Wherever The Wind Blows - Aether x Venti

Chapter 1: Journey To Mondstadt

(A/N You can skip chapters 1, 2, and 3 if you want to get to the real story. I have a good feeling you know all of this already.)

Aether POV:

Me and Paimon walked up to the statue of The Seven. Even if the statue itself was beautiful, I couldn't help but admire the view of the trees and the city behind it. Paimon told me a bit about the Anemo god as I walked closer to the statue. I reached out my hand to touch the golden part at the front. As my fingers touched the cold surface, I felt some kind of energy awaken inside the statue. The statue's orb glowed in turquoise and an energy particle broke free from the glowing orb. It flew through the air towards me and made contact with the black gem on my chest. The moment it came into contact with me, I felt the wind blowing inside me. It filled every inch of my body. Somehow, I had obtained the power of the wind.

"Wow! Did you just feel the elements of the world? Seemed like you only needed to touch the statue in order to get the gods' blessing!" Paimon said while eyeing me up and down.

I hesitantly nodded. Paimon turned around.

"If you keep heading west from here, you'll eventually reach Mondstadt, the city of freedom. Mondstadt is the city of the wind, because they worship the god of the wind. Because you got powers from the Anemo Archon, maybe you'll find some clues about your sister there. There are also a lot of bards there, maybe one of them has heard of her!"

I nodded again.

"Let's move then!"

As we made our way towards Mondstadt, practicing my newly obtained ability to control the wind, a giant dragon flew above our heads. It was a shade of blue and had multicolored wings. The dragon disappeared behind the trees of the forest ahead of us.

"What was that?" Paimon wondered beside me. "It disappeared into the forest, so we must be careful. What if it tries to eat us?"

She made a terrified face and grabbed my shoulder. I chuckled at her expression and proceeded to walk towards the forest, and behind it, the city of the wind. We walked beneath the trees on the path through the forest, well, Paimon floated behind me. Paimon saw something further into the forest and pointed it out to me. I hid behind a tree and peeked out from behind it to investigate. There, surrounded by trees and bushes, stood the dragon that we had seen earlier. And it wasn't alone. A teenage boy stood in front of it stretching his hands out to the dragon. He wore a green cape and a matching hat decorated with a leaf and a flower. He had a pair of green shorts and brown shoes. What stood out to me the most was his hair. It started as black and faded into blue and was braided into two braids. The boy's face was turned away from me. I could hear him softly speak to the dragon:

"Don't be afraid. ...It's alright now, I'm back."

Paimon curiously peeked out from behind me.

"Is he talking... to a dragon?"

As soon as she had said that, my gloves and the gem on my chest started to glow in turquoise. The dragon seemed to have been startled and roared at the boy. It tried to slash him with its claw, but he dodged and turned our way.

"Who's there?!"

It was then that I saw his eyes. They were a dark bluish shade of green and absolutely stunning.

The dragon roared once again and the boy disappeared. It flew away into the sky with a roar and disappeared.

When it was all over, I turned to Paimon who almost had been blown away by the strong wind from the dragon's wings. She had caught onto my long braid at the last minute.

"Whew! Paimon almost got blown away! Luckily, Paimon caught onto your hair."

Paimon looked relieved.

"That was close! What happened anyway? Paimon only remembers that the dragon seemed to be startled by something..."

"I don't know, Paimon, but look over there!"

I pointed towards a red glowing crystal floating where the dragon had been.

"Let's take a closer look!"

Paimon floated over to the big rock the crystal was on.

"It's some kind of red thingy that's glowing, traveler."

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I could see that, Paimon, and you know my name. Use it."

Paimon looked apologetically at me and laughed nervously.

"Sorry, Aether."

I groaned as I climbed the rock, annoyed by Paimon's habit of calling me traveler. When I reached the top, I took a closer look at the red glowing stone in front of me.

"Well Paimon's never seen a stone like this before, so Paimon can't say what it is!"

Paimon looked at the stone with a look of curiosity and caution. She turned to me again.

"All Paimon knows is that it's dangerous. Let's take it with us and keep it safe."

I agreed and grabbed the crystal from the air. It had a weird dark aura and I thought too that something was wrong with this stone. Paimon followed my movements with her eyes until the stone was safe in my backpack.

"Come on Aether! Let's get moving again!"