"Master Tighnari, Master Tighnari!"
A light breeze came from the door to Tighnari's study as a curious head poked in. Collei.
"It-it's the sky! The sky... it's opened up!"
"What?" He rose up from his chair, and it screeched across the wooden floor horridly. He shook his head at the thought. No, Collei wouldn't lie to him. She was a bad liar--that much was true due to the amount of time they've spent together--but that was absurd. How could the sky... just open up? Did she mean to say something else, but couldn't find the right way to express it?
"C-come outside, you'll see," Collei persisted. She fumbled with opening the door all the way, but eventually just pushed it open as Tighnari walked over and they peered at the sky.
And she was right.
Something--or someone, rather, was descending from what looked like a portal of sorts in the sky. As they fell, Tighnari looked up to where they had supposedly come from: the hole. On it said a very perplexing message...
Maintenance Complete.
"Maintenance Complete...?" He mumbled the words back to himself as the portal started to dissipate into thin air. "That's odd..."
"M-Master Tighnari, they're falling!" Collei exclaimed, pointing at the traveler as they neared the Avidya Forest's greenery.
With that, Tighnari snapped back to reality. "Oh, right! Collei, start heading to the position at which they'll fall at. I'll go prepare some items just in case they need it."
Collei nodded her head, and they parted.
"Agh, my head..." A groan escaped from the traveler's mouth, one hand instinctively going to their head to try to soothe the pain they felt from their, uh, less-than-graceful landing. "Ow, ow ow ow..."
A small gasp turned the outlander's head, catching the glimpse of a green-haired girl dressed in brown. As they exchanged eye contact, the girl suddenly turned away, reaching for a leaf behind the plentiful Sumeru shrubbery to hide behind. Was it improper to have stared at the oddly-dressed person whilst they were unconscious? She was just looking after them so that when Tighnari arrived, they could help the outlander...
As she was contemplating things, the traveler saw her hesitating to speak to them, and took it as a sign of hostility from her.
"No! Collei, wait, I'm not an enemy!"
The words just frightened her even more. She'd never told them who she was yet--not to mention, she'd never even seen them before. So how did they...?
"It's Amber! She's the one who told me about you!" The traveler said, wanting to clear things up. "She said that you're welcome back in Mondstadt, anytime."
She felt her cheeks warm up in happiness at the thought. Amber was a dear friend to her back in her time at Mondstadt, and she had left the city knowing that at least a few people there had cared about her.
Another voice popped out from beyond. "Collei! Where are you?"
"Oh, I'm here, Master Tighnari!" Collei shouted out, reaching for a leaf that had blocked the path. There, a boy with long, fluffy ears and a soft tail with what seemed to be a makeshift hoodie stood, along with a variety of healing items, such as wolfhooks and bandages. Collei took half of the boy's load with her, and set them down beside the traveler as Tighnari made conversation.
"Hey, how are you doing?" He asked in a steady voice. "That was quite a fall back there."
"It's you!" The traveler said, seemingly unfazed by Tighnari's words. Their head pain had seemed to go away as they pointed at Tighnari. "Tighnari!"
Tighnari blinked. Huh?
"Excuse me, what?"
"It's really you!" The traveler reached out to touch Tighnari's ears, which alerted the boy. He rose up quickly as the outlander's hands felt nothingness. "Ah... that's right, you have no idea who I am, haha..."
Looking defeated, they stood up, took an entire Sweet Madame out of their bag, and chomped on it wholeheartedly. The two forest surveyors looked on in shock as the outlander's bruised up condition and reddened head faded away in an instant, and was instead replaced with a clean aura and untouched appearance.
"What the-"
"Is... is that supposed to happen?" Collei interrupted suddenly, asking no one in particular. She turned her head toward Tighnari, who was as equally confused as she was.
"I-I'm not entirely sure that's even supposed to be possible," He remarked, baffled. How the heck...?
"Ah, much better!" The traveler patted themselves off of any dust remaining, then turned to face the shocked duo once again. "I've been looking forward to meeting you guys!"
They didn't know whether to be petrified, creeped out, or impressed that a complete stranger knew of their names already.
Tighnari looked at Collei, and they exchanged glances. Apparently, neither of them had told the foreigner their names. Collei was fine with Amber telling them, but she hadn't even said a word about Tighnari...
"I can't believe I was able to get into the servers an hour early! Pure luck, I tell ya!" The traveler said, chuckling. "Now that it's version 3.0, I can explore Sumeru!"
"..."
"..."
"I'll even be able to summon you guys home with me!" The outlander said, pointing to Collei and Tighnari each in turn before nodding their head determinedly. "I can't wait to suffer trying to jump on each mushroom I come across either... ahahaha..."
A notice appeared just above the traveler's point of view, and they tilted their head to see what it said. The forest duo followed, and were surprised at finding that they could see a small line of text as well.
[Dear Travelers, Genshin Impact servers will continue to be down for maintenance in 2m. Please plan your game time and progress accordingly. For more details, see the in-game notice.]
"W, wait a minute! Two minutes?! No, this has to be some sort of mistake!" They frantically ran in circles. Then, they stopped, going over to their bag and taking out a small, crystalline material shaped like a four-pointed star. "Here's my 160 Primogems, miHoYo--please, give me Tighnari!!"
They closed their eyes, offering the small gem up to the sky like some sort of offering.
But nothing happened...
[Dear Travelers, Genshin Impact servers will continue to be down for maintenance in 10s. Please plan your game time and progress accordingly. For more details, see the in-game notice.]
"T-ten seconds? It's not done?! No, wait wait wait!" The traveler panicked, choosing to retract their hand from the sky and throw it hastily onto the forest duo, who were still in shock at the traveler's bizarre actions. After throwing the gems at them, the traveler went in to embrace them. "Tighnari, Collei, please, I'll come to get you soon-!"
And then they faded into thin air just as weirdly as they had come. However, their small gems had remained.
"That was odd," Tighnari said, crouching to pick a few of them up. They were shaped prettily, and were pretty pale in color. "I wonder what they were looking for?"
"...oh, wow..." Collei could only exhale a sigh of relief, fazed. "What... just happened...?"
"It's probably best to not dwell on what we've just witnessed," Tighnari said, examining the pristine stone more closely. "If they want to venture here, they'll eventually come back."
Collei followed in her mentor's footsteps, picking up more primogems. "I wonder if these had a meaning to them. It seemed dear."
"Since we're watching the forest anyway, we can keep it inside the shack for now. If it truly means something to them, they'll have to come back for it sooner or later."
"So we'll safeguard them for now? Okay, Master Tighnari!" Collei nodded, picking up the rest of the gems.
Elsewhere on earth, a dejected traveler sat in the middle of a coffee shop, their laptop showing the Genshin Impact main menu screen. Their head rested on the table they were on, and they were wailing softly.
"Noooo... Tighnari, my fluffy-tailed boy... Collei, my precious little child... please... come home..."
And so the cycle begins anew.
