Part 1 – Braiden

I dropped into this Abyss, from a crack in the ceiling, everything was darkened, with very minimal light. The crack in the grey ceiling, shining the only light into this world. But, in the distance I spotted it, a lush land, which was filled with greens and somehow was brighter than the area around it. That was Blossoming Heights, an area filled with plants and magic as far as the eye could see. I ran forwards, my cloak and hood whispering and whipping with the wind, as the lushy area approached me, I noticed fresh footprints in this soulless grey ground, showing someone had beat me here.

I entered the luscious area, and it was clear to me life here was massive, as plants made up everything, even the lights. On the ceiling, plants strung down, with a fruit-like object that seemed to glow, and on the walls were long plants similar to a venus fly trap, just on a much larger scale. The fly traps snapped at anything or anyone that got close, even a rock, and occasionally vines wrapped the ground next to the fly traps, acting as a tripwire. Lot’s of pathways were also closed, due to vines, but some paths were opened clearly with a hole in a wall of vines.

I held my trusty scimitar up high, cutting and branches or vines in my path, until I noticed more footprints, they seemed to be in a rush, but it seemed like they cut through vines quickly, and then I saw them, another person in a hood and cloak, but clearly female.

“Braiden? What do you think you’re doing here!” The person said, as she turned around to face me.

“What do you think you’re doing here, Basil?” I yelled back at her, due to how inefficient the hoods were at hiding our faces, so we recognized each other immediately. Basil twirled a spear, and mounted it to her back. 

“I asked first! Why would YOU be here of all places?” Basil snapped back, walking closer to me.

“For reasons that you wouldn’t understand, now get out of my way!” I walked past Basil, pushing her to the side. So, I continued onwards through, of course though, Basil retreated back to the shadows, and away from me. Eventually, I noticed a small town that looked similar to current day apartments, just made only of stone, and in the middle of the town, stood a massive rock that had ash on its top, it had clearly seen better days. 

I walked up to a building with a wide open window, and a sign on the side that read ‘Blossom’s View’ And the inside had a counter with a safe on it, so, I quickly smashed the window and took the safe, knowing that this town was probably abandoned, and walked away.

Part 2 – Basil

“That idiot! How could he do something like this to an already broken down shop!” I ran over to a freshly broken window, carrying my spear.

“Hello? Is there anyone there? I’m sorry your window is broken!” I shouted into the dark room behind the broken window, but no response was heard for a long time, then, suddenly someone walked over to the window with a book.

“Hello- Hello?” They spoke, but they seemed scared.

“Hey, it’s okay! I’m just so sorry, it was someone else who did all this,” I said back, and then I put my hand on the broken window, and cast a simple spell. Vines came from the ground, gathering all the broken glass, and then it was all slotted back to where it was in the window, the cracks were then filled with vines.

“Thank you!” The person ran back into their store, and I walked away. I soon climbed up a ladder onto the roofs of this town, the roofs had vines covering them, and a small layer of dust covering the entire area. Every step I took, dust flung up, and soon, I had found a small cave entrance in a stone wall that the buildings were built against, and every single surface had some type of plant life on it, such as vines, moss, or flowers, I even took a second to smell a black flower. I traveled through this cave-like area, and then I noticed him again, Braiden was up ahead, walking through the area and killing any plants that snap even slightly. So, I ran ahead, running at Braiden until I caught up.

“Braiden! Quit killing the plants!” I yelled at him, but he didn’t care, he slashed at every plant with his scimitar even the ones that didn’t fight. So I ran ahead of him, and then stopped, holding my spear firmly.

“Jeez, fine, I’ll quit it, but if you do this again, I’m not holding back,” he said, and then lowered his scimitar, and continued walking. I doubted that he would actually listen to me, so I ran ahead of him, making sure he couldn’t harm anyone or anything anymore.

Part 3 – Braiden And Basil

I started running after Basil, but to no avail, Basil eventually got away, but at least in the end the stupid plants stopped snapping at me. I continued on walking through this plant-filled cave, until eventually I found a larger, much more expansive area, where vines dropped down from the Abyss’ ceiling, and massive flowers bloomed all around me, pointing upwards with a large colorful display. Even though there was no direct sunlight, these plants blossomed and prospered. There were even a few small and weak butterflies flying around, to which I promptly SMASHED into the ground with my foot, they clearly had never heard of survival of the fittest.

I then looked further into the open area, and noticed more flora seemed to appear the further out I went, rather than grass filling the ground or rather moss, it was all small flowers, I held my hand out and ripped some of the flowers out of the ground multiple times, leaving blank patches in the soil randomly spread out. I then stomped a few more flowers out before finally reaching my intended destination. A rigid “X” shaped hole was on the roof of the Abyss, which made me question if I could’ve just dropped down from there to begin with, but then I remembered the great fall it would be. It would shatter all of my bones, and to add onto that I didn’t even know where the top half of the hole was located. All I knew was that some type of pure white liquid was dripping from the hole, and collecting onto a massive flower that was half the way to the roof of The Abyss. I saw what I needed though, at the base of the massive flower, where the roots were like a tree’s roots, there was an inscription written down, that seemed to be carved with a dagger. I approached the inscription carefully as I could, but that’s when Basil suddenly dropped down in front of me, knocking me back a few steps.

“Basil? Why are you here now?” I yelled at her, and she took her hood down, I could see her light green eyes and brown hair clearly now.

“I… I can’t let you touch this!” She shouted back, drawing her spear forwards and pointed towards me. I raised my scimitar back in retaliation.

“It appears, you’re in my way, care to stand aside?” I calmly asked, dropping my hood and revealing my scarred face, brown hair, and light green eyes.

“I just can’t let you become like one of them!” Basil shouted, but in the end it didn’t matter to me. She was just another obstacle. My sibling was just another obstacle in my life, and I had to overcome her.

“So be it then, let this be our final stand!” I laughed a bit, and stretched, ready to fight.

“If… That’s what it’s going to be, then… Let’s make this last time, one to remember,” Basil talked softly, as if she didn’t want to fight, but I didn’t care. I quickly raised my scimitar and tried striking her, but she blocked it with her spear.

“I bet you’re having fun,” I said monotonously, and laughed slightly before striking three more times, but getting blocked each time. Then, finally, I struck her in the right ankle, making her fall over.

“Guess you’re rusty, sis,” I kicked her aside, and approached the inscription once again, and as soon as I got close enough to read it, Basil’s spear struck the text dead on. A pure white liquid dripped from where the spear pierced the inscription and massive flower, and it soon bubbled slightly, and before I could even react, the inscription exploded with vines and flowers. The last thing I heard was a gasp and wind whipping on by me.

Part 4 – Just Basil, Always Just Basil I was on the ground, slightly just confused by my own actions. I had thrown my spear at the inscription on the massive flower, but I didn’t think this would happen! I didn’t know if he was still there, I didn’t know anything! Thoughts just raced through my head, worry, anger, happiness? What and how should I feel? My brother just died in front of me! Or… At least I think? I stood up, but quickly fell back over due to my ankle being cut, so I crawled over to the cluster of vines that had appeared, and shifted and sifted through a few, but I found nobody, just my spear stuck inside, but the spear had changed, the liquid inside of the flower stained the metal tip of my spear as I yanked the spear out. So, I had sat down on the floor, staring at the liquid stained spear, and then back at the tangled vines. I tried swinging the spear at the vines, and it cut clean through, as if the spear’s blade itself had become stronger. So, I kept slashing, over and over, but I never found anything or anyone. I was just crawling closer to the vines, cutting them down, and repeating until the tangled mess was no more. I lost him, the last of my family, it was just me now, all alone. And then, suddenly, a light green crystal popped out of the flower, and I picked it up. I felt a connection to the crystal somehow, but I didn’t know how. All I knew was that I would hold it close to my heart, and hope everything would be guided the true and correct way. I never want this to happen to anyone else ever again, as long as I can help it, I’ll protect everyone that passes through Blossoming Heights!