Game of DIcE

Dawn On

It might not be her time yet that she was still firmly standing on the ground, that she could still have the whiff of the chill air, could hear the rustling sound of trees hitting each other affectionately soft, could once again behold the sun moving upward which light them all, and could feel the warmth it brought on her also warm body instead of almost becoming cold and of what happened yesterday almost forbidding her on experiencing everything again today.

She heard a groan and followed with a yawn, she looked to the side, a man wearing the uniform jacket, partnering with his companions, was stretching his arms upward while his mouth was big and nose flaring and jerk when he almost fell from the tree he was sleeping earlier. He uttered a curse in his sudden woke up, he opened his eyes and found hers.

"Oh, you're awake." He muttered groggily, he sat properly, his messy hair was currently clouding his eyes while some were even standing, he stretched again his back as he looked at her through the strands of his hair, "Perhaps, planning on going away from us?"

It was already morning, perhaps eight in the morning and the sun had completely risen, usually, she would go venture to the next level before the sun even showed up itself so she would finish the level as soon as she could. However, today was different, she really thought of going away from them and start her endeavor, but she realized that it was too ungrateful of her if she would go without thanking each of them—the very reason why she was still able to continue.

"No. I just usually wake up early." She answered meekly, proceeding to continue what she was doing every morning which was to exercise and warm up her body.

"Why don't you go then?"

She looked again to the back where the others were and sleeping and realized that they were all awake, probably because of their voices. It was not the same man who woke up first who asked her that question, it was the only girl in the group of people who saved her yesterday, she was Raelle, as far as she could remember, and she was indeed beautiful, though her attitude was a little problematic because she came from the Upper Class.

Riley stood up from crouching and stretching her one leg and looked at them, "I want to express my gratitude for saving me yesterday. I am just waiting for you all to wake up so I could proceed with the game."

"She has manners, unlike you, Raelle." The man earlier teased, grinning to the girl which was returned with a rolling of her beautiful, round, big eyes.

Her eyes met the man who was seated on the highest sturdy branch of the tree they were on, he was looking at her intently, and so was she. The man was handsome, he had a short blowout with tapered sides hairstyle, he looked clean and made his facial features sharp, his brows were like furrowed, eyes a little sharp at the edge, nose pointed, snd lips were thin. He gave her neither the dark aura nor the bright one, he was just neutral and seemed to not care about everything.

"Xion, might as well let her be with us while we're here, right?" The other man asked, jumping down the ground swiftly on his feet as he looked at Riley with a kind smile. He was a man who emitted the kind and bright aura among all of them, though the other one who woke up first was also bright but she could feel more the playfulness and trickster aura in him rather than the kind of bright she expected, this nan was surely had the congenial personality in him, and possibly the most normal one among the four.

"I have manners, Phil." Raelle remarked again with heavy furrowed brows, she turned to look at the man who had just jumped down, "And what are you saying, Shone? No! It will be too burdensome if we'd add another one in our group."

"Who are you to decide though," The man named Phil also jumped onto the ground, a playful grin never leaving his face as he crossed his arms, "Shone's proposal doesn't seem bad," His mischievous eyes turned to her, "She looked pretty convenient to be with. Did you get through the levels only by yourself, miss?"

Riley softly nodded, "Yeah, and my name's Riley."

"See?" Phil exclaimed, his hands pointed to her while conceitedly looking at Raelle, "While all you did was scream and wait for us to fetch you."

"Are you trying to say I'm a weakling!? Come here and I'll wrestle your neck!" The girl exclaimed and jumped on the ground and instantly ran towards the cackling man who also ran to be chased.

"Don't worry about them, that's their way of stretching." Shone said with a smile, he stretched his hand to her, "I'm Shone Furrow, twenty-one years old from Middle Class. How about you?"

Riley looked at his hand first, hesitating if she should take it but then did, "Riley Violet Cole, twenty, from...Lowes Class."

"Cool. Nice to meet you. Let me introduce you to them, those two are Phil Herald Beaufort from Middle Class, and Raelle Jean Errol from Rich Class which I think explained her sort of bratty personality, but she's kind, she just doesn't trust anyone that fast." He explained, watching the two that were now on the ground with Phil screaming because Raelle was pulling his hair. He then looked at the top of the tree, "And that is Xion Bryan Wiffy, the oldest of all of us and served as our leader though he didn't really want it, he's also from the Middle Class."

"Are you perhaps the son of Uncle Jyn?" Riley gathered all of her courage and asked because indeed, this man looked unapproachable.

Xion took his bag which he used as his pillow and slung it on his shoulder before he jumped down, he thought he wouldn't answer her because he didn't seem to care, but he looked at her through those deep eyes, "You are perhaps the Io he kept on fussing over whom he always rode home."

"Yes," Riley confirmed, "He told a lot about you."

"I figured. I'm the only son who else will he be proud of." He answered a little conceited in his town which caused her to scrunched up her nose in slight bitterness.

"Sure." She just muttered. She walked toward the tree where she slept alone and took her bag and spear, "I'll just go by myself like how it used to be. Your friend there has a point, I might inconvenience you."

"No, it's not-"

"Let her be, Shone. She must really inconvenience us, just yesterday we had to save her. Let's focus on our objectives, one of those being away from conflict and she herself looked to bear a lot of those." Xion interjected, cutting off Shone's sentence which he supposed to let her stay.

"But-"

This time it was Riley who cut off his sentence, she bowed ninety degrees, "Thank you again for saving me yesterday, I will repay you in any possible ways I can if you'd ask me. I wish you all the success in the game."

The four of them watched as the woman from the lowest class gatherer her things and walked away from them, they thought she was just trying them and having them insist on taking her with them, but her steps were firm and adamant to be away from them, and so the conclusion that she was certain of her decision.

"Aren't we bad? I feel like I am." Raelle muttered, frowning as the woman vanished from their sight and went in to venture the level 21 where they were in.

"You are, certainly, you don't even need to think it twice," Phil commented which received a glare from the youngest and made him, "But I agree with you. She looked aloof and bullied, and almost died because of those selfish losers, but interesting because she had been through the first stage independently."

"The first stage isn't that hard. We better get started here." Xion decided, taking the arrows and the bow on the ground, and started walking to the entrance of level twenty-one.

Level twenty-one looked pretty eerie just from the outside, it was a wilderness. The outside was surrounded with barbed wires of three rows from the very ground until the waist and creepers and growing roots enveloping the wire. it looked as if she was about to venture into the wild, uncertain forest, and the sight of greeneries from trees, and brown on the ground covered with foliage and dried leaves which made crunchy noise whenever steeped at, it was scary and need a higher level of alertness.

Riley went to the intentionally spotted space with two posts on each side where the barbed wires end and were knotted, as the initial space served to be the entrance. When she went in, she felt like the atmosphere suddenly changed, and the eerie feeling that she deemed earlier was now in certain as she felt the cold air and heard everything clearer, like the gust of wind, the snivel of stretching trees, swaying along with the air, the steps of the people which gave rise to the crunchy sound of the dried leaves being cracked, and even the people's whispers.

"What's this? Am I suddenly having a powerful sense? Am I the only one experiencing it?"

"Shut up, Phil. Your voice is too loud."

Riley glanced at the other side and found the people she talked with earlier, Shone smiled at her which she returned with a nod and started moving forward

"What are you saying? I'm literally whispering." Phil answered to Raelle who had her hands covering her ears. She felt like her ears suddenly either became larger or sensitive because of how she heard every sound around her, and it was annoying her big time.

"Just stick together and let's see what we could have something against within this level," Xion instructed them, deciding to start walking forward, leading the way.

Riley looked around, the trees were so high, and their leaves were covering the light so it felt like the day was already turned into dusk. Like the others, she was not talking, nor whispering even, the noise she only made was her calm breathing and the steps she was taking which created noise, she had also her hands upon her ears to filter out the noise, because it felt like if someone shouted, her eardrums would break and she would be deaf...anytime soon.

She stopped upon thinking of that. She realized something which made her abruptly stopped on her way and felt like something had struck her. The other participants looked at her like she had grown two heard or three eyes, but she didn't mind it. She immediately walked to the side, behind one huge tree, and rummaged her bag.

"As far as I could remember, I put it here." She whispered to herself, silently praying that the thing she was looking for was indeed there. "Yes!"

"Ssshh!" Someone shushed, and Riley immediately covered her mouth while a small book, a palm-sized one, was on her hand.

She remembered her brothers fighting over this level twenty-one while playing the Game of Dice board game, and she remembered that she told them about the creature they were going to be against with which was the Ssiss, but seemed like they would become deaf just only if someone shout, what more if the Ssiss attacked.

There might have been something on the instruction that might help her. The instruction in her hand that she remembered putting inside her bag.

She carefully opened the instruction, it was her first time reading it or even holding it in her hand, she despised the Game of Dice that much because it took his brother's life, but right now, it had to fulfill her need, at least, she hoped. The first page was the title "Game of Dice Instruction Book", then the table of contents, and the rules of the game, then the start of every page with the corresponding levels and the creatures they were possibly against with and at the back of it were the sketched location from the aerial view of the level.

As much as she wanted to browse the whole book because of fascination, she decided to immediately jump on the page where level 21 was. There she saw the picture of the sketched Ssiss, then the description and what it could do was written just below the figure. She read it carefully, finding something that might help her, it was just three paragraphs with four sentences each of instruction, and it seemed like there was nothing helpful to her how to take down the creature because all it talked about was about the Ssiss.

She finished reading it, and her frown had grown because there wasn't a helpful tip written on it. She even reread it multiple times, giving all her thoughts about it, and on her fifth time reading it, her eyes dropped on the last line. It was not a sentence, but a question, and it felt like she got a helpful answer from it and at the back of the page.

"What would you do when someone's noisy?"

"Either kill the creature which is impossible or find something that will cover my ears."