Vicori

The Ailvan World

Lina

Even before I began today, I was already having a rotten day.

A person, no—multiple people. One of them laying on their bed, as still as a statue while the rest of the scene was hidden by an abyss of darkness. Another person seemed to be intrigued by strange drawings on a wall in a cave, maybe an explorer. Through these scenes, my interest peaked and a couple more people came into view but none of their current actions fascinated me.

Until I appeared, passed out on my bed with the glowing illumination dancing across my pale face. My short, white hair shined in the glistening light. My room was covered in darkness, everything but my bed. Then the scene faded to black.

"Hey, Lina." said a voice,

"Linaaaa?" Repeated the voice.

"LINAAA!" Shouted the voice, with my face twitching, begging for this voice to shut up and leave me alone. I clasped onto my pillow and heaved it right at the source of the sound. I didn’t put my back into the throw so it flopped down early but it managed to knock its target over.

“What the hell!” yelled the voice, now coming from a lower angle. “I just came to wake you up, not get killed!”

I turned over, hoping the voice would leave until the pillow slammed into my face. I jolted awake from the sudden shock. My mind twirled around as my eyes shot open, blinded by the light piercing through the window. I raised my head off the desk and slowly became conscious.

"wha- what?" I grumbled drowsily paying no attention to my surroundings.

Damnit! That seemed important

“Wait, what did I just see?” I wondered out loud. That dream I had... it was still as clear as day, but none of it made sense. I decided to turn a blind eye to the voice's lecture about being awake. Seeing other people in a dream is no common occurrence, but I saw people I haven't seen before. Not only that, I was there too. How peculiar…

"Are you listening to me or what?!” yelled my brother Reno with his red eyes stabbing me with an intimidating glare, piercing my soul. I leaped off the bed to start the day, but he kept staring at me.  His fire-red hair cut short this time after it had previously gone below his shoulders. He had his mysterious, sly expression on like he knew exactly what you were thinking about and when you were going to make your move. But I was with him since he was born, as the older sibling, I trusted him 100%. Even though he got on my nerves any chance he got.

Reno pestered me like a monkey flying for the first time. While his attempt was interrupting my train of thought, it was nice to have a laugh in this cold world.

It's like taking care of a dog that never left you alone.

It didn’t take too long for me to get dressed after I vigorously shoved Reno out of the room. I stomped downstairs only to find my friend waiting for me. 

“What took you so long?” shouted my friend Shikka, her voice echoing throughout my house. Her long wheat-white hair was braided but it didn't hide her long pointy ear like normal. Her red eyes stabbed me with an intimidating glare.

Reminds me of someone else

I leaned back into my chair, but she kept staring at me. She stood arms crossed at the front door with our bags. Reno stood next to her, giving an innocent “I tried” expression.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming, just let me have breakfast.” I uttered as I trudged over to our table until Shikka extended her arm and stopped me.

“Sorry, but you slept in. We're going now,” ordered Shikka as she grabbed the collar of my shirt and began dragging me out. “It’s the first day so we can’t be late.”

My socks slid across the floor, barely managing to keep me upright. I hastened to put my shoes on, partly because Shikka reminded me every 5 seconds. After struggling for a couple of minutes, we finally exited our house.

After hours of walking in silence, we finally approached the Academy. Everyone’s journey began at an Academy. For us, we had the top Academy to study and learn.

You might be thinking, wow Lina, your pretty cool. Nope!

As Reno headed to the top class and Shikka headed to the advanced class, I headed to the normal class. I was at the bottom of the top and I was completely fine with it. I had seen the piles of work and exercises for Reno and Shikka. Even if I had some ultimate, concealed power, I wouldn’t want to be placed in a higher class.

It wasn’t a surprise though nor a mistake, Reno was among the new budding talents in our world. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for myself. Shikka isn’t that bad either; better than me when it comes to manipulating Gyra which I am disgusted to say.

In short, I was very pleased with my current position. All I had to do was not fall behind.

There is always something on my mind

We were the Ailvas. We were the gods that ruled over many different planets, some of them full of animals like humans and birds, others full of gyrabeasts each with a unique ability. The way we separated the animals from gyrabeasts was magical beasts—like their name suggests—used Gyra to some extent. 

However, as gods, we had our own problems; adversaries and magical beasts who had murderous intent against us. However, for some reason, we couldn’t leave our own world. We couldn’t explore outside our domain; not even the human’s world. The only thing we could do was summon the humans to explore for us.

That created the trials, a set of tests for a natural selection of humans. The survivors would become our very own explorers; those who died… well they died. 

I think that the trials are a horrible idea. It took so much preparation and time that we didn't have. That's not even the worst part. It's the fact that humans have this thing called pride, when they are summoned they all think they are the protagonist of some novel. Then they all run off and die because they believe in an invisible shield from god called "plot armor."

I mean… we can’t explore outside our domain for a reason, right?

Of course, we had some trials for everybody—including us. Ours were less important to the elders but for the common citizen, your trial was one of the biggest events in your life. Everybody took it seriously, nobody chickened out, not even the weak. So there I was, heading to the academy to train for the trials. The results of an attempt meant everything in life, a mistake would mean becoming a failure for the rest of your life. That's how important this was. But for humans? They don't deserve something like this, they'll all die anyway.

“What's your opinion on opening the trials for the humans again?” I asked, leaning my head on my hand. 

“Well… I think it's cool. I mean, why stay cooped up here when there is so much more out there?” responded Shikka who gave me a shoulder shrug.

She can be so carefree sometimes

This time, we separated and prepared for our upcoming hardships.