How exciting is it to read deleted scenes from a novel and try to guess why they never made the cut?

Like, super exciting, of course.

Have fun!

This scene is from the Character Point of View of Sebastian

(Copyrighted)

I followed after them hoping that they would clue me into how to find a flaming sword. If they fought in this world a lot maybe they had seen it. They led me out of the creepy forest into a town with really fake walls. I could tell that whoever made this game wasn’t the same person who created “The Flying Falcon.” These graphics were trashy in comparison. I started asking about swords and upgrades, and was directed toward a secret merchant.

He was flirting with a woman carrying a loom on her shoulder. It was so large I wondered how it stayed there. The loom was nearly half the lady’s height just like the length of her braided blond hair.

(see the other sniper- the mean one) (When I want to come back to a spot later, I often use notes like this.)

(facing off with the other sniper, moving the light to see.)

“I bet he’s rich.” The sniper said trying to goad her. I was betting that the girl with the braided hair was secretly Millie.

“It’s not the money that makes the man, but rather the man that makes the money,” Millie answered.

“I bet he’s rugged and manly,” the sniper continued.

“What a man thinketh in his heart so he is.”

“I bet his kisses make your toes tingle.”

Millie smiled. Did she not have a retort for that?

“I’d have to be able to feel them first,” Millie answered.

“I bet his hands build the bridges of your heart.”

Now they were just getting poetic.

“Heart bridges are built with oyster crackers and lemon sticks.”

“We’ll see you soon,” the man told her. Had I missed something? Where they speaking code? What kind of soon was this? Was she just talking with a sniper? I didn’t get the chance to ask because she left the game.

This scene is deleted from the same original chapter 19 that has seen significant changes since then.

The ground was soft and mossy underfoot. I walked toward the only visible light in the jungle area heading off the beaten path. I could hear the sounds of frogs chirping, and I expected to find a pond. The trees were dense overhead and were created with that unrealistic realism where the textures were only pictures. It worked in a place like this where the leaves and foliage were as high as my shoulders. The creator of this place couldn’t very well make everything look super real when it was so crowded.

The glowing that I was walking toward was a combination of torches that created its own pathway. There were two unlit torches in the center on metal poles. Beside them were blue lightening bugs in orbs atop wooden poles. They created the eerie light making the dark green around me look foreboding. I reached for a bug torch with a large tug, and slipped in mud which was a sensation in this game that momentarily left me woozy with how realistic the fall was. I pulled myself up using the pole wondering where I would find a flaming sword.

“Nice try. I think they only move if you happen to be wearing wizard robes and have a funny hat. Have you seen yourself yet? You’re missing both,” a girl’s voice told me. I tried to locate the voice in the darkness. I could hear the soft steps of a person in the forest coming straight toward me. I didn’t know if this was part of the game or what, so I took a few steps back.

“How do I get wondrous wizard garb?” I asked.

“You could try buying it from a wizard,” the girl replied. I saw her then. She appeared in the light of the blue orbs, and I got words flashing across my screen telling me that the character was overtaken. But overtaken by whom? She looked like a tree turned person. She had brown wooden arms and green leafy hair. Her torso was a wooden trunk and her legs were tree roots. The girl had a face pressed into the tree that was hard and gnarly. Someone was surfing and taking over a tree nymph.

“Have you seen yourself yet?” I asked the nymph.

“Well it’s better than the jogger outfit. At least my layers match.”

Millie! Her bark hardened into a horrible version of a grin that put a smile on my face in an instant.

“I think instead of a wizard, I’m going to turn into a tree hugger.”

I ran to get closer to her and give her hug. She was just as hard as the tree looked, and her tree branch arms creaked when she moved. She laughed at them as she tried to hug me back, and then gave up because she had branches for fingers and was liable to stab me. I wondered if she was supposed to be something scary that I was to run into later.

“I brought you a hat,” Millie told me. “There’s one stuck on my head. You’ll want to grab the sword too. I’m not an expert, but I think the sword lights up if you run it though the glow bugs.”

“Is it the flaming sword?” I asked Millie. I looked up at the trunk of her toward her branches of hair trying to see the hat. I couldn’t see anything yet, so I stepped on her face to give me a boost and started climbing.

“You know you’re stepping on me,” Millie laughed.

Her laugh was weird and hallow. Yes, I think I was supposed to be scared of the tree nymph, but I couldn’t be when it was Millie. I located the hat and laughed at it. I expected a wizard hat, tall and pointy. Instead I had a hat that was floppy and long with stripes and polka dots. I wondered if I could sell this hat and get a new one later. I put on the hat and climbed through the branches to reach the sword. It was a broadsword large and flat. I tugged it out of a branch expecting it to be heavy, but my character hefted the weight without a problem.

“You know those words that boss you around?” Millie asked me. “I’ve got get going now.”

“Make sure you split like a tree and ground those roots first,” I told her, backing up again as I climbed down. I didn’t want that tree trying to stab me after I had taken the hat and sword for free. Millie backed away from the light of the torches singing about being a jolly good fellow as she went. She had just made my day.

I followed the torches through the forest pausing every now and then when I heard other sounds that were not mine. With the spotty blue light every sound was creepy and haunted. A baby bear jumped out at me, and I stabbed my sword into it on instinct. The bear vanished from view making me wonder if the tree nymph would do the same thing when struck, or if my sword would get stuck in it. I could never tell when worlds weren’t real.

A man dressed as a pirate was next to jump into my limited view. Three golden teeth gleamed at me as he pulled up a battle ax to tear me down. I raised my sword to block him, but before he could do more than swing, his character vanished as if he had been hit from behind. I looked around trying to make out what else was out there lurking in the dark. Whatever it was, I hoped it wasn’t following me.

I heard a few more thuds happen around me, a very eerie chuckle, and a wild scream. I tried running, only to realize that my characters stats had not been upgraded, and I couldn’t run more than a fast walk. Where were magical speed boots when I wanted some?  I was forced to move along at a crawling pace. A skinny half man in a loin cloth dropped down on top of my head. My hat created a shield against his blow with his wooden club. I raised it to block the next strike, amused that the man’s wooden club never got dented when my sword deflected the blows.

A blue flash to my right distracted me, and my character flashed red as the club hit me once. I blocked, trying not to get distracted by the blue flashes that kept heading my way. I didn’t have magic. I would have to deal with that when it got here. A flash of white magic hit my clubbed opponent on the arm, and he vanished from view. I raised my sword to try my luck at blocking magic as two wizards appeared beside me. They held their battle circling around me as if I was the cause of their rage. Neither one spoke to the other, and I was so slow that the only thing I could do was continue to creep forward. Had I the flaming sword already? I tested out Millie’s theory running the sword through one of the blue orbs I was following. The swords burst into blue flames. One of the wizards lunged at me, and I cut him down with my weapon. The other wizard gave me a nod and folded back into the scenery. That had to be Will. Thanks Will. Thanks Millie. Why wasn’t my avatar as upgraded as that? I kept a firm grip on the sword, and proceeded to the nearest town on the map where I could destroy it.