Chapter Two : Onwards To A New Home - part 4
It was about an hour before Sora and Rio finally reached their destination. In total it took them about an hour and a half. Normally it would only take an hour for Rio, but since she had Sora with her and they stopped a few times so Rio could let Sora rest. Sora was not used to having to walk under the hot sun like this. Rio also made sure that Sora was drinking plenty of fluids. By the time they reached their destination, Sora had already gained a better-looking complexion. But Rio was going to have Sora rest for the rest of the day and night in order to be sure she was truly ok.
The two were now standing in front of a large rock formation that had a large door embedded into it. The door itself seemed to be made out of some kind of metal. The metal had a blue sheen to it with a decorative pattern engraved into it along the border edge of the door itself. To one side of the door, Sora noticed something that resembled a panel of some kind.
"Rio, what's that?" Sora said as she pointed to the panel.
"Oh, watch!" Rio let go of Sora's hand and made her way over to the panel.
Rio waved her hand over the panel. A small green light emitted from the panel. Then there was a slight pause before a loud clicking noise was heard that sounded as if a door was unlocking. After a few seconds of silence, Sora felt a vibration under her feet as she saw the large set of metal doors slowly creak open. As the doors parted from each other the sand that had been building up in front of them was being pushed away with great ease. The vibration under Sora's feet continued until the doors finally came to a halt when they were fully opened. Beyond the doors was a set of stairs that seemed to have been carved out of the rock, that lead down into the ground. To Sora seeing such a sight was like opening the doors to the gates of hell. Just not so ominous.
"Welcome to my home!" Rio said with a huge smile on her face.
Rio skipped back over to Sora and grabbed her hand once again and lead her down the big set of stairs. The stairwell wall was smooth to the touch. Sora was surprised by how smooth it really was. It seemed to have been finely polished, like how a marble or granite table top would be. There was an etching engraved down the entire stairwell. This etching emitted a dim green light. The light was just enough to allow one to see as they walked down the stairs.
"Rio is this like an entrance to a city or something?" Sora asked as the two made their way down the stairwell.
"No, This is just my house." Rio answered Sora's question while puffing her chest out a bit. Rio seemed to be very proud of her home. Sora was shocked to see that this was just her home. Sora thought that the doors that they just passed through seemed to be rather big for a person's home.
"Do you live with someone else? " Sora wondered if she would be meeting anyone else, like a family member or friend.
"No, I live alone. Been living alone here for roughly 60 years now." Rio gave Sora a slight smile. Sora felt kind of bad for Rio. Being alone for so long must have been very lonely.
"I could live in Ictoras. Which is the last Lafina city. But once I found this place I choose to live out here alone. This place is a lot closer to a lot of ruins in the area than Ictoras is. Ictoras is about a 2 day trip from here. While I can get to some ruins within an hour from this location rather than having to journey 2 days there and then 2 days back again. Not to mention there are places that are even further out than that. Especially since traveling the desert is very dangerous. Whether it is day or night. " Rio said as the two continued down the stairs.
"I see that makes a lot of sense then. I would probably do the same thing as well. I would not risk having to travel so far if it was that dangerous. If I found a place like this like you did then I would choose to use it as my home as well. But I was really not expecting such a large set of doors just for someone's house. They looked like city gates to me." Sora couldn't help but think of how fantasy like it was. Which was getting Sora a little excited and also made her realize even more that she was no longer on Earth.
"My guess is that the size of the doors is to keep the sand out and also to make it easier to open when there is a lot of sand pushed up against it. I am not 100 percent sure on this though since I did not build this place myself." Rio explained.
The stairs went down quite a ways before they reached their destination at the bottom. At the bottom of the stairs, the area opened up a bit and on one of the walls was a smaller metal door. Rio lead Sora over to it and on the side like the door up above there was another panel. Rio let go of Sora's hand and walked over to the panel. Rio placed her hand on top of the panel for a second and then called Sora over.
"Place your hand on top of mine. This way it will register you for both doors." Upon hearing Rios instructions Sora followed suit and placed her hand on top of Rio's.
A green light came out from the panel for a split second before Sora heard the sound of the door next to them unlocking. Sora was not quite sure how the panel read her hand while it was on top of Rio's hand. But since Sora had no idea how it functioned in the first place she figured there was no sense dwelling on it.
"There now you are registered with both doors and should be able to come and go as you please." Rio gave Sora a bright smile. Rio grabbed Sora's hand once again lead Sora into her home.
'It was so cute how we kept holding hands back then after we first met.'
I will admit that Rio was cute but you just made me sick. Well, your whole being still makes me sick.
'What why!? How do I make you sick!?'
............
'I am going to go find a corner to cry in... Have fun telling the story by yourself.'
Fine, fine you don't make me sick. I was just joking when I said that.
'Really?'
...... .....Yes....
'Hey, what was that pause for!?'
.................
