Chapter 3: A Lesson In Death

Aria stood standing in front of the mirror in her mouse-hole, admiring her new flower that she just bought at the Shop. She had finally managed to earn 50 cheeses and spent them all on this flower. However, she did not regret the choice. She figured she looked better with the bow. Less noobish definitely.

Aria exited her hole, wearing her flower. She was launched immediately into another Game. Aria commited suicide immediately. She was exhausted, having played all day without taking a single break. Her muscles were sore and her bones were aching. She relaxed into the peaceful limbo of death. For strange reasons, she found Death okay, except for the fact that she had to bear with the stinging pain of the acidic water for a short while when she died.

As soon as a new round started, Aria left the room and re-entered another one. The room was labelled 801. The first thing that struck Aria as surprising was that there was no timer in this room. She figured that some rooms were like that, and they served special purposes other than gathering cheese.

There were three mice in the Room. Two were standing stock still (Their names in holographic letters above their heads were Elise and Papaille); Aria wondered if they were there at all. She remembered vaguely that these two mice were Moderators and that they weren't really in their bodies half the time. They played the game in another mouse form. This form was only something like a look-out post.

The remaining mouse was moving. Aria stared at the floating glowing blue letters above her head and made out the name "Melibellule".

Melibellule...the name sounded vaguely familiar to Aria. Normally, Aria didn't remember the names of mice, only their appearances and accessories. However, she could swear she heard 'Melibellule' somewhere before.

"Hi," Melibellule greeted her. Startled, Aria quickly returned the greeting and asked, "Who are you?"

Melibellule looked surprised, "You don't know me? I am the creator of this Game, along with Tigrounette. I'm in charge of design of the game. I created you. Well, your appearance at least." 

Aria was stupefied. She couldn't belief she was really that dumb. She felt like slapping herself! How could she have forgotten who Melibellule was?! Melibellule and Tigrounette's posters were pasted at the entrance of every mouse-hole.

"I'm so stupid!" Aria exclaimed, "I'm really sorry! It just slipped my mind who you were just now! You know what? I'm your biggest fan! You and Tigrounette are so cool!" 

Melibellule laughed at that, "You seem to be an enthusiastic little mouse. How long have you been playing?" 

Aria blushed; she wished she was better at playing so that she won't be embarrasing herself in front of Tigrounette. " 'Bout a month," she told the Mouse-God (Melibellule and Tigrounette were gods in her opinion). 

Melibellule nodded knowingly, "You aren't very experienced then, aren't you?" Aria shook her head, "I'm a real noob. The Shamans used to troll me a lot, I mean I'm new and everything right so they like to pick on the noobs..." She started blabbering, in all her nervousness and trailed off as she realised Melibellule wasn't listening.

For a moment, the Mouse-God looked thoughtful, "I can teach you, Aria, how to play this game. If you want to, that is. All the tricks, all the skills, everything." 

Stunned, Aria stammered, "M-m-me? B-but why me? I mean there are a lot of other mice that are better than me at this game, like the Mods. I barely even gathered 100 cheese." 

Melibellule smiled warmly, "I can't deny that there are a lot of pro-mice, but most of them aren't half as enthusiastic as you. What Tigrounette and I need now is mice with attitude, not just skill. Most of the pro-mice just care about cheese. Cheese, cheese, all they think about is cheese! Do you think we want mice like that?"

Aria frowned, "You need me? For what? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to help; but I'm not good at anything in particular. I don't think I'll be much help to the two of you."

"We'll see about that. You are quite an extraordinary little mouse," Melibellule said, "As to why we need your help, that's not important. Not right now, at least. So, do you want me to teach you?"

"Of course!" Aria exclaimed. She didn't know what mouse that would reject this offer.

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A few minutes later, Aria found herself standing in front of a wooden wall Melibellule had summoned from nowhere. The Mouse-God said creating objects out of nowhere was a special power of her's. She had a tablet, a small touch-screened device that on which, whatever she drew came to life in this map.

Such as this wall.

"You have a minute to climb it," Melibellule instructed Aria, "We'll start simple, then we'll move on to scaling this thing in 50, 40, 30, 20, then finally 10 seconds."

10 seconds! Aria thought that was going to be impossible for her. She couldn't even wall-jump at all, let alone within a time limit. Yet, she didn't want to disappoint Melibellule, so she launched herself at the wall.

Once she collided with the wall, she twisted around and back again. Her paws came in contact with the wooden surface and she propelled herself upwards. She twisted, but turned back a second too late, missed the wall and crashed to the ground.

"Ow," Aria complained, picking herself up. "Try again," Melibellule encouraged her, "Don't worry if you don't succeed at first. It takes most mice months to master wall-jumping."

Aria tried a few more times, but did even worse due to her increasing weariness. She slid down from the wall and collasped on the floor. "I can't do this," she said to the wall, half closing her eyes.

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the silence of the room. Followed by a loud splash. Aria sprang up at once. Melibellule was nowhere to be seen.

"Melibellule?" she called tentatively. There was no reply.

The timer in the empty room ticked to a halt. The map changed but the wall Melibellue drew was still there. Melibellule appeared again; her eyes were wide with shock.

At that moment, Aria saw it. There was a third mouse in the room.

A Shaman. Instead of having blue markings on his body, the markings on this Shaman's fur were red. And he had no name. There were not holographic blue letters hovering above his head.

Terror shot through Aria like a jolt of electricity. Keep calm, keep calm, whatever you do don't panic, she told herself. It was hard not to panic, especially since Melibellule, the Mouse-God, looked like she was freaking out too.

For a while, there was complete silence. Then, the Red Shaman spoke. The words he said were mangled by a guttural snarl. Aria could only make out the words, "Kill you...this time."

Which didn't sound too good to her so she ran. She dug her nails into the wooden floor and ran, pushing herself forward ferociously. Aria didn't understand why she was so terrified. She had already gotten used to dying. She had died many times before. However, some part of her told her that when this Red Shaman said kill, it meant more than just falling into acidic waters and getting resurrected two minutes later.

"Aria, look out!" Melibellule's panicked cry reached her ears. Aria whipped around and saw a canonball flying straight at her. She jumped and the canonball missed her by inches. The Shaman growled and stalked towards her, step by step.

"Help me!" Aria shrieked at Melibellule, "Kill him!"

Melibellule's voice seemed to be growing further and further away, "Can't...I'm frozen...You must get rid of the Shaman yourself...the only way..." The Mouse-God faded away.

Aria could smell the Shaman's rancid breath as he got closer to her. She could feel liquid, thick flowing liquid soaking into her fur. She could smell blood, more blood. Her nostrils were clogged up witht he scent of blood. She was covered with blood.

She gazed into the Shaman's glowing red eyes. Every ounce of energy seeped from her body. Every last hope drop of hope drained from her body. She felt herself go limp. No, must fight back, can't die, she thought depserately, Melibellule needs me.

At thought of Melibellule, the fading hope inside her abruptly sparked to life. Melibellule needs me, she thought again. "Melibellule needs me!" she cried out loud.

Aria discovered that she wasn't covered with blood, and neither was the Shaman anywhere close to her. In fact, the blood red mouse was standing a distance away, looking rather startled at her sudden exclaimation. But in the next instant, he recovered and launched a canonball at Aria.

Swiftly, Aria jumped and landed directly in front of the Shaman, such that the Shaman could not canon her without canoning himself. The Shaman moved forward and she mimicked him. The Shaman roared in frustration and lunged at her. Aria dodged and the Shaman missed. "Hah!" she taunted him, "Can't catch me, you stupid Sham!"

The Shaman seemed to have lost all his patience at that point. He summoned a canonball and launched it.

Aria was taken by surprise. She didn't realise the Shaman would kill himelf in order to kill her. The canonball slammed into her and the Shaman with full force. She felt herself soar backwards. This was the end of her!

Something that felt like wood brushed her paws. Aria grasped it at once. She managed to hold on to that thing while the Shaman was flew away. The red creature disappeared in a flurry of bubbles, along with the canonball.

Aria realised what she was holding on to. It was a wooden plank that was several metres off the ground. It hadn't been there a second ago. There was only one explanation for this. Melibellule leapt down from the wooden platform above and landed lightly on the wooden plank.

Aria suddenly realised that the timer had stopped a long time ago. She didn't understand how they could still move and the game playing on the map could still go on. She didn't understand the whole series of events that had happened a few minutes ago. She didn't understand anything.

Melibellule, upon seeing the confused look on Aria's face, sighed. "I see that we have just met one of the Hacker's Minions."