"First it was them trying to kill us, now they're not only trying to kill us, but possibly thousands of people!?" I said to myself, pacing around the room.
Just wonderful, just fantastic, seems the gods have decided that we must die today!
I looked at Phuong's panicking face turning back as I felt a headache coming to bite me. I noticed the open door and promptly closed it. The last thing we want is for someone to hear us.
Well shit, we're fucked, aren't we?
I turned around again, seeing that Phuong had huddled back into her pathetic hidey-hole of fear and anxiety. I walked over and huddled beside her- for brainstorming purposes of course.
After a while, I turned to her, "Are you just going to wallow in your misery, or are you going to help me?"
"Wallow in misery."
"Wrong. Now get up. I have a plan."
"Fine," she rolled her eyes, leaning against my shoulder, "So what's the plan?"
"We're leaving."
"What?!" Phuong gasped, pushing herself away from me, "Aren't we going to tell Althea? What about her?!"
God, not this again.
"Phuong, after everything that's been happening, you still trust her!?" I groan
"Of course I do! Althea wouldn't try to hurt us; she's our friend, plus she's been helping us!" She reasoned.
"She's your friend!" I argued, "We haven't seen her at all in the past week, we have no idea if she's actually helping us! For all we know, she could be ratting us out!"
"And maybe she's not. Come on, just trust me!"
"People are dying, Phuong! Trusting your judgement isn't really an option right now!" I countered.
"I..." Phuong started, clenching her fists, "Shut up, she just wouldn't okay!?" She huffed.
Seriously, you can't even come up with a proper comeback?
I came closer to her and was pushed away.
Wow, fuck you too.
I sat next to her for a good minute before sighing, "You can leave a letter or note for her, but that's all."
I watch her eyes lit up with a victory smile. Sometimes I feel like I give her too much power over me.
I got up and made my way to the door and opened it, "Are you coming or not?"
"I'm coming, just a sec," Phuong said, scrambling out from under the desk before following after me.
-------------------------------------------------------
I tossed our school bags onto the bed and took out anything we didn't need.
Minh came over and piled a bunch of clothes in them, "Clothes are checked, food is the next priority."
"I'll go to the kitchen then," I volunteered, leaving the room.
I power-walked down the hall.
I'm not getting lost this time. My directions may be stupidly bad, but I know where food is when I smell it. I turned the corridor and made my way to the kitchen, bumping into a few servants along the way.
After a few minutes, I arrived at the kitchen and went up to a chef there.
"Excuse me, sir."
"Whaddaya want? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I know mister, but can I ask you something?"
"A'ight, spit it out so I can get back to work."
"Okay, so, do you know where the pantry is? I'm kinda hungry and wanted to get some snacks," I explained, trying not to punch this asshole in the process.
The chef rolled his eyes, pointing to the back of the kitchen.
"Okay, so you wanna go to the back of the kitchen and the door on the left is where the pantry is. Now go on then and get out of my face," the chef bluntly explained, then getting back to work.
Perfect, thanks rude ass chef, I hope we never see each other again.
I journeyed my way to the pantry, squeezing my way through the busy kitchen of chefs going to and from prepping and cooking, and servants going in and out of the kitchen.
I managed to push through and make it to the pantry. Opening the door, I enter a giant room of shelves stockpiled with different types of veggies, meats, and other things. I wander around for a moment, staring at all the food, I'd probably never see again. I came across a large cookie jar on the shelf, filled to the brim with different types of cookies.
Truly a child's dream.
As I stared at it, I heard my stomach growl. I looked at my stomach, then at the cookie jar.
Taking one couldn't hurt. I mean, it's not like I'm coming back here anyway, so taking one cookie wouldn't be that bad. Right? Yeah, I'm taking one.
I reached for the jar, unscrew the lid, and nabbed two blue-frosted cookies. One for me and one for Minh. I close the jar and gently placed it right back where it belonged. I looked around to check if anyone had seen anything and continued on my merry way. I found some bags nearby and started filling them with any food I thought would taste good. I obviously grabbed a ton of bread, and vegetables of course, and after some snooping around, I got my hands on beef jerky!
I fucking love this stuff.
I left the pantry with a bag full of food and a cookie stuffed in my mouth. Surprisingly no one noticed me, probably because they were so busy with banquet preparations.
I made my way to our room, bursting through the door.
"Oh brother, I have returned with spoils of war," I sang, adding a little spin to my entrance. But Minh wasn't there.
Where the heck did he go?! Way to leave me hanging asshole! I put my food sack down and fell face-first onto the bed.
Jerk.
I got up and eyed the stack of paper on the table.
Althea...
I should start on that letter.
A while later, I finished my letter and heard the door open.
I turned around to see that jerkface had finally come back, "Took you long enough; it's already night time you know."
"Yes Phuong, I know what color the sky is. I may be blind, but not that blind," Minh lugged a long makeshift rope.
Actually, it wasn't really a rope, more like a bunch of blankets tied together.
Minh stared at the written papers on the table, "Are you finished?"
I put my letter down, breathing out a sigh. "Yeah"
I picked up my food sack and school bag, "Are we using that to escape or were you planning to host a magic show?"
"Ha ha, move over," he scoffed, taking the rope and tying it to the leg of the bed, "Go open the window."
I nodded, went over to the window, grabbed the handle, and tried to open it. "It's locked."
"Hold on."
"But it's locked."
"I said hold on," he shot back, dragging the other end of the rope to the window. He turned to me tilting his head to the window.
"Break it?"
"Break it."
"'Kay," I replied, looking back at the locked window and then at Minh again, "How do we break it?"
Minh crouched under the bed for a minute and out a small tied sack filled with something heavy, "Slapjack?"
Wait, did he just say slapjack? Isn't that a weapon?! Where the heck did he get that?! "How the fuck did you sneak a weapon in here?!"
"What are you talking about? I made it," Minh explained casually, swinging the slapjack around, "Fun thing I learned from one of the guards; if you take something heavy and put it in a sturdy bag you sort of make your own makeshift slapjack. Funny how anything can be a weapon if you get creative enough."
"Okay?... did not need to know that."
"Exactly, now move over so I can bust this window open," he said, moving past me.
I stepped back as Minh swung the slapjack, and with a loud bang, the window handle flew off along with a few broken pieces of the window frame.
I stepped closer, then reached out and pushed the window open, "Holy shit that worked," I said, turning to Minh, "Since when did you start working out?"
Minh stared blankly at the window for a moment, "... oh shit it worked."
"Dude."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Now let's get out of here." Minh let down the rope, the end of it stopping just a few feet from the ground.
"Damn it, it's not long enough."
"I think it's fine, we can jump that, right?"
"By that you mean you can jump that. For me personally, if I were to jump down even two feet, I might as well say farewell to my legs."
"Do you wanna get out of here or not?!" I snapped, watching Minh roll his eyes, and went out the window, but not before flipping me off.
That's it, I'm gonna make sure you die on this trip.
I started climbing down the rope, but I had to stop because of a certain butthead who was too afraid to jump down.
"Minh, I swear to god, just jump down man!"
"SHH," Minh shushed me, putting a finger on his lip.
Okay, that was uncalled for. He pointed down below, I looked past him and spotted a guard in armor patrolling the garden.
Oh, I see now.
We held onto the rope, watching the guard make some rounds around the flower patches before leaving. We waited for a few more seconds to make sure that he was gone, and then we successfully got down. I let go of the rope, falling into Minh's arms; what a gentleman
The next second we were searching for the portal. Actually, now that I think about it, why didn't we go looking for the portal after we found out that there was one? Damn, we're dumbasses.
As we searched, I went to the back of the garden where all the mostly dead plants were. Brushing past the thorny brambles and growing weeds, I stopped at a stone archway with symbols carved into each brick. I came closer, noticing that it had some dark stains on it, kinda like... blood, okay let's not focus on that- moving on!
"Phuong, did you find it?" I turned around. Minh was following.
"I think I did?" I answered, pointing to the archway in front of me.
Minh walked up to the arch, took a book out from his bag, and flipped through it.
"Yup, this is it."
"Then how do we open it?" I asked, stepping under the arch.
Minh smirked, "You've been practicing Graphien, right?"
"Yeah?... Oh!," I beamed, stepping out of the archway and began reading the symbols on the stone bricks.
"𝔗𝔈λε𝔓ορτ-τ𝔒-νοℜθηρ𝔑-λα𝔑δ." With that, the portal opened, glowing a misty blue light.
Oo pretty.
I grabbed Minh's hand and entered the portal, everything disappearing around us as everything faded to black.
I opened my eyes and saw a person in the distance. They had long silver hair, dark skin, purple eyes that looked like they were glowing, and giant white wings on their head. They came closer to me, allowing me to get a better look. They were a lady and a really big one.
As I got a better look at her, I realized, "It's you!"
The woman chuckled at me, then smiled, "Yes, Child, it is a pleasure to see you again."
-----*-----
Ow, my head. What the heck? Where am I? I looked around but all I saw was white.
I got hit by a truck, didn't I? Am I in heaven? Nah, I doubt heaven looks like a white abyss. Why can't I move? Great, not only am I in hell, but I'm also paralyzed! Just my luck.
"Do not fear, Child, you are safe here."
Oh fuck, what was that?
"God, is that you? Look, I know I haven't been the best person, but hear me out, I've done some good things, that probably balanced out my karma, right?" I nervously explained.
The only thing I heard was laughter after that.
"Hey, what was that for!?" I exclaimed before shutting my mouth, shit I shouldn't have said that.
"Apologies, Child, I did not mean to offend," the voice assured. Then I saw someone come into view; it was a lady with long silver hair, dark skin, and violet eyes. But most importantly, big ass wings on her head!
"You must be very confused as to why you are here," she started, "Please, do not be alarmed by your situation, I assure you, you're here for a reason."
"And that reason is?"
The lady smiled, "You will be my vassal."
"Vassal? What does that mean?"
"Unfortunately, I do not have time to explain this to you but soon, Child, all will be revealed," she said.
Hey! That's not an answer!
"Hey, wait, I still need answers!" then everything faded to black.
-----*-----
"So you're Asteria right?" I asked.
The lady tilted her head, raising one of her eyebrows.
"So you are familiar with my name?"
"Well, you're kinda the only thing everyone talks about when they see me." I clarified.
Asteria smiled, "I see," she paused for a moment, "You are correct, I am Asteria, goddess of the night sky and order, as well as one of the three daughters of Diana."
"Diana? Who's that?" I asked, followed by Asteria's laughter.
Seriously?
"I'd appreciate it if you stopped laughing at me," I huffed.
"Yes, yes, apologies, apologies. You truly are entertaining, Child. In truth, you're the first human I've seen in many years, so please pardon me if I come off as rude," she explained.
Yeah, heard you the first time when you said it. Still an ass move though.
"Ahem, back to the subject, I'm quite glad that I was able to get in contact with you. I was afraid that our connection was severed."
"Our connection?"
"Yes, our connection. I suppose you were quite confused after our last meeting," Asteria continued, "After everything, you deserve an explanation. Ask me any question you, and I will answer in all honesty."
"Okay?" I said, "First of all, what did you mean by our connection?"
"Ah, yes, that... well, as my vassal, we have what some would say a soulbound connection to each other."
"Soulbound? And 'vassal' thing, what does that mean?" I questioned.
Asteria raised her eyebrow looking... embarrassed?
"I forgot to mention that, didn't I?"
"Yeah, kinda."
"I see. Well how can I put this? In this world, you are something called a hero, beings from another world that are brought here by the gods. As you can already tell, I was the one that brought you here, as my vassal," she explained.
So she's the one that isekaied me.
But, didn't Minh also get isekaied, why isn't he here? I looked up at Asteria, who was quietly staring at me, "Wasn't Minh brought here, too? Why isn't he here?"
"Who?"
"Minh, you know, my brother. He's here too!"
"Your brother? But how? I didn't sense a second person enter my domain, nor did I choose another soul," she mumbled. She looked at me, concern written on her face.
… You gotta be shitting me.
"Tell me, Child, did you wake up with your brother after I summoned you?"
"Yeah? Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes, very... it seems that your brother was brought here by mistake."
Fucking knew it! So it's this cliche huh? Not as fun in real life.
"So my brother was brought here by mistake?" I asked
"Yes, it's truly unfortunate," she answered
Yeah, this is why I don't worship gods.
I grit my teeth. "Is there a way to bring him back?" I asked, hopeful.
Asteria shook her head, "Regrettably, no, Child, even with my divine powers, I am unable to return your brother to your original world."
"So there's nothing you can do?"
"Sadly no."
... shit.
Suddenly, everything started getting blurry, "What the?!"
"It seems our time is up. But do remember that we'll meet again. Farewell, for now."
"Hey, wait, I still have questions!" Everything went black. Again.
I opened my eyes again, then instantly got really cold.
What the fuck?! I got up. Where am I?! Antarctica?! I looked around only to see snow and more snow. "Oh shit I am."
Side Story Dated - 13 yrs
I'll Always be There
I bury myself under the covers. This sucks! I pop my head out of the sheets, letting out a cough.
My throat hurts.
"Phương Anh về rồi," someone called, opening the door.
I sit up and see that Minh has come back from school, "Em chào anh hai," I smile, followed by a sneeze.
I take a tissue out of the box next to me and blow my nose.
I hate being sick!
Minh comes over with a mug of tea and gives it to me, "Cảm ơn em."
"Mm," Minh assured, sitting next to me.
I take a sip of the tea, my throat feeling a little better. As I put the mug on my bedside table, I feel Minh hug me from behind. "Sớm khỏe lại."
I smiled, "Em sẽ."