Eclipsed Journeys

S.1, Ep.6: Summer Vibes

Nats arrived at HQ and ran straight to the general's office.
"We need to reopen this rift now!" She said to the general.
The general looked at Natalie and chuckled. "Are you out of your mind?" Natalie looked at the General. "My friends were sucked in and now they are gone. We need to find out where they are and save them! The power source should be good enough to open it."
"I see but this needs a longer time to adapt." The general looked at the power source blueprint. "I can help you but I need some more time Natalie."
Natalie sighed. "Fine then. But please hurry up. I need to save my friends."

Ace arrived at the village. The sandstone building with wooden accents reminds him of Mirage. 'Let's find out where we are now....' He thought.
He went a small shop and checked for some clothes that could protect him from the sun. "Summer vibes let me tell you." He said to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper smiled as he agreed and wished Ace a good day as he left.
As he walked trough the village, he arrived at a large square. People were walking all around him. It was busy. He bumped into a little girl. She apologized and wanted to walk away but Ace grabbed her by her arm.
"Excuse me but that is mine." Ace said in a cold tone without looking at her and he pointed at the bag with money.
The girl was surprised he noticed and handed over the bag. 'What? Impossible.' She thought.
"H-how?" She asked surprised. He was the first to ever noticed her taking stuff.
"My friend is an thief herself." Ace said. "I am used to this kind of stuff." He checked if all the money was still inside. It was.
"Wow..." The girl chuckled. "If you say so traveler."
Ace looked at the girl. She was small and looked quite young. Maybe around 13 or something. She was wearing some yellow/dark brown clothes and had blonde hair. She looked at Ace with her hazelnut brown eyes and smiled. "Traveler?" Ace repeated. He didn't knew if he was offended or not but he realized quick that she knew he wasn't from this place.
"Yeah look at you." She pointed him from top to bottom. "You are not from this place I can tell."
"Hmm..." Ace remained silent.
The girl looked at the sky. "Izzyma."
Ace got confused. "What?"
"Izzyma is my name traveler." Izzyma chuckled.
"Izzy-ma..." Ace repeated slowly.
"Friends call me Izzy."
Ace looked at her questionably. "Can I call you Izzy?"
Izzyma smiled. "Depends. Are we friends?"
Ace looked around. "Well..." He scratched the back of his head. "I am in need of some friends I guess."
Izzy smiled. "Then we are friends traveler."
"Please. Call me Ace." He held out his hand.
"Ace it is then." Izzy shook his hand.
"So where am I if I may ask?" Ace looked around as he wasn't familiar with the town.
"Welcome to the Northern Flats, a small city in this huge dessert." Izzy said with a smile.
"Northern Flats? It looks a lot like Mirage." Ace responded while he looked around the square.
"Mirage?" Izzy responded. "Never heard of that."
"So how did you knew I wasn't from this place?" Ace questioned her on his turn.
"Well I saw the rift not this far from here. And you came from the same direction so I was just guessing." Izzy didn't looked at Ace as she started to walk away.
Ace just followed her and remained silent.
"But..." Izzy continued. "I also saw two more rifts in the far distant."
'Two more rifts?' Ace thought. 'Nova and Luna perhaps.'
"Are there more Cities than this?" He asked her, trying to keep up with her.
"Yeah. One in the west and another one in the east. But I have to say that we are in war with them so don't try to get to close to them." Izzy said as she suddenly stopped and turned around.
"Hmm... I see." Ace looked around and then back to Izzy. "Listen, I need to save some friends. I think they ended up in the other cities. Or maybe close to them."
"I see. I think I can help-" Izzy was interrupted by a gunshot. Ace stopped walking as he looked at the direction of the sound. He remained silent and that also happened to all the sound around him. Everything became faint and soft as he then realized that his shirt became wet. It wasn't from the sweating, it was blood. Ace dropped to the ground as Izzy ran towards him. She grabbed his arms and dragged him into a building. "Easy Ace, stay with me." She said as she tried to aid him.