A Floating Chair
Sitting in the living room, Anna once again looked blankly at the thin, closed sliding door.
The dim light filtered in through it, barely illuminating half of the living room floor.
A portion was lightened up by the dim light, and the rest, along with the table, the walls, the hall, the kitchen, and even the girl herself; they were all in the shadows.
She didn't bother using the candles.
It'll be such a waste.
Even using mana as a light was a more recyclable consumable than wasting a candle.
In another room, where the siblings slept, Chaya was looking through the old, hard-covered dusty books Anna's grandpa had collected.
Still, she sat there, waiting.
Waiting for her bonded friend to come home.
It had been a few days since Amor went missing from her sight.
She breathed in the cold air once more. As she did so, she grabbed the staff on the carpet next to her.
Its almost five-or-more foot length made it so that it extended to even underneath the table.
Caressing the multi-purpose staff, Anna still felt the connection in her 'mind.'
A warm, beating soul, like a heartbeat. She can listen to it, feel it, and even see it.
Like a tiny string, it extended far towards somewhere to the east.
Towards where the blue wayward butterfly awaits.
Then, the girl felt something in her head.
Like a tiny pindrop, a string snapping in an empty, silent room, or an annoying alarm that never stops no matter how many times she pressed the off button.
'Something passed my magic alarm?' she thought.
With a silent sigh, she grabbed the staff, stood up, and walked towards the door.
Just yesterday, she laid out a simple magical alarm around her entire house.
It was an alarm of sorts that allows her to be contacted when an unknown movement crosses its boundaries.
Like a…magical alarm clock.
'...'
Anyways, Anna simply walked on the six corners she had planned out around the entire house after a moment of careful inspection.
Doing so, she established a 'connection' with each spot.
Everywhere she went, a 'point' was established.
Once she touched all six, she then copied the magic onto the 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 in her mind, made a few adjustments in its 'code,' and sent it towards the points.
From there, it just did the rest automatically.
Like an invisible breeze, its magic spread across the entire house, connected by each 'point' placed.
Then it maintained its function by the mana around it.
That was her tenth try to perfect it.
The first few times, the alarm kept getting triggered by leaves and snow.
Now it was good enough to determine what is alive, and what is a floating leaf.
Reaching the door, Anna took a deep, silent breath.
Then, she opened the sliding door, and what expanded across her sight was snow.
Yep, that's what she expected to see.
What she didn't expect to see were a certain blonde girl and white-haired boy passing the gate that was somehow opened.
Like in a slow motion film, they slowly placed each foot in front of the other, saying side to side, huffing and puffing.
Running as though their life depended on it.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧…
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...
One cannot possibly compare that to running anymore.
The more applicable term is 'barely jogging.'
Tittering both ways, almost falling onto the comfortably looking blanket of snow, it looked as if they direly wished they could collapse or fall over onto it.
But they didn't.
At the door. Anna watched this interesting spectacle. No, she didn't just watch it.
She 𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 it into her head. Like recording a video she…recorded it, saved it, and placed it into her library of memories.
Then, as though it took way longer than it should have, they finally go to the porch of her house.
Anna took a step to the right, and within a couple seconds, the two stepped into the house.
The moment they made it inside, the two showed their exhaustion in different ways.
The blonde girl simply collapsed onto the wooden floor face first. The boy on the other hand tittered towards the wall, turning around, putting his back on it, and slid all the way down until he sat on the floor.
𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧…
𝘏𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧…
Anna softly closed the door shut.
As it clicked shut, Jonah muttered to himself.
"Oh my lord...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...my lungs...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...it hurts..."
Avalow was simply clawing on the wooden floorboard, writhing in eternal pain.
Anna watched their futile attempts in trying to rest and calm down.
"Where's...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧…" the boy trailed off, putting his hand over his chest.
"What?"
"Where's...𝘩𝘶𝘧𝘧...where's...Chaya-?" Jonah asked.
Before Anna had the chance to respond, a door clicked opened, and quickly after footsteps echoed from down the hallway.
𝘛𝘢𝘱-𝘵𝘢𝘱-𝘵𝘢𝘱-𝘵𝘢𝘱-!
"Jonahhh-!"
A little white-haired girl, who is as innocent as she always is, leaped into the boy's side.
If one was silent, they could hear the boy screaming in pain from the impact.
"Is that really you? You came back!" Chaya said, hugging him tightly.
Jonah quietly and silently groaned.
"You came back like you promised..." she whispered, hugging him even tighter.
"Yeah...I came back...safely too," Jonah managed to say, and he wrapped one arm around her with much, much difficulty.
"..."
They're reacting as though it's been months. Last she checked, it had only been almost less than a week.
So while the siblings were in the midst of their happy reunion, they were interrupted when someone's shadow stood over them..
"Why are you here, and so soon?" Anna asked.
The boy looked up, and blinked. He blinked, then blinked, and finally blinked.
"Ah, that's-that's right!"
Gently setting aside his little sister and pushing himself up with the metal stick in his hand, he stared into Anna's eyes.
"There's something you got to know."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Seconds passed, and time never stopped for no one.
Standing up, Avalow adjusted the puffy cap on her head, and then scratched it. Chaya just blinked, and Jonah began fidgeting.
Anna waited, waited, and waited.
'Oh wait,' she thought. 'Am I suppose to ask 'what is it?'
And so she asked.
"Well?" Anna asked. "What is it?"
"Well, you see…"
...
𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸...
Near the outskirts of a ruined town, in the afternoon, a subtle dance was enacted.
A subtle dance it was, for it wasn't the ordinary, traditional dance.
It was the dance of battle. A battle in which the fight was a dance of life and death.
However, this was a slow dance, for a certain white-haired boy moved with a slow, yet steady tempo.
The boy dodged and dodged.
His footwork, although slow and inexperienced, was slowly improving as he stepped here and there into the soft snow, dodging each attempted strike of the tall lumbering fire monster.
Wreathed in flames, the monster leaned forward and swung its arms down, the boy saw the opportunity.
The cold wind stopped, and the snow stopped falling around him.
It was the perfect moment for the boy to jump onto the monster's arms.
Somehow running along its corporeal arms, as it began slowly to stand ramrod straight, Jonah quickly reached its chest.
He then thrusted the metal stick with a sharp point crudely connected to it on the top. Piercing its chest, feeling no resistance, he pushed further.
Then, it connected something, for a 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 clinked, like metal hitting glass.
Then, it shattered, and so did the monster.
It slowly fell backwards, and as it crashed on the ground, it dissipated into particles.
In a crater, a shattered bright red orb's light slowly ebbed away, leaving a dark, crimson empty glass shards.
The dance ended slowly, yet quickly.
As the boy huffed and puffed, gasping for air, someone trekked across the snow over to him.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩.
Walking passed him, a blonde girl knelt near the crater and scooped up the glass shards into her brown-leather gloved hand.
"And that's another one," she said.
Jonah nodded his head.
Over the past four to five days, they had encounter\ed a series of these monsters. Each of various sizes, these fire monsters were common…and extraordinarily simple to beat.
Too simple.
They were so slow, it actually made it easier to simply and carefully watch its monotone movement and pattern.
The rest was just to find a moment to cleanly finish it off.
In fact, he didn't need Avalow's help.
On day one, Avalow had assisted him through the first few battles. It was so easy, she just left it to Jonah to fight on his own.
The boy felt worried, but he still did it.
And here they are.
In some cases, there were circumstances in which multiple monsters were encountered.
The two would either flee or fight. When fighting, Avalow would then assist in a timely manner.
Otherwise, most of the time it was just more battle experience for Jonah, at least aside from the usual mishaps.
For example, tripping over a rock midfight, getting a cramp, and some other excuses the boy had embarrassingly encountered.
Within just a few days, Jonah felt he had progressed.
Even after all that, he felt his strength rise. He felt each battle was ending more and more quicker.
Although his stats had risen, even if only a smidgen, it grew at a consistent rate.
'It must be the status screen,' he thought.
The difference between him and the boy two days ago was clearly noticeable.
It was as though he wasn't a normal human being anymore.
'No,' Jonah shook his head. 'I am human.'
The boy gave a side glance at a certain someone.
'She's the real monster.'
That's right.
The blonde girl who was looking around as though a tourist in a foreign land, "𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰"-ing and "𝘢𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩𝘩"-ing at almost everything.
The one who, when embarrassed, blushes and scratches her head and gives a "hehehehe."
The one who, when she doesn't know how to answer, gives him a wide 'U' like smile.
Avalow's the real monster.
She looked to be his age-he didn't bother to ask, and yet she was abnormally scary.
Scarily strong.
Throughout their rather short journey, which was only about five days-counting the day when he met her, he had noticed many, many strange things.
Even after almost all that time, he couldn't truly figure her out.
Well, it was just five days, but still.
Jonah had plenty of time to observe, and plenty he did.
Avalow was a magic-using, nervous clumsy girl who makes strange jokes at unusual times and looks to make many mistakes.
For example, on the day where they entered the town together, she tripped, quickly getting up and fixing her hat. When she found out the boy noticed, she rubbed the back of her head while "hehehehe"-ing, slightly blushed, and apologized.
'I won't do that next time,' she said.
And she did it within a couple minutes.
Another time, Avalow accidently got her magical wooden staff caught on a car door once, and tried to pull it out.
Jonah didn't know how it got stuck. It took many seconds of constant struggle until he came over and easily pulled the lodged staff out. The blonde girl then started "hehehehe"-ing...and she trailed off, looking away into an all consuming awkward silence.
…that accident never happened again.
Those were one of the many eventful parts during these past few days.
Then, there was looting.
…heh.
Heheheheheh.
Oh no, he's turning into a giggling mess.
The white-haired boy wanted to deny it, but he couldn't.
He enjoyed looting houses.
…
There was a constant schedule in which the two tacitly agreed on from the moment they entered the town.
When night draws close, the two choose a house to 'occupy' so they can rest.
…no, that was just an excuse.
Before that, they choose a house almost every hour or so to loot after they got out of the house they slept the previous night.
It's a matter of preference, really, to choose which one.
The rich, big, decorated looking houses look more appealing to enter than the small ones.
Sometimes, they randomly choose a smaller one.
What matters is most of the houses were always locked. Fortunately, no drastic measures were taken to break in, for Avalow was good at lockpicking the doors with surprising skill and technique.
The blonde girl grew more mysterious in his eyes as he watched her in stern concentration picking at the lock with two paper clips she found from somewhere.
'Mysterious and scary,' he confirmed.
Once Avalow opens the door, we arrive into what we see in many houses…
Slightly dusty, dark and dim, cold, and…shadows.
Jonah still felt something was staring at him from behind, and he resisted the urge to look around each time.
So, he took comfort in not being alone.
The boy had a monster he could see next to him after all.
So, as they entered the home, they headed towards the kitchen first for supplies.
Sometimes the kitchen was usually empty, but sometimes…jackpot.
They still had things like canned food, bags of chips, and vegetables.
Of course, all of them had utensils. Jonah lost count in how many forks, spoons, and knives he found when opening a drawer.
With those, they stuffed it into the two conveniently very large backpacks they found in some random house on the first day.
With it, they stored as much canned food. Canned corn, beans, chicken soup…maybe a bottle of water or two.
It was really exhilarating to Jonah, finding loot in real life.
In a somewhat empty town, lifeless, loads of treasures laid before him. It was a matter of time before he picked them up.
…he digressed.
So after they were done looting the kitchen, they scurried around the house like rats seeing a buffet before them.
Other than clothes, pillows, and blankets, there was pretty much nothing useful.
Other than those…then began the awful and constant stream of questions.
Almost all the houses they've been to had electronics like TVs, speakers, and radios.
And each time they come across something like that, Avalow would always ask him questions.
Jonah began to have serious doubts if this girl really was a human. She had to be a girl from the countryside who learned under a magical witch or something.
Thankfully, it died down to just a question every six or more hours or so, but he shivered for its inevitable descent.
That was the normal looting schedule.
Later at night, before the sun truly descends below the horizon, they choose a house to live in.
Most of them had a hearth in which they lit-no, it was just Avalow.
The blonde girl used her mysterious magic to light up the charcoal or wood that remains inside the hearth. If there weren't, they would toss in an assortment of clothes.
Then, they began to cook the food.
Just like with the utensils, there were many plates, pots, and pans left in the cabinets of the kitchen.
Then, the sun fell, and the gray sky became as dark as…night.
Only the flickering flames, crackling, illuminated light around the two as they settled down to rest.
They began laying out the blankets and pillow they took from the bedrooms and laid it by the hearth.
As Avalow was looking through what she found earlier, Jonah took the time to daze off, looking up at the dark ceiling.
Fighting, looting, and other things took his mind off…things, but when he rested…he couldn't help but think.
Thinking of how Chaya was doing, or where the people who lived in this town had gone…or how Chaya was doing.
The boy blinked and shook his head.
He thought of the same thing twice, didn't he? Perhaps he really was tired.
Jonah then looked at the blonde girl.
Usually, she was messing around with stuff, looking at things with an expression of awe, but this time she was reading a book.
As he tried to peer at the cover, which was shadowed because it was away from the fire of the hearth, he suddenly yawned.
It was time to sleep.
Shifting under his blanket, he faced away from the hearth, took a deep breath of cold fresh air, and closed his eyes.
Another day awaits the morrow.
…
'That was what basically happened these past few days,' Jonah thought as he looked around at the gray, bleak buildings around him.
No monsters seemed to be around, nothing worth interesting, nothing moving in the shadows…
As Jonah kept looking around, the blonde girl spoke up.
"How many monsters was that now?" Avalow asked, putting away the shards of the mana core- she explained to him what they were days ago-into her brown leather satchel she conveniently found the previous day.
"I stopped counting after thirty," Jonah said, shaking his head.
Currently, they were on the far side of Yume, the opposite side of the forest, from where Chaya and Anna lived.
He sighed, stabbing his metal spear-stick thing deep into the snow as a white mist exhaled from his mouth.
"Why are there so many anyways?" he asked.
"As mana begins coming back to the world, both in quantity and quality, more and more monsters would appear," Avalow said.
"Like a dam groaning against the weight of the flood, soon a large amount of it will burst into the world, and the monsters will grow even stronger. They might even evolve."
Jonah gripped the metal stick tighter.
"Then we should kill them all faster-"
"No," Avalow suddenly said. "That means we should grow stronger. We both have a status screen, right? With it, we can grow faster than the average, talented person, and so we should use this to our advantage."
"...but..." the boy hesitated. The blonde girl simply shakes her head.
"There's no need to worry. What comes will come, and until then we must be prepared to face it," she firmly stated.
Jonah just nodded his head.
"...right."
Avalow nodded her head as well and turned around.
Then she yelped and tripped into the soft snow.
She quickly got back up, patting the snow off her as she "heheheheh."
The boy sighed again, as he did, he heard a voice.
"Are you still worried about your sister?" Avalow asked with a obvious, clearly concerned face.
Jonah gave her a side glance.
Was it that obvious?
"Of course I am-"
Then, he stopped.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
What-
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
This feeling…
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
It's…it's the same.
The same when he felt his heart trying to leap out of his chest.
The same when all he could hear was his own breath, and breathing heart.
The same when he felt a cold embrace wrapping around him, chilling him deeper than the snow can.
The same when…when…
Jonah slowly, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 slowly, looked at the companion next to him.
In a similar fashion, The blonde girl next to him was frozen. Wide-eyed, she was staring at something…
Something right above his head.
The boy bit his lips as he also slowly looked up.
Then, a shadow casted its…shadow over him.
About a few yards away, a floating object…floated above him.
Few, very tense seconds passed as the object slowly passed by overhead, and the boy quietly and finally was able to see the side of the floating object.
No, a floating chair.
'No,' Jonah thought.
'A floating 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦.'
The throne was as dark as obsidian, decorated with many strange patterns, and yet within the cold exterior, an uncomfortable orange glow exuded from it, like a faint sun descending below the horizon of a desert.
The two were stiff and quiet as the floating throne slowly crossed above them.
As it moved further and further away, after an uncomfortably long time, they finally saw the occupant of said floating throne.
Sitting on the floating throne was a…unique girl who looked around the age of thirteen.
'Unique she was,' Jonah managed to think.
Of course the girl was unique since she was sitting on a floating chair, but-
Long black hair exuded the light that radiated off the throne that seemed to shine behind her head. Also behind her head, five yellow-orange shining diamond shaped objects spread outward like a blooming flower.
Dressed in a slim, yet simple black dress, the girl slowly drifted across the gray-white landscape that lies beneath her.
Wind and snow parted ways in front of her as she moved forward very, very slowly.
Did Jonah forget to mention she was moving very slowly.
Perhaps.
From where the two were at, they were barely able to see even the girl's hair.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱.
Heartbeats kept echoing in his ears as Jonah felt his heart trying to leap from his chest once again.
Suddenly, the floating throne-chair thing stopped.
The boy felt his gulp was like a scream inside an empty, hollow room.
He immediately turned to look for answers from his knowledgeable companion.
Instead, he saw Avalow's feet disappear into a building.
Jonah quickly looked around, and within a split second, he found a house opened close to him.
He immediately dove right into the conveniently opened door.