Reg had found himself horizontal, drifting in a mysterious place. A thin layer of water was spread out on the floor as far as the eye could see, and even though there was no light a mysterious reflection was visible on the surface of the water. Gravity didn't seem to work in any sort of normal way. Reg seemed to be pushed upwards and downwards by different equal forces in a way that made him hover a few feet above the water's surface. When he thought about moving a certain direction his body followed. It was easy moving horizontally but trying to push himself up or down was difficult and it grew more so the farther he went in that direction.
As curiosity drowned his thoughts he began pushing himself towards the water with all of his might. It felt as though he was pushing against a strong spring such that at a certain point he knew he couldn't descend anymore because the opposing force was too strong. When he stopped pushing downward he was flung back into place. He tried going up too and surprisingly he got much further but inevitably he ended up lying back where he had started.
The more he thought about where he was the more his consciousness started to wake up and his brain felt as if it was splitting in two. Eventually Reg couldn't handle it anymore and so he tried to calm his mind down but it wasn't working. He quickly grew pannecked by this ever growing pain and with all his might he pushed himself forward. Searching for anything to help his mind. Eventually it grew to the point where all he wanted to do was scream, but it was in this moment that the realization dawned upon him that he could not speak, in fact he wasn't even breathing. When he looked down at his hand he found that they were very translucent. He tried interlocking his hands but they slipped through. Now endless questions forced their way into his head and at the same time so did the excruciating headache. It went so far to the point that Regs consciousness was forced away and he was put into a deep slumber.
As Reg drifted in this dark world a light seemed to pulsate at the far end of his peripheral vision. The longer he waited the more intense the light became until finally it was blinding him. At this moment Reg started to feel more awake enough to which he could reach out his hand with a desire to touch the light. This scared Reg and he braced himself for the migraine that was to come, but it never did. It was as if observing this thing had a calming effect on his mind. He reached out and he grabbed a hold of something. The light disappeared in his hand and an intensely surreal feeling overwhelmed him as if it was a small step toward his inevitable fate. Moments after the light faded he looked into his palm but nothing was visible inside. As he stared blankly he began to get a vague feeling as though there was a presence there. A sort of thickened swirling energy. The longer he peered in the more he got the feeling that it was telling him something. It wasn't making a sound nor were its pulses and twists significant. It seemed as if it wanted to portray a thought simply with its presence.
To Reg's half conscious perspective it had felt as though years passed whilst he continued staring blankly into his palm. Eventually though he had gained a wisp of understanding as to what it was trying to portray. The message seemed simple at first but it was much more complex in fact. 'Find me' and 'destiny' were the only things he was able to grasp with his understanding but it was enough. It was directly after this slight comprehension that he began to slip away from this dark world, and a solemn feeling overtook his mind.
*****
Reg woke up to the warm touch of a fire on his skin. His stomach ached and as he lifted his head the blood drained out of his cheeks and he had started to get light headed but it faded after a moment. When he tried to picture what he was dreaming of just moments ago his vision got blurry and pain sprinkled into his head. As he turned his attention instead towards his surroundings he smelled the strong aroma of grilled fish. On the other side of the fire he could hear Aria and Sashia arguing about something, but soon it felt as if their attention had fallen onto him. "Are you feeling better? Aria asked in a bitter tone."
Hearing this, Reg's heart sank once again, reminded of his master. He wanted to cry but tears wouldn't form. He fell to his side clutching his stomach. He had been laying there for half an hour before he finally spoke. "How long was I asleep?"
"Just a few hours," Sashia responded. This innately felt so wrong to Reg, he thought he had been sleeping for at least a day. "Do you want some fish? The lake had some salt rocks so it's got some good flavor." When he heard this Reg's stomach growled, but he couldn't get himself to get up. Reg stopped paying attention to anything and he fell asleep like that clutching his side.
Reg woke up to birds singing and as he lifted his eyes he saw them frowliking in the trees that scarcely lined the lakes edge. He walked towards the water and a crisp air blew through his hair. As he bent down to the water's surface he saw fish bolting around near his feat. as he scooped the water in his hand he could feel the life swirling within. This microscopic life seemed to be portraying a plethora of emotions but the common two were to live and to reproduce. The more he stared the more insane he felt, but at some point he started asking questions like who are you? or what are you? They scarcely answered but when they did it was I don't know.
Eventually he looked deeper and he saw what he could only describe as tiny balls of energy. He couldn't help but feel that this is what his master had referred to as mana. Its presence also had a sort of message but it didn't seem to be bound by desire. Instead it seemed to simply portray that it is here. Reg once again tried asking questions but the answers were very different and decisive. When he asked 'what are you' it responded with 'I am built as one of the 5 equally smallest building blocks of our world. I am the basics for all fluidity.' To this Reg's thoughts ran rampant. He couldn't understand what that meant but before he could ask it to elaborate the first rays of the sun had reflected off of the surface of the water and disrupted his concentration. It was at this moment that as he stared down at the now shallow amount of water in his hand he had began to realize how crazy he must have been.
Sashia appeared at Regs back patting him a little too hard on the shoulder. "You holding up any better?"
"Better than yesterday I suppose."
"Don't give up on your master yet. There is no telling what will happen and worst case they're probably going to have a proper execution for him so we should have a few months to rescue him and that's only if he's in danger." Aria said, appearing next to Sashia. This however didn't seem to sway Reg's eyes much. As The day continued they all worked to prepare to journey once again. Much of the food that they had packed had been ruined when they fell into the lake originally so they worked to catch and dry fish to make some fish jerky for the road. They also did a good amount of planning, discussing things like the most efficient route and possible dangers. They went to sleep full and woke up early the next morning.
They walked for hours along the lake's beach and at some point they had made it to the river. This river was wide and spanned a whole 50 feet of gushing water. When they got there Aria immediately tossed her bag to the side and stripped down throwing her clothes in the bag. Reg was immediately made uncomfortable but it seemed he was paid no mind. Moments later Aria had arrived at the other side of the river and Sashi had already tossed her clothes in her bag. Reg was confused; it was just now that he had realized that he hadn't paid attention to the plan from the very beginning. Sashi motioned for Reg to strip but he refused and moments later Sashia was hucking the bags to the other side of the river and Aria was catching them. After that she began swimming over and Reg hopped in as well. The water was so cold it felt fiery on his skin and it became his incentive to swim faster, but the water was too strong and it was hard to fight against. As he swam he was getting pushed farther and farther downstream.
He continued pushing himself along now angled to try and fight the current, but it wasn't doing him much good. At some point in swimming he had a gut wrenching feeling and it was at this moment that the energy in the water had seemed to reach out to him aggressively pointing him in a direction. He pushed with every ounce of strength but it didn't seem to be enough. In the last moment the water seemed to churn itself pulling him further out of the way and immediately after a massive water snake burst past. Swallowing what moments prior would have been him. This instilled fear in him and he began swimming as fast as he could towards the shore, but it seemed like the snake wasn't too invested in the meal because it continued swimming. Reg got back to shore gasping for air he saw a look of astonishment on Aria and Sashia's faces. "What the fuck was that"
"Some species of greater sea snake, the bigger question is what the hell it's doing this far from the ocean." After a quick inspection for injuries they continued walking. Reg spent the rest of the day contemplating whether or not he could actually communicate with life and mana. What happened just earlier seemed all too evident towards this fact but it still baffled him. It was only when the sun had started setting and they began putting up camp for the night that reg had realized how uncomfortable he was. His clothes had dried out in uncomfortable ways and they made him feel all the more disgusting.
As the journey continued Reg couldn't help but read the messages portrayed by most everything possible. He would frequently ask questions and not so frequently receive answers. At some point along the journey he had even tried talking to the air in which at first it was very hard to listen or speak to it but when he finally got through he was greeted by a much more energetic presence. When he looked in he could tell that even though it seemed more energetic it was still innately emotionless it was just that this presence was more scattered, jumbled, and fast moving. When he asked questions he would receive answers similar to the water but more jumbled. It would skip around from thought to thought, but it seemed to give more information then the water was willing to give.
By the third day he had become much more comfortable talking with the air and he would ask it things like where the nearest source of water was and if there were any small animals nearby. It was at this point that he had even begun to talk to the earth. The earth was much slower it groaned on and on, but its information was reliable. It could tell you where most anything was and exactly how far away it was. At about a quarter after noon on that day they had made it to the foot of the mountains in which the grass became more lush and trees started sprouting around them providing the cool touch of shad on their sweaty foreheads. Walking however had started becoming much harder due to the intensive bushwhacking. When Reg tried interacting with the tree's similarly to the tiny organisms they didn't respond much. But when they did they seemed to be very thoughtful in their messages.
It was then that they went directly south perpendicular to the mountain range, the trees became more abundant to the point that the surroundings started becoming dark and the temperature dropped drastically. The further they went the more ominous it became until Reg couldn't take it anymore. He began asking the trees and the earth if it was safe and if there was anything he should know of up ahead. To this the trees didn't respond and the earth only started naming interesting formations in the surrounding area. It wasn't until a few hours later that he had picked up some useful information. A particularly friendly tree had told him that there was a very powerful presence takinging refuge in a nearby cave. This however was out of the way from their path anyways and so it didn't seem to affect their journey.
Midway through the next day they came across a large and intentionally cut pathway to the mouth of the two largest mountains. This was explained to Reg to be the entrance of the dwarven kingdom. This was not they're destination and they continued without it but a few hours later the terrain became more dense and unforgiving. The bushes turned into thorny vines and the tree's sometimes were packed so close together that you couldn't squeeze past. Aria quickly gave up and took out a map planning a new route. "We should backtrack for a few miles to get out of the thorns. We can circle up and around for a few miles, this will lead us to a large canion and it should be a straight shot from there." Hearing this Reg groaned thinking about going back through the thorns. They made it out of the ruffer terrain and started now west of south, but after a few miles they ran into another problem. A few hundred feet in front of them stood a large tree just before the entrance of the canyon and was housing the nest of a wyvern.
The wyverns stood close to the peak of the food chain and were said to be a younger sibling to the legendary dragons. That being said they were extremely powerful and not to be tampered with. Naturally the best course of action was to go around the wyverns territory but since this would mean going around the large section of the thorny forest it would take them over a week just to get past. Keeping this in mind they decided to cut through while the wyvern was asleep. Considering that none of them were that powerful most likely there presence should go unnoticed so it's not very likely that they would be in any danger even while it was awake.
They waited for night to fall, and unexpectedly instead of sleeping the wyvern got up and flew away. They waited for half an hour but it hadn't returned so Aria decided it was best to take advantage of the situation and run through. Much to everyone's surprise they made it into the canyon without trouble. The inside was cool and shaded from the sun. The floor was lined with soft sand that squished underneath their feet. As they continued forward the initially narrow passageway opened up and ivy started sprouting up from the walls where the sun shone through. Water pools with algae and bugs appeared occasionally but for the most part life was scarce. At one point on the road Reg had sensed a large 15 foot pit of quicksand through his connection with the ground and before they approached it he warned Aria and Sashia of it. It surprised them that he knew about it but getting past it didn't seem to be much of a problem considering that Aria was proficient in most magics and could make a path out of earth along the wall.
When they were halfway through a giant scorpion emerged from the sand and broke the pathway in front of them. Sashia hastily responded with nails protruding from her fingers. After the training in the beast kingdom she could control her powers much better and the strength she could use from them was dramatically increased. She took initiative blocking incoming attacks but it was evident that it was much stronger than her. At the same time more scorpions appeared at the back climbing the walls and hastily approaching them. It was at this point that the ground called out to him with a crazed notion of him jumping directly into this pit of hell. He initially ignored it not wanting to give his life to something so crazy. But as the situation grew more and more dier there didn't seem to be any other way out. In this pivotal moment Sashias head and neck changed and she let out an ear piercing roar. Reg's ears rang and his vision became blurry as he fell to the ground. He felt a hand grab his shirt and pull him up as Sashia lept to the other side. Just before she actually jumped however Reg seemed to have been taken control of and he ripped Sashia's hand away plunging himself into the soft sand.
He woke up moments later covered in sand and coughing. He was surrounded by cold stone, and the air was stale. There was no light and the only thing he could hear was sand pouring onto the floor behind him.
Incomplete***