“Work?” Lazul asks, a brow raised.
“Work. At Hardee’s. I make burgers.” And season them with my tears because it is oh-so-terribly-hot in the kitchen, the outdoors offer no relief, and my boss said if he finds me sobbing in the freezer one more time, I’m fired.
So.
Yeah.
Hopefully no one with low-sodium needs orders while I’m on grill.
Being outstandingly dehydrated on the regular probably means my tears are nothing but salt crystals tumbling down my cheeks.
Consternation—an emotion I’m certain I’ve never seen reflected in Lazul’s in-game blue eyes—crosses his face. “Hard…E’s? Are you certain you’re in the right place?” Sorrow overtakes his expression. “I’ve yet to assess much of the flood’s impact on the surrounding communities since the waters have only just receded well enough for us to begin reconstruction. Are you perhaps from Amecrest? I would have thought the city on the hill to be spared from the worst of the storm, but if you were traveling…” He glances toward my backpack straps. “…it’s not impossible that you would have washed up here.”
My gaze skims beyond this glade, toward a world torn apart. Divots where water must have rushed like rivers cut into the roll of hills ahead. Trees sliced into splinters lay askew, some uprooted fully and keeled on their sides. It’s hauntingly akin to aVale of Gemsforage area, where the player can collect resources. That is…it would be familiar if WonderGlass—the single-person developer behind the game—had decided not to reuse a single sprite. Nothing repeats. Everything is clear and…devastating.
But, you know what?
It’s leaps and bounds better than a Hardee’s kitchen above the grill during a Florida summer.
“This is Gem Ridge?” I ask.
Lazul beams. “Yes! The lovely jewel of…” His attention lands on the same felled trees, brush, and debris that I’m looking at. “Well…what once was the lovely jewel of the Obsidian Kingdom. We are on the coattails of a natural disaster.”
“The storm,” I whisper.
Now that my head is clearing, it’s unmistakable.
I havefinallyobtained myVale of Gemsdream!
Will to live renewed, I sit tight, awaiting the lines I have burned into the back of my brain…the lines that lead me into theearly game.
Lazul frees a breath, seeming defeated, as he unwittingly obliges. “Yes. The storm. I’m glad you remember it. The Ridge could use a lot of help after this past week. The accommodations I have available aren’t…in the best conditions…but if you’re willing to contribute to the community, I’m sure we can work something out. We could really use another able body right now.”
My heart pounds.
Gentle, Lazul extends his hand to me. “Who knows? Maybe once we’ve recovered from the wreckage, you’ll even grow to like it here.”
As my pale, lightly freckled hand comes into view to take his, I know one thing’s for sure.
I’m gonna dread waking up.
Chapter 1
Beats Florida.
Top-down gameplay does not do the sheer size of Gem Ridge justice. The entire trek through town, I’m gaping—at the architecture, the cobblestone, the streetlamps filled with mounted gems…at the mud, the water damage, the murky linethat goes several feet up some buildings.
The entire picture is horrifying up close and so much more vivid than any other dream I’ve ever had. Probably because this isthedream. The one I’ve been desperate for ever since I started my first farm and fell in love five years ago…
Tramping around a forest bend, I hold my breath as the weathered farm signpost comes into view. The sheer vast display beyond it leaves me breathless.
Top-down gameplay, repetitive sprites, and maybe the kind dev’s interest in not overwhelming their poor players did not capture the destruction.
At all.
The land before me rolls on and on, down and down at a comfortable slant, which isn’t severe enough to allow me to see the ocean I know from myVale of Gemsmindmap rests dead ahead, west of the farm.
Trees lay in splintered heaps. Branches stick up out of slush. Rocks larger than furniture rest scattered among weeping grass taller than I am.
