“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”


    - Neil Gaiman -Welcome to the world of TantaMount, where your dreams are always tantalizingly close.


    On first glance, TantaMount is nothing special. You create your avatar, pick a name, choose your affiliations, play a bit with your stats, and off you go. Standard stuff. But what really sets it apart was the world itself, a sprawling landscape with three gigantic mountains, each more massive than the next, and all that was keeping you from them was a mount (be it bird or dragon) that could fly you high enough to reach the summit of each and begin the journey. And let me tell you, those summits were nothing to scoff at.


    Each of the three mountains had a temple near the base of it, with each of them containing pieces of the three parts of a song you would need to create in order to tame the creatures that could lead you up the mountains. The amount of rewards collected would affect the three pieces of the song: the rhythm, the melody, and the soul. No one had ever collected all of the pieces from any dungeon, but the rhythm would affect the strength of the bird''s flight, the melody its gracefulness in movement, and the soul its willingness to risk it all for its companion.


    There were five total tiers of power for these birds, the first being companion, the second being ally, and the third, fourth, and fifth tiers being needed to climb their respective associated mountain summits. Now in theory, you could either start with a lower tier and gradually grow it with resources through the tiers with parts of the song that you get from the temples, instead of saving them to create a song that would lure a stronger, much more mature companion to guide you to the summits. Most veteran players employed these tactics to advance through the game quickly, taking any shortcuts available to get through the temples and gather as many parts of the song as they could to reach the mountain summits.


    Call me a purist, a completionist, or maybe just a downright moron, and you might not be wrong on any accounts. But for me, the mountains were an eventuality, not an immediate quest. I was happy to wander the quiet, peaceful plains, explore the rustic, intricately designed little villages, and slowly meander through the three temples with my best virtual friend and journey companion Clipse.


    Right, Clipse. How does one describe a mute (but trust me, never silent) companion that has walked the face of a planet with you, thrown themselves in front of killing blows for you, slashed open the throats of your enemies, but also nonchalantly act as a virtual pillow on the nights where things got so real that you just couldn''t handle everything going on?


    real.


    Meanwhile.


    “This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


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    burn


    everyone


    Doesn''t mean I don''t hate him on occasion though.


    “


    Duel initiated


    Things were going swimmingly, as expected.


    Meanwhile...


    and


    Meanwhile^2...


    Ender and Sabriel arrived to the town of Erso roughly around the same time to meet up with Blank, but were immediately slammed with rumors and speculation of a major duel the next morning between the mayor''s son and some idiot named Blank. They''d heard about the glove but didn''t know what it meant, as apparently Dono didn''t either.


    The reasons for said offense cascaded through my brain, but we couldn''t afford any holdups, and I just wanted to see if my theory about Sarai held any weight. Desperate times, etcetera, etcetera.


    To review classical dueling technique I had him go back and watch the episode Shindig from Firefly, where the proper techniques were clearly put on display. No Inara for him to bat his pretty eyelashes at, but we had to start somewhere.


    Well then.


    Mighty fine shindig.


    Time was so pressing in real life and my mind was still processing everything that had happened, but all I could think was: “Get em, Dono”.


    And let me tell you, my brother from another did not disappoint.


    Starting gun popped and within a heartbeat he was flowing like a river on something special, moved in close with a feigned left and popped a right shot to the head and a low body blow with the left afterward.


    “To the death, Dono!” I shouted at him, knowing he was cat-playing his opponent. “You owe me for Marle!”.


    Something in his eyes changed, and I knew I''d gotten through to him. I would launch into Marle and all that, but things were over so quickly I barely had time to even think about it.


    enraged


    Mission complete.


    So there we all are, bearing witness to the destruction before us. Out of left field comes a call from an unknown party:


    Was the gist of it anyway. We''d later learn what happened and trust me, it wasn''t pretty.