Simou:
Looking at the rows of tombstones in front of me, I drop to one of my knees. I then bow my head.
"Father," I start. "Mother. Friends. I have returned after all these years."
I stop to take a breath. Closing my eyes, memories of the village burning run through my head. I see houses burning, the flames rising higher and higher. People are screaming as they run all over. Some of the people see me and arm themselves. They grab spears, swords, shields, and bows, but with a swing of my hand, I knock them all down.
"I have avenged all of you. The Black Tiger Clan is destroyed."
Bowing, I reach into my pouch tied to my belt and pull out a handful of gifts. With careful hands, I lay down a bowl of honey, three colorful flowers, and a gold coin. I then place my hands on my father's and mother's tombstones.
"I do not know what I will do now. My mission is over. I have nothing to fight for now. No reason to continue. I will see you soon."
I get up and walk over to a lonely rock in the forest, sitting in the moonlight. Sitting down, I look up and see the night sky. There are millions of stars scattered throughout a field of blue. Reaching into my pouch again, I pull out a ball of bread and start chewing it.
Once I am done with my dinner, I push myself up and start walking again. I walk and walk and walk until I reach the top of the mountain. Stepping on the ledge, my toes dangling over the edge, I smile and look up again at all the stars in the sky. As I look up, I hear a strange sound.
Looking down, a strange blue light appears in front of me.
"What in the world?"
I jump back. About to raise my hand, something lunges out of the blue light. An arm, it grabs and pulls me into the light. I scream as I fall through a strange blue and white tunnel.
"Ahhh!"
Looking ahead, I see a bright white light charging toward me. I slam my eyes shut and cross my hands. Preparing for the worst, the first thing I feel after the white light hits me is a cold breeze.
"Ahh..."
Dropping and skidding against the cold, stone ground, I realize something is off. This ground doesn't feel natural. It is flat, not rocky. There are no bumps anywhere.
"This is manmade," I think.
Opening my eyes, I see myself on a different mountain. Only this mountain is not overlooking a forest. Pushing myself up, I walk over to the ledge and look down. Instead of seeing forests, mountains, and rivers, I see millions of colorful lights, tall, glass buildings that touch the sky, and black roads that appear to be made of stone.
"What is this place? This cannot be Reubmnant. Can it? No. This...city is unlike anything I have ever seen before. All of these weird lights on the ground. All of these buildings."
Hearing a loud noise, it feels like a monster is attacking my head. Screaming and covering my ears, I look around.
"What was that!"
Looking down again, I see strange metal boxes moving up and down the black roads. The noise appeared to be coming from there.
"Be quiet," I yell. Looking down again, I hear screaming this time.
"Argghhh," a man in funny-looking purple and orange armor screams.
"What is that?"
Dropping to one of my knees, I look closer as a pair of red energy beams hit the man, throwing him back. He lands back on the ground, smoking, and moaning in pain. Holding his chest as he pushes himself up, I look to the side and see what looked like a giant grey robot stomping toward the man. The robot's eyes begin to glow red again.
"No!"
Shouting as I jump off the ledge and dive toward the robot. Before it can fire at the man again, I flip while still in the air and stomp my feet against the robot's head. The sudden landing catches the robot by surprise. It stumbles to the side and fires, hitting a tall building instead of the man.
Jumping off the robot's head, I land on the ground in between it and the man.
"Are you okay?" I ask, turning to look at the smoking man.
"I'm fine," the man answers, pushing himself up to his feet. "But I'm a little more worried about you. Thank you for the help and all, but you should run. This is dangerous."
Hearing a grinding sound, like metals scraping against each other, I turn around and look at the robot. It turns its head to look at us. Once it sees us, the robot stomps toward us.
The man in orange and purple armor runs up to me. He pulls out two weapons from his belts and aims them at the approaching robot.
"Again," the man yells, "You should run. This is going to be a tough fight."
"No, it won't," I answer.
Shooting my hand out, a small fireball forms in it. It erupts, lighting the whole area.
"Okay," the man says, raising his hand and covering his eyes. "I'll admit. I did not see that coming."
Swinging my hand, the fireball twists and turns. It grows and expands, transforming from a simple fireball into a bright orange longsword.
"Okay," the man says again. "I also did not see that coming."
The man steps back as my fire sword heats up. The robot fires more energy beams, but I drop to one of my knees and stab the ground. The energy beams hit my fire sword.
"Stay behind me," I yell, grabbing the handle with both hands. The man crouches behind me while my sword blocks the beams. When the robot stops firing, I pull my sword out of the ground and charge toward it.
The robot pulls back its hand before throwing it forward. I slide to the side, dodging the robot's attack. The giant metal fist hits the road and makes a small hole. Raising my hands and sword into the air, I slam it down and cut the robot's hand.
The robot stumbles back. It raises its arm and looks at its melted wrist, hot, orange metal slowly flowing down from it. With the robot stunned, I jump and spin, slicing its leg into two. The robot falls onto its back, shaking both the ground and the air. Jumping and flipping through the air, I slam my sword down on the robot's head, destroying it with one quick thrust.
With the robot defeated, I let go of my sword. My sword flickers for a few moments before disappearing, specks of flames flying through the air before also vanishing.
"Okay," the man says, standing up. "I'll ask. Who are you? Wait, first things first. Thank you very much for the save. I really appreciate it. Now, who are you?"
"My name is Simou."
"Right, right, Simou," the man says while nodding. "Hello, Simou. My name is SharpShot."
"SharpShot?"
"Yup," SharpShot replies. SharpShot then raises the blasters in his hands, spinning them around before shoving them into their holsters. "And hopefully, you can clearly see what I called myself that."
SharpShot:
"Simou," I repeat to myself. I look at the person standing before me. He was a teenage boy, couldn't be any older than 20. He wears a bright red jacket over a black shirt, has long black pants, an oversized belt buckle, and spiky orange hair that covered more than just his head. Honestly, he looked like an anime character. Then again, this anime character saved my life, so I probably shouldn't be making fun of him.
"Are you a bandit?" Simou asks this all of a sudden.
"What?"
"Are you a bandit?" Simou repeats.
"Uhh, no. Do I look like one?"
I look down at myself.
"I don't, right?"
"No, you don't."
I sigh with relief and wipe some sweat beads from my forehead.
"But this place, this city. I'm not in Reubmnant, am I?"
"Re-what-what?"
As I try to process what Simou is saying, I see a red blur moving quickly down the street and toward us.
"What is that?" Simou yells and shoots his hand out, another fireball turning into a sword appearing in it.
A few seconds later, the red blur skids to a stop in front of us, sparks flying as his feet scrape against the street.
"Knight SharpShot," SpeedBlade says. "You are here."
"Knight SharpShot," I repeat. "Darn. That sounds awesome."
"A knight," Simou says. SpeedBlade turns to Simou. He sees Simou with a flaming sword in his hand and steps back.
"Who are you?" SpeedBlade yells, pulls his sword out, and aims the tip at Simou. The two raise their swords and prepare for a fight, or I guess in this case, a duel.