Chapter: 1st stage Daryvell

"Hey," gasped Keichi. "Wait a minute! Where are you actually going?"
He and the girl hurried across the streets of Devonshire. Shiori ran a few meters in front of him, she was surprisingly much faster than he had thought, and seemed to know exactly where she was going. Keichi's lungs burned and he wondered if this path would ever come to an end. The two teenagers had been running across town for a while now, and the distance, from Shiori's eyes, seemed not to be getting any shorter.
The Sarutei girl braked abruptly and turned her head to the side to see if the brunette was coming too. This one, however, was still a few yards behind, and so she decided to wait for him to catch his breath. When he finally came to stand next to her, breathing hard, he put his hands on his sides, exhausted. "Can you finally tell me where we're going?" He huffed, while he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his elbow and at the same time tried to breathe again.Everything hurt him. He hadn't moved in a long time, hadn't run in a long time, no matter how thin he was.
Shiori looked around carefully in all directions, as if she wanted to check that no one was watching her. She let her gaze wander down the street attentively and scrutinized every object within her range of vision. The faint breath of a gust of wind could be heard and red leaves flitted across the cold street. But there was nobody else to be seen. She conscientiously turned to Keichi and an expression of excitement was reflected in her face. "Okay," she began impatiently, "nobody sees us. Then we might as well do it here. Watch out!" She carefully reached into one of her ruby ​​folds of skirt and then let her hand slide out again. In her hand she held a small black leather pouch, tied up but also looking very battered. It didn't make a particularly big impression on the boy, it was just a normal leather pouch, nothing more.But when he noticed how carefully and gently Shiori touched the thing, he was taken aback. With a sure instinct and with a care, as if it could break with the smallest movement, she opened the bag and reached into it noiselessly. Keichi waited eagerly for the contents of the bag to emerge. It would probably be something as strange and unbelievable as the story she had told him earlier. About tribes and abilities ... and about a mysterious being who supposedly destroyed Kirjaka. He was still critical, didn't know if he could believe her. It sounded too confusing and unbelievable to be true. And yet he just couldn't help but trust the girl. He didn't know why himself. There was something about her, something special, something he had never felt in anyone before. It seemed to him that he had seen the girl before.
Or was it just imagination after all?Keichi's thoughts were ever interrupted when the redhead barely noticeably cleared her throat and pulled something out of the bag.

Blinding white light.
A cry, then he stumbled back, blinded.
The boy held his hand protectively over his eyes as the glaring rays seemed to shoot ruthlessly down at both of them. Where did this light come from?
Keichi screwed up her eyes, waiting for it to stop. He thought he was almost blind, but that was probably just one of his ideas.
As hoped, the light suddenly became weaker and weaker, as if one had withdrawn its full power. The boy opened his eyes and now he clearly saw the dark outlines of the Sarutei girl. And behind her, the gigantic shadow of a brightly shining gate rose silently, yawning menacingly down at both of them.
The brunette was frozen. He looked in awe at the radiant monument, which resembled a huge mirror, his chin dropped in astonishment and his eyes widened. "How ... what ...!?", he stammered in disbelief, but Shiori had already grabbed his arm." No time, "she shouted worriedly and pulled him roughly towards the portal to get out of here as quickly as possible before anyone noticed see.
"Hurry up!", She urged, but Keichi did not move from the place. "How ... through this ???" he burst out. "You don't mean it ..." "Oh yes!", she replied harshly and now pushed from the back to the front. "It'll be over soon."
"I can not…."
"Yes, you can! You will be amazed how easy it is. Oh yes ... sorry, please!"
With these words she reached out and pushed him forward with all her strength, right through the middle of the gate. Then she followed him.

Keichi fell. Deeper and deeper. Around him buzzed a sea of ​​colors and lights, of signs and images that he did not know. His stomach rebelled and he felt dizzy from all this flitting by. It was all getting too much for him.But he was lucky, more or less, because before he could open his mouth his body hit hard ground with an unexpected thud.
Solid, cold, hard ground.
"Ouch," he groaned. “Damn it, that might hurt.” He struggled to straighten up and rub his stabbing forearm painfully.
Where was he here? He wasn't sure, but he knew for a fact that this was definitely no longer Devonshire. The dirty old streets and factories were gone. Instead, an angular mountain landscape with lush green forests and bushes loomed in front of him and far away he saw dark smoke rising, which must have come from the nearest town. The bright sunlight bathed the area in a warm, mild glow and the boy suddenly felt a reassuring feeling of security, something he hadn't felt for a long time. Not for too long ...
At that moment Keichi heard a soft hissing behind her, as if a huge shadow was rushing through the air.And when he turned expectantly, he saw Shiori. The girl floated noiselessly out of the house-high portal and landed gently on her feet in front of him. Given his condition, she giggled out loud. "You can tell that you've never teleported," she replied, amused, when she saw Keichi, dejected and with a few small scratches on her body, crouching on the floor. He raised his eyebrows. "Tele- ... what?"
"Teleported," she replied calmly. “Just say you've never heard of it!” Keichi shrugged her shoulders, embarrassed. "If I'm honest: no."
"Teleportation is when you disappear in one place and at the same time reappear in another place in another world. It is not used very often here, after all, we have no special reasons to travel between the worlds. Besides, only they can do that anyway Elderly. We younger ones have to learn this first and use dimensional portals, openings in the atmospheres of our world."She pointed to the gate behind her and pulled out the black leather bag again. The redhead kept her gaze fixed on the gate, mumbled a few quiet words that he couldn't understand and was amazed when he watched himself the portal reassembled into a single bright light and silently moved into the inside of the bag. Shiori hastily tied the bag again and let it slide noiselessly into one of the folds of her skirt. Keichi looked at her confused. 'Did I just see that correctly?' he wondered, almost doubting his eyesight, although he was sure he hadn't made a mistake.
"Great isn't it?" She replied. “I suppose this is your first time seeing something like this, isn't it?” “I guess you can say that,” he replied, puzzled. Shiori grinned. Somehow he was cute when he looked so stunned….
Immediately, however, she scolded herself for a better one, the most important thing now was to bring him to her village so that he could do the task that would be given to him.She was about to ask him about it, until she noticed, however, that the brunette was still standing in the same place and staring thoughtfully into space, exactly where the portal had been. Shiori could see him thinking, for his attention was undoubtedly split. But she didn't have much time….
"Um ...", she tapped his shoulder carefully from behind. Keichi startled. "Sorry," she said in a hurry, "I don't want to push you but ...", she nodded towards the mountains, "We'd have to go then."
"Mmh."
"You know I can't force you," she replied uncertainly. "It is entirely up to you to decide."
"I already know."
Keichi turned around again. 'Wait for me, mum. I'll be back, I promise! '
He had made his decision. He gave the clearing one last longing look, then left it and entered a new world, a world that would completely change him and his life.

"Is it still a long way to where you live?", Keichi asked the girl when he noticed how they were getting further and further away from the dark forest they had already crossed. Shiori's boot heels clattered softly when walking and her long rose-colored hair was blowing in the light wind over her back. Keichi looked at her from the right angle. She had a proud way of walking, like a princess walking the red carpet. She had her head gracefully pointed forward. It embarrassed him to walk next to the pretty girl and he shyly turned her head. At that moment he would have thought her much older, had she not first revealed her young character. At that moment she looked much older.
"It's not far anymore, don't worry," she replied and pointed to a large mountain with a black tip that was sharply differentiated from the others. "Behind that mountain there, they call it the Turanius summit, is Daryvell, my home village."" You live in a village?
"Sure, in what else? Do you mean this huge residential area in which you live?"
"That's called a 'city'", the brunette replied, wondering why she didn't know. Wasn't there anything like that here?
"There are only small villages here," said the girl, as if in response to his question.
“It's like in the Middle Ages, here.” Keichi frowned.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh nothing."

A quarter of an hour passed and the two teenagers walked side by side in silence. Up to now the distance between them and the mountain had already been reduced by half, but you hardly noticed it, it seemed that far to the goal. Keichi admired the beautiful surroundings, as natural and pure as it was, it reassured him. He envied Shiori's way of life. She certainly wasn't