Embrace your Wanderlust with a Game that Takes you on an Adventurous Ride!
“Aah, I can’t do this anymore,'' Sam said with irritation. It had been a rough few days since his father passed away. Nothing seemed to be going right. For a 17-year-old boy who recently lost his father, Sam had every right to be irritated. Sam and his dad had gone for a week-long trek through the Jungle of Ostricha, infamous for a tribe of cannibals who reigned over the forest.
It was the third day of the father and son’s adventure, when Sam woke up only to find his dad missing. It didn’t take him long to realise what could have happened. There were marks that looked like a human body was dragged through the bushes. Sam followed a protocol they had already decided, and rushed all his way back home. He knew he had no other option but to run.
Sam was never a bright student. And after what he had been through, his performance at school was considerably poor. Sam had lost his mother right after he was born, and now he didn’t have his dad either, who’d push him to go to the school. That’s when he decided to drop out of the high-school. Honestly, Sam never found the classes interesting anyway.
If anything, the boy was good with imagination. He was scolded at school and at home, most of the time because he was found day-dreaming instead of the work at hand. “Real world is boring” Sam always felt. And then, the one thing that always came to his rescue was video games.
Sam would never miss an opportunity to play video games. Normally, most of his time was spent at school and at helping dad with his work. Even after doing the work, Sam couldn’t enjoy the games to the fullest because he was afraid of being caught by his dad. But in the unexpected turns of events that had taken place, Sam had all the time in the world to play his entire collection of video games. When he finished them, he borrowed more games from his friends.
Sam played all kinds of games, but his favorite genre was adventure. He really enjoyed the feeling of being a knight in shining armor. The feeling of being better than everyone else.
The feeling he never got in the ‘boring real life’ as he called it. But all good things must come to an end, and even Sam’s borrowed collection of video games was soon finished.
Out of boredom, and to see the sunlight, Sam thought he might as well visit the nearby rustic playground where he used to play as a kid. It was afternoon, but he felt tired and sleepy. Video games take a lot of energy after all, both mental and physical. Sam lied down on his favorite bench at the playground. It was under the shade of a giant tree, which made it a perfect spot to rest during the day. Sam often came here to day-dream.
The scent of wild chamomiles filled the air, and Sam wondered where it came from. He wondered where all those huge trees and plants came from. He also wondered why it was so dark out there. But the place looked familiar. Sam wondered if he had been there before.
All his questions came to a halt when he heard cacophonic screams and sound of branches being broken. Sam then wondered who was roaring so loudly at this quiet, peaceful place. Unlike other times in his life, Sam immediately got the answer. A big, ugly, hairy creature was heading straight at him, destroying everything that came in its way.
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Sam’s dad had told him what to do at such times. RUN! And Sam followed his father’s advice to the word. He had no time to wonder why was he in a dark forest with a hairy monster chasing him. He could contemplate upon that later. For now, he should concentrate only on one thing, the RUN!
Whenever that creature came closer, Sam felt a strange pain. He felt like he was burning in a volcano and drowning at the bottom of the ocean at the same time. He felt like his body was disintegrating into individual cells. He felt something was being drawn out of his body. That unbearable, unimaginable pain meant only one thing, his soul was being ripped off. Sam knew because he had played a video game where the bad witch did sorcery on the good guy to take his soul out of his body.
There was only one way to stop this from happening. Sam had to run harder. Run faster. He lost track of time. It felt like he was running since the beginning of the universe. Sam was exhausted beyond limits. Yet, slowing down meant death of the soul. Stopping was a luxury he could not afford. The hairy, soul-thirsty creature was just behind him. And then, Sam saw a ray of light. It was literally a ray of hope. The dark forest seemed to have an end somewhere.
Sam collapsed. He didn’t have the energy to even breathe. Motionless, he passed out on the edge of the dark forest like a dead man. But, he was not dead. The hairy creature could not get him outside the dark forest.
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“I’m Hika, the genie princess and the protector of the hidden castle.” The girl with wings was smiling. “And who would you be? What is your clan? I have never seen your kind before. Are you a monster?” she asked in her gentle, comforting voice.
“What! No I’m not a monster. I am a human. I don’t know how I ended up here. What is this place? Who are you? Why am I here?” Sam was obviously panicked. Without saying a word, the beautiful princess drew a bottle of some magic potion from thin air and put a few drops onto Sam’s scars. And in an instant, it was like there never were any scars.
“I am not a monster,” Sam repeated, “But I was chased by one before I came here. That ugly creature was about to kill me. I passed out after crossing a dark forest, and somehow ended up in your castle. Who are you, by the way, with your glowing wings and magic potion? Are you a fairy, Princess Hika?”
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Hika just smiled to his question, and continued, “That monster is called Karago, he is the guard of the dark forest. He eats the soul of anyone who tries to cross the forest. No one has ever crossed that jungle and reached this place before you. This is the hidden castle.”
Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Hika continued, “You should now relax. We will have all the time in the world for our discussions. Because no one ever leaves the hidden castle once they enter it.” She gave him another potion to drink, and Sam fell asleep in no time.
He jumped out of his sleep in panic when Sam felt a strange touch on his face. To his relief, it was only a leaf of the tree whose shadow he was enjoying all afternoon long. It was already dusk, and Sam had a wonderful nap at the playground. “Thankfully, it was just a dream,” he uttered with a sigh. Days passed, but he couldn’t forget that experience. It felt so real. And for the first time in his life, real did not feel ‘boring’ to Sam. He didn’t have any other dream after that day.
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Exactly a month later, sitting on the same bench in his playground, Sam was surprised to see an app on his phone. An app unlike anything he had seen before. Little did he know of the adventures that lay before him when he opened the app and selected the option.
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