The Beginning
This... Gaia... was quite a strange place. Toliyen had been to quite his share of worlds since getting lost, yes, but never anything quite like this world.
Gaia looked like it was the great melting pot of all the universes. Whatever got lost eventually ended up in there once they got lost deep enough. Which... well, was quite accurate, to be honest. Perhaps a little too accurate, given his own situation.
Universal space dump, indeed.
Through it was a welcome respite to be able to just hover freely without anyone freaking the hell out. In some of the other worlds he'd ended up in, his levitation really had freaked out the natives. Really, he almost seemed normal compared to some of the s**t that he'd seen there.
After all, he has seen vampires.
Some of them sparkled.
That was just freaky s**t right there. Not that Toliyen had an high opinion of vampires to begin with. They tended to think he was delicious. And not to ask before jumping.
Then they tried to blame them puking their guts out afterward trying to turn him on him. Really. Not his damn fault.
It was getting pretty late, and the sky overhead had turned dark and freckled with stars. Toliyen was drifting aimlessly, way above street level, looking mainly for a rooftop that would be safe to sleep on. And hopefully would not be infested in vampires. Damn it.
And no drunks, too.
No drunks would be nice for once.
The young man continued his search, bright orange eyes scanning the rooftops. The faint blue glow he emanated while levitating helping him see his way some, through...
Tonight, that very glow would find something quite different. Something glimmered – a faint, peachy golden color, on top of one of the larger, more well-off manors.
What was that ?
Curiosity, as they said, killed the cat. Toliyen landed on the rooftop with a soft thud, the blue glow leaving him as he did. This made the object he had seen a little harder to notice... That is, until he lifted a nearby brick, covering it in the same blue glow.
Ha, instant flashlight. At home he'd be scolded with using his mana so needlessly, but... He wasn't home, and the elders weren't there to scold him !
Still, it took a few moments to find what he had been looking for – it flashed the same peachy-gold color, but turned blue as he came closer. Slowly, Toliyen made his way toward the object and knelt to have a better look at it.
The object was a round stone, that gave off the golden-peach glow when light hit it. The copper chain it had been attached to was old and weathered, covered in patina – the chain had turned dark brown all over, with some spots turning green in places. Clearly it had been forgotten there for a long time, and yet the stone itself was in perfect condition. He had never seen any stone like this before.
...Well, it wasn't stealing if something had been discarded and forgotten, right ? Maybe if he found a nice chain to replace the old, gross one, he'd get some good gold for it...
He took the stone and carefully rubbed the dirt and dust off the surface – it seemed only more beautiful now, reflecting the light even more.
But then, something in his hand yanked away and he screamed on reflex, darting back.
The stone... The stone had yanked itself out of the chain, and was not floating in front of him, consumed in what looked like black flames.
”W-What the hell.” He muttered to himself in his mother tongue, eyes wide as his wild hair tossed back as he moved. The hell ?!? What was that ?
And now the stone was following him, drifting toward him even as he backed away. Worse, even, it seemed to know when he was about to take off, because it dropped in his shadow...
....and vanished ?!
That...
Was strange as all hell. But... Now, really, all he could think of is to just fly off, in hope to lose the strange, seemingly alive object.
While Toliyen did not know it yet, it would not be quite that easy.
