Stepping Out

"Mask," Alice called.

"Yes?"

Alice fiddled with her spoon and played with her food. She twirled the soup at all sides, telling me that something bugged her mind. The worried girl opened her mouth, but retracted it afterwards.

"You don't have to force yourself to tell me. I will always be here for you, listening to everything, okay?" I said, and stared elsewhere.

The two of us filled the room in silence. Pressuring Alice would come and bite its way back at me if I insisted on expressing her problems. I knew that would become that case soon if I did that. My experiences told everything.

She stared at the bowl for a few seconds before expressing her thoughts to me. "Do you think I can still change my fate?"

I pondered for a while, unsure of what to answer at the silent girl. Alice kept quiet for a moment, whilst gazing at the leftover food with her emotionless eyes.

"I am okay staying here inside the cave for the rest of our lives. As long as I'm with you, I am happy about everything we have," I answered. "But you're a princess. And if what you said was happening out there, your people might want to need your help."

Alice and I stared at each other's eyes. She was absorbing all the things I had mentioned, including the ruler part.

But Alice needed some time to think about everything. If we step outside that burrow, bats could wait for the two of us. Those beasts could kill us on the spot if we are not careful. The two of us barely even survived a bat.

What more if we would face a hundred of them out there?

"Let's go outside," Alice announced.

She had a determined look carved on her face. Alice gripped her hands tight and marched towards the desk.

"You're right. My family died because of me. But I won't let their death go to waste."

A spell emerged from her palm and sucked everything Alice had placed inside. Upon asking about the ability, Alice told me it was an ability meant to store anything that is not alive.

"You can summon yours too," Alice said, and waved her hands in a circular motion. "Just use your imagination and imagine that the spell looks and acts like a pouch. After a few seconds, you might summon one! Here, try it out."

I used Alice's instructions and formed a sphere in front of me. The spell did not differ from an inventory from a game. It had the same descriptions where I could also store anything inside of the imaginary pouch.

Within a few moments, a spiral shape appeared before me. It flickered dark and purple lights before forming a portal. The hole had the same designs as Alice, but mine was more twirly than hers. It also had a tornado sensation that drew every dust closer to its unfathomable realm.

It was as if the spell was waiting for me to activate it.

"No fair! I was waiting for you to mess up! It took me five years to complete that spell, which you learned JUST NOW!" Alice emphasized at present. She grunted, stomped the ground, and even booed at me out of jealousy.

Alice continued mumbling to herself, which I did not mind. That little girl would eventually stop yapping once she would grow tired.

It took Alice a complete five minutes before cooling herself down. She went towards me and pointed out the things that Alice wanted to put inside my [astral space]. Alice told me that her container had limited slots. She asked mine if I also had finite spaces for my spell, but I shook my head.

"It's not fair at all!" Alice grunted yet again, and stormed off at the mattress. The little girl attempted to sleep on her way back, but she went up and returned to my side.

It was what I had uttered. The spell did not limit me from putting anything inside. I could insert anything that I wanted without worrying about any spaces that could make my bag stacked. Alice told me that my spell was one of a kind.

"It could become a legendary spell if people who could use magic know about you, Mask," Alice appended, while heaving out a hundred exhales.

I hurled every item that Alice marked inside my inventory. However, something halted me from proceeding with my activity.

[You have unlocked the [Astral Space]] An automated voice announced, as I placed half of Alice's belongings to my portal.

I spared a glance at Alice and waited for her to react to the window. But as time passed by, the girl mentioned nothing about the azure screen at my fore. It was as if the window was only for me.

"Who is speaking to me?" I whispered, hoping that Alice would not notice a thing.

But there was nobody there to answer me. The rustling of the wind, which should not be possible inside a cave, were the only sounds that flew through my ears.

"Maybe it's nothing."

"What did you say?" Alice shouted. She heard my monologues.

"Nothing."

The two of us carried on with our things and finished after fifteen minutes. All we had to do was to put everything inside the [astral space]. We even placed the freaking table inside. It was the same damned thing that had the size of a bed fit inside the portal!

"That's everything that we need?" I asked.

Alice gave me a nod. "Yes. We are all settled in and prepared to go outside!"

However, that brimming energy went into turmoil as Alice gazed at the burrow. The abyss that we needed to tread devoured us. It looked like the tunnel down below had a lengthy distance from the surface.

"I'm scared, Mask," Alice confessed. "What if those bats kill us before we can even make it outside the forest? What if we die?! I don't wanna die!"

Alice's breaths became quicker than ever before. Her hands vibrated like a machine that wanted to explode. She had her eyes wandering around the cave, regretting the decision Alice had made.

"It's alright," I interposed, hoping to catch her attention. "If you failed the first try, this time would be different. You have me."

I caressed her hair and held her shivering hands. Alice's eyes looked up to me and gaped at my face. She did not expect my sudden movements. But I did what I think I needed to do.

"I'm here. This time, you're not alone in escaping this place, okay?" There was no other way to sugarcoat my words or to make my sentence less dramatic. Those words were also the lines that I wanted to hear from my mother.

I never experienced the warmth of the surrounding people. Now that I became a puppet, my heart melted every time I saw Alice turn gloomy. If I were an actual person, I would've cried too.

A teardrop fell on Alice's eyelids as she heard the words told from my mouth. I wiped the salty water from her eyelids and nudged her to move forward into the burrow.

"Let's go. The entire world is waiting for us right there. And I meant that literally," I humoured Alice, while stepping my foot onward at her side.

My word was my bond. If Alice wants to stay, I will remain by her side for eternity. If Alice wished to explore the world, I would go where the wind would take the two of us.

Alice chose the latter.

"Off we go, then!"

She grabbed me by my arms and slid through the tunnel. The miniature hole turned into a marvellous slide that vomited us out from the surface. With a "YAHOO!!" sounds yelled by Alice, we arrived at the open.

"That was fun!" Alice remarked. The sorrow she felt before turned into glee. It was like the sun had shined upon the little girl, which also paved our way.

It was morning right now. The rays of sunlight illuminated the dark areas that we did not notice during the night. However, the thick mist from every corner obstructed our view.

"Keep your eyes peeled open. Bats are not the only beasts we need to fight, Mask," Alice warned, and readied her magic on the tip of her hands.

I did not need to prepare my spells, given that I was a puppet. The only thing that I should worry about was our surroundings. I had eyes that could see through from kilometres away. My eyesight was twice as good as the humans. I was a human too, before all these events happened, so I knew what I was talking about.

"Can you see anything, Mask?" Alice asked. She wanted to rely on my puppet eyes rather than her normal orbs.

"I see nothing, chief. I think it's safe to proceed."

"Okay."

After our exchange, the two of us trekked the uncharted realm of the forest.