35 Handling some personal matters (1/2)

”I'll see you after school.” Jericho told his sister.

Moira frowned. ”Brother, are you okay? You seem a bit pale again.

The man smiled and shifted the electric guitar on his back. ”I'm doing fine; it is just a bit chilly today.”

The girl turned her head. ”I don't believe you.” She muttered. ”I remember you telling the idiot seagull Mike you were busy today. What are you doing and why did you bring an instrument with you?”

Jericho shook his head. ”Handling some personal matters,” he replied. ”Now, hurry up. You don't want to be late.”

”Fine,” Moira glared and walked off to school.

The man let out a light sigh before looking up at the grey clouds teetering on the edge of sprinkling. ”I know you can tell I'm not doing fine. That much I can't hide from you.” He shivered as the autumn breeze blew through his jacket. ”How can I tell you? How could you forgive me if you knew?”

The musician traveled through the city to visit the graveyard where his parents were buried. The emotions he had been suppressing since Sunday morning burst forward.

Seeing another funeral going on, he abandoned his first plan. He laid down in the grass and took some time to breathe. ”Mom, dad, Moira is doing well. She has good grades. She seems much happier now. We started playing a video game. In that game world, Moira seems so much freer. She can dance whenever she wants. She has monsters and friends to dance with and people love her. Despite his hairstyle you would like her friend Kenneth. He is a nice kid. It isn't hard to see that he likes her. Though I think she is completely oblivious to it. I can already tell you confidently, Moira will be able to live a happy, fulfilling life. I am watching out for her like you wanted. I will do what I can to help her be happy.” Jericho stopped talking and lightly started to cry as he could no longer suppress the pain he felt in his heart.

The minstrel walked slowly back home.

Jericho's long bony fingers gripped the door handle. The whites of his knuckles shone despite his pale, sickly skin. His hand remained frozen. ”Glaw was right, had I made different choices... I'm sorry.” Tears dripped onto his hand as he stood there, unmoving, for a minute.

Jericho slowly turned the handle and took a deep breath. He walked into the house, locked the door, and pulled the blinds shut to darken the front room. He set up the room and picked up his instruments.

***

Once again, it was lunch time on a Monday afternoon at Eisenberg elementary. The three pre-teens were excitedly talking about their new shared like: Freedom Online and their adventures over the last weekend.

Alex leaned forward. ”I bet you guys were able to level up a lot over the weekend. What levels did you reach?”

”Ten!” Moira exclaimed happily.

”I haven't leveled at all.” Ken replied drearily as he thought about all their misadventures.

Alex paused. ”Wait, you spent the whole weekend playing and you only gained five of the lower levels? And you haven't leveled at all Kenneth? What did you do?”

Ken sighed. ”Leveling up without killing is a lot harder than you would think. Not only that, but we spent a bit of time outside of game and Moira spent quite a bit of time enthusiastically crafting some items for Jericho. So he and I trained together a bit. I really misjudged him. I can see why people like him so much.” He grinned, thinking back to the bro-talks he had.

Moira gave a nod. ”Yep, Ken is learning how to dance! It's really awesome!”

The friend adjusted his glasses. ”Oh? Kenneth, you seem to have joined the fan club. It seems I must adventure with Moira's brother soon too so I can comprehend his glory.”

Ken laughed. ”Can you not be so dramatic about it?”

The girl smiled at her friends.

”So when is it my turn to adventure with you?” Alex asked.

Ken frowned. ”You can have your turn after we are done. We have a few more adventures to have before they are ready to hang out with you.”

A look of realization hit Alex in the face. ”You guys are adventuring in Pren right?”

Moira gave a nod. ”Yeah we are.”

”You guys should leave as quickly as possible.” Alex replied seriously.

Ken's facial expression didn't change. ”Why?”

”Right, the two of you have been busy and haven't paid attention to the movements of the larger guilds. Earlier, The Dragoons guild was working on the mist problem, however they recently made a public announcement saying that the EastSeaDrakes have come in to try and solve the mist problem before them. Their guildmaster himself posted the information and said that The Dragoons are leaving the area to not get caught up in the other guild's stupidity.” Alex explained as if they knew what half of these things meant.

Moira looked confused. ”So what do these two things have to do with us leaving Pren?”

Alex sighed as he remembered Moira was new to gaming world in general. ”If The Dragoons are leaving Pren, then that means the guild leader is confident that not only will the other party likely fail but that it will have disastrous consequences when they do. It would be a bad thing for you guys to still be there when it happens.”

”Then we will leave after our current quest.” Moira replied. ”It would be bad for us to leave it undone.”

Ken gave a nod. ”How long do you think it will take you and Jericho to finish that quest?”

Moira pursed her lips in thought. ”It probably will not take much longer to make the music and dance steps, but to add words and teach it will probably take a few days.”

Alexander sighed and rubbed his temples. ”I don't think you will have enough time to finish your quest. How bad are the consequences if you fail to do your quest?”

”Angering a god,” she replied casually.

The glasses wearing friend looked at her in shock. ”You are only level 10 and you are already doing god related quests? Are you at some sort of church I don't know about?”

Ken started laughing. ”We are hanging out with the satyrs in the northern forests. Jericho and Moira are amazing. The normally hostile monsters have been treating us like friends.”