Ryan stared out the window and sighed.  The wolf had been looking forward to this day all week.  But now, it was all ruined.  When his friends Terry and Jason- the ram and fox from down the street- had come over to play it had immediately begun to rain, ruining their plans for the day. Ryan looked dejectedly at the pile of baseball mitts and a bat by the door.  It had taken so much work to get the nerdy Terry to agree to play outside, now the effort was wasted. But the ram saved the day.

“My parents just got me this new game,” the lamb declared as he rummaged in his backpack, his small tail wiggling in excitement.  “It looks so cool!  I’ve been waiting to show it to you guys!”

He stood back up and held a cartridge up over his tiny horns for the other two to see.  It was a standard gray game cartridge with a red label that had a sword over a gold compass and silver text.

“Furry Fantasy Saga?” Jason read the name.  “What does that mean?”

“Well,” Terry smiled proudly.  “You know how in most games you’re elves ‘n stuff ‘cuz they can’t show faces real well?  Well in this one you can be a real Fur!”

“What?” Ryan and Jason asked together.

“Lemme show you!” Terry called as he trotted over to the TV and Ryan’s game console.

A few minutes later, they were seated in front of the TV as scenes of fantasy were playing on the screen.

“It’s one of those games,” Jason groaned as he grabbed his paws and rocked back and forth.  “They’re all one player.  How are we going to play together?”

“It’s okay,” Ryan assured him.  “We can still pass the controller.”

Terry grinned and let out a baa of excitement.   “It’s one of those menu games.  We can just tell the person playing what we want our character to do.”

“Our characters?” Ryan asked with his ears folded.  He didn’t play as many games as Terry and Jason, so he didn’t quite understand what the lamb was saying.

“Yeah!” Terry said as he pressed start.  “You can customize not only the main character, but your party members as well.  We can all be in the game!”

Greetings hero.  What is your name? the screen asked.  Terry turned to Ryan, whose ears had gone back up.

“It’s your console,” the lamb said.  “You should be the main character.  What do you want your name to be?”

The wolf tapped his nose as he thought.  “Rovgar,” he finally replied.  Terry entered it in.

What is your profession? Ryan’s eyes went wide.  About 15 different little icons appeared under the question.  That was more than he had seen in all the video games they’d played combined!  And not only that- they were all clearly cats!  Not elves, but real cats- with little pixelated ears and whiskers and stripes on their faces!  On the other side of Terry, Jason let out a yip of surprise.

“What do you wanna be?” Terry asked as he scrolled through the icons.

“Umm… I wanna to attack stuff,” Ryan mused.  “But I don’t wanna wear bulky armor.”

“OK,” Terry nodded as he stopped on a white tiger who looked like he was wearing just pants and some sort of line across his chest. “How about a monk?  They know, like karate ‘n stuff.”

“Cool,” Ryan agreed.  Then Terry did something absolutely amazing.

Ryan’s eyes went wide again as the lamb went to a new screen and started playing with options.  When he was finished, Ryan was on the screen!  Well, if the wolf had been made of blocks.  But it was clearly a little wolf, with a long canine muzzle and Ryan’s brown and gray coloration.  The wolf cub just stared in amazement, and barely heard Terry asking him if it was good.  He just nodded mechanically and looked at the screen- he’d never seen anything like it before.

A few minutes later, Rovgar was joined by Tristan- a ram paladin that clearly had big curving ram horns and hooves showing despite his big plate armor.  Then Terry turned to Jason, who had declared he wanted to be a thief.  Unlike the main character, the secondary characters chose their class, then their appearance, and their names last. Terry selected the little black clad thief.

“Do they have dragons?”  Jason asked wistfully.  The red fox loved dragons.

“Yeah,” Terry replied cautiously.  “But they can’t be thieves for some reason.”

“Oh,” the fox folded his ears in disappointment.  “I guess a fox then. But I wanna be a gray fox. It’s stealthier.”

Terry made the changes, then looked at Jason for a name.

“Gah! I’m so bad at names!” the fox cried as he rocked again and swished his tail.

“They have some default names,” Terry offered and selected the option.  “Pikaro, Vejari, Furcifur…”

“That second one,” Jason replied after he made a face at the third option.

“Alright then,” Terry declared triumphantly as he selected the name and confirmed that they were happy with their choices.  “Let the saga of Rovgar, Tristan, and Vejari begin!”

Hero, the land is plagued by evil, white text on a black screen read.  The High King’s forces are engaged with attacking armies from a distant land.  It falls to you and your companions to protect your home and make the surrounding lands safe again.  Your saga is about to begin.

With a broad smile, Terry passed the controller to Ryan as the small pixelated wolf appeared in a green field with some blue that seemed to be a pond.

“Whaa… What do I do?” Ryan stuttered.  This was so different from the side scrolling games he usually played.  “Where do I go?”

“Anywhere,” Terry replied reverently.

Ryan let out a low howl of amazement, and Jason yipped again.

In that moment, Ryan saw it: he was Rovgar standing in a field, wearing leather armor that was no long pixels.  Standing a few feet away was Tristan, his horns curling majestically around his shining helm as he hefted his mace.  Behind the big paladin, Vejari crouched with only his silver muzzle and ears visible outside his black leather armor as he flipped his lucky coin and stared into the distance.

“Look!” Vejari called and pointed.  “There’s a cave over there!”

“Let’s check it out!” Rovgar replied as he began moving that way.

The others followed after.  Their adventure had begun.