Chapter 1: The Rude Awakening
The sky blinked. That should’ve been his first clue.
Leo felt a searing pain rip through his back, a sensation so raw and vivid it jolted his consciousness into sharp focus. He was lying on a massive, circular stone platform, the rock cold and unforgiving beneath him. The air, thick with the scent of blood and something wild, filled his lungs. Towering trees, their leaves a strange shade of crimson, formed a dense canopy overhead, their branches clawing at a sky that held three moons.
Three moons?
His brain lagged, trying to process the impossible sight. It felt like a dream, but the pain was too real, too insistent. A moment ago, he was Leo, a college student pulling an all-nighter. Now… now he was here.
A voice, cold as ice yet smooth as silk, cut through his confusion. “He’s awake.”
Leo craned his neck, ignoring the fiery protest from his back. A woman stood over him, her silhouette framed by the alien moonlight. She was tall, impossibly graceful, with long, silver hair that seemed to drink in the lunar glow. Her ears tapered to elegant points, and her eyes… her eyes were a piercing, luminous red that seemed to see right through him. She wore exquisite leather armor, a longbow slung over her shoulder, every inch of her radiating an aura of command and deadly competence.
She was a Stellari. An elf.
And she was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Even with her brow furrowed in irritation.
“Took you long enough, Bloodhawk,” she said, her voice laced with impatience. “Do you have any idea the trouble you’ve caused?”
Bloodhawk? Is she talking to me?
Leo tried to sit up, a gasp escaping his lips as the pain intensified. He glanced down at himself. His hands were pale and slender, his body leaner, more athletic than his own. He was clad in the same kind of intricate leather armor as the woman. He was one of them.
Man, the AI in this dream is next-level… The detail was insane. From the texture of the stone to the intricate carvings on the woman’s pauldrons, everything was rendered with impossible clarity.
“This new virtual reality gear is worth every penny,” he muttered to himself, a wry grin touching his lips despite the agony. “But the pain synchronization is a bit much. Gotta dock a star for that.”
The woman’s sharp ears twitched. “What did you just say?”
“I said,” Leo said, forcing himself to his feet and trying to sound casual, “that this welcome party is a bit over the top. Did you have to be so rough? I’m a paying customer, you know.”
Her crimson eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. The temperature around them seemed to drop several degrees. “Customer? What foolishness are you babbling about now, Bloodhawk? Have you finally lost your mind to the Essence-Thirst?”
Leo’s brain short-circuited. Bloodhawk. She keeps calling me that. And Essence-Thirst? Sounds like a debuff. He decided to play along. This was the most immersive game he’d ever experienced.
“Alright, alright, I get it. Role-playing. My bad,” he said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Lead the way, Commander. Let’s go get that assignment. Gotta grind that reputation, right?”
He winked.
The woman, Selena Windshade, Commander of the Shadow Rangers, simply stared. Her expression was a mixture of disbelief and profound, simmering anger. The other Stellari rangers around the platform exchanged uneasy glances, shuffling their feet and avoiding their commander’s gaze.
“You… think this is a game?” Selena’s voice was dangerously low.
“Well, yeah,” Leo replied, gesturing to the fantastical scenery. “A hyper-realistic one, for sure. Seriously, the graphics are insane. You guys did an amazing job. But can we maybe tone down the realism? My back feels like it’s on fire.”
For a long moment, there was only silence, broken by the chirping of unseen creatures in the crimson forest.
Then, Selena moved. Faster than thought, she closed the distance between them, her hand flashing out to grip his throat. Her strength was terrifying. She lifted him effortlessly, his feet dangling inches off the ground. The air was crushed from his lungs, and the game-like haze in his mind shattered.
The pain was real. The grip was real. The cold fury in her eyes was devastatingly real.
“Listen to me, you useless fool,” she snarled, her voice a venomous whisper. “I don’t know what shadows have claimed your sanity, but you will pull yourself together. We are at war with the Dreadclaw Trollkin. Men are dying. And you are a Shadow Ranger of Starcrest. You will act like it, or I will put an arrow through your heart myself and leave your corpse to the scavengers. Do you understand me?”
Fear, cold and absolute, washed over Leo. This wasn’t a game. This wasn’t a dream.
This was real.
And his world cracked—a truth he wasn’t ready for.
