"This looks like it’ll do the job."
Under the sun that had passed the middle of the sky and was descending toward the west, I stood on the yellow sand while my shoes sank slightly downward.
And there before me was a large mass of wood stacked together and tightly attached, whether through other pieces of wood or ropes made from strong grass.
This produced a heavy wooden surface lying over the sand.
Kyle tightly pulled the rope knot before drawing his dagger and cutting off the extra part, leaving it to fall onto the sand.
"Are we done now? Because it looks finished." I asked Kyle.
With a swift movement, he slid the dagger back into the sheath hanging at his waist and nodded. "It’s done. It still needs a paddle for steering, but in our case there’s no need for one."
I finally felt satisfied when I heard that as I looked toward Elliot. "Yeah, no need for one because we already have something better."
He shook his head while walking to stand before the raft facing the stretch of water. "So do we just push it and leave this place?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Why the rush? This place is great."
Leona, who stood near the raft, gave me a look. "Caius, you’re the only one who likes staying here, all of us want to finish this route quickly and return."
I sighed. "Haah... just push it and let’s leave then."
Elliot bent down and pushed the raft across the sand with ease until its front touched the water, then slowly it began floating over the surface before Elliot stopped it by driving a thick stake into the shore with a rope wrapped around it and tied to the raft.
In the end, the wooden structure floated near the sand waiting for us to jump onto it, which was exactly what we were about to do.
Ellen and Izel arrived together from the temporary shelter.
"This won’t fall apart on us in the middle of the water, right?" Izel asked with a trace of doubt.
I stepped toward the raft and jumped onto it. "We’ll find out when we try... and we can always continue by swimming anyway... or someone can make us an ice bridge."
My feet landed on the wooden raft as it shook and swayed beneath me, but it remained in one piece without showing any signs of instability.
Kyle climbed aboard while staring at the bindings holding the wood together, making sure they were secure... or maybe he was simply excited for his work to be perfect.
Soon Elliot and the girls climbed on after him, causing the raft to sink deeper into the water, but it didn’t sink with us and that was what mattered.
"Come on, Elliot, your turn."
He stood at the back while muttering. "You’ll see one day." It was obvious he truly meant it.
What exactly were we going to see, and why did this hero hold so much resentment toward us?
With a slight wave of his hand, Elliot cut the rope connecting us to the shore before sitting on the floor opposite us with a bored expression, lowering his hand into the water.
A few moments later, the raft began moving through Elliot’s abilities.
I looked at him. "Don’t try to go too fast."
He nodded. "I know... I know, no need to tell me everything."
With that, the wooden raft set off as we made our way toward the distant other side.
My senses covered the area around us, which was free from any real threats.
I lowered myself and sat at the rear of the raft, while Leona sat at the front with Izel standing beside her.
Kyle stared into the distance with his enhanced eyes, while Ellen stood in the middle of the raft without purpose.
Time passed as we drew closer to the remains of the ancient creature that once ruled this place.
Only to become these massive remains, a home for smaller creatures and plants covering its ancient and powerful bones.
"This sends chills down my spine." Izel’s voice echoed while her gaze remained fixed on the bones in the distance.
Beside her, Leona nodded. "Yeah, it’s majestic... and terrifying."
It seemed she didn’t mean the bones, so Izel raised an eyebrow. "You mean the bones?."
She shook her head, her hair scattering. "No... death."
"How majestic and terrifying it is, taking everything yet returning nothing."
Her tone was filled with awe, as though she could see it right before her eyes.
It was true that Leona returned to normal after that vision, but she also hadn’t.
Sometimes she sat alone with a distant look on her face and fear drawn across her features... it seemed she wanted to hide it, so I didn’t pay attention to it.
Silence spread for some time while the sound of water flowing beneath the raft echoed around us, until Ellen broke that stillness.
"This reminds me of a story."
"Which one?" I asked.
"It’s about someone who lost his wife and son at the hands of his own people."
I raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, afterward he searched for power and authority to take revenge and slaughter everyone?"
She gave me a threatening look over her shoulder. "No."
It was obvious she wanted to speak, so I stayed silent and gave her room... otherwise it seemed she might throw one of her blades at me.
Her calm voice mixed with the sound of flowing water while we approached the great arch.
"Among a race that worshipped strength and bowed to it, he was neither a king nor a powerful warrior... he was weak, a nobody among his people."
"So they didn’t let him live among them, neither him nor his small family."
Ellen’s eyes remained fixed on the image of the ancient bones on the horizon as she narrated the story word by word, letting her voice blend with the calmness of the river.
Whether it was me or the others, we all stayed silent listening to her.
"For his people, he wasn’t the first nor the last in such a situation..."
So like others similar to him, he lived far from the rest, but not alone.
He was with his family, a small son and a simple wife, two people who followed him even after his people expelled him and denied his existence.
They didn’t blame him and didn’t hate him. They simply loved him... just as they always had.
But the reason for his weakness and exile wasn’t only his frail body compared to the others, but because he devoted his life and time to something else.
Knowledge.
Unlike his people who lived their lives for strength and war against other races, he believed that knowledge was everything.
That his people who denied it were wrong.
That knowledge could bring strength, but strength could not bring knowledge.
Only destruction and death.
So he learned.
He read every book that could be found, listened to every story and every piece of knowledge he could find.
He watched the world and contemplated it... and most importantly.
He tried to understand it.
Several years passed like this. During that time, he managed to achieve something.
It wasn’t fast, nor was it amazing or unique compared to the other races.
But he learned to understand how the world worked.
Then one day, while returning from the field he created to provide food for himself and his family, he saw something that made his heart sink.
From afar, he caught sight of his simple house burning, and he remembered what he had left inside it.
So he ran... he ran and shouted while calling for his son and wife, and when he finally arrived before the flames rising toward the sky.
He saw his family at last.
But not as he wished, not as they had bid him farewell that morning.
Before the burning house, their bodies were tied to a beam driven into the ground, hanging there, while their limbs were gone and their blood stained the grassy earth.
And there lay a familiar emblem among them... the emblem of the king he once served under.
He understood that they had passed through here, that those he left behind had come to this place... perhaps they did this simply for amusement.
He collapsed and cried, cried until the sun set and rose once again.
Until his tears dried and his throat tore apart.
And also until his home faded into ashes carrying the souls of his loved ones with it.
That day, he buried their cold and torn bodies with his own hands.
And stood over their graves staring at them emptily.
But in that moment of despair and rage, he didn’t think of revenge, nor was he consumed by hatred.
But by something else, something that ignited the fire inside him even more.
The same fire that distanced him from his race and led him to this point.
What if he learned how to bring them back to life?