Chapter 33 - Ripple

"Three days." Kaden stated.

"I'm sorry?" Elder Aira replied confusingly.

"I wanna attempt the gate again in three days."

"Where is this coming from? There's no need to rush this matter."

"Doesn't matter if there is or isn't." Kaden exclaimed. "I'm ready to try it again."

"..."

The day after being confronted by N in his dream, Kaden approached Elder Aira at the bottom of the staircase which led to the Elder's Courtyard. He had resolved himself to return to the gate of pride and retake the trial. Kaden never admitted it to anyone, but underneath his normal day to day appearance, he was scared to attempt the trial again. Even now he fears to encounter his father once again, and to be bombarded by the words he received during his first attempt.

"If this is what you have decided, then alright." Elder Aira said as she began to ascend the stairs. "However, I should tell you now Kaden. Mai will not be apart of your escort party."

"...But-"

"That decision is final Kaden."

.....

After his conversation with Elder Aira, Kaden found himself wandering the outskirts of Aestus. He stood on the shoreline of the underground sea and gazed towards the artificial sun in the distance.

"Everything was always easier when I was alone." Kaden thought.

He kicked off his own shoes and folded his pants halfway up his leg, before stepping into the water which was lightly rolling onto the shore.

"Everybody seems to have their own way of bringing it out, for example those twins. So if that's the case, maybe I need to try this on my own for a bit."

Kaden closed his eyes and began his meditation while standing ankle deep in the water.

"C'mon slow down, calm down. Slow down, calm down... slow... calm... slow..."

His breathing slowed down tremendously matching the calm waves that were gently flowing over his feet. Without a doubt this was the most relaxed state Kaden was able to achieve through these sessions, with his body soon reaching perfect synchronization with nature around him. All thoughts left his mind as even the sound of the rustling leaves on the trees were drowned by the silence he was creating in his mind.

Whoosh... Whoosh... Whoosh...

"..."

"It's your choice, Kaden." Whispered a soft female's voice.

"Huh?"

Kaden's eyes suddenly opened as a single tear rolled down the left side of his face. A chilling feeling traveled through Kaden's body, leaving him scared and confused. The voice sounded as if the female was whispering directly into his left ear. Because of this, Kaden found himself scared to the point where he was heavily hesitating to even turn around. First his eyes drifted to the left as far as they could before the remainder of his head followed. There was nobody there.

"Who... was that?" Kaden questioned.

Suddenly, the sapphire necklace gifted to Kaden by Mai which he was now wearing, began to glow. The easily noticeable glowing became brighter with every passing second. As Kaden inspected the necklace, he noticed a shadow darting by in the corner of his eye. He fully turned around to face the shoreline at that moment and immediately noticed another shadow darting through the bushes. Then another one, and another one. These shadows disappeared as quickly as they appeared and were moving at inhuman speeds. One by one dashing through the bushes until one came to a sudden stop within Kaden's visibility. From his perspective this shadow appeared to be at least eight feet tall and had a shifting smoky body. It eerily turned towards Kaden revealing its piercing dark blue eyes.

"Wh-what are you?!" Kaden asked.

"..."

A sound of rushing water approached from the distance, while the shadow stood before him without moving in the slightest way. Kaden turned back towards the sea and was stunned to find a twenty foot tidal wave moments away from descending onto him. With no possible way of avoiding it, Kaden shut his eyes and clinched his breath to prepare for impact. But just before that happened...

"Kaden!"

"GASP! Cough cough cough."

Mai ran out from the bushes and found Kaden face down in the ankle deep water he was just meditating in.

"What are you doing!?" Mai questioned as she ran over to him and cleared out the water from around his body with her essence.

Kaden struggled to catch his breath and understand what exactly was going on.

"The wave!" He said frantically. "What happened... to that wave!?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mmugh, there was a huge wave right there, and it was... about to..."

"There's no wave."

Kaden was dumbfounded, and confused about what had just transpired. There was no trace of the tidal wave or the shadow anywhere in sight.

"What the hell is going on?" He muttered.

"What are you doing out here?" Mai asked.

Kaden used both of his hands to wipe away the water which was covering his face, and took a long deep inhale.

"Nothing." He answered. "I was just wandering."

"Then how did you manage to find yourself in this state?"

"Don't worry about it."

"How am I-"

"Listen!" Kaden said with frustration as he waved his hand to cut her off.

The moment he did that action, water shot up from below them following the direction of his hand. Both Kaden and Mai stood their speechless for a second before Mai asked...

"Was that you?"

"..."

Mai silently observed Kaden as he placed his palm on the surface of the water around them. Without hesitation, he sent out a small wave of water which sliced through the tide moving in the opposite direction.

"It's about time." Mai said with a slight grin.

Unlike when he first released his air essence, this time it felt like a dam holding back relief had busted open.

"Let's head back." Mai stated.

.....

A gentle wind blew through an open field of large dandelions. Similar to the sunflowers from before, these flowers were abnormally huge. Reaching between ten to fifteen feet tall, but these flowers were more sparsely spread out around the field. Sayu was fast asleep while being carried by Jayson, who was fully observant of the area around them.

"What if we missed the lake Jay?" Avery questioned. "We haven't came across a path or settlement since we left Himawari, and there's no directions in my dad's journal on how to get to the frozen lake. We could've walked passed it and went too far north or-"

"Or we could've not reached it yet." Jayson interjected.

Sigh. "You're putting too much faith in whatever's out here. I don't even know if I could find our way back if we decided to turn around now."

"I was right Mano, we are lost." Tanner exclaimed.

"We're not lost." Avery reassured.

"Unable to find one's way." Nakayla stated.

"What's that?"

"The definition of lost. I think it fits us right now."

"I wanna go home, I'm tired of walking." Mano exclaimed.

"What home?" Nakayla questioned.

"Being on the run is tough." Camie stated.

"We haven't done much running though. We should say on the walk instead." Tanner replied.

"You guys are gonna wake Sayu." Shaedon commented softly.

"Look." Jayson said as he stopped walking.

The group looked forward and saw a singular traveler walking in their direction.

"Take Sayuri." Jayson said to Avery.

"What are you doing?" Avery asked.

"I'm just gonna ask for directions. I'll approach on my own, too much people might cause them to feel threatened."

"Threatened by a bunch of kids?"

"People nonetheless." Jayson answered.

He carefully handed Sayu over to Avery and walked ahead to greet the traveler.

"Careful Bluejay."

The traveler wore a straw hat which covered their face and walked as if they weren't paying attention to their surroundings.

"Hey!" Jayson called out.

The traveler gave no reaction and continued walking forward. Jayson stopped moving and observed the traveler as they approached him.

"Hey!"

Again no response. At this point Jayson raised his guard and was now preparing for the worse.

"Are you hearing me!? Where's the frozen lake."

Once again the traveler gave no response and continued to approach Jayson with their head facing the ground. They came within a few feet of Jayson without acknowledging him in any way, this caused Jayson to raise his hands to fight out of nervousness. At almost the last moment the traveler noticed Jayson's feet and finally gazed up towards him. A girl who seemed to be around the same age as Avery, was surprised to come across somebody else out in these plains. She noticed Jayson hands were raised and immediately stumbled backwards and raised her own hands to stop him from attacking.

"It's okay, I'm not dangerous." Jayson reassured.

She gave him a confused stare while also noticing Avery and the others behind him.

"Do you know where the frozen lake is?"

There was a pause before she collected herself and finally responded to Jayson. She raised her fist to her chest and waved it in a circle while giving a disappointed expression.

"It's sign language." Shaedon stated.

The traveler fixed her hat and began to walk around Jayson, leaving him clueless as to what this encounter was. Shaedon hesitated but ran out to meet the traveler after she took a few steps pass Jayson. She noticed him and stopped as he came right up to her. Shaedon brought his right hand up to his forehead then pointed it outwards,  while smiling at the traveler. She seemed shocked at first but then quickly gathered herself and replied.

"You understand me?" She asked in sign language.

"Yes I can. I'm not the best, but I know quite a bit." Shaedon replied.

"What is that Shaedon?"

"It's sign language. People that cant hear use this as a way to talk."

"She's deaf?"

"Who are you people?" She signed as Avery and the others also came closer.

"We are looking for 'the frozen lake'." Shaedon signed while also saying aloud.

He continued to speak aloud what he and the girl was signing to each other.

"The frozen lake is not far from here." She signed. "It is inside of a crater, maybe two miles that way."

She pointed in the direction they would need to walk in order to arrive at the frozen lake.

"The land gets very rocky so be very careful."

"Thank you." Jayson said slowly to her. "Let's go guys."

The traveler nodded her head to them and continued onward on her path. The kids followed behind Jayson while Avery and Shaedon hesitated to leave the girl. Shaedon eventually followed his instincts and ran after her, throwing himself in front of her and spooking her momentarily.

"What's your name?" Shaedon asked.

She appeared puzzled at first, but then spelled her name out to him.

"M-O-Y-A."

"Moya." Shaedon repeated to himself. "What are you doing out here alone?"

"Nothing. I like to go on long walks to clear my head."

"How far is your home from here?"

"Four, maybe five miles that way. " She signed while pointing in the general direction.

"Are you fine out here on your own?"

"Just because I'm deaf, does not mean I can't protect myself."

"No no no, I didn't mean it like that." Shaedon signed while in an attempt to retract his statement.

Moya chuckled lightly before replying:

"It's alright, I understand what you mean. However, are you sure you and your friends will be fine?"

"What do you mean?" Shaedon questioned.

"You all are not from here, are you?" Moya asked.

"How do you know that?"

"Let's say that my eyes are much better than those of average people. I can see that you all carry pyro essence within you, so I'm guessing you are from the fire continent."

"Shaedon we have to go!" Nakayla called out as she and the others have been waiting for him.

"I'm coming!" He answered. "Wait, you signed 'pyro' just then, not 'fire'."

"You don't know?" Moya asked.

"Know what?"

"Interesting, I figured people of the fire continent were more educated than those in Aestus. You should have access to more information."

"I do not understand what you are saying."

"Shaedon!" Nakayla shouted.

"I'm coming!" He responded. "Sorry, but I have to go." He signed to Moya.

"May the tides guide you to safe shores." 

"Thanks... I guess?"

Shaedon ran over to catch up with Jayson and the others. Once he finally caught up Shaedon took a glance behind him to check on Moya one last time, but was bewildered to find that she was nowhere in sight.

"Where did..." Shaedon began to say.

"Something wrong?" Avery questioned.

"...No, everything's fine."

The group continued forward towards the frozen lake with more haste than before. It was not long after they encountered Moya, that the geography of the land around them began to change. From a vast vibrant and colorful grassland, decorated by beautiful and unique flora they've never seen before. To a more karst environment. The soft grass beneath their feet became stone, gravel, and grass patches broken up into ridges, shallow caves and sinkholes. There was an easily identifiable path through the rocky terrain however, which gave the group a way to traverse the jagged environment.

"I feel weird." Sayu said softly as she had just awaken.

"Are you alright?" Jayson asked.

"My tummy."

"Are you hungry?"

"Mmm no. It feels like my essence."

"...What about your essence?" Jayson questioned while looking over his shoulder to Sayu who was still riding on his back.

"I don't know, but it's making me kinda nauseous."

"Hmm..."

The group approached the edge of what seemed to be a decent size crater in the ground. The diameter of the crater measured around half a mile long, and the inside of it housed what our group had been searching for. The frozen lake. That wasn't the only thing however.

"What's that?" Tanner questioned as everyone inspected the unknown anomaly before them.

At the center of the surface of the frozen lake, sat what seemed to be a white cloud. This cloud was oval shaped and hovered just inches off of the surface of the ice. On further observation, Jayson noticed that there were also glowing white particles  flowing into the cloud which looked very similar to essence.

"I've never seen anything like that before." Avery stated.

"Maybe that thing is why we were told to come here." Jayson added.

"Yeah, but what is it?" Nakayla also questioned.

"It's a rift." Said an unknown voice.

The group all peered around but couldn't locate the origin of the voice.

"Who said that?" Jayson asked aloud.

"Oops, sorry that was me."

The group all looked to their right and found a girl sat on the edge of the crater looking down towards the rift. They were all perplexed as they didn't felt the presence of this girl before she had said something. What was more strange is that this girl looked exactly like Moya. Shoulder length brown hair, a clean pale completion and bright yellow eyes.

"Moya?" Shaedon questioned in a confused tone.

"I'm not Moya. My name is Noya. Moya is my sister."

"Is there a reason you're here?" Jayson asked.

"Well wasn't I the one you were told to come here and meet? Or am I wrong, Jayson Hillinger."