Into the Game

Mounted heads are creepy.

With the flickering torchlight I was excepting them to break into song at any moment.

I walked across the room to the large metal doors. They were out of place in a room with cedar panels. The rafters were just pine logs. They shouldn’t have been visible since there were two floors above it, but they were housing various stuffed birds and small mammals.

This didn’t look like a shaman lived here. It looked like a hunting lodge.

I grabbed the cold handles and pushed the doors open. It looked like the room I had just left, minus the stuffed animals. On my right were stairs going to the next floor. To my left was another trophy room.

In front of me was actual sunlight. In a place that looked like a cave, it was a welcome sight. I walked into the room. It had only been a few moments since I had been outside, but already I missed it. I closed my eyes and let it wash over my face.

“Bright isn’t it?” A squeaky voice said behind me.

I turned around to face a mouse of a man. Literally, he had a huge mouse head over his face. I didn’t know where mice got that big in the real world and I really didn’t want to know where there existed here.

He was short, probably only five feet tall. Also thin, he wasn’t wearing just a headdress, it was an entire cloak. He flipped off the cloak to reveal his bony figure. I could’ve counted every rib on his pale skin.

All he was wearing was a yellow pair of shorts. The stitching was horrible; it looked like he had made them himself out of a tunic. The bone necklace clattered as he bounced in front of me. I couldn’t make out any of the teeth or bones, but there were a lot and they came from a lot of different animals.

I clutched the elephant tooth tighter. I may not have a weapon, but this thing was the size of a brick. Considering his size, I could knock him out if he did anything weird.

“It’s not too bad.” I answered

The Shaman started digging through the piles of skins any bones that littered the room. The place was a mess. I was surprised anyone lived here, even more surprised that he ran the town.

“Don’t like the bright.” He whined.

Furs fell over the windows, blocking the light.

I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light. I jumped when I felt a light tug on my hair. I spun around and raised the tooth.

The Shaman had a lock of my hair and was sniffing it.

“Cherries.” He grinned at me.

“That’s it!” I yelled. "I have the tooth, now give me the credentials so I can go to the next zone.”

He stuck out his lower lip. "No.”

“No?” I repeated. I watched as he bounced through the skins. He dropped my hair into what looked like a human skull.

“You aren’t a computer character.”

He froze. "Yes I am.”

“No.” I shook my head. "The computer characters have a lag when you say something they don’t expect.” I slammed the tooth on a table to my right. "You don’t.”

He turned around. A huge grin covered his face. "You caught me.” His voice was much deeper now.

I swallowed. That might not have been such a good thing.