2007 - The final day of the mortal month of August
The battle had been lost
The forces of Brian had come in and overwhelmed us, and the twins were taking their seats with the other contestants as Brian was emerging victorious.
It was time to go
It was over
Now there is something about the smell of salt peter and sulphur that makes you wonder what it is doing in a downtown bar.
Out of the mists, came a man with pointy ears, and he was kind of tall. With him in a robe was a young broad, who looked kind of nervous.
I recognised the dud with the pointy ears, he was an elf by the name of Yagel Swift Pen
"Are you Graeme" he asked
"I have not gone by that ID for years" I replied "And by the way, aren't you not supposed to be here, I would not want the Lord Low Troll's goons to come and drag me away again"
"That won't happen" responded Yagel
"Why not I asked"
"He 's dead" Yagel replied blunt as ever.
"He was assasinated by Orcs" the young girl chipped in. (She looked kind of familiar, but I could not place her)
Yagel looked around nervously, "Can we leave this tavern please, we can not keep this spell up much longer"
"What spell"
"The one where only you can see or hear us. For one you look idiotic talking to yourself, and two it may attract the Orcs"
The three of us left the bar and made our way to my apartment.
"If the Lord Low Troll is dead, that's good isn't it" I asked naively
Yagel looked glum, "It was the start of the Mystical Realms Civil war. At least with the trolls they tolerated other races, but in recent times , orc nationalists were claiming that the fairer races made the Mystical Realms soft. They have waged war on the orcs, elves gnomes and dwarfs"
"Some of the trolls have fallen in to line" he explained further, we have been driven from our lands"
"Where did you go?" I asked, still trying to figure out who the girl was, as she had barely spoken since the we left the bar
"We have been living in a word you call the World of Warcraft, as non player characters"
"How?"
The young girl now took up the story, "When the humans developed this virtual realm, and something called second life, it created a bridge from the collective unconsciousness."
Yagel shushed her and then added "This bridge is only known to a few, and we have been using it bring refugees in from the Mystical realms, away from the blood bath brought on by the Troll, Goblin and Orc Axis"
"So where do I come in" I asked
Yagel told the girl to remove her hood and then explained "We kept from the Lord Low Troll that the Spirit of True Love had a daughter, The Spirit of fancying. The only way we can save the Mystical Realms, would be if there was a collective warm feeling about love"
I was shocked, here was the daughter of the dame who hired me six years ago.
"But how I stuttered"
"We have been covertly working on the recent Big Brother show"
"Chiggy, Lamey " I asked
"No" said the Spirit of Fancying, "What you call Brimanda" The others just happened - we do not know why"
"So Brimanda has to succeed in order to solve your little civil war"
"There is more at Stake" intoned Yagel sternly "If the Orcs take complete control, they will march on the world of Mortals and take humans for food"
I was stunned, could this be true?
Could the only way to save our world and theirs lie in a possible romance, that was considered to have a slim chance to succeed.
This would be a toughie.
"We have to go now or the orcs will find us" said Yagel, and with a smell of Sulphur and Saltpeter, they were gone...
To be continued...