saladlove | Another World: Guardian's Ascenion

I woke up and immediately sat up with a start. “Ow…” I said after hitting my head on something. It was dark, too dark to see. And, to be quite honest, it smelled like death. Not it smelled bad, it literally smelled like something had died. I tried to figure out how I got here, and discovered I had a set of memories that I myself had never actually experienced. Including getting tossed out of a church tower by my--his? our?--father. Which told me I was now sitting in a coffin, in a body that until moments ago was decomposing in peace. Digging deeper I found that this body was twelve years old and, conveniently enough for me, was named Shawn just as I had been before the explosion. I was in a land known as Winterash, one of several countries situated on floating islands. Floating in the air, not in the ocean, mind you. In just a couple days I--he? we?-- were due to start training at an academy of soldiers.

Next order of business, getting out of this grave. I felt around inside the coffin as best I could, to see if I had anything I could use to escape. All I found was a puddle of water, which was half frozen. I recalled something about water and ice… Instinctively, I made the water float in the air, froze it, and slammed it into the lid of the coffin. The ice shattered, but I was able to reform it. “Well, that’s useful.”

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

After what seemed like a lifetime of smashing ice into the coffin lid, and then digging my way out of the ground--luckily it was only two feet and not six--I was finally free of that box. As I pulled myself from the ground and rolled over to look at the sky, I took in my surroundings. Snowy forest, headstone, bottomless pit, frozen la-BOTTOMLESS PIT? I jumped to my feet and backed away from the ledge. “Right… Floating islands.”

Behind me I heard a twig snap. I spun around to face it, seeing a tall man in a suit. “Rise and shine, Mr. Nathan. Rise and… shine…” He dug into his pocket and produced a ring. “Bleed on the gem, and it binds it you. No one else can open it.”

“Open it? I don’t understand” I said to him as he threw the ring at me. I caught it with ease.

“You will.” He said before walking off.

What I hadn’t noticed was that my hand was already bleeding--I’d likely cut it on a rock while climbing out of the coffin--and the blood had already gotten on the gem. Immediately after catching it I knew it had stuff inside. How? I can only explain that with magic. There was some money, clothing and a weapon. I assumed the man knew I was going to the academy soon and that I was supposed to become a gunslinger.

I put the ring on and walked in the direction of the nearest town. Hopefully things wouldn’t go too badly.

Before I got there, I stopped and made the weapon appear in my hands. It looked familiar. “No…” It was my gun from before I died. The same inscription on the side and everything.

I put it away and started back towards town. That was something for later.