Panting and gasping for breath, with searing pain flashing through his side at irregular intervals, Axel struggled to pull himself up the rocky shore. He gritted his teeth against the pain, pulling his sword out of where it was thrust into a crack in the rock and stabbing it an arm's length further upwards. He dragged himself up the boulder and lay there, panting. Thin trickles of blood ran down his left forearm where he had tried to block a creature's attack. His right pant leg was ripped off from the knee down where he had kicked off a persistent creature that had latched onto him.
The growth on his side had burst with pain at the most inopportune time. He had been forced to his knees in the midst of the rabid creatures. If not for the swaths of flames which he had thrown around the clearing, the creatures would have swarmed him instantly.
He had managed to back towards the shoreline and jump into the water before the dark army got past the searing white flames that covered the shoreline where he fought.
Axel tried to peel his freezing fingers off of his sword hilt. The cold, salty waters had painfully frozen his hands onto his sword. Axel struggled to pull himself up to a sitting position. The heat from his wounds and the pounding of the growth on his side clashed violently with the chilling water that slowly dripped off of Axel's wet, clingy clothes and trickled in thin streams down the rocky shoreline, back to the sea. Axel remained there, half sitting and half lying down, shivering violently while his body throbbed, trying to raise a hand and scrape together the bare minimum amount of focus his confused brain needed to light a white flame in his palm.
After a few unsuccessful attempts, Axel succeeded. The white fire that melted sand into glass and burned black creatures into a crisp now lay as a tiny tongue of flickering warmth that gently caressed Axel's bones and muscles, calming them in a soothing whisper. His right hand opened slowly, letting the dark metal broadsword clatter to the ground and tumble a few times down the shore towards the ocean, stopping a few paces from the water in the small stretch of wet sand that peeked out from the rocks. Axel gradually stopped shivering and let the flame grow brighter. He pulled himself into a sitting position.
There were two small semi circles of marks where a round-headed creature with a long tail and lanky legs had sunk its teeth into his left arm. His right leg was worse. Another of those creatures had sunk two sets of claws into his right leg in addition to its teeth. The bizarre pattern of indents in Axel's skin oozing lines of blood reminded him of a sick version of connect-the-dots.
Axel smirked slightly. He had recovered enough to start spewing random words he didn't know the meaning of again.
Axel hauled himself to his feet and clambered down the shoreline, kneeling near where his sword fell on the shore. He peeled off his blood-soaked shirt first and washed it in the water, then lay it on a rock nearby, where he intended to dry it with his flames. He carefully washed the blood off the stinging wounds on his arm, feeling the sharp pang of salt water on his still-raw wounds. After drying his tattered black shirt and putting it on, he did the same with his pants and his leg wound. The night had already fallen, a deep darkness made even darker thanks to the dense mist that lingered still, blocking any glimpse of the stars in the sky that Axel could make out back on the slopes of the mountain. A deep chill set into Axel's bones. Whatever slight warmth that made it through the cloud cover during the day had disappeared with the dim light.
Axel let out a long sigh and picked up his sword. He thrust it back into his belt and felt the cold metal with his hand.
"Needs a sheath," Axel muttered absentmindedly.
Axel lit a bright white flame in his hand and glanced around at his surroundings for the first time since he arrived onshore. The rocks stretched upwards in a disorganized pile, gradually tapering towards a peak which Axel couldn't see due to the fog. A flicker appeared in the corner of Axel's vision. As Axel stood there silently, wondering what lay ahead, his eyes started to see things.
The fog disappeared first, replaced by a bright darkness illuminated by tiny points of light hovering in the sky. The stars shined curiously down on the lapping waves. The few clouds floating past gradually cast a shadow on a tall black fortress standing on the peak of the mountain island, blended so perfectly into the rocks that nobody from the mainland a half kilometer away could make out.
Axel blinked. The fog came back. The stars disappeared, along with the meaning of the word "kilometer". Axel shook his head and looked back upwards.
A castle?
Axel's mind briefly flashed to the Gem Keepers, who needed him to recover his memories in hopes of finding a way to the Beyond in them.
Somehow, after what Axel had just experienced, he doubted that his memory could offer them what they wanted.
Axel looked back up at where the castle was supposed to be. A feeling of deep silence settled within him, an empty peace that calmed his beating, confused heart.
Somehow, he felt like investigating, in some confused, bored curiosity that neither drove him forwards nor dragged him back.
Might as well.
Axel shrugged and started up the mountainside.
The peak of the mountainous island was shrouded in darkness. Axel reached up as far as his throbbing side allowed him and began to slowly climb up the steep, rocky incline, riddled with small bumps and unevenly spaced ledges.
Axel slowly picked his way over various huge boulders and slowly ascended steep cliff-like slopes. The cold air chilled his fingers. The freezing, slightly damp metal of his sword rubbed uncomfortably against the exposed skin of his wounded leg.
Panting heavily, Axel stopped to rest on a large ledge partway up the slope. His muscles were burning with heat despite the cold. The fog was so dense that he couldn't see the shoreline anymore. He took a few deep breaths as the flames in his muscles slowly disappeared, making way for a gently throbbing pain in his bandaged arm and leg. He put a hand to his side, feeling the odd vine-like tendrils growing out of his side. His mind felt slightly foggy. The dull ache in his bones, which Qassot briefly chased away, had returned.
I'll need to find Qassot soon. I can't keep going like this.
Axel paused, considering whether he should return to the mainland and search for the Gem Keepers, or keep climbing the mountain.
Part of Axel wanted to return and find the others, restore his wound and be honest with them, telling them that his memories probably didn't contain what they were seeking.
Part of Axel wanted to offer them his help nonetheless, look for a way to the Beyond with them, in some motivated will to help those on a quest to restore their homeland.
But for some reason, Axel didn't feel like it.
Let's just see this through. The others will be there when I get back.
Axel pulled himself to his feet again. He didn't want the wound to act up while he was only halfway up the mountain. Axel went back to the rocky slopes and began climbing again, moving quicker than before.
Axel's aching muscles and stinging wounds caused him to collapse as soon as he clambered over the last boulder and stumbled onto what looked like a paved stone courtyard, cracked and broken in places. Axel's blurred vision gradually recovered as he lay on the cold, damp stone. After a brief moment, Axel dragged himself away from the edge and towards the center of the courtyard. Axel tilted his head to the side. A steep stone staircase branched off of the courtyard and wound its way down the mountain towards where Axel came from. Axel involuntarily let out a curse.
Could've seen that there was a staircase if it wasn't this foggy, Axel thought angrily through gasping breaths for air.
Axel gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up and look across the courtyard. Past the fallen rubble and cracked stone brick, the gates to a tall black castle stood proudly, the archway still intact, with stone bricks slightly chipped and cracked.
Axel slowly climbed onto his feet. The gate looked familiar. Axel lit a flame in his palm. The piercing white light sent rays of flickering brightness through the suffocating darkness. Axel looked around at the stone courtyard. An expectant feeling arose from his chest, like he was trying to say something but the words just wouldn't come out.
"I've been here before," he mumbled.