"OHHH SHIT! FUCK!"
Screams rang out. They were soon drowned out, however, by the sound of explosions and mechanical whirring - footsteps, too. Fast, panicked footsteps. Runsteps? Footleaps?
A cloaked figure, one that was responsible for this great amount of noise, burst out of a falling-apart ruin at full speed. Not a moment later, an extremely large, robot-looking thing burst out as well, a bit (a lot) more literally.
The thing was spinning, its arms creating a cloud of dust and debris, destroying everything in its path. The figure was just barely out of its reach, screaming. Running for their life.
That figure was you.
Now, just how, might you ask, did you get into this situation?
How did I, the author, end up writing that incredibly cliche line?
Well, I chose to, obviously.
I'll stop.
You had left home at the age of fifteen, in the name of adventure, adrenaline, and freedom! The three A's, as you called them. No, you never learned how to read.
You were now four years into your thrilling journey, having traveled much of Teyvat: from the industrial Liyue, to the cold-as-fuck (but still elegant) Snezhnaya, you'd seen it all. You loved the danger, the risk of it all - you wanted to travel until you died. People would ask you how you planned to really do that, especially when you got old, but that was easy: you'd end up dying in one of Teyvat's many, many ditches before arthritis ever kicked in!
Now, not having died in a ditch yet, you were on your way to Mondstadt! The City of Freedom! They had one of your A's in their slogan!
You had sped up out of excitement, getting closer to the city sooner than expected. You, with all of your extra time, decided to stumble into a random ruin and eat lunch. That was your first mistake.
No, actually, your first mistake was putting fish in that sandwich. But that's not my place to judge, or even relevant to the story, now is it?
You ended up waking a ruin guard. Yeah, it started fighting you. Yeah, you left behind your lunch. Not that much of a loss, in my opinion, but you begged to differ.
Running had always been specialty of yours; you'd been a runner since you were a kid. Well, although you were agile, you were also kinda shit at fighting, so dunno. Didn't have much of a choice, did you?
Okay, okay, you weren't that bad. You could take a camp of hilichurls. You could defend yourself from treasure hoarders, or even a mitachurl, if you tried. You would sometimes even say you were better than most, and I could maybe back you up on that. The only issue, was, well...
You didn't have a vision.
"HAHAHAHA, OH MY FUCKING CELESTIA!"
You were running, the hood and tail of your cloak flapping violently behind you. Despite the way you were screaming, there was a large grin spread across your face, loud and rather nervous laughter accompanying your shouting.
Finally, the ruin guard - to your relief, but also slight disappointment - began to slow down. It eventually halted, you and its wonderfully destructive arms slowing to a stop as well.
"Damn, I haven't been this breathless since that Snezhnayan girl!" You gave an exhausted laugh, hands on your knees. Your head, however, was still up and watching the mechanical monster. It had already recovered and was once again stomping towards you. At least it wasn't shooting rockets this time.
Right as you were turning around to book it, shouting that surprisingly wasn't your own made you freeze.
"PAAAAAAAAAAAAALM VORTEX!"
"PAAAAAAAAAAAAALM VORTEX!"
A braided blondie along with a weird, floating child dropped from the sky, gusts of wind hitting your face as the boy stabbed the monster in the eye.
What's that? It's not an eye? More of a core, really?
Bah. Be quiet.
The boy then pulled his sword out, jumping off of the robot in an awesome fashion as it collapsed to the ground.
"WOOO! WE'RE SO COOL!" The weirdass baby squealed and threw a fist into the air, dancing excitedly around the boy. He shook his head and sighed.
"Was that why you want to shout palm vortex? That wasn't even a palm vortex!"
"Ehe, you should be heroic when saving somebody, though..."
The boy seemed to suddenly remember that you existed, turning around with a jolt. You had unsurprisingly - to you, at least - already walked up to them.
"Ah! I'm so sorry for not checking on you sooner, are you okay? Are you injured? Did we save you in time?" The blondie spoke frantically, causing you to laugh and wave your hand in the air.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!"
"Are you sure?" You nodded, smiling in amusement.
"Well, gee, I thought they'd be all crying and screaming like Pallad!" A high-pitched voice butted in, the blondie becoming visibly irked at the mention of this 'Pallad'.
"What's up with the kid?"
"I am NOT a kid!" The kid shouted, the boy slightly tilting away as she continued to correct you. "I'm Paimon!"
"Right. Sorry, kid."
"I SAID PAIMON!" She stomped her foot in the air, glaring at you, before turning to the blondie and pointing an angry finger at your face. "This person's ungrateful! I say we leave 'em to the slimes!"
"Paimon, that's not very heroic..."
"PAIMON DOESN'T CARE ANYMORE!"
"Haha, what's with you two?" The two of them looked back at your giggling form, temporarily pausing their argument.
"Hmph. Why're you traveling alone, anyway? That's dangerous!" Paimon bit her cheek, crossing her arms as she spoke. You paused your giggling, immediately lighting up at her question
"I'm a traveler! I've been all around Teyvat! I'm visiting Mondstadt next." The blondie perked up.
"You've traveled around Teyvat?"
"Yeah! Do you want to hear some stories?" He shook his head - a different expression had come over his face. It was hopeful, you could tell, however it wasn't entirely the happy kind. His eyes held a sort of pain.
"I'm traveling too, actually. I'm looking for my sister - she looks kind of like me? She's about this tall, has short hair, and last time I saw her she was..." He was smiling, gesturing softly, only to end up trailing off as he watched you shake your head. His smile fell.
"I've met lots of people, but none of them looked like that. I'm sorry." You pouted, feeling bad for the blondie. You couldn't imagine how it felt losing someone like that. Mostly because you never actually had someone like that - a sibling, a close friend, or a loved one - but still.
"Ah..." He slumped over a bit, the floating kid frowning down at him. She then threw on an angry expression, slapping the back of his head.
"Hey, what'd I say about getting sad! You'll find her someday, don't let this get you in the dumps! We still got five other archons to ask, ya know?" The blondie rubbed the back of his head, straightening up a bit.
"Right! There's still five more!" He clenched his fists, Paimon nodding vigorously. You smiled a bit. At least he had a good friend to cheer him up.
"Well, my name's Y/N. It's nice talking, but I needa get to Mondstadt, so-"
"We can escort you!" The blondie interrupted, only to slap a hand over his mouth a moment later. "Sorry, sorry! I meant my name's Aether, and we can, you know..."
"Uh, Aether?" Paimon floated over, blocking his line of view of you. " We need to get to that domain. We don't have time to escort her!"
"Ah, you're right..." The kid flew back to his side, leaving Aether looking conflicted. You laughed and patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry! I was going to refuse anyway, I can handle myself." You turned away, only to stop and turn back to face the duo. You pointed past them sheepishly.
"Mondstadt is that-a-way!" You laughed as you passed them, giving a small wave before starting into a jog.