WHOOSH!
Bursting through the soft white clouds of the Outer Domain, Arthur felt momentarily disoriented as his eyes slowly adjusted to the abrupt shift space.
WHOOOW!
With the wind rushing past his ears, it took a few moments before Arthur regained his bearings as his eyes fixed themselves on an intriguing lay of land laid below him.
'So this is Pandora, huh?'
Hit with massive waves of blue and green light, Arthur's pupils dilated as his eyes fully took into the vibrance of the land below.
Directly below Arthur, at the center of a massive green valley, was an incredibly large blue lake.
Giving off some sort of magnetic pull, Arthur felt his mind numb a bit as his focus solely fixed itself on the lake. Sparkling and dazzling as the overhead sun shone its soft yellow light into the valley, there seemed to be something special about the lake. Almost as if it's the sole purpose for its existence was to be here and now for Arthur's arrival.
Taking a few moments to pull his gaze from the lake, Arthur found himself a bit surprised at the rest of the land's geography below. Though both valley and lake were large, they were completely dwarfed by five enormous mountains.
The Five Mountains were located to the southwest of a roundish continent and acted as a natural barrier between the valley within and a deep blue ocean.
With the largest mountains, the central mountain, as a focal point, two other mountains acted as the formal border with the ocean. Whereas the other two mountains jutted inland, forming a clear cut border with a massive forest that stretched on for as long as Arthur could see. Looking at the area from the skies, the mountains seemed from a rough and round right angle.
Shifting his gaze from the mountains, Arthur was further surprised to see that the valley's mouth was filled with a small forest that stretched into three biomes. Two expected and one unexpected.
The first of the expected was the large forest that bordered the mountains that jutted inland. The forest biome started from a high cliff that directly bordered the deep blue ocean and stretched past the two mountains until a bit of it seeped into the mountain valley.
Shifting to the right, the biome Arthur didn't expect was a massive gold and green plain that stretched on like the forest it bordered. The land occasionally rose and fell like giant waves on a gentle ocean, bringing with each rise and fall, slews of blue, yellow, and red flowers.
Shifting to the right one more time, the last biome that Arthur expected was a bay.
Starting from the area where the last of the two mountains that bordered the ocean ended. Water met land in a smooth collision, turning the oceanfront into a mix of golden sand and crystal blue water.
Tracing this collision for kilometers, Arthur noticed a gradual rise in elevation as the collision eventually turned the mix into one of brown earth and white mist. Interestingly, as the elevation increased, the land gradually curved further and further into the ocean until it ended up creating a tall cliff with an overall "c" shape.
Looking coastline from the air, Arthur felt that it looked similar to a checkmark, with the addition of an odd 'whoosh' feeling.
Turning his eyes to the ocean, Arthur was a bit disappointed to see it filled with tall jagged rocks poking through the water's surface.
'Hmm, not a viable port area, huh? I wonder-'
Before Arthur could finish his thought, he felt his consciousness slip.
…
Down in the lake below Arthur, a dark-skinned youth was enjoying a pleasant, relaxing dip.
The youth had long, rich black hair, which were separated lustrous dreadlocks. His eyes were a mesmerizing fiery amber, with flecks of silver, that showed off a special glint when the light hit it just right. If someone were to gaze into them, they would feel a quiet intensity and soft gentleness.
Looking at the youth's face as a whole, he had strong and defined features as if his face were molded from marble. He had dark eyebrows that sloped downwards in a slightly serious expression, along with full lips that passively tugged between playfulness and seriousness.
However, the aspect of the youth that garnered the most attention were his mystical white tattoos. The tattoos began at the sides of his neck and descended downwards, perfectly complementing his excellent physique. From a simple glance, anyone would be able to tell that they were special.
Gently floating on the lake's surface in shorty-shorts, the amber-eyed youth released a frustrated sigh.
"Why do I have to come into this stupid valley every day when I could be on the frontlines actually doing something. Gosh, this is frustrating."
"It's an iMpOrTanT task, he says… nO oNe eLsE cAn dO it, he says…."
"ARGH!" Screamed the youth as he slapped the lake's surface, causing a shower of water to rain on him. However, just as the showering water died down, the amber-eyed youth noticed a dark dot in the sky.
"….hold on, what is that?"
Catching the descending object heading right for the lake, the amber-eyed youth discarded his tirade of complaints as his focus fell solely on the descending object.
"Is that a bird…wait, no, that's a person… .aren't they falling a little too fast…crap!"
Wasting no time, the amber-eyed youth began to quickly swim back to shore.
The youth's speed was impressive, and in about half a minute, had managed to get near the shore.
WHOOSH-BLIP!
Just as the youth was about to stand, he heard a rush of wind behind him, followed by the gentle and soft sound of something small falling into the water.
A bit surprised by the lackluster collision of man and water, the youth turned around in confusion.
"Hu-!"
WHOOSH!
Before the youth could finish his exclamation, an enormous rush of air suddenly shot upwards, taking with it gallons of water. Swiftly followed by an explosion of golden light.
Instictintively the amber-eyed youth covered his eyes to shield them from the blinding golden light.
DRIP-DRIP-DRIP-DRIP-DRIP!
With his eyes covered, the only thing to alert the youth of his surroundings were his ears, as he listened quietly as drops of water began to slowly fall.
After a few moments, the amber-eyed youth noticed the golden dim around the edges of his eyes.
Moving his hand, the youth felt his pupils dilate as he found himself in a surreal scene.
Surrounding the youth and filling the entire valley were slowly descending drops of water. And within these drops were small spheres of gold light. Some droplets slowly faded while some shone like glowing crystals. Each droplet had its own unique shape, level of brightness, and size. Some droplets were bigger than others, while some were smaller.
Standing within all of this, the amber-eyed youth felt the world outside of the valley dark and foreboding while the world within the valley felt welcoming and warm. And to top it all off, there was a rainbow slowly forming over the lake.
The sparkle, the dazzle, the twinkle...
Enamored by the scene, the amber-eyed youth stood in the lake with a blank mind as the sparkle of gold rained around him.
SPLASH!
Hearing a splash of water, the amber-eyed youth snapped out of his revelry as he noticed a shadow beneath the lake's surface dashing towards him.
SPLASH!
Before the amber-eyed youth could react, the lake's surface broke a meter away from him as a head decorated with golden hair slowly rose up.
Now fully standing, Arthur flashed an amiable smile as his eyes made contact with the amber-eyed youth's.
However, Arthur's smile soon faltered as his eyes moved downwards.
The amber-eyed youth was stunned for a bit as his eyes met Arthur's.
Seeing Arthur's smile falter, and as his eyes moved downwards, the amber-eyed youth was a bit confused as he observed Arthur's mouth move slightly.
"Oh, a perver...hmm it's kinda small-"
Hearing the golden-haired youth's worths, the amber-eyed youth's confusion only grew, "what are you talking about? Pervert? Small?"
Verbally acknowledging Arthur's words, the amber-eyed youth slowly came to a realization as a gentle breeze suddenly swept through the valley. Feeling a bit cold by the wind, the amber-eyed youth instinctively looked down-
"Crap! Where-where did my shorts go.."
Frantic, the amber-eyed youth began to look around the area for his shorts.
SPLASH-SHWAAAH!
Just as the amber-eyed youth's eyes located his shorts, he heard a splash beside followed by the rapid descent of the drops of water.
Turning, the amber-eyed youth found Arthur face first in the lake.
"Oi…Oi….oi….!"