1. Lost on a Floating Cloud
It feels like days. Maybe even a week. The island is moving, we know that, but how or why, we don't know.
A few days ago while wandering around the middle of the island, I found Kraden asleep in a field of poppies. He looked ever so peaceful, so much more than he's looked before, his white whiskers lying flat on his face, his eyes closed rather than lit by that blue fire that has been inside him the past few months while we traveled to the Mercury Lighthouse. He lay there, as if he just decided to stretch out on the ground, and fall asleep staring up at the white clouds above and listening to the silence. Of nothing - what can we do? We are lost, so-called saviors of the world. Hunted by forces in the shadows, by our own friends, family, and loved ones. And yet here we are, catapulted into an unknown fate on a floating rock moving towards the end of the world.
I digress.
I hope the others are out there, somewhere in the hills. Felix, my dear brother, stay safe. Sheba, friend, do not do anything foolhardy.
Felix: sigh, but that is another story.
There is a plush grove of trees that begin to crawl out in all directions of the island, beginning at the cave. I visited the cave two days ago, and found that the entrance has been sealed off due to the earthquake. The island is showing other signs of disaster, with toppled trees, impromptu creeks that reach down from the tops of the mountain and run into new lakes and ponds near the forest edge.
Sometimes when I am tired, I rest in the grove. A pool of water has gathered there that I find pleasure to bathe in, and find the breeze in the trees relaxing. The island seems to be moving at a monstrous pace, faster than any psynergy I have come across in our journeys. As if the hand of God is moving us over the waters without a thought to where we are going. But that is the mystery of Alchemy. It propels us to do strange things, does it not?
The lighthouse becomes fainter in my mind, the ivory walls and dark empty spaces, they are dim to me now. Alex, though, stands out in a stark memory, as he lifted those poor soldiers into the air; he controlled the very water of the mountain, fashioning those waves of water around their legs and capturing them in his spell, hurling them far away. No doubt they have died, but these days I hardly think that passes through Alex's mind. He seems intent on only one thing, mastery of his powers. But the good comes with the bad, and as Alchemy is released upon the world, one can fully expect that.
How can I talk? The memory of burning those village soldiers with my fire is still etched on my mind. The power passing through my fingers, tracing the lines of the dragon, and then watching as their faces went from brave to horrified in less than a second. Shivering on the ground like little children who stuck their hands into the stove once too many times.
I wonder if they are still alive? No doubt they were crushed by the falling rocks during the earthquake. I should go back and find their bodies - perhaps I could give them a fitting grave.
-Jenna