The land of the celestial peaks

I grinned and couldn’t hide my smile.

Was I amazed by that, or simply scared?

“Ha…,” I tried to hold my laugh back.

“C-can I take a picture of it?”

“Mr Erick, so you do recognise it, am I wrong?” said Sandra with an undistigible face.

In my stories from the Celestial Peaks universe, I created some sort of cliche for me to make a mystery for my players and readers: a summoning stone.

Picture it: Your world needs help, so you want those to ask for help from another world.

In exchange, you have to be their hero too. I always enjoyed this idea and felt like it would be fair. I never had that much time getting into the complexity of the stones, so it always felt a little vague.

How could this be possible?

Not only was one of these in front of me, but three of them!

Sandra walked closer to me and put her hand on my shoulder, shaking it. I was inside my world, but soon, that fell off as I looked at her.

“Y-Yes. How did you find it?”

“That is not something I can share with you. I’m sorry,” she answered, looking away. I felt attacked by that answer.

“I need to know, Sandra! Is this a prank or something? Are you a fan?”

I couldn’t make sense of this situation. My mind was agitated, bustling with ideas. That stone was too specific to be an ordinary occurrence: someone put it there!

Yes, that’s it. It couldn’t be anything else. They all looked at me, and their eyes… They were not trustworthy.

Could it be this? For real? I…

They felt so funny, didn’t they? I came here, to the middle of the forest, and for what? To be pranked?

Sandra looked at me with a face that felt like she was apathetic to all of that. The others looked at me as I was starting to lose control.

I don’t know why I lost it until now. Maybe the burnout? The stress and frustration? It should have been one of these. For a moment, I ignored reality, walking forward and turning around. If they wanted to be amused, I was going to give them a spectacle.

“You think you are so funny, Mrs Sandra? Don’t you think I have better things to do?” I look at her, Richard, and some other assistants who were intrigued by what was happening. My voice was louder, and I couldn’t control it.

She looked at me, startled.

“What are you talking about, sir?”

“This is not funny! You guys don’t know the first thing about what is happening in my life to do something as stupid as this. You want a show? Nikita, come here! Help me out with this.”

My best friend looked at me for a moment. For a second, I felt like he was not going to partake in my madness. But thank god. I was wrong.

“Brother, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if they did something to provoke you, I didn’t come here only for the travel.”

I smiled.

“Wait, Mr Erick, listen to me for a second, please!”

“Silence!” I said as I held my breath for a while and adjusted my glasses, trying to look impressive.

I took Nikita's hand and pulled him over one of the stones.

“Are you sure this is fine?” he asked me in a low tone.

I just looked him in the eyes, and I believe he got the answer he needed.

“Uhm, Erick… You are so hard sometimes… I hope we don’t go the jail for this,” he said with a small laugh.

I stepped on the other stone, right in the center of it. Pointing my hand to all of them, I started to speak in a much louder voice.

Their faces were sparkling for a moment. Some of them were impressed by the courage and crazy situation that was happening, probably not understanding most of what I started talking about, and some of the others looked astonished.

All their voices started to speak at the same time.

“Mr Erick, don’t step on that…!” said Sandra.

“What is he doing, Sandra? Is he out of his mind?” said Leandro.

“Sir, you shouldn’t do that,” said Richard

“O que está acontecendo?” a voice talked in the back.

“Ele está bem?” another one.

Blind with my rage, I started my speech.

“As all of you want to see today, I will give you a show! I called these stones the summoning from another world! It’s in my books, you know? Yeah, I think you might already know.”

“In the beginning, I didn’t know how to properly describe how the heroes would be called by these stones. So I mentioned in my worldbuilding books something like… “The heroes only need to say their prayers to the Ly’vex’s being, and they would allow him to do the call, or answer them.” I never planned much about this, because it was just a tool. Maybe in the future I might write more about it? I don’t know. But for now, let’s try out, shall we?”

I pointed my hand to the sky, looking at some of the birds flying.

“I don’t know how to start this, so please! If any of you are hearing this, hear my call! Yhra, queen of time, Munnus, elder of the peaks, or anyone else! I’m here to ask for you’re help in exchange for my powers, so that I could save another world, and have my world saved! If not, then I’m here answering the calls. If a hero ever saved our world, here I am, ready to save theirs!”

The air was heavy for a moment. Everybody looked astonished at the spectacle I tried to give them, but nobody was smiling. They all looked scared or worried.

Sandra stepped a little closer to me.

“M-Mr Erick. I’m sorry if I offended you, but please, calm down!”

“I cannot answer you because I have an agreement with the university and with a financier of this expedition. I can answer any other questions you have.”

I felt stupid for a second. Did I let out my frustration on these random people? God, I was so red at that time. I looked at Nikita, and he could only smile with a funny face.

I sighed.

I was ready to step out of the stones when it happened.

A wave of energy and light covered my body. I started panicking and looking at the other side, I saw Nikita having the same problem. What was happening?

I looked up again, and the aura that was surrounding us came from high above the clouds. The time was sunny, but just moments ago, when I looked at the sky, there was no cloud at all!

I shouted, but my voice wouldn’t leave. Everyone on the site looked astonished. Nobody could do a thing because what was happening in front of their eyes was nothing anyone had ever seen in reality; it was pure fiction.

I felt as my body started to scratch and tear apart, and I was desperate, feeling the dread of a near-death.

All I could see on the horizon was the forest, and it was disappearing as we saw the blue sky, almost as if we were being dragged.

The sight of a land I had never seen before stands before my very own eyes as I fly. But now, I could see something I knew.

Because I created it.

We were now in Auzyia, the land of the celestial peaks.

And everything turned black as I hit the floor.