Bigger Horizons

Drakai looked at the lake covered with ashes and walked up to it. He swirled his hands around in it and pushed the ashes away leaving only the crystal-clear water.

Cupping his hands, he took a long sip and sighed in relief, the cool water soothed his throat. He then turned around to see his mother and father sitting at the large table in their dining room.

"What the fuck?" Drakai spoke out loud completely shocked.

His mother raised her head sharply and clicked her tongue. "No swearing at the table young man, now sit down." She gestured to the table.

Drakai sat down and ran his fingers along the table, it felt way too real.

"So, the water was the hallucinogen? From the beginning, I was seeing things huh?" Drakai waited patiently for the water effects to pass eating with his pretend family to pass the time.

After he thought he was back to normal he looked around at all the ashes that surrounded him with angry eyes, until he spotted Danya's ring reflecting the light of the shining lake and his eyes softened.

He looked inside and saw all her normal stuff, clothes, food, her tent, and other things. But what caught his eye was a book that had a pen attached to it.

He took it out and flipped to the first page with trembling hands. It read in big bold letters. [Danya's Diary]

He sighed and put it back into her d-ring. "One day when I'm strong enough to bear the consequence to my heart I'll look at it."

Looking up at the hole Drakai pondered on how he was going to get out. He looked at the lake and thought about making big blocks of ice to climb up.

But after about 2 minutes of thinking about it he decided against it, he thought about what would happen if he slipped and shuddered at that thought.

He looked at the cave walls and thought of using his primitive use of earth magic to make handholds

Over the years he had learned to use the four basic elements, he still had way better control over fire, but he had learned how to use water and freeze it her had also learned how to use the earth and air elements.

Out of the four he was weakest with air, barely being able to make the wind blow did very little for him, so he didn't use that aspect of the elements all too often.

He decided upon the idea of simply climbing up.

Looking down he saw his cut-off arm that was still oozing puss and put it in his d-ring. Then he stashed away his kai-do and started to run for the wall that had the least amount of ceiling space to the hole.

He activated his mana and aura and rushed toward the wall.

His foot made contact with the wall, and he ran up it, pushing with his legs as hard as he could. He made it about a quarter of the way up before he started to lose balance.

At which point he just dug his fingers in and started to climb, the going was slow, climbing with one arm, even with the added edge that mana and aura gave you it was still very slow going.

Eventually, drakai got to the top of the wall.

He made two foot holds for his feet then he jumped and punched the ceiling. As soon as he first dug in, he hardened the rocky earth around his fist.

He hung there for a second, dangling in the air, and stole a look down. Sweat leaked down his forehead when he saw the drop.

Without any water, he didn't know if he could make a fall like that without permanently damaging his body in some way.

"No way up other than this." Drakai let out a breath and bent his body until his feet touched the ceiling and he made them sink in with magic then hardened the earth around them.

Closing his eyes, he started to walk the distance to the hole, concentration evident on his face as he walked slowly.

He finally made it to the hole but took a moment to steel his resolve, the climb up would be extremely hard, it took him about 6 minutes to fall he had no idea how long the climb up would be.

Then bending forward, he slipped up the whole and started to climb.

.

.

.

The climb was hard and long, it took hours before he made it to the top, he thought, no he hoped that ember was at the top waiting for him.

He figured that the water had made him see that ember came down when she actually didn't. " I hope she Is all right." Drakai thought.

Drakai swung his only arm over and onto the solid ground and pulled himself up and over rolling then laying down he panted heavily.

After a moment's rest, he sat up and looked around for ember, he couldn't see her anywhere and a sinking feeling hit him like a tidal wave.

He hung his head as he looked at the ground. "I'm all alone." He spoke out loud.

And as soon as the words left his lips a mound to his left exploded and a great antlered and very shaggy head burst out of a snowbank and turned to look at him.

Drakai's head snapped to look and was met with embers gaze.

They just stared at each other for a full second. Then ember completely burst out of the snowbank and tackled a laughing drakai into the cold ground.

After a while ember stopped prancing around happily and butting up against drakai.

She looked over his shoulder more than once looking for Danya. Drakai had to let her know through the special way that they had of communicating. That she wasn't coming with them anymore.

Ember didn't really understand but at the same time, she really didn't care.

Drakai left the next day after some much-needed sleep and food.

The days passed quickly, and eventually, he spotted what he had been looking for the entire trip, a huge expanse of water lay before them.

He spotted boats in the distance to the right, about a mile off and he made his way over there.

It didn't take long for him to find a boat to where he wanted to go.

He looked at the shoreline that was slowly receding away from him. "This is it; I'm finally leaving."

He closed his eyes and he saw Danya being ripped in front of him, he felt it even then her blood pouring down his face and her empty lifeless body being dropped like it was worthless.

Then he remembered the reason why they had to leave. Their race had held the two of them back. But Drakai blamed Jakre for most of it.

"It doesn't matter if it was worth it, I'll make it worth it. I live my life to the fullest both for her and for myself." Drakai thought.

"I won't be coming back." Drakai turned to look at the ocean. He never looked back.

Not once.