Ascension

We walked ahead towards the small cave, on guard. I expected Blood bats to come flying out at us, but to my surprise there was nothing. I checked around the cave, and found a few sticks.

"Roma, can you start a fire?" I asked. I began to gather sticks, clustering them together. There weren't many, so I made a small pyramid. It was the most effective way to do it, at least I saw.

"Yeah, I'll begin the incantation" Her hands made a diamond shape. She began to whisper, a foreign language. She became possessed, white eyed and bleeding nose.

'Incantation? Like magic? And whats going on. This doesn't look right.' I stood there anxiously, for a few more seconds. "Roma? You there?" I called out. No response.

Soon after, she regained consciousness and a small wisp of fire came shooting out of her hands. Luckily, it landed on the contraption of sticks that I made.

"Sorry if I scared you, It's what happens when I use magic." Roma responded, even more groggily than before. She began to fall to the floor. Instinctively, I dropped down to cradle her.

"Why does this happen Roma, is this normal?" I asked wearily. She was shaking, and her body was ice cold. I sat there cradling her until she stopped shaking.

"Thanks for that Ganno." she spoke.

We stayed in that cave for a while. It was harsh but we persevered. In that time I made a slingshot. That's where I began liking the idea of shooting things down and fighting from range.

At first I experimented with rocks. Simply just pelting them at blood bats seemed to be useful. It was difficult hitting a moving target at first, but I started to get used to it.

Then Roma made me a sling shot. The rocks were good yes, but they lacked power. With the sling shot I was getting better at shooting things.

"Roma we've been here for a while, do you think you'll be able to move now?" I asked. We had been in that cave for atleast 2 days. Roma couldn't move properly during that time, so I was forced to provide. And the only source of food we had, was bloodbats. Surprisingly enough, they were edible and tasted good.

Talk about lucky. There were times where it had come close. When there was too many blood bats I was forced to run away.

One time I remember, made me realise the supremacy of ranged attacks. I had ran out of rocks to sling with my slingshot and a bat was closing in. I had my knife, and loaded it up instead. It was amazing. The knife cut through the air and stabbed the bat. I could see it again and again.

I hadn't asked why Roma's body had reacted like that when using magic. It hadn't gone through my mind.

"Roma?" I called out to her.

"Yeah what's up?" she responded hastily. Ever since I had screamed at her, she'd been more attentive and on her toes, especially when it came to me.

"Why did you shake when you used magic?" I asked.

"Oh that." She chuckled before continuing. "Magic isn't made for this world, but for the open. We can use it here, but it has a massive toll on our bodies. When we go to the open, I'll be able to use magic just fine."

"What exactly is the open?" It had peaked my interest. She had mentioned this 'open' three times now. I had to know.

"Don't be dumb Ganno. The gate to the other world? It opens every 100 years, with exceptions of course. Don't you remember, were going there in 5 or so months. Luckily for us, its the 9th opening since the first time." She mocked.

The way she spoke about it, seemed as though everyone knew this. Maybe because I'm not from here I wouldn't know. Can't blame me, it's like homework set on a day you weren't in. You simply just didn't know.

"Wow, sounds fun. We really do need to get out of here" I was excited of course, the idea of the Open made me energetic. 'This open place sounds great, I wanna go there as soon as possible' my mind was already creating fantasies of me being a warrior, enjoying battles and slaying foes.

"Alright Roma, let's climb, but this time, you're moving yourself." I joked. Seriously though, I don't know if I could carry her again. She was... heavy.

"Of course I will Ganno, you're a slow climber after all. I couldn't bear another slug trek up a ravine." She was mocking it intensely. Wasn't she the one who was just snoring like a rock while crying almost every 20 seconds about being in pain? I thought so.

I left the cave, its familiar scent leaving my nose, to be gone forever. "Goodbye my cave, we part today." Roma sniffled.

'What is she talking about' I cringed in my head. 'What is this non player character behaviour?'

I started stretching my limbs, getting ready to climb. "Are you ready Roma?" I asked. "Our ascension begins soon. Once we start climbing we don't stop. No breaks, just full send, okay?"

"Aye Aye captain!" she laughed. Her humour wasn't funny, and I seriously do not know why she thought it was. It really hurt me when she made unfunny jokes like these, because A. She's the only one who laughs at them, and B. they aren't funny.

"Okay Roma, off we go!"