11-09-2009, 07:51 AM
It was the sound of the birds that first reached her ears. The morning sunlight was bathing over her while she lay still, unmoving except for the faint breeze that passed over her clothing. A faint gasp expelled from her mouth as her chest began to move, the simulation having incorporated her entirely into the program by now without her knowledge.
Stirring weakly, Ashe rolled over from her back to her side, her eyes fluttering open in the steam. "Help..." she called weakly without understanding why, pushing herself up to a sitting position while holding her head. The air was slightly warm for a morning and the rocky ground was rigid and unmoving. Her right arm bumped against something, causing her to snatch her arm back before realizing that it was just her bag.
She quickly ripped it open, digging out the contents to spread around her in hopes of something that she could use to call for help. Her books had been replaced with other items, but a few items remained from her original bag. Her cell phone found its way into her hands, cracked screen and all, and she grimaced as her fingertips awoke it only to find that all attempts to call anyone off the island resulted in a busy tone, despite having a full signal.
Her phone dropped to the top of a stack of paperwork as she picked up her mp3 player and checked it over. "I guess this works, at least," she mumbled halfheartedly. "Just what's up with my phone?"
Browsing through the random paperwork that had been stuffed into her bag revealed a set of documents containing information regarding the event of which she had been inserted, a tournament known to many as Dante's Abyss. She turned it over in her hands and tried to get a grasp for exactly what was going on. "Is this what Sage had started trying to explain to me when those guards interrupted?" she asked nobody in particular.
Looking over the map she saw that it seemed to work as a digital display, despite being able to be rolled up like a paper or plastic map. "Some kind of plastic laminated screen display?" It had a small red blinking dot on it to show her where her current position was as well as a listing of various bunkers and sectors. At the dead center was some kind of battle arena. Judging by the blinking dot, she realized that she was in the Mountain Sector.
"Because all the rocky walls didn't quite give it away," she spoke faintly, looking around as another wave of steam seemed to pass by overhead. "I guess all this steam is a result of the volcanoes that are shown on the map," she mused, looking at the canyon walls that she had been laying within. The tall, rough cliffs rose high above her on both sides, leaving her looking as far down both sets of passages as she could before looking skyward. "If these were carved by volcanoes, I'm not going to wait around."
Stuffing all of her belongings back into her bag, she took a deep breath and placed a hand onto a slab of rock that was sticking out. She loved to climb things, but she could already tell that the wall was going to leave her hands cut to pieces if she tried it. The girl took a moment more to look back through her bag again, shifting the contents around to reveal small amounts of food and a bottle of water. "Oh yay," she deadpanned. "Please don't tell me that every crazy television guy is too cheap to use some of their earnings to get us decent food." Thankfully, she came across a pair of gloves inside of the bag as well as a few other tools.
Slipping the gloves on, she pulled out a length or rope with a hook on the end of it. Her eyes widened. "What the heck am I going to do with a grappling hook?" she expressed. Climbing back to her feet with the rope in her hands, she took a look back at the cliff wall. "Though I guess they knew in advance that they were tossing my ass into the mountains."
The metal claws took flight, seeking the top of the cliffwall to bite in for its soiled meal.
---
It took over a dozen throws, each requiring her to overextend her right arm until it seemed that she would jerk it out of its socket. At some point, the sharp metal had seemed to snag a good place but one pull on it left it to snatch loose, showering her with small rocks as her rear struck the ground beneath her, barely rolling out of the way as the instrument slammed into the rock next to her. A few attempts later and she found herself halfway up the rock wall, holding tightly onto the thick rope with protective gloves on, sweating profusely in the steam that she had entered. She was thankful for the gloves, given the sweat, but her bag was beginning to cut deep into her shoulders while she climbed.
It seemed as if it had taken at least four and a half hours before her straining fingers dig deep into the ridge at the top, throwing her bag up over the edge before managing to pull herself up after it. She rolled over and breathed a heavy sigh of relief, having not believed that she would succeed after the last bit of time had passed. If it wasn't for her coming up with the idea of wrapping the lower half of the rope around her waste and tying it, stopping to adjust it every ten feet or so, she was sure that she would have been so exhausted that the cleaning crew would have to gather her shattered remains from the floor.
Still, she didn't have enough geographical knowledge to tell her if the canyon floor had been the result of molten lava or even a steaming river just waiting to reenter. It wasn't worth the risk. What might even live down there? For all she knew, there could be minotaurs down in that pit. But then again, there could be dragons flying overhead, she supposed.
Pulling out her map while she leaned against her bag for rest, she realized that she was actually very close to the center of the map. "I'm nowhere near the bunker in this area," she realized, looking around. Not even understanding what the bunker was for, she turned her eyes skyward until she saw a large island just floating in the air above her, the massive arena resting high above its heavenly structure.
In the distance, she realized that a translucent wall separated her from what seemed to be a wall of pure whiteness, unable to see through it for unknown reasons. Even closer was another wall that crossed paths with it, another translucent field that seemed as if it were the entryway to a jungle. She decided that it made perfect sense, according to the map, to assume that the City Sector was directly across from the corner that she was facing.
She took some time to read over the information regarding the competition before filing it into her bag with the climbing gear and taking a few swallows of water from her bottle. "Yeah..." she sighed. "I'm out of here. Maybe the city will have something to do other than rock climbing or tournament fighting. If anything, I might run into someone else that can help me figure this thing out. Someone..." she whispered to herself, talking a look around before shivering in the steam. "Someone who didn't join this thing for the thrill of killing people, hopefully."
Stirring weakly, Ashe rolled over from her back to her side, her eyes fluttering open in the steam. "Help..." she called weakly without understanding why, pushing herself up to a sitting position while holding her head. The air was slightly warm for a morning and the rocky ground was rigid and unmoving. Her right arm bumped against something, causing her to snatch her arm back before realizing that it was just her bag.
She quickly ripped it open, digging out the contents to spread around her in hopes of something that she could use to call for help. Her books had been replaced with other items, but a few items remained from her original bag. Her cell phone found its way into her hands, cracked screen and all, and she grimaced as her fingertips awoke it only to find that all attempts to call anyone off the island resulted in a busy tone, despite having a full signal.
Her phone dropped to the top of a stack of paperwork as she picked up her mp3 player and checked it over. "I guess this works, at least," she mumbled halfheartedly. "Just what's up with my phone?"
Browsing through the random paperwork that had been stuffed into her bag revealed a set of documents containing information regarding the event of which she had been inserted, a tournament known to many as Dante's Abyss. She turned it over in her hands and tried to get a grasp for exactly what was going on. "Is this what Sage had started trying to explain to me when those guards interrupted?" she asked nobody in particular.
Looking over the map she saw that it seemed to work as a digital display, despite being able to be rolled up like a paper or plastic map. "Some kind of plastic laminated screen display?" It had a small red blinking dot on it to show her where her current position was as well as a listing of various bunkers and sectors. At the dead center was some kind of battle arena. Judging by the blinking dot, she realized that she was in the Mountain Sector.
"Because all the rocky walls didn't quite give it away," she spoke faintly, looking around as another wave of steam seemed to pass by overhead. "I guess all this steam is a result of the volcanoes that are shown on the map," she mused, looking at the canyon walls that she had been laying within. The tall, rough cliffs rose high above her on both sides, leaving her looking as far down both sets of passages as she could before looking skyward. "If these were carved by volcanoes, I'm not going to wait around."
Stuffing all of her belongings back into her bag, she took a deep breath and placed a hand onto a slab of rock that was sticking out. She loved to climb things, but she could already tell that the wall was going to leave her hands cut to pieces if she tried it. The girl took a moment more to look back through her bag again, shifting the contents around to reveal small amounts of food and a bottle of water. "Oh yay," she deadpanned. "Please don't tell me that every crazy television guy is too cheap to use some of their earnings to get us decent food." Thankfully, she came across a pair of gloves inside of the bag as well as a few other tools.
Slipping the gloves on, she pulled out a length or rope with a hook on the end of it. Her eyes widened. "What the heck am I going to do with a grappling hook?" she expressed. Climbing back to her feet with the rope in her hands, she took a look back at the cliff wall. "Though I guess they knew in advance that they were tossing my ass into the mountains."
The metal claws took flight, seeking the top of the cliffwall to bite in for its soiled meal.
---
It took over a dozen throws, each requiring her to overextend her right arm until it seemed that she would jerk it out of its socket. At some point, the sharp metal had seemed to snag a good place but one pull on it left it to snatch loose, showering her with small rocks as her rear struck the ground beneath her, barely rolling out of the way as the instrument slammed into the rock next to her. A few attempts later and she found herself halfway up the rock wall, holding tightly onto the thick rope with protective gloves on, sweating profusely in the steam that she had entered. She was thankful for the gloves, given the sweat, but her bag was beginning to cut deep into her shoulders while she climbed.
It seemed as if it had taken at least four and a half hours before her straining fingers dig deep into the ridge at the top, throwing her bag up over the edge before managing to pull herself up after it. She rolled over and breathed a heavy sigh of relief, having not believed that she would succeed after the last bit of time had passed. If it wasn't for her coming up with the idea of wrapping the lower half of the rope around her waste and tying it, stopping to adjust it every ten feet or so, she was sure that she would have been so exhausted that the cleaning crew would have to gather her shattered remains from the floor.
Still, she didn't have enough geographical knowledge to tell her if the canyon floor had been the result of molten lava or even a steaming river just waiting to reenter. It wasn't worth the risk. What might even live down there? For all she knew, there could be minotaurs down in that pit. But then again, there could be dragons flying overhead, she supposed.
Pulling out her map while she leaned against her bag for rest, she realized that she was actually very close to the center of the map. "I'm nowhere near the bunker in this area," she realized, looking around. Not even understanding what the bunker was for, she turned her eyes skyward until she saw a large island just floating in the air above her, the massive arena resting high above its heavenly structure.
In the distance, she realized that a translucent wall separated her from what seemed to be a wall of pure whiteness, unable to see through it for unknown reasons. Even closer was another wall that crossed paths with it, another translucent field that seemed as if it were the entryway to a jungle. She decided that it made perfect sense, according to the map, to assume that the City Sector was directly across from the corner that she was facing.
She took some time to read over the information regarding the competition before filing it into her bag with the climbing gear and taking a few swallows of water from her bottle. "Yeah..." she sighed. "I'm out of here. Maybe the city will have something to do other than rock climbing or tournament fighting. If anything, I might run into someone else that can help me figure this thing out. Someone..." she whispered to herself, talking a look around before shivering in the steam. "Someone who didn't join this thing for the thrill of killing people, hopefully."
Quote:Ashe moves from Mountain Sector to City Sector
![[Image: Ashe.jpg]](http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af298/symbiosychotic/Ashe.jpg)