Avatara

A cool breeze brushed past Grace's face but the overall temperature was warm. She opened her eyes to see shrubland and tall thin trees. A full moon lit the sky, slightly visible through the canopy.

Pixel and Yi were nearby. Yi inspected a trail crouching down to feel the mud. Pixel brushed leaves off her person. Grace assumed she must have woken up in the thicket behind her.

"I can see large footprints on this trail," said Yi. "He must have been here."

"Are we really inside Sheldrake's servers?" said Grace.

"Yes," said Yi, treading quietly. "Lower your voice."

"It's like a tropical forest," Grace continued, dropping the volume as requested.

"That's the representation I concentrated on before we transferred. I thought making it a recreation of my home in Bhutan would make finding of the location of the kernel easier."

"You could have transferred me, without having me wake up covered in mud and leaves," said Pixel.

"Not everything can be chosen," said Yi.

Grace paused realising something. "How can the guys outside contact us?"

"Just by speaking to Qwerty," said Yi. "I've created a telepathic connection between him and us."

The realness of this representation astonished Grace. It rivalled Byzantium, even more impressive that it was being generated by Yi's consciousness. She remained in disbelief but accepted the monk's explanations.

"Qwerty can you see us?" she said quietly.

Grace heard static sounds inside her head. It sounded like the transmissions of a 'walkie-talkie' and it offset her a little. Eventually, a voice came through the noise. The rattling sound reverberating back to her via the brain waves of her auditory cortex. At least that was her perfunctory theory.

"I can't see anything," said a voice. It was Qwerty. "I can't see anything. It's like a blizzard of data out there."

Grace turned to Yi with a determined attitude.

"Yi, you are controlling the computer screen, can you focus it more?"

"I'll try," replied Yi. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply with focus of purpose. The red mark on his forehead had disappeared but the area briefly lit up. In tandem with this, the sky became brighter.

"Incredible," said Pixel. She was looking further down the trail, beyond to the clearing, where there were valleys and mountains. "Yi this really is a representation of your home in Bhutan."

"What was my home," said Yi. "You can see the temple ahead."

The light on his forehead deemed to disappearance. "Qwerty you should be able to see a map on the screen," he said.

"Yes I can," said Qwerty. His voice became shrill. "Yep I can see you guys but there's a large thing moving near you. Be careful."

And that's when they heard it. A loud growl that made tree leaves move. The sound was deep like an earthquake and made the three of them shudder. The leaves of the pine trees fluttered.

"What was that?" said Grace, startled and in a stance of being ready to run.

"Well, well, well it seems your friends did come and rescue you after all Grace," the voice said.

It seemed none of the three, knew where the voice came from. It felt surround. Yi however localised it in a moment after brief concentration. It came from behind them. But the enemy still could not be seen.

"Qwerty can you see it?" said Grace.

"Not clearly yet," said Qwerty. "It's very noisy."

"Do you hope to try and stop me?" said Knightmare-Grimm. "Don't you realise this is my territory?"

There was a low growl behind his words that still sounded loud. The leaves shook harder and in the distance a large piece of rock fell off a mountain side.

"What the hell! It's like he's all around us!" said Pixel.

"Though it is interesting," Knightmare-Grimm continued. "It appears the code altered while I was here. I had a clear path to the kernel through all the binary information, running through a vortex of zeros and ones. Then everything changed. My form changed from a man to a beast. Now I see mountains and forests. The same mountains and forest of those monks I eliminated in Bhutan. Only one conclusion satisfies. The monk did this."

"Qwerty?" said Grace with a hopeful drawl.

"I'm trying but it's still giving a noisy signal," he replied.

Pixels's breath were panicked and were more like gasps. "Try to calm down Pixel," said Grace. "We need to keep our heads."

They faced the same direction Yi faced, towards the darkness in the bushes, with their backs to the trail. Yi took up a crouched forty-five degree fighting stance.

"It seems I underestimated the true extent of his power. It would be a great addition to mine. In fact all of you are valuable, even you, nerdy hacker friend of Grace. Leaving me with a perfect challenge. If I eat you, I will be able to take over all of your minds and bodies immediately as you are in the system. With the strengths you have, my world takeover would be a piece of cake!"

"Don't be a coward," said Grace, "show yourself."

And that's when they saw them. Two massive yellow eyes around seven feet in the air. Then the sheer terror as the rest of his form revealed itself. A heavy jaw wider than the trees, with two rows of massive white canine teeth.

His dribbling mouth. He looked like a wolf but was the size of an African elephant.

"Now who's afraid of the big bad wolf?" he said.

"Oh dear," said Yi, with retreating calmness, straightening up from his crouched stance. "He's too powerful."

Grace kept her cool. She surprised himself at her ability to remain focused under pressure despite her fear.

"We must get the kernel first," she said. "Let's run!"

"They turned and ran down the trail through the dense forestry towards the clearing and the temple they saw far in the distance.

"Ggggrrrrrr," Knightmare-Grimm's voice bellowed behind them.

"Oh my days, it's a massive wolf!" said Qwerty.

"We needed to know that ten seconds ago!" Grace screamed back.

"Ah sorry I'm trying man," said Qwerty. "Let me find the way to the kernel."

The sky darkened again and gave birth to a full moon and even the trees looked menacing.

The three of them ran without looking behind them. Behind, the heavy thud of the giant feet of the beast that chased them. They made it to the clearing.

"Qwerty, which way?" said Grace.

"Go towards the temple," Qwerty said.

"Are you sure?" said Pixel. "To go there we will have to run uphill."

"Wait, wait," said Qwerty in reply. "If you try to run there, he will definitely catch you. Run downhill instead, down the valley at the bottom are burrow holes. Drop yourselves in there."

"I know where he is talking about," said Yi. "Follow me."

There was something surreal about the environment. It looked real but there were differences from the objective world. For starters they could run faster here and Grace was amazed by the speed they were clocking as they descended down the valley. Miniaturised they were closer to quantum level. The physical laws here were a bit weird.

"He's gaining on us Qwerty!" said Pixel. The hacker was not lying. Although they ran fast, Knightmare-Grimm also had the same augmentation and had the added advantage of size. They could feel him breathing behind their necks.

"Grrrrrrr!"

Pixel was ahead with Grace and Yi close behind. The valley curved at a thirty degree angle and became steeper.

"Veer your run to the right," Qwerty shouted to Grace. She assumed that others could hear Qwerty in their heads as well because they did the same.

There were a few gentian flowers amongst the grass, tundra and juniper bushes. Grace stepped on a gentian and felt guilty about stepping on a flower even though they were in a virtual system. But she didn't have much time to experience that emotion because Knightmare-Grimm was right on her.

"No," she screamed."No!"

"Come on Grace," said Pixel. "Don't let him catch you. Qwerty we're in trouble."

"There are burrow holes right ahead. Each of you can only fit in through one burrow at a time. Drop in there now."

"There they are," said Yi. "There are burrows."

"Quick," said Grace. "We can make it."

But Knightmare-Grimm was too close no wand within swiping distance with his paws.

"None of you can escape me," he said. "I have you now."

"He's too close," Pixel screamed.

Hope appeared to slip from their grasp.

"Just a sec guys," said Qwerty.

Grace expected a paw to grab her at any moment but instead she heard a slamming to the ground, which felt like an earthquake. The sound was so incredible that at the three of them stopped to turn back and inspect.

"Ahhhhh," said Knightmare-Grimm.

Grace saw what looked like a transparent force field stretched across the valley in both directions and upwards into the air and behind it was Knightmare-Grimm. He was jumping up in the air trying to leap over the field but it was too high.

"Now that's what you call a firewall!" Qwerty's words echoing inside Grace's head. "I can't believe I created one."

"Thanks Qwerty," Pixel said.

"We better get inside these burrows," said Yi. "That force field will not hold."

"Arrgghhh," said Knightmare-Grimm, bashing his head into the force field. After two hits several cracks appeared.

"Yeah we better go," said Grace.

There were several burrows, all in a row next to each other. Grace got to one and realised how narrow it was. "We can only go through these burrows one at a time."

Knightmare-Grimm continue to bash at the firewall that was weakening quickly. Qwerty chimed in.

"Guys you better get into those burrows asap, I don't think this thing can hold for much longer."

"I'll go into this one," said Pixel.

Grace struggled with her burrow, narrowing her shoulders to try and shimmy herself in. Yi and Pixel did the same.

They shuffled into their respective burrows like sausages. Grace strained her head upwards to see Knightmare-Grimm breaking down the firewall with sheer force.

"You can't stop me," he said. "You fools belong to me. None can escape."

"Everyone, get through your burrows now!" said Grace.

"It's so tight," said Pixel.

"No excuses," replied Grace. "Get through now!"

They shuffled frantically. Knightmare-Grimm was nearly through the firewall that cracked open like glass.

"No!" said Pixel. She wasn't getting through and looked stuck, the prospect of being gobbled by the wolf made her terrified.

The firewall completely shattered. Knightmare-Grimm ran out towards them. At that moment Grace slipped down through her burrow. She could not help Pixel, who was still struggling. She slid down a channel of sludge and mud at a steep angle.

"Aaaaaah," she screamed.