A Break In The Balance

Frank Rhoades is at the end of his rope. With no prospects, no family or friends to speak of, and nowhere to live soon, he trips through life in an alcoholic haze.

Until one morning, he has the most vivid, horrifying hallucination. A seven-foot-plus Black Elf in his apartment, complete with muscles and attitude. Through a mix of persuasion and abuse, the hallucination drags him along into a full-blown nightmare: a meeting with the Creator's agent, and a demi-god dragon in human form, and his Black Elven companion, who also happens to be a Prince of Hell.

He learns more than he ever wanted to know about worlds, and Worlds, and Good and Evil. He is told that he was chosen to represent humanity on a quest to retrieve an artifact. And he was not chosen for any skills or hidden abilities or redeeming qualities. He was chosen almost at random, and because there would be no one to miss him. Life gets better and better, right?

They embark on a trek across a World with a dying sun, and dangers enough, along with the dangers of an ancient evil looking to test them. His companions become not so much creatures of legend as real beings, with personalities: the dragon is good-hearted but slightly neurotic and paranoid, and the Prince of Hell is...surprise...an arrogant, bossy bastard, who Frank finds himself admiring.

At the end, sides are switched, trusts betrayed, and terrible costs are taken. They succeed, despite a heavy price, and Frank learns just how much he himself has grown on this journey. He finally accepts the reality, and even learns to use it to his purpose, and is a hero in his own right, for while he has no magic or unknown martial arts skills or arcane knowledge, he has risked everything to save Worlds, including his own that has tried to ruin him.