Much to Adam and Orianna's surprise, Seamus and Kohl return to camp with the body of an elf slung across Kohl's back. 

"Oh my God, is that the druid from earlier? Is she dead?" Orianna rushes over to the newly arrived with eyes enlarged, looking for signs of life from the elf girl.

"She's...alive," Kohl says, her words winded, "...but unconscious." Though she managed to clear the necessary 'Strength' check to lift the druid, the pirate's relatively weak 'Constitution' stat has caught up to her during the short walk back to the campsite. Kohl longs to unceremoniously dump the elf's body onto the ground and catch her breath, but manages to hold on until Adam comes over and carefully takes the druid's body from her.

"Yeah, Katniss Everdeen over here shot her out of the sky." Despite the jab at his friend, genuine concern crosses Seamus's face as he watches Adam lay the druid onto a bedroll to examine.

"I think you should maybe stop shooting arrows at people, Kohl," the tiefling wizard says, and the pirate sputters out a defense about not meaning to this time around. 

As Orianna watches the skinship between the human paladin and elf girl, a prickly, uncomfortable sensation crawls throughout her body. She shakes it off, knowing the situation between the two isn't something to be envied. 

Adam's eyes roam the druid's form for injuries. "Where's the wound? And what do you mean, the sky? Was she shape-shifted?" 

Kohl flops down onto a nearby log adjacent to the campfire; the deep breaths she takes in help to steadily restore her composure. "Yeah, as a giant hawk. She scared the shit out of Seamus and me."

Adam immediately stands and steps away from the elf, backing several feet away. 

Seamus's brow furrows in confusion as he watches Adam act like the mystery girl has a contagious disease. "What the hell, man? Aren't you gonna help her?"

"She's fine. She doesn't need or want our help. Just pretend she isn't there." Adam doesn't even look in the elf's direction now, turning himself so that he looks the opposite way.

The other three party members stare at the lawful good paladin, all convinced he's lost his mind.

"Dude, my arrow pierced her hawk's head, and then she fell like fifty feet. She hit the ground hard. I really, really don't think she's okay." Kohl crosses her arms and glares at Adam. 

After an uncomfortable impromptu staring contest, the paladin beckons his friends closer and drops his voice to a whisper. "When a druid shapeshifts, the damage they take in animal form typically doesn't carry to their humanoid form. Unless the hit was strong enough to kill her two times over, she's totally fine." 

Seeing his friend's dubious looks, Adam continues, "There's just no way you did enough damage with a normal shot, unless you had decapitated her or something. Seeing as she's completely unscathed, I think it's safe to say that that's not the case."

Seamus glances over at the druid's unmoving form. "So she's not actually unconscious? Why is she just lying there then?"

Adam shrugs. "Take your best guess. Mine would be that she doesn't want to talk to us and is gonna take off again the first chance she gets."

"What? But I'm amazing! Who wouldn't want to hang out with a kickass pirate like me?" Kohl says, only half-joking.

"Having known you for the past two years, I can see why she doesn't want to buy a ticket aboard the friendship bus." Seamus narrowly dodges the pirate's punch. "Still, why didn't she say something or take off before?"

Adam scratches his chin. "Embarrassment? I don't know, I'm not her. I say we all get to sleep and give her the chance to leave quietly."

The four quickly divvy out the shifts for keeping watch and settle in for the night, ignoring their growling stomachs and decaying 'Hunger' status bars. Since the druid is currently using Adam's bedroll, he rests on the spare clothes and blankets in his pack, politely refusing to use  Kohl's unoccupied sleeping bag while she watches over the group.

"It sure is a shame though," Seamus says as he crawls into his bedroll, loud enough for all four other people to overhear. "A druid would be a perfect addition to our team."

"Yeah, I totally agree. I'd really appreciate someone who could tank, heal, or cast spells depending on what the situation called for." Kohl echoes, trying to keep the druid girl out of her direct line of sight while simultaneously fulfilling her role as lookout. She succumbs to temptation to peak at the druid's reaction, but the latter still has yet to move an inch.

"Guys, cut it out." Adam's eyes are closed as he prepares his character for sleep mode. "Some people just prefer to play solo. Don't take it personally if she doesn't want to group with us, and don't pressure her to stick around."

"Whatever you say, holy boy scout. You and I both know you'd be psyched if she would group with us. Hey, Adam, Orianna, wanna meet up in the real world and go get some lunch?" 

Seamus's statement elicits a protest from the pirate stuck on watch-duty. "Aw, no fair! Don't eat without me!"

"Fine, fine. Adam and Orianna will go eat now and I'll eat with you after your watch is over." Seamus smiles to himself, pleased at how the day is turning out. "Thank God it's Saturday. I'm so sick of pretending to be awake during lectures. You guys up for more after our characters get through the night?"

"Hell yeah! But tonight I've got to work more on my English essay, I don't want to leave it all till the last minute. Once was enough," Kohl says. "That was the most I've been stressed in my life. Never again."

"You know, once you become a master of procrastination like me, you'll find that the self-induced panic is actually quite thrilling. I live for those moments, truly." Seamus sighs, suddenly nostalgic for the times he had to frantically finish his homework, the latest episode of which occurred only just last week.

"As your roommate, I'm fine with you handling your coursework however you want. Just don't let your grades drop to the point where they'd kick you out of AMS. It'd suck to have to learn to live with someone else." Adam switches his focus over from the halfling rogue to the tiefling wizard. "So, Orianna, are you okay with us getting lunch together?"

"Yeah, of course! Just give me a couple minutes, I've got some stuff I need to do first." Orianna waits for Adam and Seamus to log off before creeping over to the seemingly unconscious druid girl. The tiefling attempts to take advantage of the fact that Kohl is still purposely looking away from the unmoving form, as per Adam's advice. 

Orianna leans in to whisper to the elf, careful as to not attract Kohl's notice. "Hey, it'd be really, really cool if you could join our group. Everyone here is fun and super nice, even to me, despite that I've barely been able to contribute anything. I hope I can learn from you, and I hope we can be friends."

Orianna pulls away, but then whispers again as something else occurs to her. "Also, thanks for saving our lives earlier. Sorry if I'm bothering you. That's all, so...goodnight." She stares at the druid for a while, awaiting a response with bated breath.

For the sake of the group, Adam in particular, Orianna prays the druid will be there when her character wakes up. 

By the time the first rays of computer-generated sun break over the horizon, the mysterious druid girl is nowhere to the found.

The party takes a minute to call out for her, ensuing that if her absence is simply an unfortunately timed morning stroll, she'll know to return promptly.

A few minutes pass. No such luck.

Sighing, and in the case of Seamus, complaining, the group gatherings up their belongings and head towards The Spire.

Unbeknownst to them, their party of four has indeed become one of five. A squirrel follows behind, careful to keep the adventurers in its line of sight while avoiding attracting attention.

Thankfully, it doesn't take the four adventurers too long for their 'Passive Perception' to alert them to the druid's squirrel-disguised presence. Though it takes some coaxing, the elf girl soon becomes comfortable enough to stop scampering off and hiding from the party whenever they attempt to start a conversation with her.

It takes even more effort to get her to speak at an audible volume, and to say more than one or two words at a time. Luckily, while they’re still journeying to the Spire, the group has nothing but time.

"Thanks for saving our lives back there, we really owe you one." Adam smiles gently at the druid girl, who stares back at him with terrified, wide eyes. "What's your character's name?"

"S-sage." Sage looks back and forth between the friendly paladin and the safety of the large forest trees, desperate for cover. Despite her aversion to attention, she manages to overcome her urge to flee.

"So what's your deal, Sage? Why save some random people you're not even questing with?" Kohl asks.

The concept of altruism carrying over into a virtual reality video game is lost on both the half-elf pirate and the halfling rogue.

"Yeah, it's not like this is the real world," Seamus says, peering at the party's newfound member. "Sure it'd be a huge-ass pain if we died and had to make new characters, but why put your own life in danger over that?"

Adam shakes his head in disapproval. "Geez guys, this is almost sounding like criticism. Sage did us a huge favor, I just hit level 10 the other day and that took so many hours of--"

"I wasn't in danger."

Everyone turns to look at Sage, surprised at her bold statement and blatant interruption. She simply opens up her character menu and hits the 'Display Stats' button for all to see.

Four mouths drop open in disbelief.

"You're level 18?" Orianna fixates on the 'Level 3' displayed near her health bar in the top left corner of her character screen. "Isn't the max level you can be like 25?"

Kohl grumbles under her breath, upset at her character's weakness by comparison. "And here Seamus and I thought we were doing well getting to level 7. Now I wish Adam had introduced us to the game sooner."

"Seriously, Sage, this is insane." Adam rubs his chin in amazement. "I started a new character on our school's server the weekend after we moved in, and have been playing a fair bit. How are you leveling so fast? You must be barely leaving your VR console."

Sage's eyes are downcast, and she removes her character's stats from public display. At this moment, she finds herself incredibly grateful that blushing is beyond the game's programming.

Kohl gasps as Adam's statement strikes a cord with her. "Guys, I know who Sage is! Remember how Maggie was complaining about her roommate never leaving their dorm room apart from eating and attending class?"

"Wow, so Sage is a room rat, huh?" Seamus says. "There's a couple of those on the guy's floor too. One of them doesn't even go out to any of the campus cafeterias, he just lives off of instant noodles." 

Sage trembles, the urge to transform into a bird and take flight returning. A warm hand comes to rest on her shoulder, and the druid turns her head to find Orianna smiling at her.

"It can be scary to walk out onto a college campus alone at sixteen, I get it. If I didn't have Kohl and the guys to hang out with I could very well be in the same boat." 

The druid's weak attempt at returning a smile provides Orianna the courage to continue to speak. "Still, it's a beautiful day out today. Why don't we all meet up on the main floor and then grab some ice cream from the cafeteria across the street? It could be fun to walk around and explore the campus a bit more."

This time, the curvature of Sage's lips seem natural and genuine. Her hands clasp together across her slight form and her head bobs up and down enthusiastically. 

The others can't help but grin. As excited they are to continue playing, they can't help but rejoice at the prospect of a new friend even more.

All five players logout of Towers & Tieflings, sure that things will be smooth sailing from here on out.

If only that were the case.

~~~

Word count: 2127

Total word count: 12083

T&T Handbook: 

Console - an object that video games are played on, excluding a computer, i.e. Playstation, XBox

Stats - the statistics or numbers that detail how strong a video game character is, in various categories such as strength or health 

VR - an abbreviation for virtual reality

Anything I miss? Let me know and I'll add it in!