Chapter 1: Golden wings

Lu heard muffled voices mutter among themselves in the dark abyss. They chattered undecipherable words, but Lu was certain he hears them from other human beings.

Am I in heaven, he thought.

Little by little, his consciousness gradually came back. Finally when he came to be, he felt soft cushions supporting him from behind especially on his head.

He opened his eyes and saw blurry lights. He rubbed his eyes then opened them once more to reveal a white ceiling as and his vision eventually focused became clearer. He got up and felt sheets of cloth fold down to his lap, and it was only then that he realized he was tucked in on a bed.

Lu looked around and found that he woke up to a beautiful morning inside a bedroom. The metallic door was far across him and the bed was beside the window where pink curtains swayed along the wind, and shielded him from the warm yet harmless sunlight. However, Lu's eyes were still so sensitive that he had to cover his eyes behind his hand, and at the same time he noticed "0" above an "8" written on his wrist, the two numbers separated by a horizontal bar. He wondered what it meant, if the fraction would ring a bell, but nothing did.

He then looked around and found that the room was well furnished and decorated simply as well. For the most part except the iron-barred windows, the walls were all wooden, as well as the furniture. He looked outside and saw houses fashioned the same way, though each unique. All brown wood, stone-paved paths, not many tall buildings. The simple yet elegant architecture portrayed its masterpieces in a sea of shelters and other structures. If Lu were to describe it in one word, it would be medieval.

The door creaked open and an old man with red hair and pink eyes dropped his jaws before him. His surprise was overtaken by a kind and warm smile as he entered the room.

"Gee, young'un yer finally awake" he said.

Lu looked at his arms, examining the familiar features. "Seeing as everything isn't burning I'm assuming this is heaven?" he said.

The old man laughed. "Ain't know any place called heaven. 'Tis the city of Keirah yer in"

"I'm not... dead?" he asked, checking his hair to see if it was still black. When he confirmed it, he counted his toes. When he was faced with many uncertainties, it became his habit to check all the facts even the seemingly most obvious ones. It was one of the things that made him a great player of Monitum.

The old man walked to the stool on the opposite corner of the small room and sat on it. "Ya sure would've been if one of our carts passin' by didn't see ya lyin' on the dusted floors outside".

Lu started searching his body for any scratches or changes. He thought that his sister must have fired a transportation gun, not a laser gun, and believed that it was the only possible explanation.

"Which among the seven continents is this? Why am I here?" he inquired. Knowing his sister, she'd rent him a whole city such as this one if there was an important reason to.

"Seven? Yer in Faruno, just one among three. Did 'ya hit yerself that bad in the head? Was kinda hopin' yer the one to tell why yer here too" the old man raised an eyebrow.

"Three" Lu whispered to himself. A question popped up in his head but he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask.

Have I been reincarnated in another world?

It was the most plausible truth, albeit he didn't want to admit it. But as to why, and how it is different from the world he used to know, he has no idea.

"What's yer code boy?" the old man asked.

"Code?" Lu asked back.

The old man sighed and shook his head. "You even forgot yer code. Must have been in a bumpy ride, you were. Ask whatever you need and I'll say whatever I can tell"

It didn't take a second before Lu knew the next thing he would ask. It was obvious to him from the start.

"Have I done something bad?" Lu looked out the window and watched the shadow of a cloud pass over the houses.

The old man scratched his chin. "You've been sleepin' in. Not really, I would say"

The boy's eyes trailed back at him slowly. "Then why am I being treated like a criminal?" he said as he tossed his blankets aside, revealing his feet chained together at the other side of the bed frame. It didn't take much to put two and two together for him. The iron-fortified window to prevent escape, and the steel-shut door for the same reason.

Red-haired man stood up and walked to the foot of his bed. He sat at the very end and looked straight at the ground, fiddling with his fingers.

"Once we'd met an aurum. Ferocious, he was, and threw everythin' upside down. Half the city was killed in his rage and nobody liked it. Just makin' sure we ain't makin' the same mistake, you see" he said, sadness evident in his tone.

"What's an aurum?" Lu asked. He stood up and walked to the wooden wall near the window as much as the chains on his feet would let him. He started knocking on the wooden plates. Each wooden plate produced a different sound and soon it seemed as if he was playing a tune.

The old man looked back to him, probably seeing if he would sense any hint of a liar in his body out of caution. When he was satisfied, he spoke.

"Nobody knows, son. But they do look like us people, just that their feathers are shimmerin' gold" he said.

"Feathers? Is it something made of energy that fly to where people want it to?" Lu walked back to the bed and sat down on it. To him it was a familiar term that was used over and over again. In the videogame Monitum, they are the primary weapons. Things as hard as steel that can fly, and to a certain extent be shaped according to one's will. They also served as substitute for most of the tools used in real life for the game, so if it was the same, then he was already set up for survival in the world he spawned into.

The old man nodded, "Bullseye".

Lu's eyes lit up and immediately tried to spawn the entity in his hand. His years of playing lessened the shock, but nonetheless it surprised him when a golden stick, the basic form of a feather, appeared in his palm. It was all he needed to see to get a grasp of what had happened to him. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he was definitely transported to a world that has the same rules as the videogame he once played-- Monitum.

However, to the old man, it was also all that he needed to see. Nobody would mistake the golden hue of the object in his palm, not even Lu who has seen it for the first time. They slowly locked eyes with each other and Lu could feel heat from his eyes.

"I figured as much, looking at you. They say all aurums have black hair and black eyes. I took you in thinkin' there is always that chance you weren't, but I'm not colorblind. I ain't know nothin' why you act so oblivious, but I'm purdy sure when I release you, you be out there killin' my people"

"What do you mean? I haven't and will not ever kill anyone" the boy defended himself.

The old man walked backwards and shook his head. "I'm sure that's what an aurum would say. I will have to kill you before you kill anyone" he said, launching a few of his own feathers dyed pink, right into Lu's head.

Lu moved swiftly and turned the bed aside to use it as a shield for him. The man hopped over the mattress and launched an attack behind it but Lu was no longer there, and only pick-locked chains were left. The old man found him near the window already, trying to scrape away the wood for an escape.

"Wouldn't try that if I were you. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, they're all reinforced with dense steel" the old man threatened. He threw an9ther wave of pink plumes and Lu blocked them by putting up a barrier of with his own.

"Yeah, I've noticed. But there's this really weak part that I found while tapping on it earlier" Lu stared at him briefly after he pierced a hole just large enough for him to slip through.

He lunged into the hole and luckily landed on a soft patch of grass from the second floor. He hurt his arm very badly from landing on it, but at least it wasn't either of his legs. A bell sounded from the inside of the building and men came rushing out. He got up and rushed out the gates and took the chase to the streets, being closely followed by angry men shouting "aurum!".

The city was bound by walls, and he has to find the exit before the people catch him.

Lu's physique is a little weaker than the average 15-year-old. All his life he was with videogames whenever he had the chance. Just his luck, lacking physical abilities was the thing that hindered him most from his escape.

Naturally, the men spread out like a net trying to surround him from all sides. The walls surrounding the city is too high for him to climb with what he has. The gates were also closed at all times. Virtually, Lu had no chance of escape. However, he was grinning. What Lu lacked in body, he more than made up for in mind.

Even though their parents had left them without any physical objects, they didn't leave them with nothing. His sister was a scientific prodigy, and he was no less, a tactical magician.

His highest chance of success was to go through the gaps between the men blocking the way, and climb up the iron bar gates to make it outside, but Lu ran straight into the middle of the net.

Smart is to make the play with the highest chance of success. Wise is to make a different play because your enemy knows this.

As the pain in Lu's arm was relieved, he could run better, and in his size he could easily dodge the arms and bodies of the large men. He danced around the large spaces between them, forcing them to cover up the weakness of their net as Lu's path sew right through it.

They chased him as he strolled around the city square, and Lu was getting tired as more of the men joined in the chase. His stamina was a large disadvantage, but he had already accomplished his goal.

By the time he was feeling the strain he had already done his goal -- to round them up. He then made his way through tight street alleys, then right before he was tired, he made it to the gate.

He started his ascent as soon as he got his hand on it, so much in a hurry as if his life was at stake, which was exactly the case. The people behind him that threw feathers at him didn't make it any easier. He had to use his recently arm to make a small wall of feathers to protect him. All of the quills are at the same hardness no matter who uses it. The maximum and minimum speed at which they fly, is also the same for everyone. However, how precise someone can control it differs.

When he finally climbed over the wall and jumped to the other side, the men no longer tried to chase him. They merely looked at him as if he was the lowest dirt in the world, but he in return looked at them only with confusion and sorrow.

The thing he noticed as he caught up with his breath was that everyone had hair and eyes of a wide variety of colors. The only pigment he never saw, not even once, was a tint of black on any of them.

The crowd of his persuers were making way for someone in the middle coming from behind them. When it emerged, he saw the unmistakably red hair and pink eyes -- the old man.

"I'd never.... kill... anyone" Lu tried to say as he gasped for air.

"Say whatcha want, aurum, but you will never trick the city of Keirah" the old man angrily bid him.

He looked at the horizon since he finally got the chance, and what he witnessed was a beautiful scenery that calmed him down despite the current threat on his life. It was a pretty picture of green hills and planes dotted with occasional trees and brownish patches of dirt. He never thought he'd take in such a sight ever, not when he is alive and especially when there was an imminent danger.

Lu closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a notion he does whenever he wants to decide on something but he was having difficulties with it. He reminisced the thoughtfulness the people who were kind enough to take in and take care of a person even though they believed he was bad for them. They were kind enough to not let him die even though they had a reason good enough to end him then and there. It was pretty obvious that they even nursed him back to health, and what hope did they cling on to do that? That there was a chance that he wouldn't have gold feathers, albeit the black hair and the black eyes already gave him away. The last straw of compassion was being done at the very moment. They were not trying to shoot him feathers as he turned his back on them openly. He wanted to repay their kindness, even if he didn't like how he was going to do it.

He cast a side glance at the crowd and giggled softly, but it went louder and louder until he was laughing manically already. "Awwww. And here I thought I was going to hit the jackpot. Imagine a whole city to myself and they don't know a thing! That would have been the life!" he laughed again. After he was done, he took pleasure in seeing the terrified faces. That meant his mission was done.

He turned away from them and walked forward to wherever the unending sea of green led to. Lu in truth would never kill a person, but he was worried that these kind people might be taken advantage of by a real aurum some day. He does not know who they are, or how they act, but the best thing he could do for the people of Keirah was to get them more suspicious and careful of the aurum. He sighed sorrowfully as the only people he knew currently had already cast him out. Whatever the new world had to offer, no matter how similar its rules were compared to the game he once loved, he wasn't very sure he would look forward to it.

Without any other goal but to survive, he moved forward, away from the city, for his, and their own good as well.