The air scratches past my ears as I plummet down quickly, gazing upon my impending doom, wondering how the hell I even got here. It was that voice, that damned voice! It sounded so nice and wonderful, so how did it end up leading me here!? As I free-fall, I take time to really understand my surroundings. A jungle, I've never been to a jungle before. I guess it was nice to experience this at least once before I die. I take in the nice breeze, the strange smell, and everything else that comes with this environment and the-. CRASH! My ears ring in pain, and my head throbs even more so. My vision is blurred, but I can at least see the silhouette of the man. "Damn kid, is that your first time entering a Boundary Break?" The man stands over me, talking with a muffled voice as he questions my experience. How's he just standing there so casually? I think. I try struggle to try and articulate words to no avail. Pretty sure that gross landing didn't exactly do wonders for the speech part of my brain. He bends down, extending a hand towards me, lifting me. I kinda wanna say something, but it's probably going to sound weird anyway, so I shouldn't. He goes off to scout the area. How'd he so effortlessly land without a scratch? I wait a bit as my vision returns to normal, and I get ready to move. "Hey, dude, what hell was that?" He asks, sounding more annoyed than worried.
"The hell was what?" I answer back, confused.
"Why in your right mind would you ever jump into a Boundary Break?" I want to answer honestly... BUT WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would ever say it's because of a voice in their head?
"Uhh... Well, I don't really know..?"
"How do you not know about your OWN decision that YOU chose to do?" Getting closer, he stares into the depths of my soul and then sighs. "You know what? Nevermind."
"WAIT!" He turns around, expecting an answer, "It was because of a voice, I heard a voice from the Boundary telling me to come towards it." "My body felt compelled, and I rushed in without thinking, as crazy as it sounds." Seeing his shocked reaction kinda scares me, as he never showed this much emotion before. I know it sounds crazy, but I didn't think that would be his reaction.
"You heard the raider's call, huh?" He says as he returns to his previous depressing mood. He walks off seemingly more introspective than before. "You're just gonna end up another pawn in this cruel world's game. It'd be better if you just killed yourself here." Wow, that's a depressing mindset.
"Sorry! But I'd very much like to go on living." I say, quickly picking up pace and following after him. Unsurprsingly he doesn't say a whole lot while walking, so I decide to question him. "Hey, what's this raider's call thing you were talking about?" He ignores me. "Well, can you tell me why you think 'I'll become a pawn in this cruel world'sgame.' He ignores me again. Rude. "Well, can you AT LEAST tell me your name?" He stops in his tracks.
He turns around and says, "Yohan, Yohan Evans."
"Well, Yohan, my name-." He cuts me off.
"Listen, I'm irritated, and I'm hungry. The last thing I need right now is the brat who got me into this mess to start sharing unnecessary facts about himself." Well, that was really rude. Later, we stumble upon some fruit , and Yohan mumbles something about it being uncannily empty, as this is clearly not normal. We sit down and eat, and surprisingly, he turns out to be a beast shoveling down fruit after fruit. After he finishes, he doesn't look happy or full, even though he has just had 12 bunches worth of fruit.
"Well, now that you've eaten a bit, are you willing to answer some more of my questions?
"Sure, I guess I need to rest a bit anyways."
"What's this whole raider's call bull you keep talking about?" He sighs and looks up, seemingly reminiscing on something.
"It's a myth or something adjacent to that? I don't really know, but I do know whoever hears the voice of the Boundary will find themselves in the eye of the storm of all this mess." I just asked a question, but somehow all I've gotten are more questions?
"Well, can you tell me how you know so much about the Boundary and all the phenomena it has?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm a raider, of course." Yeah that checks, but if he's a raider, why did he let some random street thugs beat up on him? "Do you know how Boundaries work?"
"Yeah, that's basic history. They're little worlds created from ELE that have Ethereals that inhabit them after a while of growing, and there's a dedicated Ethereal that acts as the anchor for the entire world, called the Alpha Ethereal, and oftentimes ends up being the strongest Ethereal commanding those below it."
"Well, I see somebody was paying attention in class." He says, grinning a little bit. What? It fades as quickly as it appears, though. "Well, what most people don't know is that Alpha Ethereals have a special origin that allows them to-. RUSTLE! "The hell was that?" He asks frantically. We get up immediately and try to get into a fighting stance, but he gets sniped in the back by what seems to be a dart made of... wind? Shit Ethereals? I've never fought one of those before. He grabs his back and pulls the dart out and looks at it, analyzing it for a bit, and his face turns to worry, and I pick up on it as soon as he looks up. We're cooked. "THAT WAS A WARNING SHOT!!!" Hundreds, if not thousands, of wind darts fly from the trees, piercing my body, and I fall to the ground, not able to resist at all. Outstretching my hand to try and move my body, I pass out not knowing what's gonna happen next.