[PP-F7] Mountains

[Elyth 0]

Elyth materialized into the rocky underground town of Nimbus, a healthy, enclosed settlement deep underground, illuminated by clear crystals, dull crystals, green crystals, blue crystals, and red crystals, further lit by the reflective glow of the water circling the town.

It was bootiful.

The town itself was just about everything Elyth had imagined in an ancient Dwarven underworld, where lived craft-masters and warriors in abundance. Stone constructs of a Greco-Roman design littered the unorganized streets, and in the distance, an ornate gothic palace stretched up to the top of the hollowed-out mountain. Meanwhile, Elyth could spot mushrooms gathered everywhere. This was beautiful. Mushrooms were beautiful.

Elyth skipped over to a group of very adorable mushrooms growing out of a crack in the cobble-stone road below her feet.

[Shanok 0]

Shanok had just arrived in Nimbus, the main town on the seventh floor. He went there because he wanted to explore the area, hoping to find things people hadn't found before. He began to walk through the city looking for the exit when he saw a girl that was crouching on the road. He went up to her, "Are you looking for something you lost?" he asked.

[Elyth 0]

"A-uh, are you talking to me?" Elyth asked. "No, I haven't lost anything, but thank you for your concern. However, I do intend to find some adventure here."

Smiling, she got up from the ground and the mushrooms and held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Elyth."

[Shanok 0]

Shanok shook the girl's hand, "Nice to meet you Elyth, name's Shanok" he told the girl. After that, there was nothing but silence until Shanok talked, "So uhm, what kind of adventures are you looking for?" he asked the girl.

[Elyth 0]

...

...

Still shaking Shanok's hand, Elyth hand went blank. "Yeah, I'm not sure what adventure, but I'd like to explore this mountain! Don't you think it's pretty awesome?"

"Let's go exploring!" Elyth exclaimed. "Do come with me, Shanok."

[Shanok 0]

Shanok was surprised by what Elyth had just said and without thinking about it, "Sure! We shall go exploring this mountain!" he almost yelled as he walked towards the town's exit that lead towards the mountains.

[Elyth 0]

Whilst following Shanok out of town, Elyth saw that the exit of town was a giant stone arch big enough for a couple of dragons flying side by side.

"Shanok! Look! Doesn't that arch look like the gate of some grand underground draconian city? Too bad this place looks like it was made for dwarves," Elyth exclaimed. But it's still so cool!

Elyth took out a small notebook and a writing utensil to begin sketching the gate. If she could remember this, it would be an awesome addition to a fantasy book she could try to write if she came out of SAO alive.

After only drawing the shape of the arch, Elyth noticed the distance between her from her new companion. Psh. She would have to recreate the image later, if they came back. But for now, she ran after Shanok, and was almost next to him when she passed through the gate and- ouch- the sun was glaring onto the now smooth stone rubble turned into a road, which through the years had gained a glimmering sheen, one that was almost reflective- she could see mountains in the distance, so many of them, and beyond the horizon of icy and fiery peaks, a rising sun, heralding yet a new day full of adventure, and warning of Elyth's probably fatigue later in the day, due to the fact that she had woken up earlier than usual at the inn.

Ah, well, some fatigue was but a trifle at the moment. Elyth looked down at the road below, squinting from the digital glare, and noticed that this road was indeed a stone bridge, held up with columns of rocks, with streams of water- were they aqueducts?- flowing down towards Nimbus, which was now still seemingly a giant wall of stone, inconceivably large. But now, as Elyth looked down, she noticed that she was looking down on what seemed to be an impossibly deep valley.

Could it be...? Perhaps Elyth and Shanok were actually near the very top of the mountain, so far up.

Elyth looked up to confirm her suspicions.

[Shanok 0]

Shanok was already looking at the arch when Elyth made her remarks about it. "You're right, this arch is so big, I can hardly believe that it was dwarvish people that lived in there, perhaps they built this to make them look bigger or something like that?" he said as he was looking at the arch in awe.

Shanok kept walking towards the road that led out of the town of Nimbus, he then realized that his new friend, Elyth, wasn't beside him, he turned around and looked at her, stopped in the middle of the road, drawing in a notebook. It seemed like she was drawing the arch and what was around it, or that's what he guessed from what she was looking at. "Elyth" he called out while waving at her, "I'll leave without you if you don't come!" he added as he turned around and started to walk toward the exit again.

After passing through the gate, they saw the sun rise, it was the first time Shanok had seen a sunrise in a while, since in the real world, he was the type who'd wake up in the afternoon and go to bed early in the morning. He wasn't used to having the sun in his eyes so he raised his left arm and put it above his eyes, to prevent the sun from getting in his eyes. Shanok looked at Elyth, she was on the side of the road, looking down, she had just realized that this was a bridge, Shanok was surprised when he realized that. Shanok went up to the handrail and leaned on it, looking down at the water. Shanok wasn't know for his fear of heights, but he was a little uncomfortable looking down at the deep valley.

Elyth then looked up, and so did Shanok, both realizing that they were near the top of the mountain, and not at the depth one would think of when talking about an underground city. "Wow, this is amazing..." he said. "I've never seen anything like this..." he added while looking at the mountains around him, it was bootiful.

[Elyth 0]

(OOC: BOOTIFULLY DONE I IS PROUD OF YOU SHANNY)

"So cool!" Elyth thought, wishing she had some kind of flying avatar so she could fly up and stand on the top of the mountain whilst planting a flag on the very top, proclaiming that she had scaled the entire mountain or the like. That would be very cool, to have conquered Nimbus in a way...

"Shanok! Let's go, go, go! We'll go on an adventure and do all sorts of crazy stuff! Let's go plant a flag on top of Nimbus or something equally as prominent!" Elyth thought in her head. Never mind. It was probably too early to ask that of her companion. She would have to gather supplies first, and there might be a risk of death from falling, and so far she hadn't heard of any NPC guides up these mountains. Too bad.

Instead, Elyth sighed and looked forward at the long length of road before herself and her companion. It would be some time before they reached another village in another mountain, from where they could span out to explore said mountain. Lightly she tugged at Shanok's shirt and motioned forward, smiling lightly and feeling quite let down by reality and the workings of a modern mind.

[Shanok 0]

(OOC : THANK YOU, I IS PROUD OF MAISELF TOO)

Shanok looked at the tall mountain that was the exterior of Nimbus, how awesome would it be to climb that? Awesomely dangerous though... he thought as he turned around to continue walking towards the other side of the bridge. He really wanted to try climbing the mountain.

Shanok was brought back to reality by Elyth tugging at his shirt, I won't risk my life to do that though, it seems way too dangerous he thought as he kept walking down the road. The bridge led to another mountain top, which had a road that went down a bit, and then there was another bridge. Shanok looked around when he got to the bridge and noticed that the area was just huge mountains, all connected to each other by similar bridges, though some of them were made of wood compared to the one they were on, which was made out of stone like the first one.

"This place is amazing" he said while still looking around. At the top of one of the mountains, Shanok saw flying creatures, "Elyth, look at this, some sort of bird things" he said, pointing towards the flying monsters, "We should go there!" he suggested. Without even waiting for an answer, he walked to the other side of the bridge and took the route that he thought would lead to where the bird things were.

[Elyth 0]

When Shanok had pointed to the flying things, Elyth didn't even have to express herself- Shanok did it for her. "We should go there!" Elyh had stared at the dragons- no, flying things- as she felt Shanok and his shirt pulling her to the other end of the bridge.

"Shanok, do you know where we're going?" She asked, as another mountain loomed before them, the single stone beige connecting the town of Nimbus and this one seeming almost as long as that tall building in Tokyo. What was it called again? Oh yes, the Tokyo Tower. Such a comparison amazed Elyth, and she summed it up to both her horrible judgement of space and the sheer distance between two mountains.

As Shanok and Elyth approached the entrance of the second mountain, the flying creatures had almost but faded from view behind the bulk of the mountain, and all that was left in view ahead was the gray of the mountain rocks and a large archway, less elaborate than Nimbus', yet much larger. Many NPC carts could be seen rolling out from this archway, and green luminous crystals like those in Nimbus could be seen growing out of the cavern's walls.

Suddenly, a rush of wind blew through the cave and along the edge of the mountain, and Elyth watched in awe and jubilous terror as a flying reptilian dived down at the stone bridge and back up, right in front of her.

"Shanok, I want to fly one of those!" She exclaimed, and started ranting. "First, we're going to need some rope, a flying device, some sedatives, wyvern food- fish, maybe? Let's also look for a quest for an item to summon them or something, that'd be so awesome!"

[Shanok 0]

Shanok stopped for a bit and looked back at Elyth, "Do I know where we're going? Oh... uhm... I do... At least I think I do" he said as he kept walking towards what he thought was the right way.

Shanok looked at the archway that was way larger than the one at Nimbus' exit he didn't have much time to look at it as a flying reptile thing dived right at them and went back up afterwards. Shanok only managed to get a quick glance at the beast, from what he saw, it looked like a sort of flying snake.

Elyth then said that she wanted to fly one of those things. "Ely-" he said as Elyth cut him off, "Elyth! I don't want to burst your bubble, but, I don't think there are any flying devices in SAO and I also don't think that there'd be a quest where you can fly those things, seeing as you could fall down" he said apologizing for no real purpose.

[Elyth 0]

"Do I know where we're going? Oh... uhm... I do... At least I think I do," Shanok said, and kept walking straight towards some obscure destination.

 

Oh well,  Elyth thought. It's not like I have anything less vague to follow. BESIDES RIDING THOSE DRAGONS AW YUS

"Ely-" Shanok said as Elyth ranted on. "Elyth! I don't want to burst your bubble, but, I don't think there are any flying devices in SAO and I also don't think that there'd be a quest where you can fly those things, seeing as you could fall down."

 

Elyth took a moment to process that. She kept walking, but couldn't help but release a small "aw" in disappointment. It was too bad, honestly. She had had some brilliant ideas to implement on flying vehicles. She supposed she wouldn't be able to fly in this game. But wait! This game isn't the only game!

 

"Huhuhu," Elyth laughed. "Then I just need to make it out of this game alive and find a game that I can fly in later, right? HAHAHAHA! Oh, by the way, Shanok, think we can hitch a ride on one of those merchant NPC carts? I'm too lazy to walk the whole way, and it feels like it'll take forever if we just keep walking."

 

Elyth beamed. Optimism, it seemed, came as easily to her mind as ideas did.

[Shanok 0]

Shanok kept on walking forward as Elyth kept on rambling about flying. She then mentionned getting out alive and finding a game in which you could fly. Shanok stopped for moment and looked at the beautiful valley to his left, "It would be great wouldn't it? To make it out alive" he said after a brief pause. He kept staring down at the valley until Elyth, asking if he thought they could hitch a ride on one of those NPC carts, snapped him out of his trance like state. "You do have a point, walking there would take us a long time and I don't see why the NPCs wouldn't agree to letting us on their cart" he replied to her as he turned around and headed towards an NPC cart.

As he walked towards the cart the NPC next to it asked him if there was anything that he needed. "As a matter of fact, there is. My friend and I, he points to Elyth who's behind him, are planning on going deeper in these mountains, but it would take too long on foot, we want to get there before night time. So we were wondering if we could ride on your cart, if you don't mind that is" he answered the bald men who seemed to be the cart's owner. "Of course you can! We're always willing to help anyone that needs help. Come on, get on!" he told the two players.

Shanok nodded, went to the back of the cart and climbed in. Once he was in, he turned around, extended his arm towards Elyth and opened his hand, "Come on, get in" he said, waiting for her to grab his hand so he could help her in.
 

[Elyth 0]

"It would be great wouldn't it? To make it out alive," Shanok said, getting sentimental as he looked to his left. Elyth agreed, finally weighing the hope that lingered in that statement. It would be amazing if Elyth could see her family again. After all, they were probably missing Elyth right now.

 

"You're absolutely right, Shanok. It feels like we've been here for so long-- I just want to see my family again," Elyth smiled, breathing a sigh. "Ah, but I like it here. Despite all the death and despair, it's a really beautiful land, and all the people I've met made this experience worth it for me." A pause. "Well, I probably shouldn't say that anywhere near other people," she nervously laughed. "Too many triggers. And, uhm, sorry if it offended you."

 

"You do have a point, walking there would take us a long time and I don't see why the NPCs wouldn't agree to letting us on their cart," Shanok said, replying to Elyth's brilliant plan of hitching a ride on an NPC cart. She waited to the side as Shanok sauntered towards a merchant cart and conversed with the cart's owner. Then, the bald NPC cart driver exclaimed, with a volume so loud that Elyth could also hear, "Of course you can! We're always willing to help anyone that needs help. Come on, get on!"

 

Shanok heeded the driver's words, and climbed into the cart, situating himself behind the eight bundles of hay stacked onto the quite spacious cart. He reached out a hand for Elyth to grab onto, saying, "Come on, get in."

 

"Okay, don't drop me," she smiled, grabbing Shanok's wrist, and stepping into the cart before plopping down on the other side of the cart. The wooden boards were too hard to be comfortable, so she grabbed a bundle of straw and sat on it.

 

"Well, then, Shanok-senpai, I guess we're just going to tour for a bit, so tell me a little about yourself!" Elyth improvised as she leaned back onto the walls of the cart.

[Shanok 0]

Shanok watched Elyth sit down, then get up again to grab a bundle of straw and sit on it. He then sat down on the wooden boards, This really is uncomfortable... he thought as he felt the hardness of wooden planks on his behind and his back. He then looked at Elyth who had started talking. "Well, then, Shanok-senpai, I guess we're just going to tour for a bit, so tell me a little about yourself!" she said while leaning back on the cart's walls. "Senpai?" he said, confused, he then added "About myself..." and paused for a few seconds, thinking of what to tell her. "Well, as you already know, my name's Shanok and it's not my real name. Hum... what else... I like playing video games... and hum... I'm currently..." he paused for a second, realizing that he wasn't in anything other than the game right now, "I was in high school in the other world and that's about it... I don't really know what to say other than that, sorry" he apologized. "What about you? Tell me about yourself too" he asked Elyth, looking at to the side as he felt embarassed for not having a lot to say about him.

[Elyth 0]

Elyth listened to what Shanok told her with idle fascination. So he had also been in high school when he started this game. And he didn't seem to have much to say about himself, much like Elyth herself.

 

"What about you? Tell me about yourself too," Shanok said, and Elyth sunk deeper into the walls of the carriage. Relaxing, she sighed. Truthfully, she didn't have much to say either.

 

"Hmm, well, my name is Elyth, and I was also in high school before-" here she spread her arms dramatically "-all this. I have an older sister and an older brother. I'm pretty sure they're both worrying over me now, and they're both really cool. Uhm, really awesome but both of them aren't suitable for other people... My parents aren't usually home, and no one's told me where they actually work, but then one day they brought home three NerveGears, and I tried one before it could get confiscated, so here I am! Oh, and I had a stick of pocky in my mouth before putting on the NerveGear. Too bad I can't get any in-game," Elyth said, things about her entrance to Sword Art Online popping up one after another. That was quite a mouthful of words she had just spewed out, she realized, and covered her mouth with her hand, dimly glowing red from embarrassment.

[Shanok 0]

Shanok listened to Elyth talk saw her turn red a bit, he decided to not mention it and instead looked to his side, where he could see the scenery from the back of the cart. They were on a mountain road with a few flowers and even fewer trees. There were many mountains in the are and it seemed like all of them were connected together by beautiful stone roads and bridges which seemed natural to the point were they looked like they were part of the mountains, not something build by humans. He then looked to the other side, towards the front of the cart, he couldn't see much from that side because two NPCs were sitting there, but he managed to see a mountain that had some tall trees on the top and that seemed to be a good spot to relax and enjoy the view.

He tapped one of the NPCs on the shoulder, "Excuse me , could you take us there or somewhere close if it would be ok with you?" he asked while pointing at the mountain he had seen earlier. "Sure thing, we're not in a hurry so we can take you all the way to the top if you want" he replied. "Now that I think about it, you can take us down there" he said, pointing to a path leading up to the mountain as he thought that it might be better to walk up there on their own as the view would most likely be amazing. The NPC agreed and let them off at the specified location, he then looked at Shanok, "Here, for you" he said while handing him a bag filled with food, "We had too much anyway, so you can take it" the man said. "Thank you!" he said while getting off the cart, "Well then, shall we go?" he asked Elyth with a smile.

[Elyth 0]

Elyth waited for the flush to wash away, and then admired the passing scenery and the brilliant graphics of Sword Art Online. She smiled to herself, admiring the brilliant colors of the mountain skyline, filled with the blue of the sky and the various shades of mountain gray and glistening snow. She wanted to enjoy living surrounded in such beauty. Speaking of which, Sword Art Online had residences, didn't it? I wonder what it would be like to live on a mountainous floor... On top of the mountain, of course. I want to design a work of art to live in myself until we clear this game and return... home.

 

"Excuse me, could you take us there or somewhere close if it would be ok with you?" Shanok asked the NPC driver, pointing at a distant mountain. Elyth looked over in somewhat shock at being shaken suddenly from her thoughts. She looked over at the mountain Shanok had pointed to. It was a flat-topped mountain covered in lush greenery and what seemed like a grassy plaza bordered and filled with many tall trees. I hope we're going there to sleep. Ah, I should request a Performer to record some music for me.

 

Elyth dozed off, face supported by her right hand as she slept in the cool breeze. She realized that she would miss much of the scenery on the way to the mountain, but let herself relax anyway. When the cart jolted to a rough stop, Elyth nearly fell off the cart, but saved herself just in time, grabbing onto the sides of the cart, suddenly awake. "What happened?" She looked around. They were in a wide valley at the base of the mountain from earlier. Various colorful trees guarded a winding path up the mountain, and red torii gates decorated with strings of charms and thick braided rope were placed ever so often up the path. Elyth realized that this was the same for almost all the mountains near the vicinity of the valley, and breathed in deeply. This was going to be fabulous. She noticed the NPC driver handing Shanok a sack. "We had too much anyway, so you can take it," the NPC driver said, and Shanok thanked him, getting off the cart. 

 

"Well then, shall we go?" Shanok smiled to Elyth.

 

"Of course!" 

 

Elyth bounced off the cart and onto the ground. The driver rode away, waving a goodbye as he went. Elyth enthusiastically waved back., and then put a hand to her waist. The other pointed to the top of the colorful mountain, promising adventure and exercise. Because, ya know, stairs.

 

"Let's go!" she shouted, and began sprinting up the stairs, two steps at a time. "Ah, and Shanny, what's in the bag?"