It was just another boring day for Siegfried Leicester. He was heading back to his house after a quick trip to the convenient store, walking faster and faster so that he could finally go home and sleep.
But unfortunately for him, that seemingly normal day would change his life forever.
Ring*
Siegfried's phone started ringing as he was on his way to his room.
"Damn who the hell's calling me this time?" he asked as he picked up the phone "Who's this?" he asked again, this in a more grumpy tone.
"It's William hahah, what the hell are you being grumpy about Sieg?" William asked
It was William Sunderland, Siegfried's childhood friend. Siegfried upon hearing a familiar voice replied in a more friendly manner, "Dude, we just saw each other last week why are you calling me?"
"Well the others want to meet up, so i called you" William said
He explained to him how the others wanted to talk about something and that Siegfried needed to join them asap. As soon as William finished explaining he hung up the phone.
Siegfried was thinking about going 'cause he really had nothing to do and it's been a while since he got out of his room. Most of his time was spent sleeping and playing games 'cause it's summer break so maybe it's time to get out of his room.
Siegfried got dressed and jumped off his window, though the window was in the second floor he just jumped out to save some time.
He called William to ask where they were to which William replied "We're at the old school building, hurry Sieg."
"Okay, see yah in a bit."
After that he hung up the phone and quickly went to the old school building where the others were.
...
Siegfried arrived ten minutes after the last call, he saw the others just outside the old school building.
"Sup you guys?" Siegfried asked, while approaching the others
Aside from William there were two other people waiting for him. Both were girls, the first girl had short black hair, and emerald green eyes while the other girl had long blonde hair and eyes as blue as the skies.
Siegfried recognized them both. The short-haired girl is Alice Glasgow while the blonde's name is Eara Hereford.
"It's about time." Alice said
"What did you expect, that's Sieg for you." Eara agreed
"Sorry guys, so what're we gonna do."
They explained everything to Siegfried. They wanted to go star gazing and they knew the old school building has a good view. After all the explaining they do, the sun already set as the group went inside the building.
After a few minutes of climbing the stairs and chatting, they arrived at the rooftop and hurriedly set up their telescope.
Siegfried was having fun watching the stars with his friends, but he couldn't stop nature's call and went to step out for a bit.
When he returned William and Alice was still gazing at the stars being all lovey-dovey and stuff, while Eara was leaning back near the door; seems like she's waiting for Siegfried.
Eara was one beautiful girl and she always gets along with Siegfried and the others, well she can be scary from time to time atleast that was what Siegfried thought.
"Sup Eara?" He asked
"I-I'm okay how 'bout you? How're you doing these days"
"I'm good, well atleast I think I am." He said with a smirk
"Geez Sieg, you always do that." She stated
"Huh? Do what?"
"Nevermind."
They chatted for a while, talking about stuffs and at some point they both opened up to each other. But their conversation was cut short by cheeky boy William.
"Oh ho ho, So Sieg's your type of guy huh Eara." Said William, smirking as he did
"W-W-What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
"Shut up Wil." Siegfried said
"Umm... guys what is this?" Alice asked while pointing at what seems to be like a magic circle enveloping them.
But before everyone could react a streak of blinding light emerged from the magic circle thingy, which rendered them unconcious.
...
"Open your eyes, Siegfried."
It was as if Siegfried could hear someone calling, as he open his eyes.
It was dark. Night time maybe? But it wasn't that dark; there was light. A flame above his head. A candle, but not just one series of them spaced in even intervals and lined up along the wall. Where was this?
He touched the wall and found it hard and rough. It wasn't a wall really; it was a rock and, like what one would expect when sleeping on rocks his backside were sore. Maybe he was in a cave? A dungeon? sure felt like one of those. Why was he there though?
The candles was placed fairly high above him, but he could probably reach them if he stood up and stretched out his arms. However it was dark enough that he could only see an arm's length in front of him and almost nothing below his feet.
He could sense other presences near him. If he listened carefully he could hear faint sounds of breathing. Maybe it was the others or maybe not. What if it were something else? Nothing is certain but it would be terrible if it was. Though in a way, the sound seemed to be that of people.
"Guys, are you here?" he called out, tentatively.
"Yeah." the reply came immediately. from William.
"I'm here," another voice, Alice's, answered.
"Errm... I'm here as well." Eara replied.
For a moment Siegfried was relieved of hearing his friends.
"You guys know where we are?" He asked
"Nope..."
"Who knows..."
"No one here knows, that's one thing certain."
He was confused. Why were they here? How long had they been here already?
Siegfried tried to think about what happened to them, he remembered going to the old school building's rooftop with his friends. He also remembered being enveloped in a magic circle thingy but after that, everything else was fuzzy. When he thought about it, the feeling irritated him more.
"Can't just sit here forever." He said
He could hear pebbles being grounded under his feet as he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Eara asked
"I'm going to follow the candles down this wall." he replied
"Well I guess I'm going too," William said "No point in staying here."
"Hold on, I'm going too," said Alice
Eara pointed out the path without candles though, to which Siegfried disagreed on taking. It's more likely to find trouble in a path which no one even knows where it leads.
Everyone was following Siegfried's lead, they were walking along stiffly, one hand feeling along the stone wall. The ground wasn't smooth, and somewhat uneven, though it was still easy to walk on.
They were walking for quite a while now. But at some point, they seemed to have stopped moving. Keep moving that was what Siegfried thought. The more he kept thinking where they were, the more his head keeps aching.
The row of candles continued. When they would end? No one knows. How far did they walked now? Probabably pretty far, maybe not that far. Siegfried couldn't tell anymore, he had lost all sense of space and time.
"Hey guys there's something here," he said "It's bright, the sun maybe?"
"Is that a gate?" Eara asked to which Alice responded "Maybe it's the way out."
Instantly everyone's feet felt lighter. Even though they couldn't see a thing, somehow they knew that they were going in the right direction. Everyone's paced quickened and soon enough they could see it. Brighter than any candle, was the sun rising. The light it gave off was illuminating what indeed seemed to be a gate.
Siegfried and William placed both their hands on it and gave it a rough shake, but the gate didn't budge, so they tried yanking it hard enough so it would open.
This time their effort weren't in vain. The gate creaked open.
Everyone was feeling better when that happened. Siegfried and William took a few steps forward through the gate, Eara and Alice followed after them.
When they got out they stood on a moderately high hill, and behind them was a tower. It seems like that was the place they were in a few moments earlier, or perhaps it was more accurate to say that they had been underneath it.
"That looks like a city" William said, pointing towards something beyond the hill.
Looking in that direction, everyone could see buildings clustered closely together. A city, certainly looked like one. It had to be a city. Surrounding it was a tall fence--no not a fence. a sturdy-looking, tower like wall.
"Looks more like a castle than a city," said Alice
"So... where are we actually?" Eara asked, nervously
Siegfried feels like the place they were in was very nostalgic, everything from the tower behind them and the castle-like town from the west of where they are.
He faced his friends to tell them that he might know where they are but to his surprise, his friends were looking a bit different. That shocked his friends as well when they looked at him. All of them were looking different, aside from the pointy ears, their hair color also changed.
"Umm guys your ears are-" but before Siegfried could utter another word William interrupted him
"Pointy? Well so are yours Sieg." He stated
Siegfried couldn't think of any other thing anymore. His hunch earlier seems to be right on.
"What happened to us?" Alice asked "First we woke up underneath a tower and now are bodies are somehow transformed?!"
"Alice is right and we don't even know where we are. Everything that has happened to us is very strange." Eara added
The girls were scared and confused; actually all of them were, but still Siegfried kept his head cool. He was thinking about what happened to them, where were they transported and why, damn he was thinking about all of it at the same time that it made his head spin.
He was still brainstorming when suddenly William grabbed his shoulder and pointed at something to the west of them.
"Hey Sieg, look at the crest on city's flag." He said
Siegfried didn't know why William would want him to see the crest of an unknown city, but still he must have a reason for it Siegfried thought.
But when he laid his eyes on the crest, there he knew exactly where they were transported to. That's why he feels awfully familiar with this place, all of them once went here in the game that all of them played.
"That's the crest of Alceis" Siegfried said
"Yeah, know we know why it feels familiar, only questions left are how and why are we here?"
"Yeah and there's still the matter of how are bodies were transformed."
Siegfried and William called out to the girls, they told them about what they found and they also talked about what they should do next.
"So what's the plan captain?" William asked
"Yeah what are we going to do, Guildmaster?" Alice also asked
"Captain? Guildmaster? Come on you guys we aren't in the game anymore." Siegfried replied
"We know that already but, you're the one who lead us. You were always leading us even after we got transported here Sieg." Eara stated
Those words that they said gave hope to Siegfried. They were right he was the one leading them all this time but it's because they sticked together that's why they're all here.
The happiness and success they had, they all felt it together and even if they're transported to some other world, if they stick together they can accomplish anything.
"We'll head for Alceis, and there we will start our brand new adventure." Siegfried said
...