Chapter 2
I stopped suddenly and fell to the cold ground from the pressure of a blizzard. “Wait… snow? It’s July…” I looked around. Barely visible. I gave one final call out, “Kiyo!” Nothing but my echo and the sound of the blizzard.
Snow soon engulfed me, and I fell down to the ground in lost hope. The cold, wet substance chilling my body to it's core. These loose shirts obviously weren't made to be in a blizzard. But, before I lost consciousness from loss of body heat, I could barely make out a figure in the distance. Darkness soon covered my vision.
I sat up, screaming, “Kiyo!” I looked at the face right in front of mine, making me jump back and give a little startled scream. “Wh-who are you?” I asked the young woman standing before me.
She giggled a little and responded, “I see that you’re awake. My name Ella. What brings you to the Arctic regions of Nanu while so poorly dressed?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, sitting up and rubbing my head.
“That simple two layers of clothing won’t cover you out in a blizzard like that.”
“No, I mean, what is Nanu?” I looked up at her. She was wearing a husky, white-fur jacket, that acted as a robe and covered her body. She had the same white-fur design on her gloves and boots as well. Her skin was nice and pale, and her eyes were a sky blue color. But one feature that really caught my attention was her hair. It was an icy blue color. Very odd. “Wait, why is your hair blue like that? Did you dye it or something?”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she responded, “Nanu is the name of this world.” She stroked a strip of her hair that was hanging over her shoulder, “And besides, all Nixi have hair like this.”
“Would you mind cutting the crap? I’m afraid I don’t believe it. Who are you cosplaying as, and what kind of comic convention is this?”
She cocked her head sideways, dumbfounded, as she said, “What’s a ‘comic convention’, and what is ‘cosplaying‘?”
I sighed and said, “Let’s see… a comic convention is when a group of people who are obsessed with comic books come to hang out and talk. Cosplaying is like dressing up as your favorite character from a comic book or manga.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Forget it then.” A water drop dripped on me, causing me to look up to my surprise at what I had saw. I looked around, surprise not once leaving my face. “Why am I in a cave?”
“This is where I stay when blizzards come during my travels. I happened to find you today as I was retreating here. The snow came suddenly and without warning. It was rather strange." She seemed to fade for a moment, but snapped her attention back to me, "You don’t seem to know much, do you?”
“I’m still trying to figure out where the hell I am.”
“I already told you. You’re in the arctic regions. You look a lot like a Psychia, let me see something.” She reached out and grabbed both of my hands.
I blushed as she held them and studied them closely. “Hey, what are you-?”
I was cut off by the shocked emotion in her words, “No rune?” She checked my ears. “Round?” She looked over me and opened up my pants - which really made me blush. “No tail?” She returned to my face, surprised, asking, “What are you?”
“I’m human, thank you very much,” I responded, slightly irritated that she would check in my pants for a tail, of all things. My cheeks were still pink from the incident.
“Enough of this,” she said, surprisingly serious, “Humans are just a legend, and everyone knows that. Stop playing around and tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth. And what do you mean, ‘humans are just a legend’?”
She sighed and said, “It’s an urban legend that an abnormally intelligent Temna was able to create a portal between two worlds. Our world, and a mysterious world in which so called ‘humans’ somehow ruled, despite their inabilities. But it’s just a myth for children to believe anyone can do anything. No one believes it’s true.”
“But… I’m a human… And what do you mean by ‘inabilities’? Is that some kind of joke?”
Her eyes widened, as if she had just remembered something important. She looked down for a moment, sad. But, then she looked up and smiled, grabbing me by the shirt and lifting me up.
“Huh? Wha-?”
Her eyes closed, and she said, “You want to know what kind of powers Nixi have? Well, here it is.” She suddenly flung her eyes open, a strange sensation filling me up as I fell limply against her grasp, unconscious.
