I lashed out into the air where I thought he might be. I missed but felt something brush me on my right, so I swung my leg around and made contact. Cora shouted “viz the man quick”. The grass on the ground suddenly went flat, where the man must have landed, so I ran and went to jump on him. He moved out the way, and I landed on the ground. Cora ran over and swung her staff around in the air, trying to hit him. Finally one of them did, and we re focused our attack. Suddenly the man came in to view. He was quite old, but was very agile. Even though we could see him, he came at us.

“That was a tough fight,” I said to Cora. As we awoke from our sleep. “It was close,” Cora said “but at least you’ve gone up a level now”. I heard someone shout out, 80 in 50! “Come on” she said to me “still plenty to kill”.

“What is it” I heard someone shout, and they weren’t the only one’s wanting to know. I look around to see Foz, Zordell and Cloud, all using their magic to try and find out what it was. “Is it something small, like a firefly?” Cora suggested. She was obviously feeling out of place without magic. I don’t think she is used to not having magic for very long at all. Zordell made some magical gestures, and said “all dead”. I sat quietly to one side. I didn’t know even half the mobiles in the land, so there was no point in me making any suggestions. There was only 10 minutes left and everyone was getting edgy. “I saw a skeleton a while back, but I suppose that’s been killed,” I said quietly. Foz looked at Cloud. Cloud looked at Zordell. Zordell looked at Foz. All three of them made magical gestures and shouted in unison “the skeleton1” They started running. They forgot to tell me where they were going, so I just followed. I found myself at the rapids once more. The place looked packed out, and someone said “ok, Wdi, summon it” Suddenly next to me appeared this tall skeleton, and everyone jumped on it. Seconds later it was dead, and this sudden relief hit me, like the whole world was rid of evil. I also noticed myself going up to the next level, superhero. I looked around for Cora, or anyone I knew, but I couldn’t see them, so I decided to go wandering off on my own for a while.

I found myself in a dense part of the forest. I could still here people cheering in the distance. I sat down next to a tree. “Your doing quite well you know” a voice said in my head. I was about to say thank you, when I realised who the voice belong to. That man in the tearoom, the same one that was called Cat the wizard. It was his voice! “Why am I here?” I asked out loud “why have I been brought here against my will”. “Oh come on” he said, “you can’t say that you prefer that game to this one”. “What are you on about?” I asked. “Your previous game” answered the voice “where you just came from, it isn’t as good as this one, well I don’t think so, what do you think?” I went silent. “What are you trying to tell me” I finally said “that my whole life on Earth was just a game? I can’t believe that.” “Didn’t you know?” asked the voice concerned “well then I should explain. The life you knew on Earth, is the first game that was created, long long ago. The elders back then wanted somewhere to be creative, and so developed a game where they could see a race of people, which they made into there own image. This game was called Earth. They would come along and change the world, adapting it. After a while, the people on that world found out what was going on, and refused to, and so the elders left the world to develop on its own. They moved on to other places, and other games, developing them differently, adding the idea of resets, and point scoring. There are many games going on now, but this is the latest game the elders have created. To this world they brought the idea of becoming a wizz, so that they can focus on developing other things, rather then looking after the world themselves. I thought that everyone on Earth knew of the elders.”

I tried to take this all in. “You still haven’t told me, why am I here” I asked. Cat replied “We wanted to see, if someone from Earth, could handle life here. We wanted to know if they are ready to resume the game.” I was in a state of shock; everything felt num, cold. I said “You’ve left it to long. The time of magic, and monsters, has long passed. We have a new magic, called technology. Let me go back, I don’t belong here, everything here, is totally different from my world.” “But you’ve adapted so well” Cat replied “and besides, we can’t send you back.” It took me a while to realise what he just said. “You can’t send me back?” I said slowly, stunned. “It was a one way trip, there is no way back to your world, unless you become a wizard yourself of course, I suppose then you might be able to go back”. It all became quite clear to me then. “So the only way to leave this game, is to play, and win. How long could it take, how long before I could become a wizard.” “It depends. Some people just enjoy playing and don’t try for wizard. Others try to understand it. Most spend all their time trying to become a wizz but never achieve it. Very few make it.” There was nothing left to say. I now know why I’m here, and I know how to get back. There was only one thing left to do; and that’s to play it their way, and win. The reset was over, and the new one, was about to begin.

Will our hero be able to do what few people can? Can he trust this wizard? He has lied before - could he be lying now? And if he is, then he deserves a jolly good slap on the wrist! Find out how this news will effect our hero, in the next, thrilling episode of …………

Rocko’s (not so modern) mud life!