Ocean Of Broken Dreams

Everything was so white that for a moment Nameless thought that he was back to the strange space, but a sudden gust of freezing wind made him realize that he was surrounded by snow.

In the distance there were some b.a.r.e trees, also covered by whiteness.

This few seconds in the middle of frozen nothing, made him tremble. But the worst thing was another.

'There is everyone? Why I'm alone…'

Suddenly he recalled the last glance that the ghost king gave him. 'It's his doing. That…damn corpse!'

Another gust of wind made him tremble even more. The cold was slowly penetrating his body. He started moving towards the tree in the distance. Step after step, his body was becoming more difficult to move. 'Such a lame death…Frozen in an unknown icefield…'

Some numbness appeared first in his fingers and when slowly crawled up, conquering his arms and legs. Suddenly he lost control of his lower body and fell of the snow. 'It's not so cold…'

He felt some warmth, but still couldn't move. Some falling snow already slightly covered his small body.

'Am I…dying?'

It was his last thought before warm darkness embraced him.

[…]

Crackling of the flame was the first thing he heard after waking up. He slowly opened his eyes. He was near a fire. He looked around him. 'A house…someone saved my life and took me here…'

It was a small wooded building. The fire was exactly in the middle of the room. To prevent it from expanding and burning the whole house it was placed in a rectangular stony construction.

There was almost no furniture, only a table near the window, two chairs and some fur piled up in the corner of the only room.

*Click*

The door was opened from the outside, and a completely covered by clothes figure entered inside accompanied by freezing wind. It quickly closed the door behind. And after undressing a bit turned towards the boy.

It was middle aged woman. Some wrinkles made her seam older, but it was the cold environment to blame for this.

On her back there was a long spear. The bluish color made think Nameless about ice, but he wasn't sure if it was the material of the weapon.

"So, you're alive." – Nameless even heard some hints of disappointment in the voice. – "I was thinking about feeding you to my dogs…"

The boy subconsciously shuddered.

"Whatever. What's your name, lad?"

"I'm Nameless."

For a second, she was surprised. – "Well, it's also ok." – Her expression became somehow stern. – "What were you doing in the middle of the icefields?"

Her gaze suddenly sharpened, and the flame suddenly lost a great deal of warmth it was creating until now. Nameless subconsciously had the feeling that he absolutely mustn't lie to this woman.

'She is dangerous.'

"I came here from the Second Star Island. I was with other people initially, but for some reason I was separated from them."

The woman nodded satisfied by his answer and the tension in the air substantially decreased – "Well this much I already figured myself."

'When why are you even asking me if you already know the answer?' But the woman understood what he was thinking about. – "I was only curious if you would lie to me or not…Seams that my puppies really won't be eating any human flesh today."

"In any case, my name is Gherda. And you are at the Everlasting Snow Village."

There was still a questioning look on the boy's face.

"Don't tell me that you now nothing about this Star Island?" – She rose her eyebrow somehow incredulous.

"Well…it's my first time here…so…"

She suddenly slightly hit him on the forehead. - "Idiot. Do you know that before every expedition one must do some research?"

"It's my first expedition…"

"And why of all possibilities you have joined the one to the Seven Stars Archipelago? For someone with unawaken bloodline even the first two island mean certain death." – Nameless became slowly annoyed by the woman's questioning and attitude.

"I didn't have all these possibilities you are talking about and I didn't know that we were going to this damn archipelago!"

"…"

Suddenly Gherda who was about to speak, paused, lost in thought.

"Are there a lot of people in your expedition?" – She asked after a few seconds.

Nameless was taken aback by a sudden question but didn't immediately answered. Gherda noticed his hesitation. – "If there are a lot of people like you there, I presume that you are all going towards the fifth island."

Nameless remained silent. 'Fifth island? Why she is sure…but there are indeed many people like me…' His own doubts about their role in this expedition reappeared.

"Ohohoho, so you are not so stupid, kid." – Since the boy's internal struggle was showed entirely on his face Gherda obviously could see it too. – "It's a pity thought."

She signed. – "I will explain you how the Third Island works, and after that you can decide what to do."

Nameless was instead thinking about her last words. – "Why are you saying that it's a pity? Are we all going to die on the fifth island?" – He finally voiced his suspicion.

She only frowned slightly and entirely ignored his question.

"Like you already know, this is the Third Star Island of the Seven Star Archipelago. But the thing that you don't know is that there are two different islands in the Third Star: Fire God Island and Ice God Island. Like you've already imagined we're on the second one. Here you can find numerous different tribes who consider themselves ice-born people. For example, I'm an ice-born from the Everlasting Snow tribe.

The tribes are comparatively of the same size and are autonomous. The only authority we have is the Frozen King. He is decided every decade by a fighting competition between warriors from various tribes."

She paused for a second and seeing the boy's distracted expression suddenly smiled. – "And the King is the one who manage and can activate the passage to the Fourth Star Island."

"What?!"

"Yeah, your companions probably will be heading there."

Nameless thought for a second. – "But how can I be sure that they are not on the Fire God Island?"

Gherda nodded approvingly hearing his question. – "That's indeed the main problem, but since they are also heading on the Fifth Star, you will still have a small chance to find them on the fourth one."

She stopped talking and waited for the boy's decision. Nameless didn't even need to think that much.

"I will go to where the Frozen King is now."

"That's ok, but right now there is no Frozen King!"

The boy threw her an annoyed glance. – "But you've just told me that…" – She immediately interrupted. – "…That every decade we elect our King. Blame your own bad luck, boy."

Nameless stared blankly at her smiling face.

"Is it so difficult to tell me everything in one go, woman?"

"Ya. It's fun to tease you a bit." – She stood up and went towards the door. – "You can join the group who will go to the Holy City for the election. They leave in two days. Until then…well find you something to do."

With that advice she exited the small building and closed the door. Nameless remained alone with the cheerfully crackling flame. 'Why would the that ghost send me here alone?'

He still couldn't understand why these things were happening to him. But still he became sure about one thing. 'The problem lies in the moment when I arrived at the dock number 9. I don't remember why I did it nor how I knew about the crew recruitment.'

'In any case, for now I must find other crew members...'

He stood up but his whole body reacted by sending towards his brain a wave of pain from literally every single part of his body.

After some minutes of suffering he somehow managed to walk towards the pile of fur and took some of them. With some assurance against cold he opened the door. Immediately a gust of freezing wind greeted him.

Nameless still exited the house. He found himself in the middle of a small village. Ten or so small houses were packed around a central square. One of the building was bigger that the other and some sort of banner was hanging on the front wall, but Nameless couldn't distinguish what was represented on it from his point of view.

In the middle of the square, in front of the bigger building Nameless noticed something like a stone platform. Two people were fighting on it.

There were a few people outside, and everyone was completely covered by warm clothes. Nameless immediately felt some hostile gazes in his direction. 'I guess that outsiders are not welcomed here…' He could only sigh another time about his bad luck.

After this first investigation he went straight to the center of the village.

He was still some way from it when a young voice stopped him.

"Hei! Outsider! I challenge you to a duel!"