Levels

Companionship ?

"Allessa, you were the one chosen to be the champion of our world, the sapiens. You have been trained from the first day on your eyes met the light of our suns. Now the time has come, your time has come, to represent our unity at the Levels. "

"Gods... are you done already?", Allessa answered totally untouched by the speech of her formal instructor.

"Yes Yes, I forgot you don't really like long talks, I'm sorry", he said.

Allessa and Garros, her instructor, were standing in front of the gate that would lead to Allessas new life. She had been chosen to compete at the Levels. Her whole life she spent training only for that purpose and was now finally ready to fulfil her duty. Everything she could take with her, was her sword. She looked down at her hip, where her sword was dangling besides her leg, it was made completely out of glass except for the wooden handle that had been given to hear at the start of her education.

And now finally, she had been chosen as the champion of sapiens, the first of the seven worlds.

She was standing in a white room made of granite and black wood. A glass door that led to the outer landing platform, was placed behind her back. The one door that would change her life.

"They will arrive in about five minutes. I know you are ready. Take your place as the sapien god that will rule over the seven worlds, that we have desired so much over the last 20 centuries." Garros said in another speech.

"Well, at least I won't have to listen to your heroic shit anymore" she answered dull and chuckled.

"Truth has been spoken" Garros announced in a low bow to Allessa with a broad, sarcastic grin on his face.

A moment later he closed her into a hug and whispered:

"I will miss you".

"I will miss you too, Garros, you have always and always will be like a father to me, thank you for everything."

The gates opened and Allessa stepped out at the landing platform, while a single tear ran down her face. For one last time she looked back at Garros and smiled at him.

The air outside was fresh and the three suns of sapiens were shining right on her tears streaming face. The sleeve of her greyish tunic got all wet, as she wiped the tears away.

The ground started to shake and the loud noise of turbines hollowed through the air, as the transport ship of the Levels appeared out of the clouds right above her.

Right away her hair started to flutter at the tunnel the airship created and she got sucked right into it.

She had 20 minutes left, as soon as she arrived on the platform inside the ship, she went to the supply room and took the wristband of the wall to put it on her left arm.

Allessa knew already everything about the airships and the levels, that you only had a certain amount of time to complete each level, that every level was designed to represent another scenery of the seven worlds, that once you started you would not be able to quit until you die or win and that the winner will rule as king of all worlds.

Garros told her everything she needed to know, because of that she had a huge advantage in comparison to the other participants. Because sapiens was a rich world, information wasn't hard to get for Garros.

She stepped onto the platform and waited. She felt the air dissolving around her and her body moved throughout the ship.

She looked around, smelling the air and analysing level 0 for the first time. It was a tropical area just like Garros had said.

She looked at her wrist, 17 hours 59 minutes and 30 seconds left.

"Let's go" Allessa told herself.

Garros told her to run into the middle of the level zero grounds and so she did. A huge area without trees revealed itself to be in the middle of the floating island. To her right, a giant cave filled her view.

A load roar came out of the hole. Allessa hid herself as quickly as possible behind next tree she could find and glanced with one eye through the thick green leaves.

All of a sudden, someone appeared near the subterranean and entered.

"How foolish. How could he go in without even knowing what was in there? " Allessa muttered.

A few minutes later, the young boy came running out again, almost tripping over his own feet. Followed by a gigantic dragon, he stopped at the edge of the tree less field.

For a few moments the boy just stood there shocked and frozen.

While Allessa had to struggle with her feelings, whether to help the squirt or just leave him to the dragon.

"Oh come on, fuck this" With those words Allessa stood up, pulled back and came running up the tree that she had been hiding behind and pushed herself off the tree.

Eavesdropping, she flew as close to the dragon as she could and had her sword drawn before she even noticed. With all her strength she sliced the dragons head off in mid-air flight and landed four feet next to the decapitated dragon.

The boy looked at her. Wide eyed. She merely scrutinized him from head to bottom and gave him a serious stare. Then her face eased and gave him a cute smiley and said:

"Hey, I am Allessa. You can speak of luck that I saved your Ass, that thing would've killed you".