Chapter 2: I won't let you
Aincrad was by all means a beautiful world that I was glad to, and had done before, lose myself in. However, being stuck in it permanently, with the ever-looming threat of death present, was quite a different story. The information struck me hard, but it definitely hit the sneaky preteen I had been working with, who had obviously faked her age, harder. She had spent the last 10 minutes sobbing into my shoulder, evidently shocked by the situation.
"Silica! Silica, listen to me!" I shook her hard, surprising her temporarily out of her crying stupor. "Listen, we have to accept it! This is happening, so we've got to level, as fast as possible. I was here in beta, I know this game well enough, we can win!"
The girl in front of me hiccoughed back to near-normality, completely different from the lively, bubbly girl I had been working with an hour ago. The thought of imprisonment, and worse, threat of death, could do that to a person.
"I... I don't wanna die..." She whispered, shivering.
"You think I'd let you? Hell no, come on. We're going to survive, Silica. We'll make it, no matter how long it takes!"
Slowly, with many pauses and hiccoughs, she nodded. I meant it too, it began a game, which filled me with a reluctance to help the newbies. But this was no longer a game. Like I had said to myself in the plaza, this was life and death.
"Good... Now listen to me. I know where to fight for now, we'll go to the place we were heading just now before... before the teleport. We'll work together, Silica." I looked at her with determined eyes. "I won't let you die, Silica."
She nodded, still weak, but quieter now. I could see her calming down a little. I took her hand and walked her to the edge of the town. She clutched my hand, perhaps for comfort.
Something told me it would be better to change the subject. The less hysterical time she spent panicking, the quicker she's come to terms with life here. I don't want to come across as a hero and all, but somehow, keeping Silica calm seemed to be my way of accepting and calming down. If I wasn't calm, there wasn't a chance in hell I could help Silica calm. I had to admit, it wasn't easy to keep cheerful, it was a huge effort.
"Say, Silica... How old are you?"
"I'm about to turn 13 in a month."
"So you're under the recommended age?" I remembered a warning in the beginning of the game, rated T. As far as I was concerned, 12 was certainly not a teen. I chuckled, keeping a light tone. "You sneaky little girl." I ruffled her hair gently, bringing out a cry of protest from her.
"What about you, Tensei? You don't look that old either." I hesitated. I was, after all, really short, only an inch or so taller than her. Maybe I'd grow later in life, but for now, I wasn't going anywhere.
"I'm actually 14, turning 15 in a couple of months." Silica looked at me curiously again, at which I replied, "I'm short, I know. I've always been a little small." She giggled a little, finally cheering up in spite of herself. "What's so funny?"
"Just imagine! I'm only 12, which means I'm going to grow taller soon! That means that one day, you'll be the mini one!" She giggled harder as I coloured. She continued, her wild and bubbly side taking over again, "Hahaha, I can't wait for the day that I can pet you over the head, I'll tower over you!" In excitement, she boosted herself on my shoulders, pressing down hard. I gasped, not expecting the push, and fell. With her boost gone, she fell straight down on top of me.
Silica landed in a bundle on top of me, almost crushing me. She laughed, a high pitched, excited giggle, while I tried to get up with the weight of her body still on me. "Get off! You're heavy!" I yelled.
Inwardly, I sighed. This was going to be an interesting journey... More for her than me.
,
I heard a screech, then a caw. Soon, I was surrounded by 3 birds of prey, aiming to scar my face and end me quickly. If I was any other newbie, I would be finished. It would be curtains, the microwave shock would kill me, and that would have been the end of it. But I had real experience, and that was everything.
The black crow launched itself at me, and clawed at my leather armor. I waited for the crow to get close, then slammed it with the tough leather if my shoulder pad. It was stunned for 2 seconds, which gave me ample time to slash its weak spots, the joint of its wings. It screeched in pain and disintegrated into its pieces of blue light.
I had no time to celebrate though. The green mini-phoenix and it's partner, the red falcon, launched themselves both simultaneously. Instead of competing with their incredible speed, I jumped back, allowing them to get near the ground, then slammed them both with the handles of my knives. I yelled quickly, "Switch!" At which Silica jumped in and slashed the stunned falcon to death. The mini-phoenix recovered quickly and launched itself at Silica's face, slamming it's body into her shoulder with the weight of a small dog. She winced, then, with the agility of an expert, she elbowed the mini Phoenix, then hit it with her dagger's handle, and charged up her dagger's skill. And then...
Slash!
She cut clean through the centre of the bird, ending its digital life. The bird corpse dissolved, and a screen came up in front of both of us.
Victory!
Exp: 45 (+5 party bonus)
Gold: 40gp
Items: 1
You got Falcon's feather!
You leveled up!
Level: 3
Atk + 2
Dex + 2
I smiled, closing the holographic readout. Silica squealed at her victory. "That was so awesome! Did you see that, Tensei? I did amazing! I..." She stopped, staring at her holographic readout, indicating similar stats, then selected her dropped item. "Tensei... What's this?" A flute materialized in her hand. It looked rough, but clean and coated in a light green fabric, the colour of the mini-phoenix.
I gaped. "The Phoenix Phlute! It's a rare drop from Phoenixes, but they're found in bigger Phoenixes, I didn't even know you could find it down here... Basically, it only has 3 uses, and depending on where you use it, a monster will come to you, attracted by the sound. You can either use it to attract a rare monster to kill, or you can- Silica?"
She wasn't even listening. She had already stuck the flute in her mouth and blew a strange, quick tune. I sighed, covering my face with a gloved hand.
A rabbit came towards us, curious. It was a common rabbit, sighted at least twelve times on the journey here.
"Ah well. It's really hard to find a rare monster down here, anyway." I slid towards it and killed it quickly, collecting it's dropped meat as a cooking ingredient. "Hmm, D grade rabbit meat..."
Silica was staring at the flute in wonder. "It's..." A smile began to tug at her lips. "It's sooooo cool!" She squealed, storing it in her inventory yet again. I smiled, knowing she was happy. She was a great friend to have around, and a cheerful one at that.
"Come on, we can get to the next village before afternoon if we don't stop anymore. There are some good quests there." I walked on, Silica bounding like a terrier behind me.
We walked like that for a while, talking a lot. I opened up to her, and began telling her about my life outside of SAO, about my little sister, Tess, who was indeed about as old as Silica, about my school mates, it was odd, reliving a time I knew I would not come back to for a few years at least.
Years...
I knew this world well enough to guess that, though I could never tell Silica. It took me 2 months to get through 7 floors alone, and every floor got tougher. We'd get out of here, but what state would we be in after 2 years in Sword Art Online? Or worse, would we be alive? Would we be d-
No! I can't let that happen! I won't!
To change the topic, I asked Silica about herself. "Well, there's not a lot to say about me. I'm a single child; no siblings, I went to Elementary school at..." She went on like this for quite some time, and I listened.
Maybe it was naive, thinking that we could make it out of here. But if naive was what I had to be to make it out of here, then naive I was.
,
"I won't be long! I can get it myself!" Silica shouted back. I sighed. She had dropped her Phoenix Phlute in our last camp spot, and had gone back to retrieve it. Someone might have already found the rare drop and took it for themselves, for all we knew. We may have been similar in height, but it was painfully obvious who the older one was here. She wasn't useless, not by any means, but definitely was clumsy, quick and easily excited. She could become a fine player in time though. I hesitated, wondering whether letting her go off on her own was a good idea. The plains were fairly simple to navigate.
Unease grew. I promised to protect her. Even though she said she was capable, I should have gone with her. This world wasn't predictable... What was I still doing here? I ran after her.
It's alright. She just went to get her flute. There's nothing wrong...
I kept reassuring myself, telling myself that there was nothing to be worried about. But I didn't really believe it. Something was wrong, I could feel it. Call me paranoid.
I kept running, then the panic kicked in hard like a nail in my gut, when I saw the health bar below mine drop straight from full health to yellow in a single second.
That was enough proof for me. I dashed as fast as I could, willing my feet to go faster. On my player tracker, I could see I was nearing Silica. I stared ahead and gasped. A fully grown Phoenix had appeared in front of Silica, half her height but both beautiful and dangerous. Full-grown Phoenix's were for players at least 2 levels above us! It was extremely rare, very dangerous and infamous for it's speed. It tackled Silica faster than the eye could follow, lowering her health to the red zone. I wasn't going to reach her! No... I wouldn't...
In an act of pure desperation, I reached for my knife and threw it. The knife flew trough the air, soaring high...
Come on, come on, hit it!
The Phoenix didn't even notice the knife until it sliced straight through its wing, severing it from the body and almost, but not quite, killing it. I didn't waste any time, simply charging my second knife and shot forward to finish it off with a simple but effective stab.
Instead of dodging, I caught a glimpse of it's fiery, beady eyes, before it jumped towards me with it's famous agility and caught me in the same loop of tackles it had done to finish Silica off. I slashed wildly, not daring to open my eyes in case it was set on blinding me. But I had to open them, my health was, too, rapidly decreasing. Then, I caught sight of it's severed wing, bursting into blue light. Somehow, my mind had surpassed the need for worded thoughts, and I jumped high. The Phoenix shot up to finish me off, but failed and flailed madly in the air, forgetting that it now only had one wing. Taking advantage of it's helplessness, I slashed it's body and twisted."
The Phoenix burst into flames, a fiery explosion that I had completely forgotten could happen.I should have remembered that that could happen. I had fought several Phoenixes in the beta test.I roared in shock, making me wince at the reduced, but nonetheless shocking, pain. It effectively lowered my own health to the red zone, making me panic slightly. I felt the fatigue of battle course through my veins. It was excruciating, I barely had time to marvel at how the game master managed to reduce the amount of pain, but not stress of muscle, before I realised the grave danger Silica was in.
She had fallen in shock and fear, health dangerously low, which did nothing to raise my moral... 12 health points... She was a strike away from death!
Nothing for it.
I hoisted her onto my right shoulder, before I realised that that was the arm I had burnt. Her weight stung my arm, which was crying out for a rest, or at least a healing item, but we had used our only healing potion yesterday, leaving me to carry her like this.
She stirred, dazed and in pain, heavily confused. "Who... Are you?... Tensei...?" She half smiled. "I have the flute thing..." It alarmed me to hear how faint her voice was.
"I won't let you die, Silica! We promised! I told you before, we're getting our of here together!" I yelled the words to keep her spirits up, but partially to kick the pessimistic doubts out of my system, which had been eating away at me since I saw Silica's health drop.
That's right... We're going to make it!
I was never so happy to see the gates of the second town we had originally been heading for.
As I walked, I realised Silica had fallen asleep from exhaustion on my back. I wasn't far off either, I needed rest, and fast!
I turned into the inn, where I knew we could rest, recuperate and perhaps spend a night or two.
The NPC at the desk simply stared at us, along with 2 other players, who simply gaped. I smiled weakly and asked politely, "2 rooms please," then collapsed without another word, Silica landing on top of me for the second time that day.
,
I woke up to a wooden room, filled with warm, ambient light. Did I pass out in the living room again? That must have been it. Any moment, Tess would rush in and yell at me for sleeping so late. What a crazy dream that was. I would tell her, and we could both have a laugh about it over dinner.
"Tensei!"
I opened my eyes fully, waking up properly this time. Of course that wasn't a dream... I had been stupid to think that I could have dreamed up the game master, the players, Silica... Silica?
"Silica!" I got up immediately, all my memories flooding back in a flash. "Silica, what's wrong?" For she was crying, tears streaming down her face, but not in hysterical fear for her own well-being, tears for mine.
"I was so worried!" She sobbed, "What if you died to save me? I went back to get the flute, and the Phoenix attacked me... and... and..." She broke down further into sobs.
I ruffled her hair again, gently. "What did I tell you, Silica? I'm not going to let you die."
She choked out a spluttered laugh. "You idiot..."
What can I say, I thought to myself, I said I wouldn't leave her to die. I meant it.
T/N: Aaaaand end chapter! Thanks for reading guys! I received 2 reviews and 3 follows in such a short amount of time, it surprised me! The SAO fanfiction community is a lot more active!
I'll do my best to update guys, but don't expect me to always update every day... in fact, every couple of weeks is a more believable target. But hey, for you followers, you'll just receive notifications so that's cool with me xD
Review replies!
RyuugaAsao - Thank you! I plan to keep the surprises coming, trust me. I do plan to introduce new OCs, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure I like the idea of using your character straight up. So, thanks for the offer. I may put it in for the record... I don't really like kuudere though. We'll see. If I put it in, I'll let you know. If you don't want to spread it, that's fine too. I don't like buying my advertisers, I prefer to let people decide if they want to spread it or not.
Stellar Spirit: Thanks for reading! I'll keep 'em coming, don't worry.
Okay! And finally, I'd just like to say I DON'T plan on making romance bloom, she's twelve for god sake. Maybe later, with another character.
Tensei out!