"Now to more recent news, a new realm that appeared three hours ago has just been claimed..."
"Lucky them."
He begins to walk upstairs entering a room and calling out to his sister.
"Mai! Get up! You gotta eat breakfast and get ready for school!"
She tossed and turned on her bed before she got up and yawned.
"Okay I'll be down in five minutes."
As he closed the door and went downstairs to wait for Mai to eat their breakfast, Igris kept thinking to himself if his family will ever be able to enter a realm together.
Five minutes later Mai came down and the two began to eat their breakfast and afterwards got dressed and left for school.
"Hey Mai, would you be happy if we were able to enter a realm?"
"Hm? Why bring up that question all of a sudden?"
"I'm just curious."
As she was thinking of an answer to Igris's question she began to have a sad but concerned expression.
"It would be nice but we would have to worry about the dangers of entering a new world, and also don't you think it'll be sad to leave the place we were born in."
Igris, who already expected an answer like that, stayed silent while expressing a small smile towards Mai and then continued walking.
When they arrived at the school entrance they both said their goodbyes and went to their classes.
After a long and uneventful day, the two met up at the entrance and returned back home, while Mai stayed in her room doing her homework, Igris went out to the forest behind their home and took a nap on a hammock he made. Two hours passed and Igris returned back home to sleep but while he was in his room he couldn't sleep and so he started looking outside his window.
Towards the middle of the night, while he was looking out his window he felt a strange energy enter his body giving him chills. Igris, who was now startled, looked around his room and then looked back out his window to see a strange purple light come from behind the trees. Although he was startled at the moment, his eyes began to glimmer with hope and started getting a huge smile on his face. Igris sneaked into Mai's room and woke her up asking her to follow him outside.
"Hmm? What is it? Wait, what time is it?"
"Shh. Put your shoes and and follow me, I think I saw something in the forest."
Although confused Mai put her shoes on as he asked and followed him outside and into the forest. After ten minutes of walking deeper into the forest the purple light began to get brighter, and in mere moments they were in front of the source of the light.
"It's really a realm! And it's right here in front of us."
The two stood frozen in amazement and looked at each other not knowing what to do. For a few minutes all they could do was just stare at it. Shaking of his amazement, Igris then looked towards Mai with a huge grin on his face.
"We should tell our parents! We can leave and have a better life!"
Mai looked towards her brother with a frown on her face.
"I don't know, Is that really the best idea?"
Igris recalled the conversation they had in the morning, but wanted to try to persuade Mai that entering the realm would be the best choice for them. After a few minutes of arguing he finally persuaded his sister. The siblings looked at the realm one more time before they nodded at each other and turned around to begin walking back towards the house. They managed to take a few steps away from the realm, when a pulse of energy coming from it knocked them to the ground. Looking toward the realm, they watched as a large, tattered and thin talon tried making its way through the portal. Both were paralyzed in fear and weren't able to react as Mai was grabbed by the leg and dragged into the portal. Her screams shook Igris from his fear and looked on with disbelief as his sister disappeared within a matter of seconds. He stood up on shaky legs and ran into the portal to follow his sister.
The forest, that was filled with screams seconds ago suddenly became silent but the realm continued to shine bright.
Blacking out for a few seconds after entering the realm, Igris wakes up only to see himself atop a tall tree. Although terrified of being so high in the air, his mind went straight to his sister, worrying about her safety. A noise from below made him look down and a black figure caught his eye. As he tried to look closely at the figure he was able to see a glimpse of Mai on its talon.
"Damn it, let go of her you monster!"
Igris, while still afraid, did not hesitate and dived down aiming straight for the monster holding Mai. he only had one chance and if he missed, it could mean the death of both him and Mai. With only one goal in mind, Igris began closing in on the monster.
He hit the monster head on and managed to grab onto its back. It started falling, and seeing as it hasn't let go of Mai yet, Igris began punching and clawing at it. His attacks had no effect on it so he made a quick decision and climbed up to its head and punch it in the eye. The monster who was bleeding from the eye began screeching in pain, reaching for its eye. In that moment, the creature let go of Mai and Igris saw her falling he jumped off the monster's back trying to catch her as she was falling.
"Mai!! Mai!"
< Prologue > End