Spacebound Chronicles

Chapter 18: Karyn Voidex

That night, Scott had logged in to merely send a message to his guildmates and Carol, telling them he would be gone for a while. As he typed the message, he realized that more than once he had been on the receiving side of that text, and invariably they all ended the same way: the message sender would gradually reduce his activity until he declared a hiatus. That hiatus would multiply in number and length until no one ever heard from those players again.

Carol, apparently, had noticed this same pattern, and did not seem willing to let it come to that so easily.

“Don’t you dare log out!” her reply’s title read. “We are meeting right now!”

And that led him, by her suggestion, back to that very spot under the shadows of the gargantuan Canyon walls. The spot where he had once sacrificed himself against the Fiery Man to give Carol a chance to win the race against a man whose name he never knew. It had been so long ago… so many levels…

Back when Logan and Jude would spend hours looping around the breach on the dry wasteland surface, the vermin in the walls, the venomous roots hanging out of the stone and the tribesmen lurking with bows and arrows posed profoundly serious threats. Now? Now he could kill most creatures with a single shot, except for the Fiery Man himself and…

 Ruckorr!

The massive feathery beast dove into the Canyon, its wings narrowly missing the stone walls on either side and its talons ready to burrow into the ground… or into Logan. There was no time to run away, the feral shadow was too close already. But running away was not the only means of escape.

Pulling a dark shard from his pocket and throwing it high against the canyon walls, Logan was gone seconds before the four monstrous paws landed with a tremble.

Logan reappeared over the descending creature.

On the monster’s back, to Logan’s surprise, there was a woman, her dark hair billowing at the fluttering winds agitated by her mount’s wings. Logan narrowed his eyes and allowed gravity to pull him back down, another crystal ready to be launched at the right moment.

When that moment came, the crystal arched towards the Ruckorr’s rider, bouncing against her back as she scoured the ground for her intended prey. As soon as she turned around to look for what had hit her, all she saw was the nigh magical transformation of the tiny gem into an armored hooded man.

While she gaped at the sudden teleportation, taking place before her eyes, Logan Spacebound pulled a pistol and aimed it at her face.

“Karyn Voidex, I suppose?” he said with a smirk. The woman before him did not remotely look like Carol. Her skin was markedly tanned, her shoulders broad and hair dark and straight, much unlike Carol’s golden locks. But the eyes were there. Surely, they stood behind a nose and eyebrows much sharper, but they were her eyes, nevertheless.

She smirked.

“So, you can teleport!” she turned on her saddle. She wore a long coat over a lattice piece of light armor decorated with tiny jewelry. “Good for you, Logan Spacebound. You just forgot one thing!” she raised a velvet gloved finger. “You’re standing on my Ruckorr!”

Before he could reply, the twin-tipped tail of the beast whipped him away and unto the grown. That had done more damage than he would have expected, and once he scrambled back to his feet Karyn Voidex was bending over herself in laughter. The Ruckorr’s face had moved closer to him, as if the red-beaked beast was only waiting for its master’s permission to devour the cyborg.

“Do you like her?” Karyn asked, stroking the colorful feathers between her legs. “Her name’s Sparky. I got her as part of the tournament prize. You know, the one I beat you on.”

“I’m not sure she likes me,” Logan said taking a step away from the beak that could certainly swallow him whole.

“Don’t be silly! Give her beak a pat, she won’t bite,” Karyn smirked. “Unless I tell her to.”

After eyeing the rider for an uneasy second, Logan warily approached the awaiting beast, hand stretched out to caress the very creature he had so many times run away from. He never thought he would be patting one of those, and now with his open palm inches away from a friendly Ruckorr’s beak…

The creature screeched, its dark blue tongue the size of a full-grown man vibrating as Logan got overwhelmed by Sparky’s warm breath. He stumbled back until he fell on his rear. Karyn was rolling in laughter upon the creature.

“Sorry! I couldn’t resist!” she said before jumping down from the saddle and walking towards him with open arms. “It’s good to see you.”

He hesitated, but then moved on to embrace her.

As their hug broke off, though, she planted a knee to his stomach, scoring some more damage as he bent over to cough. The world was lucky that Caroline Bennett did not share Karyn Voidex’s physical might.

“That’s for the bullpotty about needing a break from the game. What the hell is that about?” she sat over a rock and crossed her legs.

Logan explained everything, telling how his so expected promotion had landed him in a corporate warzone and culminated on an assignment that would demand every waking hour of his for the foreseeable future. Karyn listened to the whole tale silently, nodding and maintaining constant eye contact while Sparky slept nearby.

“Sorry,” she finally interjected as he finalized the story, “but what exactly is the difference between this job and what you did before getting promoted? Didn’t you make art for advertisements either way?”

“It’s different,” he said. “I used to work with photography editing, they’re asking me to create something from scrap.”

“So why don’t you take a picture and edit it into what you need?” she shrugged.

“Why not? Really?” Logan frowned. “Where am I supposed to get the models? The photography equipment? The astronaut outfits? The setting?”

“Indeed,” Karyn’s gloved hand scratched her chin as she faked a pensive expression. “If only we only knew a bunch of handsome people who actually went to space on a daily basis… If we only played a game with graphics so realistic you could almost forget it’s a game…”

“Are you saying…” he trailed off as she beamed.

“Why not? Call a few friends, fly a shuttle to a nice-looking spot in space, toss a backpack out there, toss a miner-bot carcass here and there and voila! You have yourself your photoshoot!”

“Then I just treat the image like I’m used to… add the client’s products and logo… Yes! Yes, that works! You’re a bloody genius, Carol!”

“Took you your sweet time to figure that out,” she shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll talk to some friends, we can reenact the scene…”

“Wow, hold on to your pants!” she stood up and nudged his side. “You clearly need some unwinding.”

Karyn Voidex then proceeded to climb back unto her tamed Ruckorr, who drifted back from its slumber.

“Come on,” she motioned Logan up. “You helped me win this baby, nothing fairer than if I take you for a spin on her.”

He hesitated, wondering if she would be capable of scaring him twice on the same day, but this time it was an honest offer. She helped him up, and he held tightly onto the huge feathers. The creature shook off the last vestiges of its sleepiness and jumped, wings flapping with effort to propel them into the air.

Few seconds later, they were gliding over the wasteland expanse, players, creatures and hostile NPCs diving to the ground whenever they noticed the mighty Ruckorr passing by. It felt like Logan’s very first Phoenix flight back in level 1, just smoother, easier. He did not need to control his direction or speed, there was no thought put into it. Sparky and Karyn took care of it all while he just enjoyed the ride.

“Ruckorr! On our left!” Logan screamed as he noticed the presence of another flying predator, that one untamed.

But Karyn paid no mind. She just kept their own Ruckorr moving forward, and then Logan realized there never was any danger. The two beasts were now flying side by side, shrilling and whistling at each other until Karyn pulled Sparky away from their new friend and off a cliff overlooking the sea.

Both riders let out a piercing scream of exhilaration as Sparky dove towards the wavy surface below, pulling up on the last possible second. Their advance caused ripples over the water, and soon enough the landmass was but a blight in the horizon.

“You holding tight back there?” Karyn asked looking over her shoulder.

Before he could respond, Sparky took a dive into the ocean. Breaking the waterline was almost enough for Logan to lose his grip on the fluffy plumes, but he held on as they descended into schools of colorful fish and coral reefs that twisted into artful shapes. On the distance, a monster at least a hundred times Sparky’s size eyed them suspiciously but did not bother to move any more than necessary to watch the intruders.

Once oxygen lacked, Sparky angled back up and soon shot out of the surface. Minuscule salty droplets had gathered on the impermeable feathers, while Logan and Karyn were soaked.

“Did you see that monster? What was that thing?” he asked after a thrilling laugh.

“That, my friend,” Karyn spoke, “that is proof that this planet is not only for beginners! You just have to know where to look!”

“Did you know it would be there?”

“Not in the slightest!” she giggled. “But that’s what makes it fun!”

“I suppose so! Hey, do you know what’s in that island?” he pointed at a distant volcanic formation.

“I do! There is a cave where…”

“What about that one,” he pointed at another isle to the other side.

“That? I don’t think I’ve ever been there…”

Hence their path was defined, and for the rest of the night Logan Spacebound and Karyn Voidex trailed from island to island, not a worry in their minds.