Goraldia: The Element Wielders

14: Reunition

Icarus follows the beacons the bet he can. He is getting close; he could tell. Icarus saw that the last beacon was in the forest slightly off of the plain. But travel is sluggish, for Icarus had run into another. Running through the forest, Icarus had encountered roughly with Trayc.

Icarus never stumbled; he ran without error. Speeding through the trees, he thought of nothing but getting back to the party. But he didn't let his guard down completely. Step after step, he suddenly hears a twang. Wide eyes he watches an arrow fly past his face. He looks left quickly, not to find an archer, but a terrified blond girl not looking at him. She accidentally runs straight into Icarus in his gut and they both fall over. Thumping onto the ground, Icarus gets his breath knocked out of him. The girl quickly gets up saying, "OH MY GOD! SORRY! SORRY!" and continues to run off. Icarus sits up and watches her run away. He turns his head the back and sees several men. Icarus turns his head once more. He sighs and waits a second, then jumps up and bolts after the girl.

He catches up to the girl shortly. He calls out, "HEY WAIT! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!" Icarus thought that would show he wasn't going to hurt her. She looks over at him with fear, but senses his sincerity. She doesn't respond, though. "Run this way!" He yells to her. She looks where he's pointing and obeys. Now going in the same direction as Icarus was going previously, he asks again. "What's your name?" She slows down and then stops completely. "Um... Trayc I think?" They stand still for a minute. "It has to be. That's all I remember." Icarus puts his hands on Trayc's shoulders and responds with, "That's ok, Trayc. This is normal. Now we have to get back to the others. They can help you." Trayc responds, "Ok." They start running to the others.

She travels along with Icarus from then on. Trayc is slower than Icarus, so he has to run more gradually. The sun was setting. In the middle of the large field, they both see the last lightning beacon sent. "What is that?" Trayc calls out in fear. "That, Trayc, is our friends," he answers. "Come on, we're so close." Icarus is smiling now. He's escaped alive and found his way back.

Trayc stops before the crystal forest. Icarus turns around once he notices Trayc's pause. "It's ok. Everything gets weird in Goraldia. They won't hurt you." Trayc hesitates before walking cautiously into the trees. Once sure the trees were harmless, she picks up pace. "There ya go. See? Not so bad. Only new and potentially deadly trees." Trayc and Icarus walk on.

Deep in the forest, Loud growls were heard. Odd ones that rose in pitch. "That's gotta be them." Icarus breaks out in a sprint, leaving Trayc behind. Trayc tries to keep up but Icarus is swifter. Hope and expectation are in Icarus's eyes. He looks back and yells into the near darkness, "HURRY!" with an exaggerated hand gesture to follow.

Icarus enters a small clearing in the forest, no humans in sight. But as he looks around, this was definitely the source of the sound. Shards of crystal litter the ground everywhere. Blue, green, and a little red crystal. behind him he hears, "Where are you?!" and responds, "I'm over here! Just follow my voice."

Icarus looks for signs of where they could have gone while Trayc catches up. A few seconds later, Trayc emerges and yells at Icarus, "Don't you ever leave me again! I don't even know what your name is. How can I call you if I need you! I'm lost! I don't know where here is! Everything is weird, and-" "Icarus. Call me Icarus, ok? And you'll learn to know and love this world. And you have to be strong in this world; you have to be strong on your own."

"But I'm not strong..." Trayc says, her voice wavering. Icarus returns, "But you will be. I can teach you to be." Icarus looks assuringly into Trayc's eyes. "You have a strength far greater than you've ever had, before. Once you can control it, you'll learn to be strong. You won't fear anymore. You will be powerful. Now, once we get back to the others, you'll be protected and free to practice."

"Then we have to find them," Trayc says quickly.

"I'm so glad you agree." Icarus smiles. He grabs her hand and pulls her forward.

After running for quite some time late into the night, Trayc nearly collapses. She lets out a few nearly silent words, "I need to stop."

"I'll watch over you the rest of the night," Icarus tells Trayc. Trayc makes herself comfortable on the ground and falls asleep almost instantly. Icarus watches the surroundings until sunrise.

With the first yellow lights of day rising, Icarus hears an odd sound. Sizzling and crumpling. Something was near. Icarus wakes up Trayc, who is unappreciative, even if it could be a life or death situation. She finally gets up and starts running with Icarus. They follow the sound until they get to a trail of dead plant-life. It stretches either way indefinitely, but the plants are more dead on the right. Crinkling and sizzling down to a brown-gray nothing. There has to be a source. Something is or was at the source, and it could be the others.

Icarus runs off, with Trayc this time, towards the origin. Something dangerous had run through here, and if the others were attacked by it, they could be dead. Icarus's heart starts beating faster. His eyes widen. One word repeats over and over. No. No no no. Icarus could not lose his friends, his companions, his co-demigods.

Through the trees, Icarus sees where the trail ends. They must be there. Yes. It had to be.

"DIETER! MAX! HEY!" Icarus yells forth. He says nothing else until he emerges in another small clearing. He looks around. He sees Dieter, Max, and another, who's wounded. They're all asleep, except for the wounded girl. Wait, is that Yrisi? Frominon's assistant?

Icarus runs over to the girl in white. She's pale. Her injuries are a scratch and a few bites. Icarus had no water with him and didn't take the time to find water around.

"I'm sorry," he tells Yrisi.

"Do what you have to do," Yrisi responds.

Icarus closes his eyes to concentrate as Yrisi cries out in pain. After about two minutes, Icarus stops. Yrisi is still cringing in pain, but she's stopped bleeding. Icarus healed her skin with her own blood. By then everyone was awake. Yrisi's cries of pain were very loud. Icarus leans in and kisses Yrisi on her cheek, then stands up and looks around. Icarus sees Dieter and Max standing up, looking around.

"Where is she?" Dieter asks.

"What is that trail?" Max says.

Icarus responds with, "You weren't attacked by anything?"

"I don't think so," Max says.

"Wait, who's that? Excuse me, who are you?" Dieter asks Trayc, who was staring at Dieter.

"Oh my god..." Trayc whispers.

"W-what?" Dieter responds.

"Oh my god, Dieter!" Trayc says. She runs forward and tackles Dieter in a hug.

Max is confused. "Who? That's Ace. Who's Dieter?"

Dieter looks over at Max, an awkward smile on his face. "I'm Dieter..." he says.

"Why would you lie to me?"

"Because... I thought it would cause you to overreact, and you were already overwhelmed. I thought it would be better to tell you later." Then Dieter yells out quickly, "Where's Ophelia?" Yrisi and Max look around. They all look at the decayed trail. Yrisi then mutters, "I think we figured out what element she has."

"She's too far away," Icarus deducts. "I'm sorry but we'll never catch her and we'll be too late to save Goraldia." He looks to the rest of them. "Now, before any of you change your mind and start running after O - Ophelia?" Dieter nods, "we need to leave."

Everyone is silent and refuses to move. Grabbing Dieter's arm, Icarus walks off. "Hey," Dieter quickly retorts, and pulls his arm away from Icarus. Icarus turns around and stares at Dieter.

"I can't do this without you," He tells Dieter. More silence.

Yrisi finally breaks our silence and walks in Icarus's direction. Dieter and Max soon follow. They slowly saunter off to obtain the next item on the map.