Night came before the group could get off the mountain. Although Lazarus had recovered somewhat, they still moved slowly taking in the foreign land. It was more 'savage' the word came to Valentine's mind unbidden. That was the only way to describe this realm, he thought. Everything was larger, rougher and coloured in weird hues. It was cold too, so very cold that that the three Heroes had worn thick cloaks to stay warm. They did not notice Lazarus still shivered under his thick furs.

Anya and Tania's fur had lengthened, growing thicker and more luxurious to adapt to their new surroundings. Xico kept his feathers puffed up to trap air and body heat when he was not in the air. No wonder the orcs wore minimal clothing when they were in their realm. With weather like this, it must have been hot for them.

Now, the group sat huddled around a small campfire.

Valentine ran a hand through his blond locks. There was no known cure. What a mess. "Laz ..." he begun.

"Don't worry about it." The assassins' brows knitted together as he tried to wrap his head around the information. His eyes wandered to Anya. "I'll find another way ... I have to."

"But the whole point of us coming here was to find a cure. Now they tell us there is none? It makes no sense," Constantine threw his hands up in the air dramatically.

"There must be another way or Simtrixx would not have allowed this, right?" Lazarus' confident rationalisation conflicted with his insecure tone. He was losing hope. The Assassin bowed his head in despair. "We must be missing something."

Constantine hit Valentine on his shoulder and jerked his head towards Lazarus. Valentine made a face at the warlock and shrugged helplessly. He too was devastated. If Lazarus did not play anymore, he too would not feel like playing either and Tania ... Tania would face the same fate as Anya. She would fade away and be deleted by the system after a while. He had come to realise this earlier.

"But of course, my friend! Why else would the sneaky game put this, errmm, quest in? It must be like a hidden quest, yes? To find a cure for the incurable, ahh, it will make us Heroes to remember!" Constantine waved his hands about getting excited by his own deductions. "We will achieve the impossible. We will cure you and the little prince. Our names will go down in Orc Wars' history foreverrrrr!!"

Valentine rolled his eyes but took up the argument almost desperately. "A secret quest? Yes, Laz, that must be it!" He was clutching at straws, anything remotely logical to shed some hope to this impossible situation.

Lazarus looked up dejectedly. "You guys think so?"

"Anything is possible, especially in MMORPGs, you know that!" Valentine continued warming up to the idea. "Hey, you thought my awesomely stupendous badass Orb Trial was impossible ... but you did it, right?" He nudged Constantine. "All it takes is a different perspective to the problem."

"Yes, yes and mine too. My Trial was a badder ass than his. All of you died there ..." his cajoling tone turned boastful as he recalled watching his friends yelling in terror and fighting for their lives against all the horrors he had so carefully laid out. "... so many times, yes I am a definitely badder ass than you." He nodded proudly in satisfaction at the Thief, his face lighting up with a pleased smile.

"It wasn't that bad!!" Valentine retorted. "We completed it."

"Yes, yes you did indeed ... all the while screaming like babies."

"We certainly DID not! We were heroic ... we went down fighting every single time!"

"Yes, you did! I have it all recorded! Every little scream, cringe and wetting of the pants." Constantine laughed evilly rubbing his hands together. "I can let you watch it later if you want."

"LIAR! There was definitely no 'wetting of the pants' you, you ... you!!!" Valentine was lost for words as he raked his brain for something appropriately vile to call his friend.

"Stop it, you guys," Lazarus said quietly, but his dark mood had lifted. It was impossible to stay depressed with these two. Thank the Gods the familiars had not joined in or it would have been mayhem. They were thankfully asleep or discreetly resting, letting their Chosen talk out the problem. The discussion was in the ghost lord's alien language which they did not understand anyway.

"First things first, tomorrow we get off this mountain and get Kasakh back to hers. She may find something there, some clues or stuff that Sharak left. She may find a lead that might help."

Valentine sobered. He knew Lazarus was clutching at straws.

"We can ask around if we pass a village, yes? The locals may also know something or someone else who can help."

"Yeah, we could do that," Lazarus answered. His friends were trying so hard not to give up hope. He shouldn't either. "Get some sleep. We leave at first light."

The next morning, they broke camp and continued on their journey. The weather was better, the muggy fog had cleared letting warm sunlight bathe the lands. The place looked different in daylight. Everything was not so mournful.

There was a small thriving village at the foot of the mountain. The Heroes could see it had one dirt road leading in and out of it. A few small stalls manned by hulking green shapes were set up along a wide street. Crude huts dotted the surrounding area, defining the village's boundaries.

"I didn't know orcs traded," Valentine quipped in surprise.

Kasakh snorted at the Thief. "We didn't know barbaric humans could either."

"I apologise." Valentine grinned at the grouchy orc. "Point taken."

"They are greenish ... not warriors?" Constantine glanced at Kasakh for confirmation.

She grunted in reply, still miffed at the Thief.

"Good, let's go."

Just then Xico flying overhead and let out a warning shriek. Immediately, the Red Warlock stopped in his tracks.

"Wait! There is something weird about that place. Look!"

From their vantage point the gatekeepers had a bird's eye view of the settlement. The Heroes grew quiet as they studied the area below them. There was only the village and nothing else. An ominous fuzzy grey surrounded the perimeter which thickened into a dark blank grey.

Valentine gave a low whistle, "Is it just me or it's fuzzy at the edges. All that grey can't be fog."

"No, you are right, my friend," Constantine agreed. "What can it mean?"

Lazarus tilted his head thinking, "It is either under some sort of enchantment or ..." he narrowed his eyes studying the solid grey. It looked somewhat familiar. In some other MMORPG games, uncharted territory were either locked or left blank. One had to unlock the map by searching for special items to access it, explore the blank space or build on it. Spaces where the avatar were not allowed to go were 'blocked' with fixed scenery, a path left to herd the player to the next location or challenge. Orc Wars didn't work like that. There had been no blank spaces in the human realm, either in Season One or after when the Game was released to the public. All locations were basically 'free' and had coordinates. The only locked places were the dungeons, Orb Trials and the Orc Realm. Those were open to eligible players once they achieved the required levels or criteria. There were supposed to be no blank spaces in Orc Wars. The gatekeeper sucked in his breath in disbelief, "...or"

"Or? Or what Laz?"

Suddenly the Assassin gave a small incredulous laugh, "... or it's unfinished."

"Huh? What do you mean unfinished? The village is not completed? How can that be?" Constantine asked in confusion.

Valentine smirked, understanding the Assassin's short explanation immediately. "It means Simtrixx has not completed the maps in the orc realm."

"Hey! Wait a minute, then why would they let us cross over? Is that allowed?"

The gatekeepers' paused as the realisation and implications of their speculations dawned upon them.

"I think they had no choice. I had collected all the Orbs and we all complied with the rules of crossing ..."

"So that's why all those things happened. They were preventing us from coming over ..." Valentine breathed.

"That is so unfair! It the orc realm isn't completed, why the hell did Simtrixx hype it up so much? It could be dangerous for players like us. What would happen if we wandered into the grey unfinished area? Do we get wiped out, deleted? Or lost forever?"

"I don't know." Lazarus shook his head. "But for now, I suggest we stay within the completed areas." Suddenly the Assassin gave a small cry, his head jerking up.

Immediately he other two crouched in battle stance, alert and ready to fight. "What is it? Where is the danger?"

"Laz?"

"I just thought of something." Lazarus turned to his companions, eyes shining with hope. "If Simtrixx has not completed the orc realm, maybe they have not completed creating the cure for the poison either. Maybe that's why there is no known cure now."

"Ummm, aren't you pushing it a little too far? It has already been stated that there is none, a Game will usually stick to the basic story and Rules it has made."

Valentine nudged the Red Warlock, "Even if that was true ..." the blond gatekeeper said slowly, he didn't know how to let his friend down gently. Simtrixx was not known for helping them so far. It was not a good bet to hope that the company would suddenly do so.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lazarus sighed as his shoulders slumped, "Val is right, even if it was true, we don't know how long the company will take to 'create' it. I can't depend on such ambiguous stakes." He shook himself. "It was just a random thought. C'mon. Let's explore the village," he said signalling to his familiar and led the way, head bowed. He didn't turn back. He didn't want the others to see how disappointed he was.