Ana

CH 1

The young man sat hunched over his keyboard with a look of intensity etched on his face. The biggest battle of the year was about to begin and there were still a dozen details to work out. Thank god Ana was helping get this monstrosity of a raid organized, otherwise he would have gone crazy by now.

Laid out on the screen before him was a sight not often seen in this game world, an army so vast it was surely straining the game server. They were all waiting for him to give the command to attack. Many other guilds had tried to capture the large foreboding castle that was carved out of the sheer face of the mountain but all attempts had ended with costly defeats. Today would be different. This army may very well be the biggest ever assembled since the start of the game, but Tom wasn't counting on numbers alone. He had stacked all of the most experienced fighters on the left flank while the main force was to attack the right. This would draw most of the defenders away from the real assault. The plan was for his smaller, elite group to break through quickly and head straight to the throne room to kill the opposing leader and capture the fort before the defenders could regroup.

Finally, he and Ana agreed all the combat groups were set up as well as they could be. He looked to his side at her sitting proudly on her warhorse in full epic armor and felt his excitement peaking. Together, they were the most respected and feared players on the battle field, and for good reason. They had not lost a battle in over a year. He smiled at her then raised his longsword into the air and, with a blast of lighting, led the assault on the lower defenses.

***

Tom tried to ignore the loud beeping sound at first that announced the arrival of 5:00 am but when that failed, his hand shot out to hit the snooze button. It was Saturday morning, but he dimly remembered that he had to visit a site today. He had been gaming only four hours ago and the memories of the battle were still very vivid in his mind.  He closed his eyes again, just for a moment to revist the thrill of winning that great fight.

Again the harsh sound of his alarm clock drew him out of his thoughts. He rolled over and turned off the alarm. Still in a sleepy haze, he paused a while before sitting up. He looked about the room trying to make out the objects in the dim light coming from his window. The weather report said It's going to be a scorcher today so he better get this done before noon if he didn't want to fry. The summer heat in Texas was not to be taken lightly. Tom dressed with effort and went in to the kitchen to make a cup of desperately needed coffee. Caffeine was a daily vitamin for computer gamers like Tom. His current gaming addiction was called Crossed Swords. It was a fantasy game where he and his guild mates fought other players for control of huge keeps and fortifications.

 Like the rest of his apartment, the kitchen was Spartan. He believed in keeping life simple and his material passions to the bare minimum. The only expensive thing he owned was his computer and that was only because he needed a powerful machine to play the kind of games he liked.

The coffee was helping now and his thoughts were a bit clearer. The down side of that was now he remembered he had ditched his girlfriend, Naomi, to play last night. He was sure that would come back to haunt him today. It was really bad timing that she had wanted him to take her clubbing when he had already promised the guild that he would lead a raid to take a major keep. He grinned. They had over two hundred people show up for the battle last night and had kicked some serious ass. There had been a bit of drama at the start but after that, everything went as planned. Luckily, Ana had helped him get everyone settled down and organized and the final push into the main chamber had been spectacular. It had come down to him and his reserve of ten or so best fighters to kill the last of the hard set defenders. They had all been pretty stoked after that win.

He poured one more cup of coffee before turning his thoughts to work. One of Tom's new clients needed him to make a rush inspection of a property they were trying to close on. He wished people wouldn't wait until the last minute to check for environmental issues but they always did. It was all a big rush by the time he got involved and then no one was happy to see him if he did find evidence of contamination.