"Uuuoink..." Appearing in a vast, ever-expanding space was a piglet with arms resembling a bat and a root cluster in the place of legs. Reddish-orange stripes covered its body as it squealed softly before looking around.
It was standing atop a floating island, barely ten square metres in area. There was a puddle towards the corner, and floating on it was a leaf. The rest of the island’s surface was barren rock, warm to the touch.
The piglet looked around but couldn’t see past the confines of the island. It was a warm morning, based on its senses. However, that only extended to the edges. Something resembling a membrane trailed over the edges to form a dome around the island.
The piglet cautiously approached the border and observed the membrane, focusing further to see faint, dust-sized engravings squirming together to form the structure of the barrier. It inched its snout closer and noticed the squirming engravings part to the side slightly, enough for the snout to pass through, and soon, a portion of the head.
"Auuuoink!" The piglet shrieked in fright upon being met with the endless darkness outside. There was an instinctive fear towards the unknown, which it experienced now.
Technically, it wasn’t supposed to be able to gaze afar, due to obstructions and range restrictions of its vision. However, the ever-expanding space appeared in its senses, whether by sight, scent, hearing, etc.
It was strange, but didn’t feel unfamiliar either.
In the seemingly endless void were floating islands, each covered by a sphere to form unique biomes. Each island had a biome of its own and were floating aimlessly in the void. The piglet spotted a rather large floating island, thinking of setting foot on the latter.
The moment it had the thought, the large island vanished and appeared before it in the next second. It gently made contact with the small island as at the point of contact, the two biomes mixed. The smaller island was warm while the larger island was windy.
The point of contact had warm winds as the piglet made a jump to land on the surface of the larger island.
This island’s surface spanned over a kilometre in area. There was a small hill in its centre, sporting a cave. Seen across the hill were targets.
As the piglet landed on the island, it noticed a man walking out of the cave, carrying a loose bag. There was nothing in the bag. He calmly walked away, placed the bag on the ground, and turned around to grunt once.
During the motion, he created a Prana Bomb and hurled it towards a target 200 metres away, missing by an arm’s length. The man exhaled at missing the mark but that didn’t seem to stop him. He created another Prana Bomb and hurled it too at the target.
This too missed its mark. Every few seconds, he would create a Prana Bomb and throw it, slightly improving his throws every time. From time to time, whenever his concentration slipped, his throw would be way off the mark.
"Hmm?" The man noticed the piglet and turned around in a flurry, stunning the latter when he kneeled in respect.
The piglet curiously observed the man and felt it should make contact with the latter. And when it did so, it fused into the latter’s body, followed by a squeal.
"This is strange," The man muttered, created a Prana Bomb and threw it at the target, repeating the actions for a couple dozen times before he stopped to pant in exhaustion.
The man bowed at the piglet that a separated from his body and walked away. He calmly picked up the bag and approached the target to pick up the Prana Bombs stuck to the floor one after another.
Once he unfurled the bag, the various pockets in it were revealed. Each pocket seemed to have been made to perfectly cover and store a Prana Bomb, preventing surface contact with each other.
Once the man placed all the Prana Bombs in the bag, he groaned at the weight and slowly dragged the bag into the cave, retiring for the day.
By now, the piglet had reached the border of the island and passed through the spot with warm winds to land back in its original, small island.
The small island distanced itself from the large island as the piglet peeked its head out to look around. Soon, it spotted an interesting floating island which had a whopping area exceeding 30 kilometres.
The moment it had the thought, the two floating islands made contact as the piglet entered the other side.
The air here was still, with no signs of a wind. Rock pillars covered the place, while at the top seemed to be the sun, positioned like it were noon.
Spreading their gliders wide and jumping from the top of the rock pillars were Quip Zingers. Upon leap, they glided through the air, circled past a few pillars and landed on the ground. The rock pillars spanned over a kilometre in height, so they had a lot of distance to traverse before reaching the ground.
"Four minutes, thirty-seven seconds." A voice boomed across the ground, "Your turns aren’t sharp enough. And when you tried to make the turn, you lost lift across most of your wingspan. That was dangerous. Do it again!"
In response, the Quip Zingers perched on the foot of a rock pillar and began to climb it up.
The source of the booming voice was a Zinger Aristocrat, who kneeled in respect upon seeing the piglet, "I greet the Guardian."
The piglet nudged the Zinger Aristocrat’s foot and fused with the latter. The Zinger Aristocrat continued with her training session, constantly barking orders and educating the Quip Zingers.
After a few hours, the Quip Zingers reverted to human form, turning into children. "You all did well today. We will continue our practice until you’re able to glide at top speeds and complete a series of sharp turns that we discussed."
Once the Zinger Aristocrat dismissed the children, the piglet jumped out of her body and returned to its floating island.
After a few minutes of silence, it spotted another interesting island and entered it. This island had around three square kilometres in area. It was a flat, desert terrain at nighttime. So, cold winds filled the place.
Only one individual inhabited this desert, kneeling on a dune next to an oasis. He used a bucket carved out of a tough coral to scoop out water from the oasis and poured it over the dune, after which he moulded its shape.
Slowly, he was building a sand sculpture.
The piglet shivered due to the cold upon entering this desert biome. Slowly, it stumbled its way towards the man who was busy sculpting.
However, unlike the previous two instances, the man didn’t stop his work to bow at the piglet. Instead, he calmly acknowledged the other party’s presence, "Welcome, Guardian."
"Do you wish to experience my life?" Asking as such, the man extended his free hand towards the piglet. After the two fused, he used the free hand to brush upon a wet portion of the sculpture to modify its shape slightly.
Days passed in such a fashion as he was busy sculpting. Eventually, he completed a realistic one-on-one sand sculpture of the Royal Zinger, "That looks great!"
The piglet jumped out of his body since it seemed he was done with his task. But right as it was about to return to its floating island, the man asked calmly, "Why are you here?"
The piglet turned around in confusion but couldn’t give a response.
Frowning in response, the man frowned in thought, "You’re not supposed to be here. It’s dangerous to your existence."
"Okay," The man pointed at the sculpture and addressed the piglet, "Think that you wish to meet him."
Rumble!
The moment the piglet had the thought, the world shook. There was a storm in the desert biome as the man shielded the piglet. He then lifted it up and carried it to the edge of the desert world where the coldness of the desert seemed to have mixed with winds, generating a faint melody.
The piglet entered the other biome that had appeared the moment it had had the thought to meet the existence the sculpture was based upon.
The new biome was the Dieng Canyon, mirroring the real version on Sumatra. Zingers lived in their vast communities, targeting the Pranic Beast groups frequenting the region.
The piglet didn’t know what to do upon arriving here. However, it didn’t need to fret about for long as a few seconds later, a man appeared next to it. "You’ve finally arrived here."
"It took you a while."
The piglet lifted its head in response to the voice and eyed the man standing there. He was barely in his early twenties, with only his jaws and hands resembling a Zinger’s.
The piglet’s eyes turned round as it squealed in delight and jumped onto the foot of the other party.
"Haha, alright, alright." Saying so, the man picked up the piglet and raised it to eye level.
"Awooink...!" The piglet squealed many times, as if intending to communicate. The man simply listened patiently and then revealed a gentle smile.
"I understand your frustration. You were given a task, but you messed it up. And something strange happened to you, and you didn’t know what to do. Is that why you’ve been wishing to seek my assistance?" The man said, addressing the piglet, "You’ve come to the right place, then. However, you’re not yet powerful enough to stay here for long. The previous time, you could barely visit one island."
"Well, don’t fret and leave things to me." The man said as the piglet squealed in joy, relaxing completely, absolutely confident that whatever issues plagued it would get solved now. After all, the man reflected in its eyes was none other than its glorious deity.
The Royal Zinger!