Lady Ru's story

As I promised yesterday, here is Part 1 of my fiction story about my gaming character Lady Ru.

Lady Ru's Story, pt 1

As another scream echoed throughout the house, the man turned white and almost fell into the chair behind him. “How much longer will she have to suffer?” he groaned. His friend poured wine into two goblets as he replied, “Not much longer now, by the sound of things, Josha. This will soon be over and you will…” His voice trailed off as he listened intently. Josha jumped to his feet, knocking over the wine as another wail filled the room. He grabbed his friend in relief and joy. “It is over,” he cried, “Markam, it is finally over!”

Markam pushed his friend back into the chair, “Yes, my lord, now have a glass of wine and catch your breath.” Turning to the table he noticed the spilled goblets, shook his head in mild amusement and went to the bell to ring for the servants to come clean up the mess. As he poured more wine, a young woman entered the room. Nodding her head in the local gesture of respect she spoke to Josha.

“My Lord, your wife, Lady Bethan is resting well. She is weak but will recover swiftly.” she said softly. “You now have a beautiful daughter. The child is strong and healthy.”

Josha jumped up again and shouted, “Markam! I have a daughter! I am finally a father!”

“Congratulations, Josha! I know how you and Bethen have suffered through the past three stillborns. You will be a wonderful father.” Markam said as he pushed the glass of wine into his friend’s hand. “Drink this and then you can go up and see your wife and daughter.”

Several hours later, Josha was finally able to be alone with his wife and child. Bethan was still pale from her two day labor, but she was radiant with joy. “I was afraid to hope this one would live,” she said quietly as she looked at the sleeping infant in her arms, “Have you thought of any names, Josha?”

Josha considered for a moment, then replied, “I was planning Jothan for a boy, and Bethsha for a girl, but the night before you went into labor, I had a very strange dream. In it, a person of glowing light told me that if this child survived the birthing, that I was to choose the name Ru.”

Bethan looked confused. “Ru? What kind of a name is that? It sounds very odd.”
“I know,” Josha said pensively, “But I have a feeling that we should name her that.” He looked at the child as she slept in her mother’s arms, “It seems to fit her somehow though.”

Bethan looked at Josha, then back to the child. “Yes, we shall call her Ru. It does fit her.” As Bethan finally started to fall asleep, she murmured, “I love you Josha, and I love our little Ru.”

****

part 2 will be coming soon.

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Online Games and Fiction

I have alway enjoyed games and puzzles. I remember when I was a child we had an Nintendo system. I spent many hours playing games. My favorite type were the role playing games, or RPGs for short. Creating my character, doing quests and earning levels, it was always so much fun. One game I will never forget is Ghost Lion. This was a simple style RPG, but what made it so memorable was it was the only game I ever played with my father. Dad and I spent hours trying to figure out what to do next, and where the next part of the puzzle was. Mom played too, but that game was mostly just me and my dad.

So, it only follows then that when I got a computer, I would play PC versions of the same type of games. Then came internet, and my choices of games got even larger. I came across an RPG game called The 4th Coming, or T4C for short. Now, I will review that game in detail one day soon but for now I want to go in another direction.

This was a multiplayer game, and I met many people there. Quite a few are still friends today, in fact that is where I met my boyfriend, Ducky. This post, however relates to another player. A man who went by the name Raist Justice. He turned out to be a writer, and has written an 8 book series based on this game with the 9th book in progress. The greatest part of his stories is the fact that the books are self contained. You don't need to really know anything about the game to understand and enjoy the story. He included player characters in his tales though and I was honored to have my game name and character included.

In honor of his stories, I decided one day, after months of his asking, to finally write a short story explaining my characters history. My story starts with the birth of my character Lady Ru, and continues up to the point where she was included into the Brimstone stories of Raist Justice.

His stories begin far before my character had been born, so my short tale doesn't begin to even cover the depth of his work. But it does allow those that knew me to see how my character began. I will end this post here for today, as it is getting long, but tomorrow I will post the first part of Lady Ru's story for your reading pleasure.

Remember, this story was my first attempt to ever write fiction, so it may not be very good. All comments will be welcome, so please, whether you hate it or love it or anything in between, please let me know.

And if you are interested in reading the Brimstone stories by Raist Justice, you can begin reading them here, Brimstone, Book 1.

Everywhere and Anywhere

There is no place in the world that is better than inside the pages of a good book. Opening the cover, you can have breakfast in the Old Wild West, eat your lunch with Merlin in Avalon, have dinner at a Renaissance Ball, and fall asleep on a starship sometime in the future. You can go anywhere you wish, even to places that may not really exist.

I began reading at a young age, so I have no memories of not being able to read. During my life I have gone though some horrible experiences and without the escape into books, I don’t think I would have made it through with my sanity intact. During the worst times I would choose books that had happy endings, this built hope that I would make it though my trouble. Putting myself into the place of the main character, experiencing the challenges they endured, and seeing that no matter how bad things got for them, they always managed to pull through and live happily ever after; bolstered my courage and increased my emotional endurance.

Each book has its own appeal. There may be pictures or artwork on the cover, the title may be writing in a fancy font, the thickness and heft of the book. Just holding the book in my hands, the promise of events and travel, the new characters to meet and get to know and to travel with them on their journey. Every book promises something new and different.

Opening the book brings varied experiences: The crisp, fresh scent of a new book, the stiffness of the unread pages, the crackle of the spine bending for the first time. Or, alternatively, the musty smell of an old, much loved book; the soft, dog-eared pages, turned lovingly, many times while revisiting old friends; the broken spine, automatically falling open to favorite parts of the story. Every book takes you somewhere you may have never been able to go otherwise.

I take these journeys whenever possible. Whether it be curled up in bed with a bowl of chips, sitting on the couch with a cold drink, or relaxing in a steaming hot bubble bath, there is almost no place I can be that forbids sending my mind and soul out into the wonders of a book. I read on trips, in waiting rooms, just about anyplace where I can sit and have five or more minutes to spare.

There are very few things I refuse to read, namely westerns and mysteries. Those two genres seem to be written more for a male specific audience and I find it difficult to immerse myself into a book of predominately battle scenes, or stay focused enough to be analyzing the story to pick out clues as I read.

As I am now functionally disabled and primarily housebound, books have become even more important to me. It can get boring sitting at home, unable to go anywhere, but having the ability to open a book, I can instantly be anywhere I wish. This week I have explored an undiscovered cavern, traveled to other planets, learned about sea turtles, flown on the back of a dragon, been knighted, and walked beside Princess Di, to name a few things.

I couldn’t imagine not having the world, even the universe open to me. Without books this world would be very limited. Pick one up and open the cover, within a minute you could be anywhere and everywhere you wish. What is your choice? Come with me and learn about Mars. We will lose ourselves discovering the Americas, or we can go hang out with the Vikings tonight. Open a book and let your soul and mind fly.

Puppies, Dogs and So Much More

I have been spending the last few days talking to you about some serious thoughts I have been having. So I think today I will lighten it up a bit and tell you about a great game I play.

Virtual Pups is a free online simulated dog game. I love this game because there is so much to do. I am not a big fan of games where you have set goals and have to do things in certain orders. Virtual Pups is limited only by your imagination. And best of all it is free. As soon as you create an account you can buy dogs, bet on events, make new friends in the chat or the forum.

Virtual Pups is a game that can be enjoyed by an adult or a child, so is a good way for families to share an interest. There are well over 100 breeds of dogs to choose from, so you have a chance to own the dog of your dreams.

What can you do? How do you play? Well, I can tell you right off there is nothing to download. This game is completely browser based, so if you can look at a web page, you can play this game. As for what you can do, oh there is so much possible. You can become the owner of a boarding kennel, try to become one of the best trainers available, event your dog in a wide range of competitions, or simply try to breed the best dog of your choice. You could try to get a dog with the highest stats, or work to make it true to life, or make it the best in another way.

Pedigrees are provided on every dogs page, you can trace their blood line all the way back to the original dog they came from. If you want to start from the very beginning, you can import or buy a foundation dog, normally called a foundie or import. This is a dog that was computer created, it has base stats, so you can pick and choose what to train it in or what stats to improve.

Or if you don't want to start that way, you can buy or rescue a regular dog. This type has parents listed on it's page and has a bloodline record. Some of these dogs have already been improved with selective breeding to improve certain stats, or breed to a color, or whatever the breeder's goal was.

You can play Virtual Pups for free, with no payment ever. But if you are at all like me, you will eventually choose the sponsor option. This gives you added benefits, like a dedicated kennel type with a different bonus for each type. Unlimited turns, so you can play as long as you wish each day. There are many benefits to 'sponsoring up', as I call it. Not the least of which, it helps to pay for the game to continue running.

But I don't have any extra money for this? Ah, but here is the nice thing. Many people will sell sponsors, or upgraded kennels to other players for game money or in game services. I got my first sponsor by training dogs. A player that had some extra cash, but was short on time, paid me for training a certain number of dogs to their needs, by upgrading my kennel to a sponsor. This was great. I got my sponsor upgrade, they got their dogs trained, and the owner still got the cash for the upgrade purchase to keep the game going. Everyone wins in that way.

Can I win the game? Well, yes and no. There are no set goals to the game, so it is not possible to win the game and be done with it. But, yes in the manner that you accomplish the goals you set out to do, that could be considered winning. The great thing about that is, you can simply choose another goal to work to, and the game can be played indefinitely.

I love Virtual Pups. It has allowed me to own, breed and event my favorite breed, and I am currently working on breeding the best dog ever in my chosen breed. I have 5 sponsors now, one of each type available, and I have spent very little real money in acquiring them. All but one were purchased from other players with game money or services.

So, if you are looking for a family oriented game, without all the violence and profanity so common these day. If you always wanted a dog but have allergies or no space or any other situations where you can't have one. If you want just one dog or a few hundred, this is the game for you.

Head on over to Virtual Pups, create your account, name your kennel and take the first steps into the world where dogs are everything. There is much information, tips and tricks in the forums; in chat, there are other players willing to help you get started, to answer any questions you may have.

Come and join me there, there is so much we can do.