A New World

The Priestess' cave.

The real training would start on this day but, as the Priestess had prepared everything for the journey before the dawn, she heard noises coming from Alya's room.

"Alya…", the priestess walked slowly into her room.

It was as if the little girl was crying.

"Alya… sweety are you…"

"N-no… please no…"

The priestess, without hesitation, sat down right next to Alya and patted her head. The girl was shaking, sweating, and almost out of breath.

"Fa-ther… mo-ther…n-no."

The Priestess closed her eyes ―a light came from her hand, resting on Alya's forehead.

The girl's breath came back to normal and her fists opened.

"I'll let her sleep a little bit more."

She stood up and as she walked out to the main room, she whispered.

"It is a burden she'll have to bear for the rest of her life."

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Somewhere in the Southwest Forest

Both the Priestess and Alya had prepared their bags and gone into the mountains but first, they needed to cross the bast forest that separated them. The Priestess seemed as she was not tired at all, as she walked with a bag of about her size on her back, but as for Alya… she could barely walk and breathe.

"See the top of that mountain young Alya?", said the Priestess.

"Is that… the place… hah… where we are going?" Alya was hardly keeping the pace.

"Sort of."

"What does… that even mean?"

"You'll see."

It was cold and the sun's light was barely touching the humid leaves of the trees. Alya's feet were swallowing and she was sweating like never before.

There were a few animals that would look at them walking up the mountain. The wind was getting stronger as if the top of the mountain were about to be approached.

"It's…ha… hard… to breathe!"

"Don't worry, you'll get used to the environment in which we will be training."

"I hope so… are we… coming back… tomorrow as well!?"

"No, we will be staying for a time in this place."

"Huh!? For how long?"

"For as many years it is necessary."

"Wait… you said 'years'!?"

"Yes."

"W-what? Are you serious? How would we survive with such a small amount of supplies!?"

"You'll see."

Climbing the rocky mountain, the wind hit stronger and stronger with every step they would take on the dry path. There were no more trees, only bushes that could survive the high altitude.

Alya's breath was shorter and her head felt as light as a feather.

"Priestess? I don't feel… so good."

"Keep walking my dear, we are almost there."

Goats would look at them as if it were strange to see people in such a place. The natural path was guiding them to a top of two peaks, one higher than the other one. Now, this path was sandy, and taking the wrong step, anyone could fall into the great cliff.

The level of the ground was getting flatter. Alya's limbs were tickling all the way to her fingertips.

"Want some?" the priestess gave her a bota bag.

"T-thanks," she barely lifted her hand and drank about half of the liquid inside of it.

After a small moment, the heat came back to her head and the numbness went away.

"I feel better…"

"Yes, it's water with some herbs that will help with the altitude… although you might not even need it."

"What do you mean I might not…?"

"Take a step back sweety."

"Huh? O-okay."

The Priestess took her luggage and grabbed a small crystal ball from one of the bags, it was about the size of an eye.

She had a great smile on her face.

"What is that?", Alya leaned her head towards it.

"This is a very special ball my sweety since, inside of this small ball, we will be training."

"Wait… I don't understand."

"You will see my sweety. Now close your eyes."

"O-okay."

Since Alya started living with the priestess, she would see her working in many "magical things", she would call it like that because all she knew was that these things had something to do with magic. Was this small crystal ball the product of all those nights the Priestess would stay up late, working in some sort of special technique?

The Priestess said many words that she did not understand, it was like an old dialect.

The wind got stronger, making it hard for Alya to stand firmly with her eyes closed.

"…Now you may open!"

Were the only words she understood at the end.

The wind stopped, not just the strong wind that was blowing at the moment of this technique, but the wind of the mountain also disappeared in a blink of an eye. A strange warmth relaxed her frightened skin and her feet sunk in what appeared to be sand, instead of the rocky ground in which she was standing.

"What… happened?", Alya felt a warm wind running on her skin.

"You can open your eyes now sweety."

A strong light illuminated her eyes. She opened them and her mouth dropped open.

"Where… "

"This is the place, my sweety, in which we will be training!"

They were not in the rocky and windy mountain anymore, but in an extensive and desolated desert with golden sand.

"How… what is… this place?"

Alya had never seen a place like this. All she knew were the green mountains, forests, lakes, rivers; but never, never a place like this. It was like if everything she knew had been wiped out of this world.

"It is called a 'desert'," The Priestess extended her small hands to the air.

"De…sert?" Alya could hardly move her jaw.

"Yes, my sweety. It is the perfect place to train safety with the Water Force you bear."

"So… are we inside the small crystal ball?"

"Yes, this is a technique that was taught by the gods, to only the guardians. Time does not exist here, so you will not see the dawn, sunset or even the night."

"Are we… in a different world?"

"It is called 'dimension', we are in a different dimension."

It was hard to understand the meaning of all these techniques, Alya thought that only existed a certain type of magic, but nothing like this.

Her heart pumped really hard.

"Don't worry sweety," It seemed as the Priestess could read her thoughts, "as long as I am here, we will be able to come back."

"Could we just have trained in the mountain?"

"It was too dangerous, any person that is able to sense the magical power of an individual would be able to come after you. We don't want that."

"Right… I didn't think about it. Then why did we climb that mountain!?"

"Oh, that? That was the warmup."

"Huh!?"

"Now then, first we will learn how to invoke the Sacred Water Sword!"