Chapter 14 #2
I hung up feeling a little guilty and grabbed a plate of carrots before heading back into my room and snuggling onto my pillow-cushioned folding chair.
Now, for the problematic part—finding his stash. It could be anywhere in this forest. He carried little on his body, but I looted it anyway, hoping to find a clue. Nothing.
With nothing to go on, I went back to the tree he had jumped out of. A deep search of that turned up a talisman. I wondered if that had something to do with opening his treasure room, or at least the door to their hideout.
I killed another unique bandit. He fell, leaving behind no treasure.
At least I was getting XP. I flipped open my idea book to the page titled Dragon’s Eye Opal, and as I reread the words of the clue for the thousandth time, an idea came to me.
What if I was looking for two trees that looked alike?
Not just similar, but the same. Narrowing down the focus of my search helped immensely.
It had become a reverse one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other game.
Instead of differences, I was searching for similarities.
I killed another giant spider, slicing its bulbous body in half with my blood sword.
Then I celebrated with a few crunchy carrots and a sip from the purple can.
I had plenty of time to farm this forest, trying to find the elusive stash.
Life felt so good. Having my money worries solved made such a difference.
I would miss Buzz and working at DragonByte, but he had already told me I would have a place there every summer.
I had good people around me. I felt a twinge at not seeing Ni anymore, but that would be for the best. Another poisonous wasp horde bit the dust, and my stomach growled.
A glance at the time told me that my morning was already gone.
I went into my inventory and paused the game.
I slapped together a meat and cheese sandwich with lettuce as a nod to health and washed it down with the rest of my soda pop.
I needed to stretch my legs a bit before jumping back into the search for two matching trees in a forest. Talk about not being able to see the trees for the forest. Or was it the other way around?
I looked down at my comfy stretch pants and T-shirt.
It was good enough for going to the bottom floor and grabbing the mail.
Lin said I should stop hiding myself. I could take baby steps.
Of course, it was a workday, and the building was practically empty, so it was no surprise that I didn’t meet anyone on the way down, or in the entryway, or on the way back up.
The point was—I went out without a jacket—in the summer, go me.
I sifted through the mail, tossing the junk straight into the trash and setting the bills on the counter right where Mom would see them. I froze.
When had mail become something to be afraid of?
The envelope was addressed to both me and Mom, the writing a loopy cursive scrawl that I didn’t recognize.
But the address was one I would never forget.
After all, I used to live there. Whatever was inside, I needed to vet before Mom got hold of it.
It had my name on it, too. I ripped it open and my stomach sank.
Dad was getting married. It looked like Val had managed to sink her claws into him.
Mom was going to be devastated. And who invited their fiancé’s ex-wife to a wedding? Because the handwriting was undeniable hers. Had Dad approved of this? I needed to think. I should probably just toss it, but then if Dad brought it up...it would be Christmas all over again.
I needed to kill things. I popped open a new soda. The grape fizzed as it was exposed to air. I knew how it felt. My insides were fizzing right now. I couldn’t think straight.
I got back on COTSA and took my frustrations out on the insects, spiders, and bandits of the forest.
The XP wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t terrible either. The lower levels of the enemies kept me from having to think too hard about defeating them. Still, I went through more than a few potions. Time to meet my online crew was inching closer, and I had yet to defeat the forest dungeon.
I wanted to strangle Dad and push Val into a pool.
Lin had been having us watch too many Asian dramas lately.
But I was more than angry; I was worried about the mental pain it would cause Mom.
I didn’t know this Val well enough to figure out why she had invited us.
Did she want revenge, or just to rub it in our noses that she had won?
The Bandit Lord appeared, and I realized something. He always showed up in the same section of the forest. And behind him were two trees that looked awfully similar to each other. I had found it.
With a perfect distraction in front of me, I was able to push my emotions away and focus. I had a goal. Bandit Lord went down grudgingly, again. I found a knot—the only difference in the two trees—and pushed. A hidden door swung open.
I walked down the steps, flaring a torch, and found more than just a single room.
I dumped everything from my inventory that was unnecessary and began stocking up, leaving a single slot open.
I’d need to hit the town to sell and buy potions before our meeting.
I knew the ring was supposed to be here, but where?
It couldn’t just be out in the open, or anyone who found the bandit’s hideout would get it.
As far as I knew. No one had, not even IK.
Following the hints in the code, along with some trap finding and more prodding, opened another secret door within the secret lair.
This guy didn’t trust anyone. I knew how he felt.
In the secret-secret room was an altar, and hanging above it was the statue of a blue dragon’s head.
I smiled. Hidden in plain sight. The ring popped out of the eye socket with some leverage from my dagger.
Now, I just had to figure out how to give it to IK. What was I going to say? I’d wanted to tell him that I liked him, but my insecurities were hitting me hard again now with Dad’s wedding looming. I needed to do something about that.
SUMMER, RELUCTANT TO let go, dug its burning fingers into our apartment while the offending invitation glared at me from the kitchen table.
I tapped the soda can against my mouth, listening to the rhythm.
Leave it to Dad to choose the most opportune moment to ruin our happiness about my game jam win.
Mom had not been acting like herself lately, always wanting to watch a movie in the evening, so she had an excuse to hold me or be near me.
It wasn’t like I was going away for execution.
SCAD wasn’t that far away. This was going to be another big blow to her.
I checked my watch, not much time until I was supposed to meet the guys online.
Luckily, Mom had accidentally left her phone at home, so I could make the call in private. Dad answered on the first ring.
“Are you really getting married?”
“So you got the invitation?” He sounded proud and excited. Things I hadn’t heard from him in a long while.
“You knew she was sending it to us?”
“Of course.” He must have detected that something was wrong. “I thought you’d want to come support me.”
Support him? He hadn’t been available for Christmas. He hadn’t even attended my graduation, and he wanted me to be supportive of him?
“Val’s pregnant. I’m going to be a dad. And we’re starting a new chapter of our lives.”
I was dumbfounded. Wasn’t he already a dad?
After all, he was speaking to his almost-grown daughter.
This new chapter of his life meant...moving on from us—from me.
He had been a decent father once. He had helped Mom raise me until I was sixteen.
He’d taught me how to ride a bike. We’d played games together as a family and gone on vacations.
And just because I was almost a legal adult, it didn’t mean that I didn’t need my dad anymore.
But apparently, it meant he didn’t need me.
“Congratulations.” Unable to continue, I hung up.
The worst was that I knew he wouldn’t question or worry about my tone.
He wouldn’t call back. But I wanted him to.
I wanted him to care about me like he used to.
I had heard about how parents sometimes grew apart and got divorced.
But I had never thought it would happen to my family.
I had heard about dads who started new families after dropping the old ones, but my dad would never do that.
How wrong I was. It could happen to anyone.
My alarm went off, and I looked at the time. It was kill rare boss time.
I met the guys in town where I quickly sold my items and bought potions on autopilot.
For this boss, we had to pay a sorcerer for an underwater breathing spell.
We were on a time limit. We rode boats out into the ocean, to the coordinates IK believed marked the boss’s location.
Then we jumped in and activated our spells.
Most of the creatures ignored us...like my dad.
I shoved that thought aside as we aggroed a giant crab.
Only using basic moves to save our abilities for the boss, we took it out fairly quickly.
Arrows sank into the shell where the soft eyes had been, and the larger of the two claws lay on the sea floor.
No matter how thick and tall I made my walls, Dad knew where the soft, vulnerable parts were and went straight for them.
There were lots more mobs: sharks, electric eels, and stinging jellyfish, to name a few. They appeared from above or out of caves in the rocky coral formations around us.