• 3…2…1….Ring!!!! The bell finally rang telling us that the torture for today was over. Nothing was ever that simple for me at this school, because before I could leave Mrs. Bidwell stops me just seconds before I leave the cavern she calls a room.

    “Mr. Lively where do you think your going?”

    “Uh home, work, anywhere but here.”

    “I don’t think so; you’re going to be serving after school detention for that little stunt of hiding my chalk where I can’t reach it.”

    “Yea I’ll get right on that next week” I said as I made a rush for the front doors of the school knowing she couldn’t keep up. As I made a break for the door there was one thing that came to my attention as the final bell of the day rang, Frankie will kill me! I realized as I walked down the stairs that she had been waiting a while since she was trying to tan on top of my car. Frankie is one of those girls who would and could rip you for something as little as being 5 seconds late for anything. Although every guy that she’s with puts up with it because she’s smoking hot. Long blonde, luscious, hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a killer body, these are her good features and probably the only good features she has. Her attitude is basically described as the “do what I say and I’ll give you a reward if not then your butt is mine” type. I was hesitant to speak at first as I approached my car, but I was just delaying the inevitable.

    “Where have you been?” she said in that snapping voice I had heard just a few minutes ago.

    “I’m sorry babe Mrs. Bidwell wouldn’t let me leave without giving me detention, again” I said trying to save myself.

    “Uh that tard needs to pull that stick out of her butt and get a man”

    “I know right” agreeing to what she said to get her mind off me.
    “So you just want me to take you home today?” I said trying to change the subject fast.

    “Ya I’m really tired today for some reason I just wanna go take a nap for a while.”

    “Ok sounds good” I said thankful she forgot already.

    We finally got to her place and she got out and to her door without a word, but before she went in it donned on her that I was still in the driveway and that I was late so she trys to seduce me and blows a kiss then struts inside. I knew that it was my queue to leave so I back up out of her driveway and caught a glimpse of her in the window. At that moment I thought that she likes me but won’t admit it in public, and she just puts on the façade that she’s toying with me. I thought about this, of course, on the way home, it was just one of those things that nags at the back of my mind till I satisfy myself with a conclusion. This time I couldn’t come up with one so when I got back home I tried to get it off my mind by playing some games.

    I started playing live so I could play along with my friends Nate and Mike. We stormed every noob’s stronghold and powned them, then we decided to try storming this lair that was supposed to be a new and limited time area. When we got there it looked like we were in a different world, there was a huge castle on the side of a cliff with a waterfall coming from underneath it. The cliff itself was multi-colored like a rainbow; Nate soon realized that this was because the cliff was covered in crystals some big and small. We started to climb the cliff and reached the top quick enough, and when we got to the top no one was there no guards nothing. We went in and found the kings chamber where we encountered the boss. He was the only one in the room and had one weapon, but this was the biggest weapon anyone of us had seen. The weapon of choice was about the size of all three of our characters stacked on top of one another and had several hundred spikes covering what looked like the blade of the sword. Despite this massive obstacle we managed to defeat the boss with little difficulty. Then something weird happened, a hiscore sheet came up on the screen. We just thought that we were the first ones to beat the new boss and that was a way of recognizing us for it, but that wasn’t the case.
    The next thing that happened that I knew of at the moment was that I saw a huge light that was the same color of the cliff engulfed me and I woke up in a vortex of the same color. Then Nate and Mike suddenly showed up beside me.
    “What’s going on man where are we?” Nate asked afraid of what the answer might be.
    “We’re not in West Virginia anymore that’s for sure” Mike said in a sarcastic tone.
    “I was afraid you’d say that Mike” me and Nate said in unison.

    Then there was a huge gust of wind and Mike got swept away into what seemed like a worm hole of some sorts.

    “Mike!!!” we both yelled

    “Guys help …”

    Mike was swept onto the hole that had appeared before he could finish. Shortly after Nate and I came upon the same problem ourselves when a worm hole opened up in front of us and swept both of us in.

    We woke up on what seemed to be a tropical island along the shore on a strange red sand beach. As we looked around we were amazed by what we saw, besides the red sand there was; a sapphire colored ocean with huge crystal mountains towering over the calm waters, palm trees with jade green leaves and some with yellow fruit hanging onto them, and an active volcano.
    “Wow” Nate says in pure awe

    “I know right, but where are we now” I asked with a wild curiosity.

    “Are we in heaven Nick?”

    “Ya, no, maybe, I don’t know” I state frustrated by what I’m seeing and not comprehending.

    “Nate, do you have the feeling that we should go explore the volcano?”

    “No, why?”

    “I don’t know it’s kind of like something’s either telling me to go to the volcano or I’m hearing a voice calling me to it.”

    “Well then let’s go if you’re so intent on it”

    With that said we headed off to the volcano. When we got there I don’t know what came over me but I knew exactly where to look and pressed a switch. Suddenly a door appeared out of nowhere from the side of the volcano. We went inside curious as to what might lie inside. As we ventured into the cave Nate noticed that it was getting hotter, but I wasn’t. Then we came upon an opening in the tunnel in which the room expanded widely, so much that we couldn’t believe we were in the volcano anymore. The room we had entered was so huge we thought that the volcano was above us. Then I noticed a glowing altar and headed for it, but about half way there something was blocking Nate from going further.

    “Dude I can’t go on any further”

    “Ok I’ll check out the altar and bring back what’s on it so we both can see.”

    I went up to the altar in question and found that a canister with glowing red markings was hovering on it. When I touched the canister some of the pieces began to move and a strange red orb came into view. When I touched it the orb seemed to sink into my skin and circulated throughout the rest of my body. When I looked back Nate was now running towards me and said that the barrier disappeared.

    “Nick!! A weird monk looking guy just appeared from the tower over there and he doesn’t look very happy about what you just did.”

    “What!?”

    My question was soon answered as the monk came into view and started to throw fireballs at us. Both I and Nate managed to avoid a few fireballs but Nate got hit in the head by a stray falling rock while we were trying to escape and the monk was closing in fast and getting better aim at the same time. It was then that I realized why this place is so familiar to me and why I knew where to go. This place was the spitting image of where my character on the game got is power of fire from. Figuring this out I took the biggest risk of my 17 year old life, I stood up faced the monk who had slowed down to a stop now. Then I made a fist and focused and my fist became engulfed in a pure red flame.
    The monk was so shocked that when I went to punch him he didn’t have time to react.
    This lead to his demise in which he was burned to death from one punch in the face, and that spread to his entire body and then all that was left was ash. I couldn’t believe that my hunch was right and that we could take the powers of our characters, but this I knew wasn’t a game we had been put here for a reason and the danger was real, very real.

    Nate had come to at this point, and was amazed by my new found powers.”Dude that was awesome!”

    “I know man, I wonder if you can the powers as well.” Of course this led to questions and as I explained my theory to him his face lit up in excitement.

    “Sweet!!! I wonder how I’ll get my powers if I get any.”

    “I don’t know, but I have an idea” I said as I lead Nate down a corridor to a fresco.

    “I found this in the game I shot fire into this hole and a portal opened up that led to the temple I found your character in”

    “Sweet lets go” he said with no excitement contained at all.

    “Hold on I can read this fresco now for some reason”

    “Cool what’s it say?”

    “Well I can barely make out the words but I’ll give it a shot”.

    The fresco read: This is the tomb of the great Falcon Emperor Romashu. During his reign Romashu lead his people out of the First Great War and into a time of peace. Romashu was said to be the first falcon and was thought to be a Demi-God. He lived a long life and as he grew older more and more falcons came into being. Although he was not the only falcon his beast form was the most stunning and powerful. During his 300th year he was assassinated and no one ever knew who the assassin was since he was love by all of his subjects. Some blamed the Wolven tribes of the Mountains to the north and east, while others blamed the Apes of the south and further still some blamed the western Amphibians of the oceans and the Bears, Lions, and Tigers of the forests and the Beast tribes of the western plains. This inevitably lead to the Second Great War.

    “Wow” I said “This guy must have been a great diplomat to have kept the peace for so long”
    “Ya, hey do you think that the orb you absorbed was his spirit?

    “I don’t know maybe, either way I’ve taken on the responsibilities of this guy and to keep peace throughout the world apparently.”

    “Wow, heavy stuff man I wonder what the other temple holds?”

    “I don’t know” I said “but I think we should go there before any more crazed monks come”

    I shot fire into the corresponding hole and sure enough a portal appeared that lead to the next temple. We stepped through but as we did I wondered how this will affect our lives and what the future holds for us.