Into the Vortex

Reinhardt struggled to push his way through a small animal trail hidden within the forest. Moments such as these made Reinhardt dislike his size, small spaces didn't like him. As he traveled further east towards the coastline the elevation declined. Increased temperature and humidity prevented the snow from collecting this low on the mountain, but kept the vegetation thick. In his past life as a farmer Reinhardt never traveled this far east. All of the markets he stopped at were along the boarder between Duzee and Icilee, he never needed to cross into the wind nation.

Almost a week had passed since he'd left Klaas' camp. During his travel there were no signs of cities, towns, or even people. The southeastern coast of Duzee was nearly uninhabited due to the lack of usable shoreline. Cliffs hundreds of feet high covered most of the coast and prevented harbors from being built. Only one city had been successfully constructed into the cliffs and that was the port city of Elgin.

More beautiful than any city on the lesser expanse, the Elgin port was taken over by Wanve early in the war. Due to the water systems on top of the cliffs and the numerous waterfalls nearby the water elementalists never lost ground after taking the city. Hundreds of battles were waged upon the plains but only after tens of thousands of men died did the wind master turn his attentions away from the port and west, towards Icilee.

Reinhardt was beginning to have problems staying still. Every step Reinhardt took felt harder than the last. His entire body was shacking with anxiety and he had no idea why. His end goal was all he could think about now, an obsession that plagued him. No longer bothering to eat or sleep he just forced himself to walk.

As time passed so did the sun and the moon, endlessly dancing in the sky. Reinhardt could feel his feet bleeding now, but he didn't care. If he stopped moving, as he had countless weeks ago, the simple anxiety became painful until he started in the correct direction again. Luckily for him there were many roads running in the direction he was traveling.

Pushing his way through a thick patch of branches Reinhardt realized that the trees had ended, finally. With most of the planet uninhabited by humans there was very few places that had been cleared of trees. His encounter with a creature as rare as a dragon was dumb luck, since only a few hundred dragons lived at any time. From what he had gathered in conversations there were a few billion humans on the planet, but they gathered in major cities where the masters could protect them better. With untold numbers of strange creatures living in the darkest reaches of the planet it was impossible to know what you would run into if you took the wrong turn.

After searching the horizon carefully he didn't see anything that made the place stand out. The beautiful green grass was an impressive change from the dead brown leaves that had layered themselves to the forest floor. Walking had been a challenge, the wet leaves left his feet moist and over time it made them bleed.

Wind started his cloak dancing playfully and for the first time in a while he felt calm. Finally able to think clearly he realized that the strange pushing anxiety had completely left him. He had never felt so good before, and that worried him.

Walking further away from the trees Reinhardt began to see that the acres of grass began to disappear in the distance. Water became visible and Reinhardt began to see that the drop off was actually a cliff, and what he thought was only a slight decline was, in fact, a much larger drop.

"So this is an ocean." The beautiful scenery was impressive. He had never seen anything in Icilee this magnificent. Miles of water stretched from the coastline out into nothingness. As a child he'd heard stories of the ocean and many of the creatures it held. Most of the creatures were nothing more than fish, but merchants and other farmers spoke of great daemons lurked within the depths. The one that scared him the most as a child was of a dragon that hunted near the island groups that made up Wanve. It was said to strike ships when they became caught in the waves nearby an island. He thought what scared him was the randomness of it all. With thousands of islands creating the Wanve bridge, the only way to travel from the greater to the lesser expanse.

It would take someone almost two months to travel across the whole mass without flying, and at any time this creature could take your boat down into the blackness within moments, never to be seen again. Threats to the species is what lead to the creation of the elementalists thousands of years ago. The need to compete with giant sea monsters, shadow hounds and worst of all dragons, created a dire need for a more powerful race.

In the back of his mind images of the deep waters had been driving him for months. The sound, the feel, and the life of this place had been drawing him closer. Moving to the edge of the cliff Reinhardt looked over at the vast ocean below. A sense of unease washed over him when he where the distant roar was coming from. Light seemed to vanish into the center of a vortex, the turning and raging waters sucking the light itself away from the sky above. He didn't know why but that's where he needed to go.

The roar of the water vibrated deep within his chest. Something strange caught his attention. Reinhardt used his mind to reach towards the vortex, he could feel an almost lifelike presence lurking there. Though it was different than he was used too he could sense something controlling the waters making them turn and spin wildly. Trying harder to take control of the waters he was pushed away easily. Whatever was moving the vortex was no mere elementalist.

Scanning the horizon Reinhardt couldn't see anything capable of helping him reach the center of the vortex. Deciding to throw caution to the wind Reinhardt leaped from the cliff and into the sky. If whatever was drawing him here wanted him they wouldn't let him die or at least he hoped.

As he fell through the air towards the water below him he wondered if this had been the best course of action considering he couldn't swim. Mentally shrugging he chuckled as he hit the waters and was swept up within their currents.

Author's Note

Is this story as a whole entertaining so far? Does it make sense? are the chapters well written, Etc.