After this incident Sam and I explored the forest a little more. We never ventured too far from the bridge. Sam climbed a wild apple tree and plucked a number of the fruits. The sweet taste of the apples was the same as their real world counterparts.

The day was coming to an end. The sun went down the horizon. Sam and I crossed the bridge. We took a carriage back to the inn where Sam lived in the world of Dharti.

This time we took a different route, crossing a busy bazaar with elven vendors in tall hats and fancy oriental turbans, hollering rhyming phrases to attract shoppers, selling all things from ice cream and sizzling snacks right from the frying pan, to elven liquor to a range of questionable items –necklaces and crowns and goggles being the most common—promising to 10x the powers of players. Sam told me that though the vast majority of these objects were garbage, someone would occasionally come across an artifact that actually worked, if only temporarily.

The noisy marketplace was followed by a particular district of the town with lines of windows and doors surrounded in red lights. A few too many times I saw overly sexualized elves in skimpy clothing.

Sam winked at me.

“You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”

I recalled Kiara and I recalled my promise.

I went blank for a moment as though struck by thunder. I was running all the scenarios in my mind that could be a consequence of my forgetfulness.

“What happened?” Sam asked. “You have a girlfriend?”

“I had a date with a girl today,” I told him. “It slipped from my mind because you showed up.”

Sam flinched.

“Because of me?” he said. “How on earth am I supposed to know that you have a date the day I pick to visit you?”

“I need to be home as fast as I can.”

“Make it go faster!” Sam ordered the carriage driver. The driver whispered to his unicorn and the carriage sped at twice the previous speed, dangerously bouncing whenever the wheels hit a pothole.

Sam narrowed his eyes on me. “Look, if you had told me earlier that you had a date, I would not have taken you to the forest.”

I waved my hand at him in dismissal. My thoughts were on Kiara. Would she forgive me? What if she had tried calling me multiple times?

By the time we reached the inn and sprang up the stairs, I had metamorphosed into a ball of anxiety. I pulled off all my fancy garments and changed into my real world clothes that I had left in Sam's wardrobe.

Sam conjured the portal to my room.

I crossed to the other side.

Sam was looking at me with a disappointed expression as the portal slowly contracted. I felt guilty. He had come to meet me after a long time, and we had to part in such a hurry.

“Next time we’ll go on some exciting quest,” I said to cheer him. Sam lightened up.

“Well, I am just hoping that you have success with your not-pissing-off-girlfriend quest,” he grinned.

The portal closed. I rummaged for my phone in my bedroom. Finally found it under my pillow. Fifteen missed calls from Kiara. My heart shrivelled. Kiara would kill me. And what explanation was I supposed to give her? I wasn’t sure I should tell Sam’s secret to anybody. As I thought hard for a proper excuse, a dog started barking. My ringtone.

I answered the call.

“Sam?” Kiara’s anxious voice said from the other end.

“Yes.”

“Where are you?” she said, “We broke into your house. But you weren’t there!”

I felt like someone had dropped a brick on my head.

“What?” I gasped. “You broke into my house?”

Light shoe prints on the floor verified that people had been in the room.

“You said we’ll go out together,” Kiara said. “I knocked at your door several times and I called you too, but you didn’t respond. I thought something happened to you. I got scared and I called people and we broke in. Both the front and the back doors were bolted from the inside. How did you go out?”

“Uh, I-I,” I stuttered, failing to come up with any logical explanation. “Uh, I will explain after some time.”

“You are all right, right?”

“Yeah, I am absolutely fine. Um, I will talk with you after some time… must hang up now.”

“Okay,” Kiara said in a dispirited tone.

I cut the call and, grabbing my hair, collected my thoughts. I found more signs of intrusion into the house. Displaced furniture, and an abused front door. Somebody had pried it open with a crowbar. I would have to get it mended.

I maintained a poker face and told the neighbors, including Kiara, that a friend had been in an emergency and I had gone out through a window. A wild explanation, yes, but what else could I say? I refrained from giving details. When someone pointed out that the windows had been shut too, I dismissed them with a wave of my hand saying they must be mistaken.

If only I had maintained some mindfulness, I could have spent a pleasant day with Kiara; and ruminate over memories from a lovely date at bed time. Instead all that came to my mind that night were images of the two headed green monster whose life I spared.