A shrill bird-like screech ripped through the air, and an angry fluttering of wings beating violently against solid wooden bark followed within seconds.

A figure burst out from the dense wood of trees, scattering the solid white blanket of fleet into thick icy drops that could pierce through armor into skin. One's HP could drop bit by deadly bit with each hit.

The figure ignored the slivers of lightning pain and sped towards the clearing ahead. Behind, a loud snapping of branches and rustling of leaves before a huge majestic bird of golden orange red burst out of the wood in the same manner, ignoring the trees it was uprooting like flimsy cardboard with its strong widespread wings and sharp clawed feet. The killer intent in its glowing eyes of ember made it certain the creature would strike the first chance it got when it closed the distance.

The ruby eyes showed the slightest hint of fear before the figure crouched in her position and held her ivory dagger firmly, tip aimed at the huge underbelly. The creature's shadow completely engulfed her as it towered above, one clawed foot raised and razor sharp beak in suspense mid air.

As the monstrous bird's algorithm calculated the distance and attack speed, there was a millisecond of a pause.

She gripped the tiny red box. It was now or never. She had to flip the lid open, toss it toward the creature and yell out the words to activate its use. If she succeeded, she could have more than one-!

As she crouched forward, her foot caught on a tiny stone and she stumbled. What almost made her lose her breath was her nearly dropping the box but after a moment of juggling, she caught it again and held it tightly.

A split second later, the creature plunged its beak sharply downwards, aiming for a clean shot of her head. The claw tore at the same direction.

At the same time, she leaped narrowly to the left, anticipating its move before the beak stabbed the very spot she had just left empty.

She felt cold air swish past her and gritting her teeth, dug her dagger to its hull into the target. She could sense its HP bar rapidly decreasing into the red zone. She allowed a slight tinge of relief seep through just before something heavy tore painfully into her shoulder and through it. A thick curved claw.

The creature then shattered into millions of polygon pieces.

Not without leaving behind its mark. The player's HP bar shot past yellow and down to 10 percent of the red. She hurriedly fumbled in her back pocket for the slim translucent healing vial, knowing even as she did so that she would not be in time. Horror. Shock. How would it feel to shatter as the monster had? Impossi-

"Piiiiii!"

"Pina!"

A small silver dragon hovered above her, frantically blowing at her life bar.

"Oi oi oi!" a slightly husky male voice behind her yelled hoarsely.

And out of nowhere the glass surface of a round item caught a glint of sunshine as it hurtled straight towards her back.

""Piiii? Piiii piii ..."

I heard Pina's soft urgent calls ringing through my head. Imagination? I wanted to reach out, to reassure him I was okay. I don't know if my arm was moving as instructed though. Where was I?

Then memories of what just happened (seemingly just happened) hit me full force. My eyes flew open. At the corner of my eye, I could see Pina's tail.

"Pina!"

As the feathery dragon squealed happily in reply and brushed gently against my hair, I sprang up from my lying down position, or at least, tried to.

"I-yiiii!" I let out a yelp as I found myself entangled in a smooth feathery quilt-like blanket with no edges which felt also oddly plasticky. I crumpled into a pile trying to kick and punch my way out of this strange cocoon-like contraption, but embarrassingly getting more and more entangled with every attempt. Piña attempted to help by flitting here and there and gnawing at the material but it didn't loosen any.

When I finally found one arm crossed under a leg and the other pinned behind my back, I gave up.

"What's this? What have I gotten myself into, Pina?" I moaned as he tried to lick my nose assuringly but ended up giving me a gigantic sneeze instead.

Just then, I heard footsteps, somewhat light as the leaves only rustled beneath.

I tried to whip around to see, but miserably fell into a heap, on my face. What was this-this!

"Hey, you're awake? Thank goodness!" the same male voice which i had heard earlier before something hard slammed into my back and enveloped me in blinding white light to where I was at current. Not very reassuring, that.

W-who are you? Stand back! You'll get hurt if you try anything weird!

"Haha, you're mistaken! I won't do anything don't worry. Hold on, the sleeping bag's got you good." I saw a glimpse of a hand making a swiping motion and then the dratted contraption disintegrated, finally.

I immediately jumped up, pulled my dagger out and crouched in a defensive stance to face the stranger.

A tall young man, more than half my height, with shoulder length brown hair and faint stubble shadowing his gaunt jawline with a sorry smile looked back at me, his hands palm up in the air signaling he meant no harm. A bandanna covered his forehead and kept his hair in place, almost gelled down-like. He had a canvas bag in his hands. "These camping bags have little items like my coccoon bag that come in pretty handy against the cold and roaming monsters," he remarked when he noticed my stare.

I didn't relax my hold; also, I didn't really know what to do.

In that pause, suddenly there was a flutter of wings and an angry squeal as my familiar swatted at the figure, baring his teeth.

"Whoa whoa!" he said, taking a step back. "I had a suspicion but I didn't really expect- so you -are- a Beast Tamer?"

I nodded apprehensively.

"That's a pretty cute wee dragon you have there! Id ask to pet it but i dont think it is in the mood right now. And you must be the one I've heard some of the dudes mentioning back at the guild. You're quite popular in the middle floors aren't you? One of the first- no. The first Tamer in the game! What are you doing up here, alone even?" his face turned serious. "from what I saw, you could have easily been killed. You're no match for that creature yet."

"Y-you saw?" He noticed? How long had he been here? I knew my combat skills weren't up to par, but even so he didn't need to point that out so bluntly. My cheeks flushed scarlet and hot to the touch.

"Yeah, the tail end of it anyway where you were about to get crushed. Could hardly see you, just the HP. I thought the little dragon was attacking you too so I threw the healing bomb before I realized it. And hum," he fidgeted. "probably threw too hard since you fell and lost consciousness..." he trailed off, rubbing his chin in embarrassment and averted his eyes.

"Sorry about that."

"You were helping me?" The situation I saw myself in didn't help his case much, but something about this man's eyes told me he was sincere.

Piña was circling the man's head, nipping him with every chance he got, emitting yelps from the man while avoiding his swatting hand.

I sighed. "I suppose... I should be saying thank you..."

"Can you set it right with him?" he jabbed his finger at the nipping dragon while shielding with his other arm.

"That's Pina's way of saying thank you" I answered mischievously. I still sort of agreed with Pina's opinion of him.

"Yeah? I'd prefer a milder, gentler showing of appreciation!"

He managed to bat my dragon away.

"Hey, why are you here anyway?"

He was looking at me enquiringly. "W-what's that got to do with you? I killed the creature!" I stuttered, flushing again. He's looking down on me! Do I look that weak?

"I don't mean you don't belong here or something, don't get me wrong," immediately he raised his hands up in the air in a surrendering motion. "Just, the monsters here are known to be highly aggressive and mob monsters. Parties are more common but even so, the drops aren't worth it."

Why did he have to know so much? Of course I would be aware of that. It was a dangerous area on a dangerous level, not a good hunting ground. It was just... The green field monsters I had been battling with the past week to gather EXP dropped something I never expected in a thousand- no. Million years! I wanted to use it so badly I risked coming up here.

"... Item."

"What?"

"Taming item." my voice lowered.

"what about it?" he scratched his head in confusion.

"I wanted to use it!" I yelled in frustration before realizing what I did and hung my head down, wishing the ground would open and swallow me up.

There was a pause. I suppose he was trying to make sense of my fragmented replies, but just then, that very ground i was staring at shook violently. I stumbled a couple of steps backward almost losing balance. A loud terrified squeal from my right, and immediately after, the painfully familiar bird-like screech from before. This time, multiplied by dozens of echoes which sounded too clear for comfort. A chill of fright ran down my spine.

My hand moved to touch the hilt of my dagger. If I must...

Suddenly the right side of my shoulder was whipped around roughly and I gasped. Before I could gather myself and form a retort, I was grabbed by the arm and jerked forward.

"Run!" he yelled, sprinting ahead, though his hold remained gentle.

After a few hundred meters of dazed running (I had absolutely no idea what was happening!) I followed him, or rather was dragged into a clump of dark bushes and temporarily out of sight. The deafening screeches were continually nearing, but the loss of prey delayed their algorithm.

"Take this." He said, pushing a blue teleport crystal into my hand. "Quick, now. We'll meet in the city of this floor." he hesitated for a second before continuing cheerily, "Oh hey, I'm Klein."

Still dazed and even more so at his timing, I let my fingers limply grasp the crystal as I stuttered, "I'm Silica."

Note:

Hmm,what is it I am trying to achieve here? I suppose I am really curious about the other characters and those little sidestories were not enough. Along the way, I got hit with deadly 'what-ifs': the interaction between these characters who were all drawn to one another through Kirito. This is the result. There will be more. Forgive me for indulging in further fantasies of this wonderful series, but I do hope this lies well with readers too. Till next time.