Prologue: The Bar, the Quake, and the Pixie
Tick...tock...tick...tock...
A page turns.
There is a moment of quiet pondering, broken only by the small sounds of the handle of a trash picker stick's handle being clamped and unclamped, rinse and repeat.
The hand squeezing the handle belonged to a young woman, sitting at a large desk. The girl sat in the chair, wearing her long blonde hair up in a ponytail tied with a blue scrunchie. Above her waist, she was adorned with a short-sleeve yellow and white striped blouse, covered in a navy blue sweatshirt that was left unzipped. Her jeans were a lighter shade, complimenting one of her eyes that was colored a beautiful lipid pool shade of blue. The other eye, however, was more of forest green.
In front of the girl was a book, a sketchbook in fact. She was busy flipping the pages and observing the past work she had done. Pictures of animals mostly. High quality in design if she gave herself credit, however, there were obvious attempts to alter the style in ways that looked and felt unnatural.
"Ugh...I don't get it..." The girl groaned.
The woman glanced between the book and up towards a laptop that sat towards the back of the desk. On the screen, there were pictures of two-dimensional characters, very detailed, and a lot of complex lines.
"I see the picture...I can SEE it...how do I draw in a style like that?" The girl pouted with a sigh.
The woman sank into her chair, blowing a raspberry as she stared up at the ceiling.
"Am I making a mistake?"
The woman looked over to a toy sitting on her bed. The blue plush dog looked over at her with a playful smile.
"Oh, Plu."
The girl smiled as she got up from her chair and walked over to her bed to pick up the small dog.
"You're right, I can't give up. There just has to be something." The woman smiled at the plushie.
The woman then hugged the plush before stuffing it into the hood of her jacket.
"I think I should take a break for now though. I need food."
The woman picked up her laptop and sketchbook to stuff in her backpack. She then threw it around her shoulder, and grabbed her stick and turned to leave the room.
Unbeknownst to her, there was a small round yellow orb watching her from behind the desk with teal eyes.
Vernal Tavern
A small bell rung as the wooden door swung open of the small rustic tavern. It was quiet except for one customer sitting at a table and the bartender standing at the bar.
The blonde woman entered the rustic-looking tavern with a distant gaze. Yet her muscle memory guided her to the bar across the room.
Immediately, the man at the bar looked at her with a cheerful smile.
"Evening, Skai! What can I get for you?"
Skai looked up, not changing her faded expression.
"Just give me the usual, Johnny." She nodded as she sat down at a stool, setting her backpack and stick down at her feet.
Johnny nodded as he turned to prepare her drink. Johnny wasn't that bad looking for a male, a bit chubby and definitely shorter than average for most men. He was an older fella, probably in his mid-fifties or so. He was balding with graying hair and had a nice broom mustache. He basically had grandpa energy but still kept a youthful energy about him.
It wasn't long before Johnny returned with a small glass.
"Here you go, Skai. Strawberry Rose Spritzer, just the way you like it."
"Thanks." She gave a small smile to him before reaching for the glass to take a sip.
Johnny nodded before turning back to the sink. There were some glasses he had been cleaning.
Skai stared into the glass with a distant gaze returning to her face. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and took a small sip of the drink.
It was then that Johnny glanced over at the woman.
"You're awfully quiet tonight, Skai. Something on your mind, kid?" He looked over, his eyebrows furled.
Skai took another sip of her drink before pausing.
"Johnny...you have kids right?"
"I sure do. My oldest has just started college. My, I'm proud of her. She's got her heart set on becoming a veterinarian!"
Skai then set the glass down, it is about half empty by this point.
"Heh...that's awesome..." She sighed.
The bartender reached for his washcloth, picking up another glass and cleaning it.
"Now my memory is fuzzy...you're attending the school here. What are you majoring in again?" He turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, originally I was going as a history major. But a while ago I switched to applied design to work with characters and such." Skai replied, glancing down at her glass and swirling it around.
"Oh? Why that's fantastic! I don't hear of too many people bold enough to work with art." He beamed.
"Heh, yeah. It's just that I-AH!"
All of a sudden, there was a loud rumble. The alcohol in Skai's glass rippled. The glasses on the shelves of the bar clinked as the entire place shook. The force was enough to throw the two of them off balance.
"W-What was that?!" Johnny grabbed the counter as he fell.
"Gya...I don't know? AH-"
Suddenly there was a second quake that shook the area.
"Ah..ow...a-are we having an earthquake?" Skai looked up to Johnny.
"We can't be! We're not in an earthquake zone! GYAH!"
Johnny soon jumped as a third quake struck the ground, the strongest of the three. The force of the quake was strong enough to shake the place again. Suddenly, some of the glasses began to fall from the shelves and shatter on the ground.
"N-No!" Johnny looked on in horror at the glass shattering around him, nearly cutting him.
It was then that the rumbles began to become more frequent than the last.
"Johnny, you need to get out of there!"
"I can't move! It's like gravity has, AHH!"
Johnny screamed as he suddenly held his shoulder. A chunk of glass had shot out and hit him in the arm.
"Johnny!" Skai cried out.
"K-Kid! You need to get out of here!"
"I-I have to go get help!"
Skai reached to get her backpack and stick. She nearly stumbled as the ground shook again. It was almost like gravity itself had increased.
"I...I gotta...get help..."
She struggled to get to the door.
A bright light quickly flashed.
"Gya!" Skai grunted as she barely managed to get to the door.
As she opened the door, she suddenly found her footing again as she was able to walk properly. She began to run out of the building, into a fog-bound area.
"H-Help! Someone he-AHH!" Skai screamed as the next step she took nearly led her off a cliff edge.
Stones from the pavement of the street crumbled as Skai looked down much to the disbelief of what she was looking at. Down below...there was the earth. Far...far below the tavern building. It was as if the tavern and the area around it was plucked from the earth and it was now floating upwards.
"W-WWHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Skai screamed as she looked down at the ground below.
As she tried to step back, the ground beneath her began to crumble, causing her to scream. Before she could move, the ground beneath her gave way.
"N-No!"
As Skai began to fall, she reached for her picker stick and used it to grab at the floating land. The stick was the only thing between her and solid ground as she dangled from the cliff.
"S-Someone HELP!" She cried out.
Just when things seemed they couldn't get worse, the sounds of rubble began to crumble around the area where her stick had grabbed onto.
"No, no please!" Skai begged.
Her pleas were for naught as the rubble gave away, forcing her to fall from the cliff.
"NOOOOO!" She yelled as she began to fall, hundreds of feet from the ground.
It was then that a glowing yellow orb poked itself out from hiding. It seemed to have some understanding of the situation as it raced towards Skai.
Before she could react, there was another flash of light enough to blind her and cause her head to spin.
"I...I can't...blacking...out..."