Arandis

A certain world, one in which touching the ground was unthinkable to , mountains sprung across the surface, each one taller than the last. And on top, a certain boy dreamed of reaching the highest peak of them all.

“Niui , Get down from here!”

“I will soon, gramps!”

The boy stared at the night sky at the top of the roof of a small house with a smile on his face, looking at the handful of stars that were shining brightly, before an angry face of an older man blocked it.

“How many times have I told you it’s dangerous to go so high up!” - he smacked the boy in the head.

“Ouch! What was that?”

“Since you don’t seem to learn any other way I thought that’d get it to your head”

The man took a seat right next to him, even if it clearly looked like he had some issues while trying to. Both of them looked into the distant horizon which was filled with mountains. Some were quite a bit taller so they could only see their sides, while others were a bit shorter, from each one of them, a light source on the top lighting it up so they almost looked like stars.

“Hey, Gramps, do you think I can make it to Arandis ?”

“Are you still talking about that thing? I never understood why you’re so set on that”

“Yeah, I mean, if I find the sky so beautiful from here, imagine how it looks from the world’s tallest mountain!”

The older man seemed to be relatively apprehensive about the boy’s ambition but upon seeing the enthusiasm on his face, he couldn't do anything else but support him. He placed his hand on the boy’s head, and rubbed his hair.

“I’m sure, one day, but you still have couple of years to go before I’ll let you even think about that”

COUPLE OF YEARS LATER

The still young boy stood in front of the station, looking back and forth between his ticket and a board which hung from the cable car. A lot of people were already going in, saying their greetings to one of the attendants.

“Excuse me, is this the right place?”

“Let’s see…” - She took a look at the ticket before handing it back to him - ”Yes, that’s here! Do You need someone to take you to your seat?”

“No, it’s fine, thank you!”

He followed some other people inside, before deciding to look for his seat.

He slowly made his way around the cable car, checking whether the numbers on the cabin had matched the one given to him on the paper, until he reached the right one. He opened the door, and two people sat opposite of each other, both looked at him as he entered.

The most striking feature about the man sitting was his long black hair, and on one side of it, a small silver tube accessory which collected some of it into one thicker portion rather than letting it spread out. Similarly to the accessory, his outfit was pretty light-colored which really contrasted his hair. He also seemed to have a sword tied to his hip, though it was still sheathed.

The woman on the other hand, who was sitting in front of him, seemed like a complete opposite. Her face had a slightly rougher look to it, but not in a manly way, but rather a wild animal type type. And her outfit, which there was less of, seemed to have a bit more fur and feathers on it, giving it a much more wild look.

“I’m Niui !”

His enthusiasm seemed to startle both of them at first, but soon after he sat down and started talking to them more.

“What about you, Mister?”

“ “Mister” makes me sound old, you know? I’m Yiran”

“ What about you?” - he instantly turned around to face the woman

“Me? Karona”

“Simple” - it was Yiran who commented

“Got a problem?”

“So, are you guys going to Ahzla or farther?”

“To Vizzemont first”

“...Same” - She seemed pretty annoyed at going same direction as Yiran

“I guess we’re stuck for a while longer then!”

“You’re going there as well?” - it was Yiran who inquired about it further.

“I'm going to Arandis , but gramps said I should go to Vizzemont on the way!”

Both of them seemed surprised at the answer, and upon hearing nothing from them, the boy started to lean out of the window to look at the pitfall they were flying over, only to be pulled back by Karona

“Hey don’t lean out, you’re gonna fall out! Did no one teach you that?!”

“No, it’s my first time”

She seemed surprised - “Well I don’t like saying things twice, so just sit still!l”

“You’re kinda like my Gramps”

Yiran seemed to chuckle at the comparison.

“So why are you two going to Vizzemont?”

“I guess you could say I ran away from home, and since it’s the biggest city in the lower third, I can sort out some things there”

“Hoh? Pretty Face like you probably got promised to some old guy and couldn’t take it.”

“You don’t have to take it out on me that a fat old guy would rather marry me than you”

“I see, What about you, Karona?”

“A lady keeps her secrets”

“A lady would, so, what’s yours?”

They were chatting happily, at least that’s what Niui thought, the other two not so much, until screams erupted from somewhere outside the cable car cabin, to which both Yiran and Karona reacted.

“We’ll be right back”

“Yeah! Don't you worry!"

They went out of their cabin to deal with the problem.

“If you can just stall them for a tiny bit I’ll come help you after I'm done with the other guys.”

“Hah! Don’t even joke about that, I’ll be done before you even pull out your sword”

Both of them went in opposite directions to deal with the hijackers. Though the wagons were long, it didn’t actually take them all that long to get to where the people were screaming from.

“No One Move!”

As one the men in the group said this he pointed his sword at Yiran, but he didn’t seem to budge at all, and instead he unsheathed his sword, before putting its hit in his mouth.

Perhaps because they didn’t know what he was doing, they didn’t attack and instead just stared at him while still holding some of the hostages. However, when Yiran’s body tensed up, they became more alert of what he was going to do next.

None of them moved, waiting for the other side to do so first, however eventually one of the hijackers couldn’t take the pressure, and with a rather panicked scream rushed towards Yiran.

In one swift move he dodged the attack completely, resulting in the hijacker almost tripping forward. Though it seemed like the moves were pointless from the observer's perspective, the way he moved was captivating. The man he just dodged did not wait, and instead turned around and continued his attacks straight away, but no matter how many he threw, all of them missed.

However his next attack felt weaker, and so did the next one, soon enough his arm swung for the last time and he couldn't lift it again. He looked down to see what was wrong, which is when he noticed that his skin was cut all over the place, even if it was not bleeding.

Panic ran across his face as he looked up at Yiran, who was smiling even while holding the hilt of the sword in his mouth, even after making a single step and collapsed onto the ground.

The remaining three hijackers were all shocked at first, but when Yiran turned around to face them, 2 of them ran straight towards him, but similarly to his first opponent, he slipped between both of their attacks easily.

Since the 3rd one was still further away, he was able to see that Yiran passed the sword between his mouth and hands as he passed between the hijackers, and soon after he placed his sword back in his mouth again, they fell to the floor.

At that moment, he grabbed one of the passengers who happened to be an a middle-aged woman who happened to be sitting nearby with her child

"Mom!"

"Shut up!" - He said as he pulled the woman closer, placing his sword on the woman's throat, piercing her skin and drawing blood - "Not one more step!"

Yiran put his hands up in the air waiting for the next command.

"Throw your sword to the ground, now!"

He compiled without any issues, and tossed the sword to the ground, before starting to walk backwards.

The Hijacker was still pretty startled, so he couldn't decide where to look, he switched between looking at the sword on the floor, the man walking backwards and in an instant he decided to check out if there's anyone behind him, Yiran kicked one of the swords dropped by one of the now beaten hijackers, launching it straight towards at the man's hand.

Since he was still turning his head he couldn't react fast enough even if he heard Yiran kick it, and by the time he was facing forward, the sword already collided with the one in his hand, causing him to drop it.

In the same instant, before the sword he dropped reached the floor, Yiran was already standing in front of him and with a simple chop to his neck, the hijacker fell to the ground. Since the woman was held by him, once the man started falling, so did she, but Yiran caught her before she fell to the floor.

"Are you all right, miss?"

"Yes... Thank you."

He helped get her up, after which she ran straight towards her daughter. A nearby staff member was observing everything, and after picking up his sword and walking over towards her, she got slightly scared before he started speaking.

"I'm sorry, I got some blood on the floor, I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience. These guys shouldn't be able to move till we get to the port"

"Erm... It's okay... Thank you!"

He smiled before heading back.

At the same time, on the opposite end of the cable car.

Karona pretty much rushed to the scene,

"Who are yo-!"

Before the man was able to finish his sentence she had already leaped and punched him to the face, knocking him backwards hard enough that the two people standing there both had to catch him to stop him from flying further back. Whether intentionally or not, they dropped him to the floor right after.

She noticed that behind the two of them there was one more person, who seemed to have a bow, and upon seeing that, started shooting in her direction right away.

He was shooting rather frantically while the two of the men waited in order to not be in his line of fire, however after catching 3 arrows with ease she seemed to get irritated, and pulled out one of the tables from the floor, before placing it in front of her as she rushed towards him.

Even if the arrows were able to pierce it, because of how she was carrying it, they couldn't hit her, so she reached him quite easily, before slamming the table into him.

The two men who were now behind her already started her attack, however, she ripped the leg of the table, and threw it at one of them like a javelin, to which he couldn't react.

The only remaining hijacker at this point got scared as he saw his companion fly off, but soon after, she had also hit and sent him flying as well, so he didn't have much time to worry.

Every single one of THem has been dealt with, after which she looked proudly at the people watching. Even if they didn't necessarily have eyes of admiration she still felt pretty good, and quickly made her way back, passing by one of the attendants and placing her hand on her shoulder

"You're welcome"

By the time he was heading back, she was already standing there, with a proud look on her face.

"I Won!"

Since he was quite a bit taller, he could see above her head that most of the seats and cabins where she fought were destroyed. He put up a bit of an awkward smile to which she instantly reacted.

"What?"

"It's nothing..."

They went inside back of the cabin, where Niui was still looking through the window

"All done?"

"Yeah it was a piece of cake!"

"There shouldn't be any problems now, so you can go back to resting in peace"

"It's fine I wasn't scared."

"Oh? Why's that?

"Because You beat up those guys pretty easily"

"Well I guess, but you know,I wouldn't say that they were weak, just that I was stronger than them."

"I know, but I'm stronger than you, so I wasn't worried"

Right after saying that he went back to looking through the window. There was innocence in the way he spoke, so despite the claim sounding outrageous,Yiran didn't laugh at it, though Karona tried her best to hold hers back..

They all sat back in their chairs, and for the remainder of the journey, which was not that long due to the fact that they had to deal with the hijackers, nothing else happened and all three of them simply tried their best to enjoy themselves.

Once the cable car had reached its destination, everyone started to slowly get up and make their way towards the exit. They were passing by the wagon which Karona had mostly destroyed, however it was cleaned up a bit more than before, and all of the perpetrators were tied up with some ropes, still unconscious or unable to move.

The platform they left on had another clear path, which seemed to lead to the other end of the mountain, which pretty much everyone who left the cable car seemed to follow right after leaving. However, Niui went the other way, on a path which was clearly left unused for a longer while, with grass and weeds growing between the bricks.

"Where are you going? Vizzemont is the other way." - Karona seemed to be confused as to how he could miss the clear path

"Well, It'd be a waste to not check the rest of the mountain out"

He continued to walk right after saying that, while the two of them stood stunned for a few seconds, before Yiran started following him as well.

"You too?"

"You can take the other path if you're scared"

"Huh?? I'm not scared"

She screamed in their direction but neither of the two turned around,

"It's just a waste of time!"

After trying once more and still being ignored, a mix of embarrassment and anger formed on her face, after which she quickly jogged up to them, and once she did Niui turned around with a smile, which quickly subsided her anger.

While it seemed pretty normal at first, after walking a while longer it entered a forest or a jungle, at which point the already destroyed path pretty much disappeared, with only a small path being made in the dirt that they followed.

The thick leaves obstructed their vision quite a bit, and because of the difference in height for all of them, they all had to move them out of the way themselves, which masked some of the sounds the forest was making.

It was hard to tell just how much time has passed, since the trees were blocking a lot of the sunlight, but it was slowly starting to get darker, which is when they walked out to a relatively large cut out field in the forest which was overlooked by a stone statue showcasing a serpent with markings on it, as well as a large circular spot full of ash in the middle.

Niui stopped instantly after getting out and seeing it, and since Yiran was quite a bit taller than him as well, he also stopped upon seeing it, Karona wasn't as lucky and instead she ended up bumping into him full force.

"Hey!"

She said before peeking her head on the side of Yiran to see what was up, but right after she did, he started walking forward towards the statue with Niui .

They all stared at it silently for a few seconds inspecting it. All of them looked at it with a rather focused face, when Niui turned around and walked away.

"You could read this?" - Yiran seemed pretty surprised

"No, I just have a feeling we shouldn't be here."

Since both Yiran and Karona came here just because he did, they didn't really have any problems with already going back.

They retracted their steps, and just as they started walking over the pit from before, a small smoke bomb was thrown onto the floor, blinding all of them instantly.

"What happened?"

"What was that?"

Amidst the coughing fit all of them had, they could only say those things, because the smoke was clearly impairing their vision, not just because of how opaque it was, but also because it seemed to sing their eyes pretty hard. Though, even through that, they could see a glimpse of something moving through it.

"You guys, stay close!" - Karona screamed, before slamming her fist into the ground, which generated enough wind to blow the smoke away.

All of them were still regaining their vision fully, but even through their teary eyes they could tell everyone was still here, and after all nodding to each other, they dashed straight back into the forest.

This time, it was much easier to tell that someone was following them, the rustling from the tree's branches was much louder. However, the scariest fact about it, was that no matter how far they ran, the noise seemed to be close to them all the time

They made turns, quick switches, even split up for a tiny space of time just to rejoin, but they didn't stop running, which is when they made it to another open field with a serpent statue again.

"Here again!? We're lost!"

Niui shaked his head - "It's a different place, look at the markings"

She tried straining her eyes but couldn't really tell the difference between the two.

"I can't believe you didn't notice such an obvious difference" - Yiran couldn't tell it was a different place at first as well.

"S-Shut up!"

Because of the fact the space was open, they could tell it was much darker now than before, so going into the forest again might've not been the smartest idea at the time. There was some noise from the forest still, but it was now much quieter, and seemed like it didn't want to move closer to where they actually were.

"So, what now?"

"I think it's best if we set up camp till morning. An open space like this is easier to defend than running through the forest that they know like the back of their hand."

"I think so too"

"Well, if that's what you guys want, I guess I can stay as well"

All three of them began grabbing sticks and logs from nearby the forest, making sure to pick the spots away from the noise, before putting them in a pile at the center of the empty field, and lighting them on fire. Each of them also took a small log to sit.

" I wish we had something to eat, I'm hungry..."

"I caught some things on the way" - Niui pulled out a handful of small rabbits out of his, each one of them was slightly bigger than his hand, but considering he wasn't too big yet, they weren't really impressive.

"Huh?" - She seemed unsure as to how he had the time to grab them while they were running away, but after hearing her stomach rumble decided not really think about it much, and instead went back to her usual self.

After taking one straight from Niui she tried to thank him by rubbing him on his head. She was about to eat one of them raw as a whole, but Yiran snatched it out of her hand, which earned him a death stare.

"It's better this way"

He unsheathed his sword, and in an instant skinned the whole rabbit, before tossing it on the firepit.

He looked at Niui who started passing all of the rabbits to him, which Karona tried to snatch mid air but couldn't, and eventually all of them were skinned and cooking now.

"Grr"

"Just one more thing"

He slid the silver piece off of his hair, and put one of its sides to his mouth, before playing on it like a small flute, though with only one hand since it wasn't long enough to fit both.

Both of them watched him as he played. Karona seemed more surprised that he could do something like this in the first place, while Niui seemed to simply enjoy it.

The song was soon over. Though the time they spent listening to it passed like a flash, it couldn't have been, since the song itself felt complete, and the previously skinned rabbits were now thoroughly cooked.

"They should be done now"

He said as he slid the silver piece back onto his hair, before reaching to the fire, picking one of the bunnies he threw in earlier, and passing it onto Karona, who accepted it with a surprised face, which she still had on because of his performance.

"Here"

She proceeded to bite into it straight away, even though it was still piping hot.

"It's good..."

"See?"

He tossed the next one to Niui , who also bit into it straight away, but unlike Karona, he had to stop chewing and pat his chest because it was still too hot to be bitten by normal people, which earned him a laugh from both of them.

They ate the remaining food they had and talked with each other, still on the lookout for the thing that chased them here, but with each passing second that it didn't come out they became more and more relaxed.

The fire became a bit weaker as time went on, which is when they decided to sleep for the night.

"I think it's best if we rest for now, I doubt they'll attack us in the middle of the night, but just in case, we should have someone not sleeping..."

"It's okay, I'll stay up, you guys sorted the problem with people in the cable car, right? You must be tired"

"Hmm." - both of them seemed pretty unsure, but Karona broke the silence - "Just make sure to wake me and Yiran once you see something"

"I don't even have a say whether I'm okay with that?"

"Would you have said no?"

"... No I wouldn't"

The two of them went to sleep with some reluctance, while Niui seems to stay wide awake, even when they initially thought he might've been bluffing.

He sat for a while, staring at the fire in front of him, before the noises from the forest started to concentrate. Behind him, as he turned around to look, he could see something shining in between the bushes.

Karona was laid out all over the floor, away from where she fell asleep originally, and was now near him. While Yiran was still in the same position as before, almost looking like he didn't sleep in the first place.

He walked over the Karona as he tried to wake her up

"Hey"

He shook her hard but she didn't seem to budge, until he accidentally pushed her into the piles of ashes from the campfire.

"W-what?..."

"I'm going to check something out, can you take over the watch?"

"Mhm... Sure..."

He didn't look back while going deeper into the forest, but Karona did not end up taking his watch and instead went back to sleep.

As he walked closer towards the bush he heard the noise from, a hand instantly reached out of it pulling him deeper into the forest, and though it was clearly forceful in draggin him, it seemed to pull him away almost like leading him to something, rather than wanting to hurt him, so he obliged even if he could’ve broke out.

“Hey!”

He tried talking to the person who was pulling on his hand, who must’ve been a kid as well, considering their small stature, but they didn’t say anything back.

The person pulling him clearly knew the surroundings as they were able to sprint pretty fast and avoid all of the little branches and trees sticking out.

Even if he wasn’t sure where exactly they were going, the path didn’t seem familiar, and judging by the spot he left, it was definitely going deeper into the forest.

They got out of the forest where there was another large open area, but unlike the ones from earlier, this one had a giant stone temple in the middle. It also seemed to be illuminated by a bunch of torches, scattered around, so he was able to finally get a better look at the person dragging him around.

Like he thought initially, it must’ve been someone his age. They were wearing a wooden mask that covered all of their face, with only some sliced part out for eyes, but even that was covered up with some material which actually blocked Niui from seeing into them.

They seemed to lead the boy deeper into the camp, and slowly up the temple stairs, to which he still didn't object. At the top, scriptures similar to the ones from earlier have been engraved onto a large metal plate, which seemed a bit out of place from the rest of the architecture, but despite that, it still seemed like it was there for a long time.

“What’s that?” - Niui asked the masked person

They didn’t say anything and instead kept pointing to random plots of the

“Hmm…” - He said as he turned his head around to look at it with a different angle, and once he did

“Oh! Is it …” - He called over the masked person , before whispering in their ear, to which they enthusiastically nodded up and down.

“Then we need to hurry back!”

Back at the camp, Karona moved even further in her sleep, which was now away from the campfire and quite closer to the forest, when a slight gust of wind seemed to wake her up.

She opened her eyes slightly and right in front of her was a giant snake that was opening its mouth.

In an instant she rolled out of the way as its mouth crashed into the ground.

“Yiran! Wake up!”

He instantly opened his eyes and saw the snake, which was now pulling out its fangs from the ground. Since she was looking in his direction to check whether he woke up, she didn’t notice the snake’s tail snapping back, which sent her quite a bit away even if she blocked at the last second.

He was able to unsheathe his sword, but by the time he did, the snake was already in front of him, he only dodged to the side by a hair’s width.

He looked around his surroundings while the snake was still turning around Karona was still far away, but other than the she seemed to be okay despite the snap looking painful. But no matter on which side he looked, he couldn’t find Niui

“Hey Where’s Niui ?!”

He could only get a single sentence before the snake lunged at him again, but it was enough to make Karona start looking around while he dodged some of the attacks.

“He’s not here!”

A visible worry showed on his face, but his movements stayed natural. The snake’s attacks were getting more and more tenacious, giving him less time to recover as it slowly seemed to surround him from all sides.

Then, once its whole body was blocking all the directions, it

Karona saw that happening, and dug her hands into the snake’s skin and forcefully pulled it backwards just far enough that when it snapped its jaw they didn’t close on Yiran, but in front of him.

He instantly changed from a defensive stance to a more aggressive one and stabbed with his sword through the snake’s closed mouth, which caused it to writhe in pain.

Since he was still holding the sword, the shaking of its head threw him a bit into the air, and outside of the area the snake enclosed itself in.

He was preparing to land on the ground, when the snake’s tail started to snap back where he was flying to, which is when Karona rushed and jumped mid-air catching him, before they landed a bit away from the snake, after which she let him down to the floor.

“Thanks”

The snake unraveled itself and lifted its body into the air, revealing a bulbous shape in its stomach, to which both of the two reacted with shock and anger.

“That bastard!”

“We still have time to save him, probably”

They both nodded to each other, knowing it’s going to be the final attack on the snake, as they didn’t have time to waste, Yiran put the hilt of the sword in his mouth like before, and Karona cracked her knuckles, before they rushed forward, at which point the snake did so too.

From one side Karona was going at a slight angle, as she was going to punch through the snake’s eye, and facing the snake was Yiran who hoped to slice through its mouth.

It didn’t take long for the distance between to become miniscule, because of how both of the sides were moving, and in just a split second all of them were already in striking range.

The snake opened its mouth wide enough that it could swallow Yiran whole, in an instant he passed the sword from his mouth to his hand, Karona retracted her shoulder blade and clenched her fist as she planted her feet to the ground.

All of them were about to launch their simultaneous attack but then…

With a leap from one of the trees from the forest, Niui came in between all of them.

With a kick to the top of its head, the serpent’s jaw was shut close. Yiran’s sword was stopped by grabbing his hand and Karona’s Punch redirected up into the air.

“I made it in time…” - his serious face disappeared into one of relief after a sigh

The other two were a bit stunned to speak at first, but the snake wasn’t and instead it slipped out from underneath his food, before it once again started facing the three of them. However, Before it had a chance to launch a counter-attack, a strange noise filled the area. IT wasn’t quite as, both Yiran and Karona’s turned to look at it, just to see the masked person who was with Niui playing on a weird instrument which neither of them recognized. The noise seemed kinda rough to them, but the snake seemed to be entranced by it.

The masked person walked around the edge of the forest, with all of the people and the snake observing it, and after a few more seconds, the snake followed towards them, though much more peacefully unlike the lunging it did just a few seconds ago.

Niui seemed to nod to the masked person, who nodded back, before disappearing into the forest, with the snake right after them soon after.

They all stayed silent for a few seconds before Karona erupted.

“Hey! Where the hell did you go!”

“To the forest, I woke you up, remember?”

“Oh? So you did tell her…” - Yiran seemed actually pretty mad for once, since Niui let go of his hand already, he started to sheathe his sword as he spoke - “So, what’s the deal with the snake and the person we saw?”

“Well, they’re friends, I think, and she’s a mom, probably, and they didn’t want us scaring her off, so they used that smoke bomb earlier, if I understood correctly…”

“You don’t really seem sure of it at all”

“Well, the pictures weren’t that clear… But Anyway! We should get out of here! I know the way out now”

“Fine by me, I was against taking a detour anyway!”

“But it was kinda fun, wasn’t it?”

Despite the fact that they just faced the giant snake, she couldn’t really deny that the adrenaline she got from all this did make it for a good trip. And the time spent near the campfire last night was also enjoyable, even if it’s not something she’d usually do. So she simply rubbed his hair.

“Ah… I guess…”

The two of them started walking back already, while Yiran stood in the same spot as before

“Did I hold back, or …” - Yiran seemed distracted by something as he stared at his hand.

“Hey! We’re going!”

“Oh, yeah, I’m coming” - He said in a rather uninterested tone but he did continue behind them, this time looking at Niui with a face full of mixed feelings.

Despite saying he knew the path, the other two didn’t seem as quite convinced because all of the trees gave the illusion as if they’ve already walked here before.

“Are you sure this is the right way?”

“Of course”

But without any other clues, they had no choice but to follow him, which turned out to be the right decision, as soon after, the trees became less and less dense, and the same familiar plane with the old unused path from before was before their eyes.

“All right!” - Karona seemed most enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Even from all the way there they could see the next station that they needed to get on, and in front of it, a large group of people which seemed to already rush straight inside of it.

“Hey, look at all those people, we’re running late!”

“I think it’s the last one of the day…”

“Then quick, let’s go!”

All three of them started to run forward, to hopefully make it to the last cable car trip of the day. Some people walking along the normal path were surprised to see the people from the forest.

As soon as they made it onto the maintained brick section, right before the actual station, Niui stopped and looked back at the forest.

“Wait”

“Wait for what!? We’re about to be late!”

He stood firmly and stared at the spot they just ran from.

“She’s right, we should go”

But he didn’t budge, to which the two seemed confused, until they started looking in the direction of the forest they just ran from, and after squinting their eyes, they could see some of the brushes moving, and from them, the masked fellow emerging.

Niui popped a smile on his face, before waving to the masked fellow, who did the same.

“I just wanted to make sure we thank him”

Both of them seemed to feel bad about rushing him and were quite surprised he waited for a pure thing like that, until the voice of one of the attendants rang across the platform.

“This is the last call! We’re departing”

The panic got on their face again, as they all turned around and started running forward full sprint to the already closing door.

“Goodbye Ahzla” - Niui said as he turned his head around to face the Masked person from the forest again, before turning back again to face the cable car, which was already nearly packed - “ To Vizzemont!”