"Everything's hazy." Avery thought to herself. "Where am I now?"
Her vision quickly cleared up as she found herself laying on a grass bed in a very humid environment.
"Avery?" Sayu questioned.
"...Hey Sayu."
Avery slowly got up into a sitting position with Sayu standing right beside her.
"Where's everybody else?" Avery asked as she inspected the area.
"There's nobody else here." Sayu answered softly.
"...What? What do you mean?"
"When I woke up you were the only one I saw. I haven't seen anybody else."
"That can't be... Nakayla! Camie! Jayson!"
Their names echoed through the forest, but there was sadly no response.
"These trees..." Avery said quietly as she took a better look at the area she found herself in. "If I'm not mistaken, this is the Redwood Forest."
.....
"This is bad, so bad, so very very bad!" Nakayla said as she paced around in a circle. "Where the hell are we?! And why hasn't anyone else appeared yet?"
"Calm down please big sis." Shaedon requested.
"How am I supposed to be calm in this situation?! Better yet, how are YOU so calm?!"
"I'm not, I'm just not very expressive."
"I wouldn't know but I'm pretty sure this isn't Aestus either. That rift didn't even take us to the right place."
"...If I had to take a guess, I'd say Aestus is over there." Shaedon said while pointing to some nearby mountains.
"What makes you say that?" Nakayla questioned.
"In Avery's father's journal, he wrote that Aestus Lake was surrounded by an extensive mountain range. If we don't have anywhere else to go, over there might be our best bet to find people."
"...You think so?"
SPLOOSH!!
Steaming hot water erupted from the ground just behind Nakayla and Shaedon, prompting them to run forward just a bit to avoid getting scolded.
"A geyser?" Nakayla asked.
"Looks like there's quite a few of them." Shaedon replied. "This area must have a lot of volcanic activity."
The field of geysers was painted in beautiful shades of reds, blues and yellows. The limestone terrain was carved into a unique stone maze like appearance, with ridges, sinkholes, caves and cliffs decorating the area.
"We should try get there before nightfall." Shaedon stated. "The mountains I mean."
"O-Okay, I'm following you."
.....
"Now that you've finally awaken your water essence, I'm only going to be teaching you the basics on how to use it." Mai explained as she and Kaden were walking back towards the main village. "Kenzo will be teaching you combat skills with and without water essence."
"But what if I want you to train me straight through instead?" Jayson asked.
"These are the Elder Council's decisions, not my own."
"I'm sure if you just, I don't know, made a request, they might let you."
"And who says that I even want to train you?"
"That's hurtful yanno."
The two casually strolled up the coarse dirt path without any realization that they were briefly being listened to. Just off to the side of the trail Tanner, Camie and Mano were squat behind some bushes, waiting for Kaden and Mai to move further away. Camie had her hand placed over Tanner's mouth to keep him quiet.
"Looks like they're gone." Mano said softly.
Camie removed her hand from Tanner's mouth prompting him to say what he's been waiting to get out.
"The sky's made of water." Tanner exclaimed while pointing up.
The three gazed upon the unusual spectacle with eyes displaying amazement and disbelief.
"That's it..." Camie stated.
"What's it?" Tanner questioned.
"We're in Aestus." She replied confidently.
"I could've guessed that, but where's Nakayla and Shaedon?" Mano asked as he looked around. "And shouldn't Avery and Jayson be here by now?"
"What are we supposed to do now?" Tanner asked.
"Let's look around." Camie suggested. "Maybe it teleported them to a different part of Aestus."
"Maybe we should find an adult." Mano suggested nervously.
"And tell them what? We're runaways from Ignus and we teleported here through a rift."
"Yeah, actually."
"What if they lock us up Mano? Our people are basically their number one enemy, we shouldn't talk to anyone without Jayson."
"I agree with Camie." Tanner stated.
"...mmm fine, okay." Mano said as he gave in to Camie's idea. "Lead the way then."
"Alright, let's go this way." Camie said as she led the boys through the woods.
.....
"OOOOOUUUUUWWWWAAAAAAAA"
"How are we supposed to take it down?" Jayson asked as he stared down the massive monster.
"We're not going to 'take it down', I'd rather not make Mother Nature mad today."
"Who?"
"See that cliff face over there? Do you see any dark purple rocks on it?"
"I do." Jayson answered.
"Do me a favor and shoot a fireball next to it, but please try not to hit it."
With no time to hesitate he did as Noya said and launched a fireball next to the unknown rock.
"I have a plan to trap the golem. I'll be back, try not to die."
"What do you-"
Before Jayson could've finished his question, Noya disappeared from the front of him. His eyes failed to comprehend what they had just saw and the golem didn't give him any time to think about it. Small boulders were hurled at Jayson, prompting him to return to his evasion technique.
"How does she do that?" Jayson thought to himself. "No Jay you gotta stay focused for now, this enemy is no joke."
The golem charged at Jayson, shaking the ground with every heavy step it took. Instead of running away however, Jayson ran directly towards it at full speed. The massive stone foot of the golem lifted tens of feet into the air and quickly came slamming down onto the ice. Just before impact Jayson slid beneath the foot and used his flames to propel him completely pass the golem. He then directed those flames into the back of the creature but it seemed unfazed by the attack, as it turned around and attempted to swat away the flames.
"I'm back." Noya stated as she appeared next to Jayson.
"What's your plan?" Jayson said while panting lightly.
"These."
She held up a handful of the purple rocks from before, which appeared to be glowing from the inside.
"This is kastrite, I think."
"You think?"
"Watch yourself."
Another boulder was hurled into their direction, but was just narrowly avoided by Jayson who dove out of its way. Jayson began panting just a bit heavier as he watched the golem from a kneeling position.
"You know what kastrite is?" Noya asked.
"No, tell me."
"It's basically an explosive ore. Once enough heat is applied the metal doesn't just melt, the atoms vibrate so quickly that it creates an explosion when they break apart."
"So what's are you planning on using it for if you don't want to kill it?" Jayson questioned.
"We're going to blast open a hole in the ice and trap him in it." Noya answered.
"I'm sure you've seen this thing can jump insanely high right?"
"But not here. There's an object below the frozen lake with such a strong gravitational pull that it's keeping the water compacted as ice. I'm sure you've felt its pull as well."
"...So that explains it."
"The golem is affected even more than us because it has so much mass. It probably can't even jump that high right now because of it. So if we bury it even deeper into the ice-"
"We could immobilize it." Jayson interjected.
"There ya go mixed blood."
The golem once again began to glow bright orange from the cracks in its body.
"Here u ready the hole and I'll lure him over." Noya stated as she handed Jayson the kastrite ores.
"Am I just-"
By the time Jayson had looked up again she had already disappeared. He glanced over to the fractured ice from where the golem had landed before and thought that it was the perfect place to make the hole. Without a moment to waste Jayson sprinted over to it and dropped the pieces of kastrite into it.
"C'mon big guy!" Noya shouted as she threw pebbles at the face of the golem.
It swiped at her, but she launched herself airborne using her wind essence.
"OOOOUUUUWWWAAA"
"There ya go, follow me."
Jayson readied his hands above the fracture, and soon after, he created just a few sparks. The golem marched its way over to Jayson as it continued to swing violently at Noya who was flying around without the slightest amount of concern inside of her. Jayson ignited his flames and ejected himself into the air as fire engulfed the kastrite. It immediately began to react, vibrating and buzzing wildly. The golem unknowingly stepped over the crack, and simultaneously the explosion which was much larger than expected went off. There was a loud sound of shattering glass that echoed through the lands,vas shards of ice blasted out in every direction. The shockwave threw Jayson just outside the frozen lake, causing him to lose control of his flames and spiraling uncontrollably down into the dirt. A rather hard fall of which this is his second, but this time he spent a while lying on the floor, breathing heavily and attempting to rest his body. He hectically grabbed at the pocket of his pants before fumbling his fingers inside and retrieving the lighter he was given from Mother Merina. A careful inspection was done before concluding that the lighter is still in decent condition.
"Are you, broken?" Noya asked as she stood over him.
"...Do I look broken?" He questioned while carefully storing away the lighter again.
"Mmm, not really." She replied honestly.
"Then I'm fine."
"Mmm, if you say so mixed blood."
"Did we... did the plan work?"
"Take a look for yourself." Noya replied while turning around.
Jayson glared up towards the back of Noya's head as he struggled to even pull himself up onto his own knees.
"Noya... you're blind, aren't you?" Jayson questioned.
"...It isn't exactly something I'm hiding, but you are correct." She answered. "While my sense of sight is non existent, my sense of hearing is really remarkable if I do say so myself. I can hear things from miles away and I also can read vibrations very well."
"When you asked me to shoot that fireball at the kastrite in the cliff, it was so you can hear the fire crackling and track it to the kastrite."
"You got it."
"OOOUUWWAAA. OOOUU."
Jayson and Noya crept up to the ledge and glanced over to witness the damage they caused. The golem's left leg was completely blown off of its body, leaving the rest of its body laying at the bottom of a crater. It struggled to move as the gravity was much stronger than it was before, keeping the large creature pinned onto the ice.
"Mother Nature definitely is gonna be mad about that." Noya exclaimed. "It's gonna be long night for me."
"Who's Mother Nature?" Jayson asked.
"Don't worry about it. So are you ready to leave for Aestus?"
"Yeah, is there another rift or something nearby?"
"Rift? Didn't I say those things are extremely rare? You'd be lucky to see two in your lifetime."
"Then how am I suppose to get to Aestus?" Jayson questioned.
"You can fly can't you?"
"What?! You said you had a way for me to get there!"
"I can tell you how to get there, but that's as much as I can do." Noya replied.
"I need- Argh!" Jayson winced in pain and hovered his hand over his ribs.
"Just beyond those hills, you will find me and my sister's old home. Ask for Trell and tell her I sent you. She can give you a map of the water continent and a bed to rest in tonight."
"I don't need a bed. I need to be with my family."
"...I understand that, but please try to heal for now. I promise they'll be okay."
In the literal blink of an eye, Noya disappeared from Jayson's sight. This time she was gone for good. Jayson looked down on the frozen lake, alone and suffering from not only the pain he experienced in that encounter, but also from separation anxiety. The emotions inside of him swelled to the point where he felt like screaming at the top of his lungs, but he just barely held it in and instead clinched his fist so tight that his palms began to bleed. Finally he shuffled one foot in the direction Noya told him to go, and began his trek to the nearest settlement.
.....
Back in Aestus, Elder Faye stood before the fountain in the Elder's Courtyard with her back facing the staircase. Elder Alex approached the courtyard with a rather large bubble sitting in the palm of his hand.
"Sister Faye?"
"...Something just occurred at the frozen lake." Faye said in a worried tone. "Some of my own essence was released from the lake, and on top of that. I felt fire essence."
Faye turned to Alexander after relaying the news and noticed the bubble in his hand.
"This is a message that just came in from our messenger in Himawari. An incident has happened."