8 The World's Key

"Mia, calm down. What is it? What's wrong? Please, tell me." Seeing Mia's scared expression, Rasz tried to calm her down. He didn't understand what had happened, but he knew that she was really frightened right now.

Tears started to slide down Mia's face. When he saw those tears, Rasz's heart clenched and without being fully aware of what he was doing, he had embraced her in his arms. He tried to soothe her by repeatedly stroking her dark hair gently.

Being in the warm embrace of someone at this moment slowly calmed Mia down. Furthermore, somehow knowing that this warmth had come from the young man with that bright smile, made her really comfortable. While still being embraced by Rasz, Mia took several deep breaths as she tried to calm her panic-stricken heart.

At this moment, Mia didn't realize that the person who was holding her in his arms right now had his own thoughts running wildly in his mind.

After embracing Mia for a while, Rasz started to notice a few things that he shouldn't have taken note on, especially not in this moment when the said person herself was in a vulnerable state. While stroking Mia's hair, he came to realize how soft and silky Mia's hair was. It even had a really pleasant smell, something that he was familiar with, but he couldn't quite identify what it was. He then instinctively drew himself closer to her hair to take a wisp of that smell.

Just then, he heard Mia said, "Umm... I'm alright now. You can let go of me." Hearing Mia's words and realizing what he had shamelessly did just now, he quickly let go of her, and took a few steps back, turning his face away from her. He felt really embarrassed and guilty for his actions. It didn't matter if he had done it intuitively — what's wrong is wrong.

Mia wasn't aware of any of Rasz's strange actions, because she was currently focused on her own problems right now. She needed to know what was going on right now. She knew that the golden clock-like circle that night must have something to do with her getting here. Somehow she needed that golden magic circle to send her back. However, Mia didn't have any idea how to get that golden circle to appear again.

She then turned her gaze towards the person standing in front of her right now — the only person that she knew in this strange place.

Rasz sensed Mia's gaze on him, and while still feeling guilty, he turned towards her direction once more. "Did she realized what I did just now? Is she mad at me?" thought Rasz.

"I'm not sure how to say this, but here it goes." Mia took deep breath in a few times, preparing herself to explain to Rasz everything.

Rasz gulped when he heard Mia's words, cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "She's totally thinking that I'm a pervert, now isn't she?" Rasz was screaming out loud full of shame in his mind, thinking what a horrible person he was for 'attacking' a young lady when she was vulnerable.

"I know you might not believe this, but I'm not exactly from around 'here'," Mia had purposely emphasized the word 'here'.

After a short pause, Mia continued with her explanations, "Some golden clock-like circle had transported me here. I'm not sure what-"

"Huh?" Rasz suddenly stopped his inner screaming when he realized that Mia wasn't condemning him at all.

"I know that this might sound rather unbelievable, but I'm telling you the truth." On the other hand, when Mia saw that Rasz had become startled and silent, she had taken it as a sign that he didn't quite believe in her words.

She didn't even once think that it was actually because he was currently being preoccupied with a certain celebration within his mind. For when Rasz had realized that Mia truly wasn't aware of his 'moment of weakness' from the time they had embraced, he had shamelessly hyped up several silent hurrahs.

While Mia was still busy worrying that Rasz might bolt out of the room any second now thinking that she must be crazy, Rasz suddenly said an unexpected thing. "Of course, I know that you weren't from around here. You had <Travel> to the [Forst World]."

"Yes, that's right I had traveled to-" Mia stopped half-way through her words, as she came to realize what Rasz had truly implied.

Gulping down her shocked, Mia stammered back a question at Rasz just to make sure it was truly just as she thought and wasn't only a one-sided thinking of hers, "I-I'm s-sorry, but c-can you repeat what you had just s-said?"

"Hmm...? Oh, yes, I do know that you had <Travel> to the [Forst World]. Your clothes and demeanor were different from the people here. So, I knew right away that you weren't-"

"Wait! Rasz..." Mia extended out her hand towards Rasz meaning to stop him from speaking further. Rasz was quite startled, by Mia's sudden action, but obediently kept quiet and listened to what she had to say.

"When you said 'travel', you do mean it in a way where people will take a transportation and went on a journey to somewhere inside the country or abroad, right?" Just as Mia finished her question, both of her hands which were at her side were clenched tightly and Rasz could clearly see that she was biting down on her lips hard enough to draw blood very soon.

"Umm... Mia, what's-" concerned, Rasz began to ask. However, as soon as he caught onto Mia's worry, his expression turned into one of shock, which then immediately changed into one of pity.

He now understood why Mia had been scared right after she had looked out the window. Everything made sense when Rasz thought about it — she had realized that the [World] that she was now in isn't the same as her own.

Stepping closer to Mia once again, Rasz reached out both of his hands to grab hold onto her shoulders with the intention to try and calmly explained the whole situation at Mia. However, just as his fingers were about to touch her shoulders, she stepped back out of reach. There were no tears on her face this time, but Rasz could still clearly see that she was distress.

"You said [Forst World], just now." With a painful expression on her face, Mia started to speak to Rasz in a rather loud and impatient tone, as if it was, in fact, him who had been the caused of all this mess that she was in right now. "You meant to say that this is a different [World] than the one I came from?!" Mia shook her head repeatedly, no longer able to comprehend what was going on anymore. She started to feel overwhelmed by the feeling of helplessness. Her body began to tremble involuntarily once again.

Being understanding of her situation, Rasz didn't feel offended and merely stood still right in front of her, the hands that had failed to reach out to Mia were brought back to his side in silent defeat. He kept quiet and merely looked right at Mia helplessly. That was, until, he decided that he couldn't let Mia continued to be depressed. Since he had already found her and helped her all this time, he might as well do it till the end.

"Yes, Mia. This is the [Forst World], a different [World] than your own [World], but it isn't the only one. There are many more different [Worlds] exist out there." Rasz began to explain to Mia as slow as he could, trying his best not to overwhelm her with so many information all at once.

"I... How am I suppose to get back to my [World]?" If she was really in a different [World], Mia really didn't know what to do anymore. If she had just been stuck in some unknown country or lost deep in the forest like before, she might have still had a chance to find a way back, but if this was indeed a different [World]-

"Mia, let's just sit down first, okay?" Seeing that Mia had become more worried after hearing his explanations about the [Worlds], Rasz decided to grab her forearm and escorted her to sit down on the bed.

Settling Mia down gently on the bed, he picked up the brass pitcher from the tray that he had previously brought up and poured down the water onto a drinking cup, "Here, have some water first."

Rather than reaching out to accept the cup of water, Mia looked up at Rasz with pleading eyes. Despite the depressing moment that Mia was having right now, Rasz still managed to almost lose his grip on the pewter cup right there and then, as he became tempted to caress Mia's attractive face. That supple and soft white-

"Cough, cough." Rasz coughed trying to get his objective straight.

"Mia, I understand what you're feeling right now, but you need to calm down first. Eat your lunch. You're hungry, aren't you? Since you had been unconscious all these time, you haven't had any food in your system."

When Mia still refused to move and simply continued to look at him with that same pitiful expression, Rasz tried to use less persuasive words, mockingly said, "I can clearly hear your stomach growling right now, you know."

Pausing a bit, he looked at Mia with unwavering eyes and said, "I have no plans to leave you alone after all these time, Mia." Rasz showed her a gentle smile. "When you have done eating I'll explain everything you want to know. Then, we'll figure out a way to get you back to your own [World], together. Is that alright?" Still, extending that cup of water at Mia, he gestured at her to take it.

Seconds ticked by, and Mia still didn't move. Then, just as Rasz was about to take the drinking cup away, Mia made a move to grab the cup and took it away from his grasp. She gulped the water down to the last drop, and as she looked back at Rasz, her eyes were as calm as still water as she said, "Okay."

******

For the next half an hour or so, Mia spent the time eating her lunch slowly without a hint of the anxiousness that she had shown previously when she came to know about her current situation. Rasz on the other hand, simply just sat on the bed with her, passing a cup of water now and then when she asked for it.

Not even a single word was uttered between them throughout the whole time Mia was having her meal. However, as soon as Mia finished her last piece of meat and put away the tray now contained the empty plate, she looked at Rasz nervously waiting for him to tell her everything. "So..."

"So... Where do you want me to begin?" asked Rasz, letting Mia decide from where she wanted him to begin explaining.

"You mentioned <Travel> just now. Can you explain that first?" said Mia giving her answer.

"Okay. So, <Travel> is the magical ability to journey from one [World] to another [World]. You will need a World's Key for that."

When Mia looked confused when he mentioned 'World's Key', Rasz pulled out a silver chain that he had been wearing around his neck. Taking the chain off him, he showed the item to Mia. Attached at the end of the silver chain was a circle pendant made of obsidian carved with a crescent moon with two stars hanging from its top edge.

"This pendant is a World's Key, but this isn't the only one though. There are other World's Keys exist out there." When Rasz showed Mia the World's Key in his possession, her eyes began to shine brightly with hope as she thought she will be able to return home now.

Rasz had noticed that too, so he felt really guilty for having to utter the next few words. "However, this World's Key won't be able to get you back to your [World]."

As expected, Mia's hopeful expression immediately turned ashen at Rasz's words.