He stirred in the darkness. Droplets of water fell on his face, his eyes twitching faintly until he sat up slowly. Yellow locks of hair was a mangled mess, electricity surging faintly around his arms. His eyes opened very slowly, pain roaring through his head. His left leg was numb, water rushing at the bottom of his foot.
Foot.
Single.
Picking up his throbbing head, his yellow eyes fell on his lower half. Blood rushed from his missing left leg, oozing endlessly in a bright red puddle that dipped into the water.
He went for a scream on instinct, yet nothing escaped his parched throat. His bones were stiff, the breaths he took made the pain in his legs roar, and chest struggled to rise and fall.
Never in his life had Lukas expected to be this injured.
He wasn't a danger to anyone. He didn't hate anyone, or cause any harm or issues in society, and yet he was a target by the police. The captain himself attacked him, sent his forces without warning, and doomed him down underground. All because of this "Gem" he had no knowledge of.
Steam began to rise from his leg.
As the pain faded away and his breathing came in more gentle, his mind wandered back to the reason he left home in the first place. His grandfather was sick.
No, sick didn't even cover it.
He was dying, painfully. He lived such a long life and his time was coming. Lukas abandoned everything to take care of him, and once he finally found a way to put him at ease and potentially extend his life, obstacles kept getting in his way. The biggest, and most important one, being Jade of the Shadows.
Lukas crawled for what felt like hours along the river. His leg had fully reformed, but it hurt too much to put any pressure on it to walk. Occasionally, his eyes would glance over at the river, and consider diving in to heal.
The water wasn't a normal stream. It was the main source of the Water Kingdom.
The knowledge was that their water had the best rejuvenation properties on Dreulara. It could heal, possibly even reverse death, according to rumors.
Rumors were a powerful thing. Just looking at it, Lukas felt the immense power emanating from the liquid. It wasn't strong enough to bring people back to life, nothing could to Lukas' knowledge, but it had just enough strength to heal and prolong life. At least, he had hoped so.
So, once he was healed fully from what he guessed was the lingering magic in the air, he willed forth a container of lightning, and scooped up puddles of water with his palm. Dumping it into the yellow jar and closing the lid, Lukas got up and stretched, looking around before trekking deeper into the darkness of Dreulara's Water Kingdom.
He knew it was dangerous to do, but his hopes were high at the moment. He might've found a way to save his grandfather, and nothing would stop him from it.
Not even Jade.