Lost Kingdoms

There are many stories, and many possibilities, but stories are never told when there is no chance of a happy ending. This is a story of a real girl, and a real boy whose love could not be realized, without the help of a tragic event that would scar them both. In a world where fantasy becomes reality our "hero's" face obstacles in their world and the real world.

"Going in!" A male voice rings out through the murmuring of a crowd.

"Wait for everyone!" An annoyed female voice follows.

"Draw its agro quick!" Another mans voice rings out as a clash of steel is heard.

"Protect Diana!" The annoyed female's voice calls out.

"Watch it!" A softer voice squeaks out followed by a ringing spell effect.

"Hail of arrows is ready let's take it down!" Another male voice rang out excitedly.

It was just another day and another raid for the group of five who always played Lost Kingdoms together. They don't remember how they met; they just kind of stuck together after. This was not just your average MMO, not it was one people spent their savings on trying to get a spot in the top twenty guilds. This little band of friends had made their way up into the top ten guilds of their favorite game, and they couldn't be happier.

"We can do it!" Their tank called out before the Naga boss slammed its tail onto his shield.

"Just keep the defense up we've got this!" The female mage called out lightning spitting from her fingertips.

"Keep up the DPS we need to make sure we kill him first!" The fighter, and leader of their group called out twin swords drawn and hacking at the lower part of the Naga's tail.

The archer was not far behind, his quiver loosing arrows fast. "I've got entangle soon, just keep it occupied!"

A circle appeared around the tanks feet as a woman's voice could be heard chanting. "O'Spirits of the earth grant thy power. Stone Skin!" She called out as the Tanks body hardened under his shield.

"Diana! You're a life saver!" He called out, his shield pushing up in an attempt to knock the Naga King over for a quick victory.

"Do it quick! That spell is new I can't keep it up for long." Diana was a shy girl, and this was her way of making friends and coming out of her shell. Her hands were up in front of her one with fingers in front of her lips, and another outstretched towards Randal, their tank, so the shield would stay on him.

"Leon quick! Take it down!" Randal shouted once the Naga fell over with a loud cry.

A barrage of arrows sprung down around the Naga entangling it in a web of nets. "Got it finally!"

"Nice shot Ace! We can finish it off now." Leon called pulling both swords behind his back. "Miranda do it now!"

"On it!" Miranda called out her staff holding high in the air "Lightning Strike!" She called out the lightning shooting from the tip to wrap around Leon's sword.

"Go!" The other four called out in unison as Leon dashed at the Naga jumping onto Randal's shield to propel himself into the air a loud battle cry leaving his lips as he sliced downward through the skull of the Naga king.

All five members of the group stood shocked, their models breathing heavily and badly wounded. After a loud yell from the Naga King his body turned to stone and slowly began to discinigrate in the wind. Once his body was completely gone a huge "Congratulations" appeared on their screens. After a brief pause all five members began cheering. Diana and Miranda hugged each other tightly as the other three gave out their high fives.

"First group to beat this fucker!" Randal called out slamming his shield on the ground beating his chest in triumph.

"That'll boost our points for sure!" Ace called out running to see what loot dropped.

"We've already moved up because of our last raid, this will definitely put us in a better spot." Leon said looking over towards Miranda and Diana.

"Great job with that spell. I don't think Randal would have been able to keep it up if it wasn't for the stone skin." Miranda said swaying her way over towards the others.

Diana smiled shaking her head as her fingers tapped together nervously. "That's not true, he was doing fine."

All four of them looked at her and laughed, it was little Diana that brought them all together. Lunar's Eye was formed because of her. Diana was the strongest healer in the game, and many of the strongest guilds were after her from the start. Diana though only had eyes for the band of friends she had been playing with since she started, and from then on their guild grew.

"Check it out!" Ace called out holding a staff in his hand.

"Don't tell me!" Miranda yelled running towards him.

"Medusa's staff." Leon said silently his mouth dropping.

All of them ran over towards Ace now, while he was using his last inspection scroll. The Naga King had a chance to drop a rare staff that could be for either a healer or mage. The mage staff would allow the user to turn someone into stone with any spell, for a healer the staff was sought after because with a healing spell any status alignment would be cured. After a few moments Ace's eyes went wide as he looked towards Diana.

"You were strong before." Holding out the staff to her he grinned from ear to ear. "You're even stronger now."

"Damn it" Miranda sulked before smiling. "You're already getting offers into the top three guilds! You really will get offers now."

Diana took hold of the staff her eyes wide with excitement. "I can't believe it. I never get a rare drop."

It was true; she normally had to buy her gear off the auction house because Healer drops were so rare. Today was truly a day she would remember.

"Congrats - You'll go far with that, I don't think there's a stronger staff out there." Leon patted Diana's head softly and her model instantly blushed.

"Come on let's get out of here, it's late and they'll be doing the move ups soon." Randal called out picking up the gold and other loot they'd sell off.

It didn't take long for the group to leave the dungeon, once they were outside there was another party waiting to take their place. Leon led the group with Ace, Miranda, and Diana in the middle, Randal taking up the rear. In this world you always protected the healer and mage at all cost. The fact that Diana was now carrying a legendary staff would prove that their PVP rate went up, but it also meant they'd win more of their fights.

"Look who's here." A sinister voice rang out from the hills, a man in black armor came walking out followed by four other members all dressed in black. It was another guild, one that was higher up on the list then Lunar's Eye. Black Horizon, while they were part of the top twenty guilds many opposed it because they did illegal operations on the side.

"Good evening Sigal." Leon said with a smile. "You'll have to wait for this dungeon to reset, we've already beat it."

A little known fact about Lunar's Eye. They called call each other by their "Real Life" names because they were so close, but they each had their in game personas. Leon was known as Reinheart the leader of Lunar's Eye. Randal was known as Stonehedge the second best tank in the game. Ace was Littlefoot the quickest ranger in the land. Miranda was Blackwidow a mage to be feared. Then there was little Diana known as Serenity which shocked no one because of her healing powers.

Sigal was obviously upset by the statement and just shook his head. "Leave it to these pests to be the first ones here."

"It's not our fault we like to keep things punctual." Ace called out standing over near Leon.

"Please let's not fight.." Diana said her hands locked together in front of her.

"The sissy healer doesn't want to fight, go figure." A tall dark haired woman called out with a tilt of her head.

Leon smiled over towards Diana and waved his hand. "It's late let's get going the announcement will be soon." With that Lunar's eye moved away from Black Horizon and made their way towards the announcement plaza to wait for the upcoming guild ranks.

Every month each guild is evaluated and given a rank. So far the ranks can be from one to one hundred, of course the lower the number the better the guild. Every guild of Lost Kingdoms has been fighting for months to be ranked in the top twenty. It was announced half a year ago that the top twenty guilds would be able to win an all expense paid trip to the creator's private island for a chance to play the new expansion for the game. Lunar's Eye has been working hard since then, and has worked their way up from number fifty-five to number four. The announcement plaza was already abuzz with every guild in the MMO. Each having their own section to sit at, and many guilds having more then the allotted five party members. While some guilds were big, it didn't mean they were the best. The top five guilds were made up of only five member teams. Lunar's Eye was no different, five noobs meeting up randomly and becoming friends was all they needed and they never offered anyone else a space in the guild. Throughout the two years of playing together the players got to know each other outside of the game. While they had never met in person because of distance, it was not rare for them to call each other or text each other when not in game.

The two closest were Diana and Miranda who actually went to the same school together. Diana was a chubby girl who didn't now how to react towards anything. While Miranda was a tall good looking girl who took the stage whenever she could. The two became close friends in game and outside of game once they figured out they both went to the same school. An unlikely pair who showed that differences normally made for better friendships. Miranda was also one of the only people Diana could confide in. It was obvious for a very long time to Miranda that Diana had feelings for the leader of the guild, and finally confronted the shy chubby girl. Once the cat was out of the bag Miranda did everything she could to try and get the overly dense Leon to notice.

"Shouldn't be too much longer now." Leon said as he sat down under the Lunar's Eye canopy.

"We should move up just from that raid alone, not to mention the other three." Ace stated plopping down next to Leon.

"We cleared the other three better than any of the other guilds did." Randal said with a loud clang of his shield being set down.

The two girls took their seats at the back of the canopy, this way their backs were to the wall and the others could easily protect them. It was no secret that many people wanted either Diana or Miranda out of the picture, though while most wanted Miranda dead because of her power, the others wanted Diana because she could heal better then even the highest level NPC's. Diana never spoke much, and when she did she stuttered often and tapped her fingers on anything she could reach, her legs, her staff, and even other fingers. Miranda on the other hand was often hated for winning her duels with ease and making sure everyone k new of her victory. Leon had tried to stop the girl from boasting, but that was damn near impossible. Leon really only wanted to protect Diana since she was the one who hated fighting the most. Well it's not that Diana hated fighting, she hated fighting other players - PvP was not her thing. It wasn't long after everyone was seated that the circle stage lit up and guild names began pouring out of it. Of course the names would only stay hovering over the circle if you were in the top ten. The ceremony usually took about twenty minutes for all the names to appear but this time it was different. Ten names appeared in order from one to ten, these were the names of the top ten guilds in the game. Jumping up Ace looked quickly at all the names, after a moment his head turned tears streaming from his eyes.

"We did it!" He called out jumping out at Randal and Leon his arms wrapping around them best they could.

"Did what!?" Miranda screamed moving to the three of them her eyes darting over the names.

Leon was laughing his head shaking slightly "I can't believe it." He said turned towards Diana who seemed utterly confused. "Number two!" He motioned to Diana before walking up to her, his hand quickly going to her head for a quick pat.

It was then the other people in the audience gasped at what was going on. Ten names became twenty and the creator of the game could be heard. The room became silent when he coughed into the microphone his avatar appearing in front of the top twenty guilds.

"Congratulations to the top twenty guilds. I have mentioned before that the top twenty guilds would have a wonderful prize." With a wave of his hand the names disappeared and an island was now being displayed.

"This is my private island. I have spent years and a fortune making this island an exact replica of our beloved game." He stopped talking a moment letting everything sink in as players cheered, and clapped in awe.

"If you are a member in the lucky top twenty guilds, you will have an item in your guild bank. This item will give you an access code and a number to call once you log out. It will confirm your plane ticket to the island." As he spoke pictures of what he was explaining appeared on the screen behind him. A model player opened the guild bank and held a small crystal above their head before pretending to dial a phone number, and get on a plane.

"I look forward to seeing you all on the island. Everything is already paid for; once you arrive on the island you will be brought to your guild house. Further instructions and information will be given there. See you all in a week." With a graceful bow and a sinister grin his avatar disappeared.

It wasn't long before everyone started to run back to their own guild houses to get their prize. This was a chance in a lifetime and every player in the world had tried for it, if you did not make it there was no turning back. This game would never be just a game anymore for the players of the top twenty guilds for soon the game would be their life.

*****