Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended.  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This story is copyright (c) 2011 R Nelson. All rights reserved.

Jake gasped with shock as the magical balls bathed the area in bright white light. He knew Emily’s display of ‘real’ magic shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. If he and his friends could dream about being their characters and transported to a fantasy world, or be sucked into the game world as their characters like it was the Matrix, then what was a little display of magic?

“Just how real is this dream simulation and can I do that?”

He still wasn’t 100% sold on his experience not being an incredibly vivid lucid dream. He was leaning more toward it being a big virtual reality experiment like “The Matrix” or “Caverns of Socrates” with ‘everything was real’ as the least likely of the three options.  Was Emily’s use of magic a confirmation for any of his three hypotheses?  No, her magic demonstration only made the dream and virtual reality scenarios more likely, but didn’t eliminate the real life scenario either because if this was real, maybe magic in this world was also real.

“How did you do that?” Jake helped a slightly distracted Emily back to her feet as she concentrated on controlling the balls of light.

She didn’t answer and her unfocused gaze told him why. He turned and watched as the four balls moved as one unit, but split into two units, moving in separate directions before they split again into four distinct units. Somehow, Emily was controlling the magic balls with her mind. Each ball of light separated from each other until they got about 3 meters apart. Then, they stopped moving away from each other. Emily smiled happily  as her magic balls of light began to slowly circle inside the inner perimeter of the columns.

Jake appreciatively watched as Emily’s confidence and control increased. The balls of light danced in and out of the columns, and then briefly spun around Jake like they were doing attack runs before they faded away after about a minute.

“Wow, that was pretty cool, Emily.”

The man’s voice came from behind him, causing Jake to flinch with surprise. His voice made an embarrassing high squeak sound as he spun around to face a mischievously grinning Brian. “Damn it, Brian! That wasn’t funny. How in the hell did you sneak up on us?”

Brian shrugged his shoulders and smirked unrepentantly. “Beats me, bud. I just walked like I normally would, but I do have to admit; it does seem almost trivial to move silently.  It’s like I’m really a rogue now and...” He pulled up his leather jerkin, briefly exposing his chiseled abs. “I have to say, this is pretty damn cool.”

Jake felt a twinge of jealousy. From personal experience, he knew that six pack abs like Brian now sported took a shit ton of diet and exercise. One more point for this being either a dream or a virtual reality experience. His thoughts and emotions swirled as Brian casually reached over and hugged Emily.

“That was pretty cool, Emily,” Brian pulled back and sighed with appreciation. “And, wow, just wow. You’re hot.”

Emily giggled demurely. “You really think so?”

“Hell yes!” Brian got down on one knee in front of Emily. “Iridia, umm, I can’t remember your character’s last name, but will you marry me?”

Emily gasped and clutched her hands to her chest with surprise. “Silly man, we’re already married and my name isn’t Iridia, remember?” Her musical laughter rang across the clearing.

“Yes, but maybe we aren’t married in this world and I wanna make sure nothing changes between us.” Brian stood and held her tightly to his body as he gazed determinedly into her eyes. “No matter what, I love you, Emily.” He softly whispered to her as he leaned in, kissing her passionately on her lips.

Jake turned his back on the happy couple and spotted Brooke and Nick noisily tromping their way back into their landing zone.  Their armor made noise, but Nick’s armor was easily the loudest. Brooke’s armor was a soft, metallic rustle compared to the harsh, clanging sound Nick’s armor made with each step. There would be zero chances of him sneaking up on anyone. “Did you two find anything?”

Brooke shook her head as Nick spoke up. “Notta thing boss, but I did spot a deer in the woods. Maybe a few bunnies.” He smirked and gestured to the happy couple. “What about Brian?”

Brian reluctantly pulled himself away from Emily, but the pair remained side-by-side, holding hands. “Well, I spotted an old road or something over there,” He pointed off to the north east. “It was pretty overgrown and looks like it hasn’t been used in at least a decade or two.” He shrugged apologetically. “Hard to say.  There was a game trail to the south, but nothing else beyond that.  I didn’t go too deep into the woods, only 10 or 20 yards at most, but no other signs of civilization.”

Jake nodded as he took in Brian’s report, but now he needed get his own eyeballs on the problem of defending their position. “I need to take a look around and think. Wait here, yell if you spot something. I’m just going to check the outside of these stones, okay?” Jake moved outside the protection of the stones for the first time and studied both the stones and the tree line. He spotted the break in the trees where Brian said the old road was located.  He circled the stones, paying closer attention to the tree line.

He decided that an attack could come from any side, but due to the old road, that might be the more likely origin of an attack. Without modern weapons, he was at a loss for what to do about defensive positions. If he had his old squad, he would emplace a pair of claymore mines to cover the road. Dig a couple of firing positions on each cardinal point to cover an attack from any side. Man each position with one man, but keep the remaining members of his squad in reserve so they could reinforce the dug in positions based on the attack direction. Yep, within 30 minutes, he could have this position set up pretty well.

Unfortunately, they only had swords, knives and a staff. Maybe Emily could cast a spell or something for a ranged attack, but other than that, zip. Any fight would be up close and personal via bloody hand to hand combat. All his Army training and experience was pretty much out the window.

Jake glanced back at his heavily armored friend and girlfriend. They both were keeping a watchful eye out for him. He nodded to them before he passed behind another stone column. “Okay, they are my heavy weapons team. If we are attacked, I send Nick forward to engage the enemy while Brian and I handle anyone who gets past him. Brooke defends Emily while she keeps the rest of the enemy forces distracted with her lights spell.”

As an action plan, it kind of sucked, but what else could he do? He knew he should plan on sending Brooke and Nick out together, but he didn’t know what he would do if she got hurt, or killed.  What kind of boyfriend would send his girlfriend out to fight for him? In this virtual reality dream world, she was a warrior and a warrior fought from the front.  She would be pissed at him for even considering holding her back.

He sighed with frustration and leaned up against the northern stone. The sun was getting low in the sky, causing the shadows to lengthen and make the surrounding forest appear more forbidding. They had maybe another hour of daylight to work with and a lot to do.  The solid, granite stone against his back felt reassuring and helped calm him down. He felt like he had a connection to the stones. Maybe it was because they reminded him of the famous Stonehenge monument in Great Britain?  Jan was supposed to be a druid and Stonehenge had something to do with druids, right?

Feeling a little calmer, Jake pushed off and returned to his friends. “Okay, here is what I’m thinking. It’s going to get dark here soon. Maybe another hour, at most and we have a lot we need to do and decide. First of all, we don’t know how long we are going to be stuck here, wherever ‘here’ is.  We could be here an hour, days, weeks or forever.” He sighed. “Worst case, forever and we should plan on worst case, right?”

Brian reassured Emily with a hug, causing her to relax. Jake wished he could hug Brooke right now. A little physical contact would feel so nice right about now.  “With that in mind, we need to plan for security. We appear to be in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a forest containing unknown wild animals or people.” He studied his friend’s faces and saw an appropriate amount of concern and determination. “So, if we are attacked, here is the basic response plan.” He glanced to Brooke and hesitated for a second. “Brooke and Nick, you two are our heavy assault. You two will identify and attack the strongest point of our enemy’s assault. The rest of us,” He looked at Brian and Emily. “Will do what we can to support the two of you. Got it?”

“Yep.” Nick nodded.

“Loud and clear, sir.” Brooke stood at attention and smiled.

Brian simply nodded and Emily agreed with him.

“Good, I know it’s not much of a plan and maybe nothing will happen, but it’s better than everyone panicking and running around like a chicken with their head cut off.” Jake sighed, his chest heaved, reminding him of his ‘problem’.  “Okay, the sun is going to set soon. I want everyone alert and ready to defend our position at that time. Sunrise and sunset are the times an enemy is most likely to attack. We will need to get our sleep tonight, but also post a guard. We will each have a two hour slot. Any volunteers for the midnight shift?”

“Yo.” Brian quickly raised his hand.

“Okay, I’ll take the shift after Brian.” Jake volunteered himself to take the next hardest shift so that his two heavy fighters and Emily could get the best rest. “Emily, you take the first shift, Brooke, do you wanna follow Emily and Nick takes the final shift?”

Everyone agreed with Jake’s guard roster. He smiled with satisfaction. “Great!” One item down, who knows how many to go.

“No one goes solo. Not to the bathroom, or even for a walk around the camp. You grab a buddy, okay?” They all glanced anxiously to each other, before nodding with agreement.

“Yeah, good idea…” Brian whispered.

“Next on the agenda, food, water and shelter.” Jake glanced around the place they would setup camp. “Other than the stones here to help block the wind, I don’t see a shelter and I don’t see any tents. It’s getting a little late to try hunting for a source of water or food, but we could use a fire and for that, we need wood and a way to start a fire. Before it gets dark, we should gather some wood from the forest, then do an inventory and figure out how to light the wood. Maybe one of us has a lighter or something in a pocket, who knows?” He glanced down to his waist, patted an empty feeling pouch and shrugged.

“So, we’ll split into two teams. Brooke, you and Brian team up, don’t go too deep into the woods. Make sure you can spot and know the direction to the stones from wherever you are at. Nick, you’re with me and Em. We will all spread out as much as possible, but keep each team and each other in sight at all times. No playing hide and seek games and don’t try chopping any trees down. Just grab dead wood, sticks and branches as dry as you can find. Maybe some dry leaves or pine needles if you can find any. If, at any time you find yourself without a buddy, yell, ‘Marco’. Response by everyone who can hear it will be ‘Polo’.” Everyone nodded and smiled, amused by the childhood game instructions.

“Now, if you are attacked by anything, yell or scream for help and if possible, retreat to the stones. Got it?”

The danger reminder sobered everyone up, but again, everyone nodded. “Great, let’s get some wood.”

Once they reached the wood line, Brooke and Brian paired and headed away at an angle from Jake, Nick and Emily. Emily’s high heel shoes and skimpy clothing weren’t really cut out for traipsing through the woods, but she seemed to handle the heels easily enough. Maybe they were magic and worked just as well for her as his boots did for him, or, Emily was just good at walking in heels.  He glanced down to his boots and leather outfit. Except for his bare knees, he was pretty well protected. “I guess I got off lucky.” He thought.

They quickly found enough dead wood in the area and didn’t need to rove too deeply into the woods.  Within 30 minutes, the group had a nice stack of branches and pine needles to burn and even better, nothing attacked them.  Jake did notice a few trees with claw marks gouged into the bark well above his head. He had to use his staff to reach a few of the marks. Whatever the animal was that left the marks, it was pretty damn big, but the marks looked old and Jake prayed that whatever it was that made the marks wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.

Jake did have one adventure in the woods that he wished he didn’t. He had to pee and that proved to be an eye opener for him.  One, it proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he no longer had a penis. Two, squatting to pee made him feel very vulnerable and three, he had no toilet paper to wipe with and he didn’t want to use leaves for that part of his anatomy. He had wiped his ass in the woods using leaves before, but girls got all kinds of infections down there and it just didn’t seem like a good idea to wipe that part with a dirty old leaf.

Thankfully, Emily was there to help him. She was able to help in figure out how to get at and remove his undergarments. It was much easier than it was for Nick and probably Brooke, but he wasn’t sure because the details on that issue never came up. Emily also helped him find a good spot to go and how to properly squat to avoid peeing on his own feet. His only contribution to the process was to use the tip of his staff to dig a shallow latrine to cover his urine with once he was done. Proper sanitation practices in the field were very important to prevent troops getting cholera or some other infection.

For wiping, Emily recommended just hanging out for a minute or two to allow himself to air dry before pulling his fabric lined, leather panties snugly into place against his far too smooth undercarriage. His bladder felt much better, but his ego took a huge bruising and he stopped mentally cringing each time Emily addressed him using his character’s name. He didn’t like being called Jan, but his friends had used his character’s name in games and during game discussions. Why did it bother him so much to hear Emily use it now? He decide that he would worry about his name if Brooke or the other guys started calling him Jan.

Jake stood watch as Emily did her business and unlike him, her only complaint seemed to be the lack of toilet paper.  When he got back to being himself, the first thing he was going to do for Brooke, and any female guest that visited their house, was make sure they were always stocked with the best and softest toilet paper he could buy. Additionally, he promised himself that he would never again complain about Brooke using too much toilet paper.

They stacked their gathered firewood against one of the stones and Jake arranged the sticks and pine needles to make lighting a fire as easy as possible. All they needed was a match or a lighter. “Okay, inventory time. We need to dig into our pockets,” He chuckled as everyone, himself included reflexively reached for pockets that none of them had. “Sorry, pouches, or whatever and empty them out so we know what we have to work with here.”

Jake’s belt pouch proved to be a little larger on the inside than it looked from the outside. When he opened it, it looked empty, but to be sure, he carefully reached inside. His fingers didn’t encounter the bottom after a few inches in like he expected. “Holy shit!” His entire arm, up to his elbow went into the pouch.

“Whoa! We all have Bags of Holding, sweet!” Brian whistled with appreciation as he pulled out a small pouch of tools followed by a thin, leather face mask.

“Bags of what?” Emily whispered as she anxiously reached for the small silk pouch on her belt.

Jake felt his fingers brush against something that felt like an animal. He flinched, but it didn’t move and he realized it wasn’t something alive. He grabbed and pulled out a very nice looking fur lined, hooded cloak. He, along with everyone else, was amazed at how his tiny little pouch could hold such a large item and with the ease in which he pulled it out.

Everyone else had a warm looking cloak in their bags. Emily’s cloak looked like it was made of silk, but it was fairly thick and looked like it would do a good job keeping her warm. Based on what he could remember about Dark Elves, the silk was probably made from spider silk. Brooke’s cloak looked a lot like hers, just a different color of fur. Nick’s cloak looked like a horribly butchered bear pelt that looked like it was too small to wrap around his body as a blanket. Brian’s cloak was a simple, heavy cloth cloak dyed black. Nothing that would make him stand out in a crowd.

Nick pulled out a pick axe and a small shovel that resembled an entrenching tool. Jake thought it might come in handy if they needed to stay here longer because they needed to dig a proper latrine. Brian’s next item was a small hand axe, perfect for chopping firewood. Brooke pulled out a whetting stone for her sword while Jake and Emily’s next item was a bedroll.

Everyone else also had a bedroll, followed by a small bag of dried rations, a leather water skin, beer skin for Nick, and a spare set of undergarments. Jake’s, Brooke’s and Emily’s bag had an extra set of items that confused Jake, but the girls seemed to be happy to see them. They were small, flattened cheesecloth bags filled with bleached wool. He thought they might be field dressings, except they were missing the extra band of cloth used to tie them in place around a wound and none of the other guys had them in their bags.

“Pads, or tampons for, you know what.” Brooke whispered to him as he inspected one of the dressings.

He quickly set this aside, but not on the ground where they might get dirty.

A bar of floral scented soap, a ceramic jar of something that smelled like shampoo and a small glass vial of some amber colored liquid that Jake feared was perfume. Emily’s vial was filled with a white fluid. She sniffed it, smiled and quickly dabbed a small amount on her neck. He thought she smelled nice, but he refused to try any for himself when she offered to share. Brooke didn’t hesitate to try Emily’s perfume, but she tested and liked her own a little better. Jake liked how it smelled on her too.  It was a light floral scent while Emily’s was a floral with cinnamon overtones.

Brian’s bag contained a rough oblong shaped stone and a straight shaving razor while Nick’s bag lacked the personal hygiene items, but he didn’t seem to upset about the oversight. “Hey, dwarves hate water and they most certainly don’t shave! Right?”

The small bags held a lot of stuff and he was just beginning to worry about having a fire for the night when his fingers closed around a small, metal box. It was a flint and tinder. Things were looking up. “Nice, now I can start a fire and we have something to sleep on instead of the cold, hard ground.” He pointed to their bedrolls and cloaks.

Everyone’s bags contained the flint and tinder box and that was the last item they were able to pull from their bags.  It was like they had each been given a standard adventurer’s kit tailored to their characters, except they never had the soap or feminine hygiene products to worry about when they played D&D back in high school.

“Well, these are pretty cool.” Emily stared at the tiny bag in her hand and down to the objects on the ground with amazement. “I wish I had one of these back home. Think of all the stuff I could’ve crammed into my purse, but how does it work?” She looked back to Jake and the guys.

Jake glanced over to Brian, the rules lawyer and resident expert on all things written in the D&D manuals. “Why don’t you explain while I get a fire started?”

Put on the spot, Brian nervously cleared his throat as Emily and Brooke turned their attention on him. “Okay, well, in D&D, it was thought that Bags of Holding were gates into a nondimensional space that could hold a lot of stuff.” He glanced down to the small pouch attached to his belt. “Except in D&D, the bags actually looked like large cloth sacks and not little pouches like we have. In D&D, you had to be careful with how you loaded your bag because it worked on a first in, last out rule. Of course, some Dungeon Masters and players,” He glanced meaningfully at Nick. “Incorrectly interpreted it otherwise and tried to grab what they wanted directly.” He sighed with resignation. “Then, DBO and all of the MMO games kind of used ruined the Bag of Holding idea by giving players an inventory system where they could simply drag and drop their stuff however they wanted.”

Jake listened to Brian’s explanation with half an ear as he worked on getting the fire started. His time spent camping as a teenager and making field expedient camp fires in the Army helped. Of course, in the Army, everyone had access to lighters, matches, gas and sometimes explosives. It was very easy for a fire to get a little too exciting, but it sure was fun to pick on your buddies who burned off their eyebrows.

With the fire going, everyone’s stress levels dropped a bit due to the safety, security and warmth having a fire a night brought.  Jake repacked his belt pouch and confirmed it worked on a first in, last out rule. Like everyone else, he kept his new cloak and his bedroll out.  Along with Brian and Emily, he and Brooke set up their bedrolls to lie next to each other during the night.

He joined Brook next to the fire. He wanted to hug her and feel her body against his own, but she still wore her armor and hugging that wouldn’t feel the same. “You should probably strip out of your armor before you try going to sleep tonight. I’ve heard that metal armor was very uncomfortable.”

Brooke glanced down at her breast plate. “Oh, yeah, I guess it probably would be, but what if we are attacked?”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure, leave your boots on. You still have your sword and shield. With a guard, maybe you would have enough time to get your breastplate back on?”

Brooke nodded with agreement. “Sounds good, can you help me with this stuff?”

Her armor proved to be extremely well fitted to her body. Brooke sighed with relief once her breast plate was removed. She twisted and stretched her back. “Wow, I didn’t realize how uncomfortable all this was until now.”

Underneath her armor, she wore a high quality, leather padded linen gambeson to protect her skin from chafing against the rigid metal armor plates. Jake thought she looked every inch the noble, elvish warrior woman and he found himself feeling a little jealous of her. He felt so weak and helpless next to her.

Brooke surprised him with a hug. “What’s wrong?”

Jake tensed for a moment before he sighed and relaxed into her arms. She smelled nice. A hint of delicate flowers mixed with the strong scent of metal and leather. “Oh, nothing, and everything.” He glanced up at her concerned face. “What are we going to do, Brooke?”

Brooke didn’t know how to answer her, no him, and that was confusing her. Intellectually, she knew the petite, blond, female wood-elf hugging her was her fiancé Jake, but emotionally, no. Jake as Jan tripped all of her protective big sister instincts and that was the problem. Jake was supposed to be her fiancé, the big strong male who loved and protected her.  She simply wasn’t feeling that way about the woman sitting next to her.  She sighed and frowned. “I don’t know, Jaa-ke.” She caught herself almost calling him Jan like Emily had been.

“This whole thing is weird and I just don’t know what to think. I do know that I love you and always will, but I can’t say right now where we will end up later. We both know that I’m not into women.”

Brooke felt Jake tense and then a moment later, sigh. “Yeah, I know, but I think I was hoping we could pretend that nothing had changed. I look at you and I still see the beautiful and strong woman I fell in love with.  Maybe not the woman I met at the ice cream shop, but still the woman I love. If this,” She pulled away and gestured to her body, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears. “Dream or nightmare lasts much longer and I lose you…” She turned away to hide her tears. “I’m just not feeling very strong right now and I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Brooke pulled Jake back to her, hugging her tightly and kissing her tenderly on her forehead. “Shhhhhh, we’ll figure something out. Right now, I’m just glad you’re here and alive because I think we’d all be lost without you here.”

“You’re stronger than that, Brooke. I know you. You’d have taken charge and we’d all probably be halfway home by now.” Jake chuckled, mocking himself in the process.

Brooke gently grabbed Jake’s chin. “Look at me. You’re the one everyone, myself included, look to for leadership. None of these guys would’ve listened to me, but you, they respect and it doesn’t matter what you look like, we all trust you to make the right decisions.  You’ve been there and done it, no matter how much my Dad taught me, I don’t have the experience you have.”

She spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, causing her to tense up before she recognized Emily coming over to join them. She wrapped her arms around both of them. “Yep, we need ya, Jake and sorry about calling you Jan, but...well…”

A snort of amusement escaped Jake’s lips. She turned away and wiped the tears from her eyes before turning her face to Emily. “It’s okay…you all can call me Jan if you want to. I mean, I’m not really looking like myself right now; See, I have two feet.” She grinned and lifted her previously amputated right foot before looking up and spotting Nick and Brian standing anxiously nearby.

Jan stood and faced her friends with a stern, determined glint in her eyes. “But if any of you chuckleheads think that just because I’m a chick that I’m going to go all soft on you and let you screw up, you got another thing coming! Got it?!”

Brooke’s heart swelled with hope and relief. Now, there was the Jake she knew and loved. She stood and saluted her. “Sir, yes sir!”