she says as she pats the large beast. She gets on the back of the large cat.
“The lion?” I ask, tilting my head.
She sighs, “get on”.

oh my god.

I take in the beauty of the large lion head that  rests in the center of a gorgeous city a top water. The crystal clear water glitters as we move alongside it. I slide to the side of Danisa and skim the water with my hand.
“I’ll take you to a place where you can buy some dinner” Sarge shouts back to me. I get back on the top of Danisa’s back and reply with “okay, thanks”.
“Here’s our stop,” she says as I look around at the farmers market. I’m starting to see the beauty of this place. “You can get cheap food and living space here,” she tells me to hop off of Danisa, “good luck kiddo. Remember, lion tomorrow - I’ll be there,” I nod and walk down a bit. I turn around to face her and I wave. She waves back.

“Dumplings, get your dumplings!”

“Onigiri for 2 gold!”

“Hut rental. 12 gold a night!”

Onigiri in hand, I walk to the hut rental to stay for the night. I give them 12 gold and walk to my hut. The door is a gold bamboo and swings open as nicely as it looks. I make my way to the bed and flop down onto it.
“I wonder what else I can do here,” I open up my inventory and find a box named “settings”.
I click it.
A screen pops up in front of me, showing a bunch of options I can change to my liking. I scroll to the bottom and select “profile”.

Profile

Logout •

A screen pops up that says log out.

I select it.

“Anda, wake up. You’ll be late to school if you sleep any longer”
“Mom?” I open my eyes and see my glow in the dark decals.

What?