Mysterious World

As soon as both of them peeked outside of the cave entrance, they were assaulted with a refreshing yet gentle energy full of life, and their bodies madly started taking that energy in, like a rain in the desert.

Both of them went "Ahhhh..." at the same time and then laughed together because they were perfectly synchronized in audibly enjoying the feeling.

Taking a look ahead, they saw an endless plain surrounded by mountains, rivers, lakes and various land formations unfamiliar to them. The sheer variety of colors and auras they detected was innumerable and the most amazing thing was the sky with visible stars and different clouds of various colors, accompanied by aurora-like formations, each of different color and density.

The scenery was truly far too overwhelming to be called beautiful. It was mesmerizing. They held hands and carefully descended from the steep cliff wall. Luckily for them, the wall wasn't fully vertical and there was a certain incline. Also, the surface on the outside was rocky and uneven, unlike the tunnel in the cave, which served them well in their descent.

Asura: "I wonder if this world is as dangerous as it's beautiful."

Xia: "Mm, it really is beautiful. I guess we'll have to find out about the danger ourselves."

Asura: "You don't know anything about this world?"

Xia shook her head in denial: "No, since we were aware of our existence, we were tied to Earth's space and were generally sleeping. In fact, you could say both you and us lived the same amount of years since we were awakened from deep sleep by your soul. That also means you know as much about this as I do, it's just that I know a few specifics about this world. But for some reason, I can't recall why I know of these..."

Asura: "Heee... so it was my soul that woke you up? Do you remember how it happened?"

Xia: "Um. When you were as old back then as you are now, your soul accidentally slipped inside our little space and you were scared when you saw us. But then later on, you would come visit us every time you fell asleep despite your fear, probably out of curiosity. It truly was hard to part with the young you for the two of us, especially since you always forget about us when you wake up. We slowly became attached to you and in the end we met again a while ago."

Asura: "Actually, I did faintly remember one of the dreams where I met you."

Xia: "Eh? Really? Which one was it?"

Asura: "The one about our first encounter, where you chased me while I was scared..."

Xia paused a little and started laughing: "Pfft... ahahaha, you should've seen your expression of horror while you were running away, and you even opened the pathway from our isolated world to your soul at that time. If it wasn't for that, we would never have had a chance to connect our world to yours. Both of us really had lots of luck."

Asura: "Yeah, and because of you two I changed later on in life. I'm afraid if it were not for you, I'd never become what I am today. Thank you!"

Xia felt proud and a sweet, heartwarming feeling took over her whole being. As they talked, they were already at the bottom of the cliff, standing on a vibrant yellow grass that tickled their legs.

The grass was slightly glowing, but the glow was faint. The air outside was rich with refreshing energy, which resembled a feeling after the rain on Earth. The grass wasn't very high but it was soft. The tallest stalks would reach somewhere about twenty centimeters, but the rest usually only grew about five to ten centimeters from the ground, barely enough to cover the two's feet.

Asura took Xia by the hand and led her to a nearby rock, where they squashed the grass and piled up the nearby stalks so that it was softer to sit on. The two sat down to catch their breath and in the meantime, Asura started plucking the long stalks of grass and weaving them together according to his memories. As they chatted about the past, he finished weaving the grass and the final product turned out to be a crown made of yellow stalks of grass. The crown wasn't really the pinnacle of its beauty and neither was it any kind of masterpiece, but to Xia it wasn't any different either.

He took the crown and carefully placed it on Xia's head, ensuring that it was fitting and wouldn't fall off. What he didn't know was that precisely at that moment, Xia's heart melted.

As a thank you, he got a peck on the cheek and a free cuddle. He even though Xia was some kind of Spirit Beast in human form, considering she was so fond of cuddling and rubbing her cheeks on his skin. Although both of them had a very smooth skin, there was no big difference between its smoothness, so he didn't know why she was so obsessed with his. Even after an entire life, Asura still couldn't understand a girl's heart.

They stood up and departed, leaving their temporary stop behind. As they went further, they would often express their surprise aloud when they saw something beautiful. But the funny thing is, most of the things they encountered were more or less beautiful, just like a fantasy game.

Asura: "Look at this purple flower, it's a little different."

Xia looked at the flower Asura was pointing to and it truly was strange. The flower had a crystalline texture with shiny spots inside. There were thousands of them, and aside from that, the smell it released was intoxicating and relaxing. At first, Asura wondered whether this fragrance was poisonous but after inhaling a bit, he didn't feel any danger so he assumed it wasn't, otherwise he'd be feeling light-headed and maybe would even be unconscious by now. Besides, if his luck was so bad that he died after just being born, then so be it.

Xia: "Aah! What a beautiful flower. I wonder how it's called..."

The flower had a dozen shiny purple strands hanging down, rooted just below its petals. As light breeze passed by, the strands would flutter following those invisible air currents, as if wanting to break free from the flower and fly away into the vast world.

Asura crouched next to the flower and gently caressed its petals. Feeling the soft, silky sensation, his eyes showed amazement. He carefully plucked out one of the fluttering strands, paying attention not to damage the rest of the flower.

Xia: "You're awfully careful with handling it, aren't you?"

Asura smiled mysteriously and said: "What if it's some kind of a rare exotic flower, wouldn't I be wasting the chance if that's really the case. In any case, it's better to be careful and preserve it for later, who knows..."

Xia: "Hmm, that's a fair point. Anyway, what do you plan on doing with that thread?"

Asura: "I was thinking of using this to make our clothes, but I need to first test its durability."

The strand was around thirty centimeters long. He carefully wrapped its ends around his hands and, using the full force, pulled to test its durability. To his surprise, rather than breaking, the silky strand actually started tightening around his hand and left behind a white line on his skin as the surrounding skin became rosy red and only after he increased the force even more did it snap.

Asura: "Wow. This thing is so durable!"

Xia watched on as all of that took place and her white brows slightly rose in surprise. Even she didn't expect that tiny little strand to be so tenacious. It was an amazing sight to behold.

Xia: "I wonder how strong would the clothes made from it be if a mere strand is this strong."

Asura: "Well, the first thing we need to do is to gather enough of these flowers for both of us. If there are extra, then we can even make a spare set of clothes. But if there aren't enough flowers, we may have to mix it with something else."

Asura took a look at his hand that had a faint red line still visible. It was the line left behind by the strand. He was pleasantly surprised by the sheer tenacity of this thing. To make things even more exciting, the thread was actually slightly elastic. It's like it was tailor-made for making clothes with it.

He looked at the sky and saw a massive planet surrounded by many shiny smaller ones of various sizes. Some as big as the moon on Earth, some even bigger, while some appeared merely as tiny dots. The most fascinating thing were two very bright stars - Purple and Green. The combination of their light made the sky have purplish-green color and multiple different-colored clouds could be seen here and there.

They resembled mist more than clouds, but it was nevertheless a beautiful scene. Somehow all the colors were preserved as if that purple and green light didn't have the slightest influence. For example, even though there was obviously no Yellow star in the sky, the grass beneath their feet was yellow. The trees in the distance were dark brown, almost black. The colors were not any different than on Earth, there were only more of them. Because of that, the world didn't look as dull as it did back on Earth.

This made Asura wonder whether those bright stars were actual stars or just some energy-like formations that didn't have any obvious impact on these myriad worlds around the massive planet.

Asura looked at the green star and thought to himself: "This world truly is strange, there were no green stars in our world. I guess this world truly is a different place... How exciting..."