Author's Note: This story is purely fictional.
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Chapter 1
The forest is a roaring inferno. Smoke fills the air and the heat of the raging fires is oppressive. The dragon swoops down for another low pass, snapping its jaw at the Barbarian, who narrowly dives to safety. He throws an axe at the monster, which goes wide, sticking into a nearby tree. Then, a bolt of lightning strikes the beast square in its chest, bringing it to the ground. It lets out a deafening roar, as its head snaps towards its attacker, the bloody and weary Wizard. It grins wickedly, and makes a dive for him, snapping its gargantuan jaws. It fails, as it's suddenly knocked off its feet by the Druid, in the form of a mighty Triceratops, who charges the dragon fiercely to protect her friend. The dragon gets up, and clamps its jaws on the suddenly appearing dinosaur. It lifts the hefty creature easily, before slamming it back to the ground with an earthshaking thud that almost knocks everyone off their feet. The Druid reverts to her previous elven form, unconscious and bleeding into the dirt.
The party's Cleric sprints through the blaze, trying to get closer to their friends. They raise their holy icon, beginning to cast a healing spell, when the dragon spots them. It swings its tail with devastating force, taking the Cleric off their feet and pinning their limp body against the ground. The party is in disarray, heavily wounded, and several on the verge of death.
The Paladin, Roderick Sunshield, charges forward bravely, shouting to draw the beast's attention. It turns and swipes its mighty claw at him, narrowly missing. Then it brings the other slamming towards the ground. The holy knight barely evades, continuing to close the distance between him and the monster. He draws his sword back, invoking a silent prayer, channelling all the divine might he has left within his blade to smite the creature, and lunges forward...
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"...With that, the dragon lets out a choked roar of agony, as your blade pierces through its scales, driving deep into its flesh." Deborah said dramatically, acting out the actions she described with her hands for additional emphasis. The five players around the table watched her, enraptured. "It glares at you, Luke, its eyes bulging with rage and fear. It thrashes and whips its body away from you, then, you see its jaw open. Orange light glows from within, and just before it's about to unleash a torrent of flame upon you... the light... snuffs out. The dragon's eyes roll back into its skull, and it crashes to the ground before you. A moment of silence passes... and then another... as the wyrm, lies dead..." Deborah finished with a smile, delivering her improvised speech with appropriate dramatic flair.
The table erupted in cheers. Luke, who's character had just landed the killing blow, slumped back in his chair, letting out a long sigh of relief. To his left, Anna and Megan hugged and cheered, while to his right, Eric and Tom high fived and pumped their fists into the air. Eric turned, patting Luke on the back hard.
"That was amazing, oh my god!" Eric yelled, rattling Luke's body with each firm slap on his friend's back. "I can't believe you ended it with a critical hit, we needed that so badly!" Megan said excitedly. She turned to Deborah who was beaming at her players, getting immense satisfaction from their enjoyment. "If Luke hadn't gotten a critical hit just then, would that have even killed it?" She asked. Deborah smirked, glancing down at her notes and arranging them.
"It only had twenty-one hit points left on that last attack, so I'm pretty sure Luke couldn't have killed it without the crit at the end there. And if he hadn't, the dragon had its fire breath waiting in the wings..." She explained, receiving another round of gasps and groans from her players.
"Shit, that would've been it for all of us. I would have died anyway. I only had three points left." Tom said.
The next few minutes were spent with everyone coming down from the incredible high of winning their intense make believe battle. Luke was blown away by how deeply enthralled they would become in these gaming sessions. Before working on his current job, he had never played a tabletop game like this. That was until he met Deborah Ann Woll. Luke had met and befriended Deborah and the others while working on the crew of a television pilot. They had begun playing together at Deborah's suggestion, (as she often excitedly tried to get several of the cast and crew to play), and even once the pilot project was done, their little adventuring party all still played together regularly. And Luke wouldn't miss the games for anything. Not only was Deborah a phenomenal, creative Game Master, but over time he had developed a strong attraction for the beautiful actress.
Sometimes he caught himself watching her across the table, acting out the characters they met or narrating the passage of the story, and would be totally swept up in her passion and enthusiasm. And if their eyes met in those moments, he swore he noticed a tiny smirk appear on her lips, making his heart skip a beat.
After these gaming sessions, he would sometimes hang around, and they would chat for ages about work, life, hopes, fears, anything and everything. And thoughts of her lasted even long after. Playing together had established a strong bond between them. Though he wondered sometimes if his crush on her was completely one sided. In recent weeks, he had felt something when they were alone together. A tension that hadn't been present before. There were lingering glances and accidental touches that made one another blush and shift in their seats uncomfortably. There was something hanging over the pair that neither dared to voice, though thankfully, no-one else in the group seemed to notice.
Anna looked at her phone and frowned. It was almost 9:30pm. They had been playing for nearly four hours.
"Oh shoot, I didn't realise how late it was." She said, the southern twang in her voice slipping out as she spoke. "I'm gonna have to head off, I've got work early tomorrow." She explained.
"I'm sorry, that last fight got a bit out of hand and I didn't want to pause in the middle of it. I would have ended just before the battle started if I'd known it would take so long." Deborah said apologetically.
"Oh it's fine Deb, it was great!" Anna replied reassuringly. "Anyone else need a ride home?" She offered, quickly stuffing her phone into her shoulder bag as she stood up from the table. Tom raised his hand.
"If you don't mind." Tom said.
"Sure thing, your place is on my way."
"We need to get going too babe." Megan said to Eric. The couple stood and Eric turned to Luke.
"You need a ride Luke?" He asked. Luke smiled warmly.
"No thanks man, I drove."
"Alright, good seeing you." The friends each exchanged goodbyes with one another, before Deborah walked them to the door. Luke began to tidy up the table while Deborah saw off the guests. After he heard two cars drive away outside, she returned.
"And then there were two." She said, brushing some loose hair behind her ear. "Oh, thanks, you didn't have to, if you need to go too I'll sort all this stuff out." She said, moving over the table and joining him in clearing things away. Luke smiled.
"Oh, no it's fine, I'm in no rush, and I'd feel bad leaving you to do all this. You already put in all the effort with the game and stuff." He said, picking up various matching dice and putting them in a little drawstring bag. Deborah smiled.
