Ran, completely off his game, could only do what was most sensible in this situation. He was going to confirm that she disappeared with his own two hands!
Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Instead, before he could get his dirty mitts on that cave wall, that same wall began changing into all the colors of the rainbow in the form of concentric circles. The hallucination-inducing wall then started separating itself from the cave; a transformation occurred shortly after. The rainbow-colored cave wall quickly returned to the scaly coelacanth we all know and love, Granny!
Of course, while it took several paragraphs for all of this to happen, only several seconds had actually passed by.
"Do you understand now, child?"
"Mhm, mhm…" Ran excitedly bobbed his head back and forth whilst rubbing his hands together; his long red hair twisted and twirled with his every motion. Seeing his reaction, Granny couldn't help but laugh:
"Haha, child, don't get your hopes up, this is much too complicated for someone of your caliber."
Dump! Like a big bucket of cold water being poured on top of his head, his smile turned upside-down.
"Don't worry, child, you'll still get something in the end; this was just an example of something some people are capable of doing."
"Then, may I ask what exactly that was?" Ran didn't know why yet, but he felt this was somewhat familiar. He was curious, and he wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"That, child, is a good question. Some call it an inheritance, others call it by other names, but the most recognized name is skill! That's right, this is a skill!"
Finally, Ran had figured out why it felt somewhat familiar. Skills! Although he hadn't recalled learning of this, he had seen skills before. Two examples of such would be during the beast horde. He had fought a Dire wolf whose arrows were homing, this was a skill. Then he also fought against Bane who had gotten stronger and stronger during their fight; while he wasn't certain, it being the product of a skill was the most probable in Rans eyes.
So, skills, oh where to begin. The easiest explanation goes a little something like this:
Over a million years ago, when runes, and by proxy sigils, were first introduced, their selective nature had left a bad taste in other more unfortunate people's mouths.
Basically, when the once weak and ordinary races were brought up to an even, and even slighter higher, playing field, the other races felt a little unnerved and tried to clear the board. Possibly even trying to one up them.
Thus, skills were born. Races that were recognized by this universe and gained its various abilities were still unsatisfied with their current strength, so they relied on what was given to them by this universe…
Their bodies….
Many races were born with natural characteristics that made them special or unique in some way, and while they were neat and all, they couldn't keep up with the supernatural nature of their souls.
But with the fusion of body and soul, the best of both universes are brought out.
Okay it was just an expression, there was no fusion (ha!) happening, not usually anyway. Rather, with the right usage of one's body with one's soul, the stronger the manifested ability is.
In other words, skills!
In a strange and confusing way, they sort-of turned their fleshy bodies into sigils. At least, in the way that it can enhance attacks. But the flesh of this universe is not uniform. There are… variations… mutations. Some skills work better on one and sometimes worse in another.
...
"This is a skill. I actually got this a long time ago from a friend of mine. He was an octopus and an incredible assassin." Granny spoke casually to Ran, in fact, the last few sentences she said were merely acting as filler.
However, hearing the words "was'' had already set Ran off. While she spoke casually, he was still able to notice the hidden emotions within her faultless voice. Clearly, to Ran, something had happened to this person and the both of them had more than a simple relationship. He wasn't saying they were supposed to be together, but he was sure they were at least close. Hell, the fact this octopus had given and taught Granny his skill seemed damning enough, but nothing was as simple as it seems.
And Ran would know too, after all, he had Ann with him all the time, messing around with him mentally. This was a different case altogether and he still hadn't been able to solve it, despite his best efforts.
With such experiences in hand, Ran got the impression that he ended up, somehow, prying too much into someone else's life. They might be acquaintances, or even friends, but he would never purposefully overstep his boundaries. He went to apologize; "miss Granny, I'm sorry, it seems I spoke too much," but Granny only chuckled and patted his shoulder.
"There's no need to be ashamed, Ran, people die all the time. He just happened to meet the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong place."
Despite comforting him, his mood had already easily dropped below his usually high level of happiness. He couldn't help but berate himself, he was ashamed at himself, though the reason could very much be disputed.
"Don't be too pessimistic; for all we know, he could still be alive. But let's move on, I'll teach you another skill to help protect yourself."
Though learning a skill would benefit him, he only sighed and showed a slight smile when he heard that the octopus could still be alive. Maybe he could meet him someday and be friends with him!
Seeing his mood brighten a little, Granny smiled too. It appeared she was starting to enjoy being around this little fingerling and helping him. Especially after what she saw that day a while ago. That disturbance in space, while it was invisible to the naked eye, her level was powerful enough to also be sensitive enough to see what caused it. And what she saw had completely changed her worldview; so much so, most of her doubts and misgivings about Ran had all but vanished.
In fact, what she saw had hit her on a more… personal level. And maybe, just maybe, that was the true reason why she genuinely smiled at him for the first time today.
But, it is as they say, smiles are indeed contagious.