Of Gnomes, Orcs & App Design

The weekend rolled around again, and I had a plan.

Not the brightest plan, not the most thought-out plan - but it was mine, and hopefully I would have the guts to stick with it.

It wasn’t every day that a girl got to test the waters with a guy in a way that would give her such a perfect excuse to pretend she wasn’t actually interested if things went south.

‘Am I really hoping things go well? I mean this is Andrei!’

I was too curious though, not to push. Too curious to leave things as is. I took a long look at the list of spells on my character sheet, my eye snagging on one in particular.

‘I can do this.’

Xxx

Gavak was a firm believer that fishing was the most boring form of hunting in existence.

It was probably created by people who checked for traps when entering dungeons, filed their taxes on time, and said words like ‘indubitably’.

If he had the choice, he would go his entire life without fishing. Unfortunately, he didn’t have that option.

This was totally unfair.

So he spent their weekly provisions budget on magic beans - how was he supposed to know it was a scam? The seller even gave him a certificate with a signature at the bottom by some Gerald guy. He couldn’t think of a more official name than Gerald.

‘This is torture,’ He thought to himself.

Here he was, stuck on a riverbank, trying to catch dinner, and the only thing he had managed to catch so far was a cold. His boredom was growing by the minute.

“Gavak?”

He was never happier to hear Sassa’s voice.

The little witch approached his fishing spot, wearing a new cloak she bought at the market the other day. The fabric was a deep purple, and it had stars sewn into the edges with a silver thread. She was also wearing her hair down today. Gavak thought it looked better in its usual braids, but the cloak was a nice change.

“Good, you’re here. Listen, I need a favor.” She said, stopping by his empty fish bucket.

Her eyes lingered on it for a moment. “Wow, you’re really bad at this,”

“It’s unnatural. You’re not supposed to wait for your prey to come to you,”

Surprisingly, the words seemed to resonate with her.

“I agree. If you want something in life you should be active about it,”

A look of determination crossed her face.

“If you don’t, it’ll slip through your fingers and you’ll only have yourself to blame,”

Gavak listened to the witch’s fervent speech, feeling utterly lost.

“You wouldn’t want to look back and wonder what could have happened if you were only a little braver. A little more vulnerable and persistent,”

“Yes, totally.” Gavak said, still having no clue what she was on about. “I always think about these things when I fish,”

“Do you?”

Gavak got the distinct impression that her question was loaded with some sort of hidden meaning. ‘Crap,’ he thought. He cleared his throat and tried to ignore her intense gaze.

“What was that favor you needed?”

Sassa kept looking at him intently for a moment, but eventually her expression returned to normal and he felt he could breathe again.

“I’m practicing a charm spell that influences a person’s behavior based on their wisdom,”

She seemed nervous all of a sudden, twirling a lock of red hair between her fingers.

“I’m very wisdomous,” Gavak said encouragingly when no more was forthcoming.

“Right. Well, I need someone to practice on. I thought I would ask you - if you don’t mind that is. It doesn’t hurt or anything. If it works, it’ll just make you like me better,”

“But I already like you.” Gavak said, confused.

Sassa’s cheeks turned red. Her eyes flitted back to the fish bucket and stayed there this time.

“I like you too, Gavak. But, uh, It’ll make you like me more. This spell will be really handy when I need to convince someone of something,”

Gavak thought the little witch was wasting her time. He didn’t know many people who needed convincing when threatened with fireballs. But he wanted to be supportive, so he allowed her to continue.

“Basically what I would like to try and do is to convince you of something that you would normally disagree with. Sound good?”

He nodded, and Sassa readied her staff. She swirled it in a small, almost unnoticeable circle, and for a moment it was surrounded by reddish light. Then she whispered something into the cold winter air.

“Ok, tell me something you believe in. Or even just an opinion you have about something. Doesn’t matter what,”

Gavak tried to think of something, but found himself distracted by the witch’s eyes instead. He’d never noticed before, but when she cast spells they almost seemed to glow.

“Gavak?”

“Yeah, um, let me think…”

A gentle wind blew in from the mountain range overlooking the riverbank and played with her hair. He was wrong before. He liked her better with her hair down afterall. She looked almost ethereal.

“Sleep is for the weak?” He said, already unsure if he believed his own words.

“Without sleep you would be too exhausted to fight the next day,”

“Of course, that makes sense.”

Sassa beamed, smiling from ear to ear. ‘Adorable’ Gavak thought.

“Let’s try another, what else do you believe?”

“I believe…”

He closed his eyes, hoping it would help his concentration, but it did the opposite. His mind was full of Sassa. Sassa with her cute button nose, and her tiny waist, and her big, beautiful eyes and -

“I believe,” He repeated after clearing his throat. “That your spell is working,”

Xxx

I leaned against the window sill during our short break from the game. The view outside was unremarkable, but I wasn’t looking at anything in particular. In fact, I’d been staring at a random point in the distance for the past two minutes.

When Andrei said ‘But I already like you’ - in character or not - I think my heart stopped.

My brain kept replaying the words over and over with frustrating clarity. And then, because clearly that wasn’t enough, it also added to the cue that line about not waiting for the prey to come to you. Only it took creative freedom and the end result was far from innocent.

To make everything worse - I didn’t even know if he said what he said as Gavak, or if it was some hint to me that he was interested.

My own stupid plan had completely backfired on me.

I peeked over my shoulder at the table where he still sat, holding a mug of hot tea, and found myself hyper-fixating on his hand. The mug looked tiny in it.

My breath caught in my throat when he noticed my gaze. I immediately turned back to the window.

This was an awful, awful plan.

Xxx

For the next week, I did my utmost best to focus on my work and nothing but my work. I didn’t allow my eyes to wander far from my computer screen, and ate my lunch with the girls from the neighboring studio.

I also took frequent trips to the coffee place directly under our main studio.

“Did something happen?”

The voice belonged to Mr. Miller, though he was nowhere in sight. At least until I turned my eyes up to the balcony that extended from his rarely-used office. He was wearing a cozy sweater and wiping his glasses, which were damp from the rain. I pretended I didn’t see him..

“God?” I asked, looking around.

He sighed, unknowingly pulling a perfect Kevin. I guess that look wasn’t reserved just for Dungeon Masters.

“Yes, it is I,” he said in a booming, dramatic tone. Then his voice returned to normal.

“Did something happen?”

“Aren’t you omniscient?”

“Is it about…” he started, ignoring my question and glancing around inconspicuously.

“William is out,” I assured him.

“He was so butthurt over a comment Nikita made earlier - maybe he’s off getting some ointment for it.”

Mr. Miller laughed, then caught himself.

“Right. Just, let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

The offer warmed my heart. I really did get lucky landing such a good boss for my first qualified role. I nodded.

“Thanks, I will.”

With a smile, he popped back into the office.

I started making my way up the steps when the person I was doing my best to avoid all week exited the studio, on the phone with someone.

A girl.

I tried to not look obvious as I slowed my pace to pick up on the conversation. They were both speaking Russian - because of course they were.

Something the girl said made Andrei laugh. I didn’t have a clue who she was - but presently, I was hating her guts.

I was really banking on this being like that cliche in romance novels where the protagonist finds out that all along her crush was really talking to his grandma. Only, as he finished the call, the face that flashed on his screen was that of a beautiful blonde.

He noticed me looking.

“Forgot my wallet at the coffee place,”

I hoped it was a believable excuse for why I had gradually descended the steps instead of going up.

“Your sister?” I asked, trying to make it sound as innocent and as nonchalant as I could.

“No,”

And without elaborating, the bastard entered the building, leaving me alone with my thoughts.