Side By Side, We Ride

It began as a vaguely heard, intriguing sound coming through the tiny speaker of my phone. Curious, I had to ask my new long-distance love interest, “What are you doing?” I heard a roar and a clanking sound and tried hard to imagine what was making it. “Playing my game.” Came the response in his soft, sexy voice. Oh, he tried to describe it. He tried to tell me about the game that drew him away from the dreariness of the mundane world. But mere words could not adequately describe a game that had captivated him since its beginning.

It wasn’t until many months later that we were finally together in our mundane world and I heard the fateful words reach my skeptic ears, “You can create a character on my account and see if you like it.” And so, late one night, as my love labored at work, I tentatively approached the game’s icon on my computer screen. Immediately I was captured within the swelling crescendos of blood-stirring music. It wasn’t long before I was logging into the elegant training grounds of Sunstrider Isle. My first steps were electrifying as I found myself surrounded by a world that quickly claimed me as one of its own, with an awed “Whoa!“and waves of goosebumps. As my skills and confidence grew, I ventured forth into a war-torn world. It was not long before I realized that I must have this in my mundane life.

Having gained a convert, my love and I continued our journey together. In the mundane world, as well as the war-torn lands besieged during the Burning Crusade, the Wrath of the Lich King, and the Mists of Pandaria. Side by side, we pulled on gauntlets, flung on our cloaks, and loosened our swords for battle. I became Maigrey, The Dragons of Shadow Guild mistress, he became Stryken, my most trusted Second. Together, our computers side by side, we fought, sometimes through the long, dark nights into the first smoke-filled haze of morn. Many lives have we lived in Azeroth. Many battles have we fought. Many lands have we fought and died for, only to rise to fight again. We revisted lands, found new characters, each one with a personality. Each one became distinct, became a hero in their own right. We wrote page after page of their stories together and discussed their challenges and triumphs. We found ourselves unwinding with the sounds of battle and pounding of drums, even when the mundane things seemed dire. Now we are happily married in this mundane world, and a tried and true virtual duo of destruction.