Sequence one: Welcome to Ether

“I can’t believe it, after twenty eight years existing on the face of the planet; I just die because of over working? What a lame way to perish.” He said to himself, annoyed for the reason and the only thing he could see is total darkness.

He’s dead for sure, but he just can’t accept the way he died.

“I should have regularly called my mom if I knew this would happen. She’ll definitely…”

He stops on thinking for a moment when he realized that there is a mild tune passing by, a very familiar tune yet he is sure that the melody shouldn’t be here on his office.

‘A stream?’ he said to himself as he slowly tries to open his eyes – “Daylight?” he said aloud in surprise.

‘I’m outside?’

He gently stands up and is amazed from what he just perceives; the sound came from a stream just right next to him surrounded by thick woods on every corner of the place.

The place is quiet and tranquil; the warm sun touching his skin somehow rejuvenates his tired body while the calming melody of nature itself calms his soul. For sure, it is the first time he felt like this and he is somehow thankful for such a treat.

‘Am I in heaven?’

He touches himself to make sure that everything is not a dream and so he confirms it, he is neither dreaming nor he is dead.

‘Just where am I?’ he asked himself while looking around, turning his head left and right then kneels down and stares at the flowing water of the stream.

He is surprised on how clean the water is, but what surprises him the most is the reflection he has on the water.

‘I look ten years younger?’ he thought as he checks the vivid image of himself reflecting on the surface of the gently flowing water.

Still amazed, he keeps on looking at the water carrying his reflection, still confused on what is happening and doesn’t know what to do.

So for no reason, he plunges his face on the water, indulging his self on the cooling sensation of the stream. After a few seconds, he lifts his head out of the water feeling refreshed.

“Okay, I’m not dead nor I am dreaming.” He said.

The place is quiet, really quiet, that it is somehow deafening for some time and the empty feeling he has seems to widen more and more while he is still here in this forest of some kind.

He felt, a bit tired after all those consecutive overtimes he had at work so he plans to take a quick nap while. He doesn’t care if it is outside, he even remembers the time when he was so tired after work he slept on a park bench and also the time when they had a party and he was so drank that time he just drop dead on the side walk, after that, he realized that it was morning already.

For him, life is how you live it and it doesn’t matter how people thinks about him because it’s his own way of living his life.

But, before he proceeds on napping on the green-grassy ground, his ear twitches a bit, as he heard a cracking sound from a distance and in an instant, a swooping object instantly passes above the skin of his left cheek, leaving a light scratch on it and warm blood slowly flows out from the opening of the wound on his face.

The object landed on his left side and pierced itself on the ground.

Slowly, he moves his brown colored orbs towards the direction of the object and saw a slim stave with feathers on the top end and the other end that is buried on the ground will definitely be pointed that is hard enough to bury itself a few inches deep on the ground.

‘An arrow? But why?’ he thought, as he reaches out for the object slowly with his trembling hand.

But before he could grab it, another arrow landed next to the previous one, the one he tries to pull out. As if, it is telling him not to touch the arrows pierced on the ground.

In shock, he turns around to where the arrows came from, there he saw a person wearing a hooded cloak while holding a bow on his right hand and an arrow on the other and is just a few meters away from him, standing behind a tree.

He tries to snatch a look on that person’s face but the lower part of its face is covered by a scarf, covering the person’s nose down to its mouth so he can’t accurately identify if the person is either a ‘he’ or a ‘she’. But one thing is for sure, this person is definitely the one that launched those pair of arrows.

“I-I… don’t mean any harm.” He said, as he slowly raises his hands up in the air while sitting on the ground, trying not to offend his attacker that might launch another shot.

The person looks around for a bit then walks toward him in a phased manner. When he is just right in front of him, he utters words that the guy sitting on the ground can’t comprehend.

“I-I’m sorry but, I-I can’t understand a word you say.” he said in a soft and stuttering way while shaking his head, signaling the person that he doesn’t understand a thing he says, yet that person still continues on talking and this time with a raised voice.

He noticed that his voice is somehow and immature, telling him that this guy must still be in his early teens, giving him a bit of confidence because if it is the case then he can talk his way out of this mess.

He slowly stands up for a better chance for that person to hear what he is about to repeat on saying. As he stands straight, he realizes that he is a few inches taller compared to the person in front of him.

“Like I said, I can’t understand what you say.” He said again to the person in front.

The person stops on talking then he stares on his side with a displeased look showing from his eyes, the only visible part of his face. The person wearing a hood took a deep breath and exhaled in agony, that the other guy could actually hear the “hah” coming out of him.

The person pulls the scarf covering his lower face downward and also took off his hood, revealing an innocent looking girl around her teenage with a pale white skin and cherry colored lips, deep-green color eyes that is almost as glittery as a jewel and grayish hair flowing down to her shoulders while her bangs covers her forehead running down to her right cheek almost covering her right eye.

The guy is amazed, very amazed, it’s the first time he saw a beauty like this and what’s more, he saw her in a forest like some sort of movie where the protagonist meets the leading lady in a peculiar way.

There was a moment of silence for the two, and then the “he” who turns out to be a “she” opens her mouth and begins to speak once again.

“You don’t understand because you are not listening!” she shouted in an angry tone, scolding the guy in front of her.

‘Way to go older guy, you have just been scolded by someone younger.’ He thought, then a realization came busting in his head.

‘Did I just understand what she said?’

Surprised that he can finally understand what that person says and also because of the thought that he was trembling and almost wet his pants because of a cute little girl, the man breaks into laughter that almost sounded like an insult in front of the girl.

In the meanwhile, the girl stares at him and is somewhat amazed thinking that he might be a person who lost his sanity or maybe he just don’t understand the situation he is in.

“Well, now… I didn’t mean to mock you or something; I’m just surprised and relieved. I thought I’m going to die a moment ago.” He said, while wiping off the tears due to laughing hard on his eyes.

“So you think because I’m a woman, I don’t have the guts to kill you? Is that it?” she said while showing a smirk on her face as she walks closer to him then whispers these words.

“I intentionally missed those shots”

He stands frozen as he sinks down the meaning of what she just said into his brain.

“Lucky for you, I’m not here to kill people who pass by and from the looks of you… I won’t get anything even if I tie you upside-down on a tree.” She added as she pulls out the arrows on the ground.

“Y-Yeah your right, hehe…” he replied with a frightened tone and an obvious fake laugh.

“Are you a foreigner? Some weird clothing you have.” She said looking on him with an investigative eye, wondering what kind of country is represented from the cloths he wears.

“Anyway, you can run right?” she asked after pulling the last piece of arrow.

“Yeah why’d you asked?” he said while changing his view to her, he then noticed the serious face the girl is showing to a certain direction.

She then loaded an arrow to her bow and fired it to the direction she is facing, towards a bushy part of the terrain just across the stream. Then in a couple of seconds, a loud squeak was heard.

“What are you waiting for? Run!” right after she said it, a group of wild boars are charging towards them with tusk around fifteen inches long and three inches wide in diameter.

With the sudden impulse of preserving his life upon seeing the stampeding crowd, his body moves on its own, running away from the horde of incoming wild beast into the deep parts of the forest without even thinking if he could find his way back.

He runs desperately, not even looking behind him. For all he knew, all he has to do now is run as fast as he could away from them.

But when he turns around to check if he ran far enough away from them, in his surprise, the mass is already catching up with him.

He continues to run desperately when he suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind.

“Having a hard time?”

He turns his head to the direction of the voice and saw the girl from before now almost next to him, in shock he uttered these words while still running as fast as he can; “How… did you managed to catch up?!” he asked, as he catch his own breath while looking at the girl

“Oh, this? When you are doing this kind of job for years, you can run faster than you usually could.” she answers, then turns backwards and performs a back-run while loading her bow another arrow.

She jumps off the ground to a tree branch above her; then aimed for the one that is catching up with the guy who is currently running away to save himself from the rampaging crowd of wild boars.

She released the arrow immediately after aiming hitting the creature on its forehead and then jumps off the tree to accompany the fleeing man.

“How… did you just pull that off?” he said almost dropping his jaw after seeing the girl performed such act.

“I don’t think they will stop chasing us.” she replied to the man running next with her, noticing that the feral beasts are still chasing them.

She runs slower to have the save running phase as the guy, noticing the fatigue that is starting to run over her companion, she immediately devised an escape plan.

Even though as if she comes to the forest to hunt occasionally, but every time she do so, she sets traps of various kinds for different purposes.

Upon noticing that the terrain is somehow familiar, the thought came into her mind.

‘That’s it! It’s just around the corner.’

She grabs him on his arm then drags the fellow to a certain direction in the forest. While still running, she pulls out a knife from her side and cuts the rope that is tied on a tree.

Along the slashing sound created by the knife, a loud cracking of wood echoes throughout the entire forest.

She stops on running and stares on the direction of the boars that are chasing them. When the guy notices the sudden halt of the girl, he also reduces his speed and runs back to her.

“Why do we stop running?” he asked while catching his breath.

“Wait for it…” she replied confidently as if she is waiting for something dramatic to happen, then a loud snapping sound breaks alongside the swooping of leaves that can be heard from not afar.

In an instant, a huge tree around seven feet in diameter fell on the ground, smashing the horde of wild boars that are chasing them.

Squeaking sounds of agony are heard, while the others that survived the tree slam made their retreat back into the woods.

“That was handy.” She said, seeing how effective it is.

“We did it… yeah…” he said, lifting both his hands to the sky while taking a deep breath then immediately drops his arms down after.

“Happy to be alive?” she asked in a teasing way with a smirk on her face.

“Of course.”

“Very well.” She said, as she walks towards the large timber,

“Where are you going?”

“Hauling.” She answered, and then proceeds on walking forward, back to the direction where they came from.

The guy, well since he doesn’t know where to go follows the girl as she leads the way. The girl noticed that the guy is following her so she took a glance to him making sure that he is not a hostile person.

He noticed the wary glance of the girl and so he shows him a somewhat peculiar smile, as if somehow, he doesn’t know what to do at the moment.

The pair walks back silently, when he decided to break the silence.

“Oh, hey wait… can I ask you something?”

“You’re asking now.” She answered, as she squats down to the game that she shot between the eyes earlier and started to tie its four legs together for carrying purposes.

“I mean, where I am now?” he asked, very confused on where on the face of the planet he is now.

“You’re in the forest, south of the hunting region.” the girl answered him politely.

“Oh I’m in a forest… what?!” he replied, confused from the answer of the girl. – “…And what are you wearing?” he added, questioning the clothes worn by the girl because even if she says it is traditional, he doesn’t remember about an ethnic group wearing this kind of an attire in his country.

For some reasons, it is the first time he saw someone wearing such clothing; he only managed to see such outfits in movies and books having the medieval and middle ages as their theme and is a very odd-looking kind of clothing to wear in this century.

“Well, I’m so sorry because I wear like this, what do you expect me to wear in a hunt, a ball gown?” she answered him sarcastically, although she felt insulted from what he just said, yet she made it sound as normal as she can.

“And the weird one here is you…” She points a finger to his chest. “…you went into a forest without anything to protect yourself.” She added.

“Look, I didn’t mean to insult you and I didn’t intended to do so in the first place. So whatever bad things I said, I’m sorry.” He said, trying to clarify the misunderstanding between him and his savior but somehow it doesn’t sound right when the girl hears it making her twitch her right eyebrow.

“Back to our topic, what do you mean by ‘south of the hunting region’, where are we exactly?” He said, probing her to give him the right answer.

“If you are referring to which country we are right now, we’re in a country called Ceres located at the eastern part of the continent, slightly up north that’s why you can feel the chills.” She said – “And the capital city is Elysium.” She immediately added.

“Oh…” he said with an ‘I get what you mean’ look.

“…wait, Ceres? Elysium?” he questioned the girl’s answer and he is now really confuse of what she just said.

“What is that exactly?”

Amazed on how he responds to her words, the girl expresses a very jumbled reaction on her face; she can’t believe that she is talking to a total idiot.

“The country and the capital, you don’t look stupid though it seems you are.” She answers him immediately while having the feeling that he is an idiot who doesn’t know a thing about the world.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I still need to sell this wild boar to the market.” She said, as she tries lifting the huge hunk of meat on her back. But since it is three time bigger and heavier than she is, she can’t even make it budge.

“That thing looks heavier than you thought huh?” he said looking at her as she desperately lifts the heavy object.

“Well, yeah! As you can see genius.” She answered him with an irritated tone for asking the obvious.

“Wait a sec.” he said rushing back to the woods, on his return, he brought a sturdy looking tree branch around two meters long that looks almost like a pole, dragging it towards her.

“Now what?” she asked

“We’ll use this to carry that.” He said pointing to the boar that she tries to carry by herself.

He ties the legs of the pig on the branch he brought and asked her to grab the other end of the pole while he is holding the other.

“On the count of three, you place that end on your right shoulder okay?” instructing the young lady on how they are going to lift the thing. – “One… two… three…” As he said it, the duo lifts it and then placed it on their respective shoulders.

“Lead the way.” He said in a cheerful way, as they start to walk forward.

“Just to make things clear, I am not paying you for helping me.”

“Sure, anyway where are we bringing this?” he asked

“You said earlier you’ll bring this to a market is there a village or a town nearby?” he added

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, there is a village nearby, not much to expect compared to the other towns but you can grab some basic needs and services there if you can afford the price.” She answered with delight.

“About that, you see I don’t have anything with me right now, well… you can say I’m broke.” He said with hesitation and a hint of embarrassment.

“Like I said, I won’t pay you for helping me.”

“No, I didn’t mean it that way…” he answered but then interfered by her

“Don’t tell me you also have no place to stay?” she said, completing the idea that he is a hobo, but she didn’t really mean it.

“And also that.”

“What?!” she said, surprised that she is right about it.

“To make things clear, you’re broke and you’re homeless?” she said and he just nods affirming that what she said is true.

“Sigh, I can only offer you a place to stay the night, the least I can do for helping me carry this thing.” She added while tapping the load they are carrying.

“You just don’t know how glad I am right now.” He answered

“But you’re sleeping on the floor.”

“Don’t you have a couch or a sofa?”

“Dude, don’t push your luck.”

“By the way, the name’s Josh, and you?”

“They call me Cerise in our village.” She answered, tilting her head slightly looking at him on top of her shoulder.

“Okay then, thank you miss Cerise.” He said with a slight smile on his face.

“You can drop the “miss”, just call me by my name. It’s kinda… freaky.” She said.