In the seconds it took Zalan and Rep to get under the cover of a decrepit, crumbling building, the torrent of rain pounded atop them with flashes of lightning and roars of thunder filling the city. Rep peeked his head out and darted back inside when another strike of lightning illuminated the area. Zalan leaned himself upright against a wall, breathing heavily after moving only a few feet. He was utterly exhausted, his energy sapped from today’s journey, his lack of blood, and the fear of having faced the threat of death by the hands of the Elemental moments ago.
“What do you think would happen if I let some lightning hit me now that I have lightning powers?” Zalan asked over a smash of thunder. “Do you think I’d get all my energy back?”
Rep looked over to him like he was crazy.
“I think you would die,” Rep said, exasperated.
“Yeah, that’s fair,” Zalan sighed, deflating.
Like a massive flash from a camera, the area outside their weak shelter went white then back to darkness in an instant, followed by the cacophonous cry of thunder. Zalan realized that he could hardly see anything in this dim light and Rep felt the same, quickly igniting a flame in his palm to see one another.
“This is bad,” Rep said, looking outside and back to Zalan rapidly. “The storm has made the entire area too dark to navigate. I will not be able to keep a flame up for very long without a roof. And the storm is massive! Its reach extends much farther than the edges of the city.”
“We can wait it out, can’t we?” Zalan asked. He felt somewhat nonchalant about the experience. Something about the dream world made him feel like nothing mattered. None of this was real. His death had to result in going back home, right? He refused any other explanation in his head, and the drowsiness of fatigue made him too lazy to want to pursue any other line of thought.
“Wait this out?” Rep asked, appalled as another crack of thunder shook the earth. “Zalan, we need to get out of here! Even if I thought we could last under the immense rain and lightning, we do not have the food to wait around! We will starve!”
“Right, sure,” Zalan nodded to himself.
He had gone back to staring at the finger that emitted a tiny shock of lightning, wondering if he could manifest a storm himself at some point. Would he be able to throw a storm this big at someone? Could he topple a civilization single handedly? What were the limits of these powers?
“Are you listening?” Rep asked loudly.
“I’m listening, but what do you want me to do?” Zalan looked up. “I’m exhausted and I can’t use any Elemental Power to change the course of the storm!”
“I want you to try and think of something!” Rep said, panicked.
Lightning crashed into the building closest to them, causing the roof to explode and the rest of it to crumble into a pile of worn rocks. Zalan and Rep both stared in fear. The thunder echoed menacingly. Zalan suddenly didn’t care if his death would lead him back home, he didn’t want to die in an explosion caused by a direct strike from lightning.
“What do we do?” Zalan shouted, urgency finally reaching his voice.
“I do not know!” Rep shouted back.
Water began pooling at their feet, the dry sands unable to absorb such a constant deluge of water from the skies. Rep and Zalan looked up at one another as another bang of thunder sounded outside.
“We can’t be in a puddle!” Zalan said, trying to lift himself.
“Why not?” Rep asked, confused.
“Water conducts lightning. I think we’ll get fried!” Zalan said uncertainly.
“If the lightning hits the water, we will be shocked even if we are not hit?” Rep asked.
“I don’t know!” Zalan said. “I think it will, but I don’t know how this works!”
Rep splashed through the water to Zalan, pulling him to his feet and letting Zalan put his weight on Rep’s shoulder. Together, Zalan and Rep tripped and kicked water as they made their way through the city with what little light Rep could provide them. Any fire he started in his palm was doused in seconds. Whenever they seemed to be lost, a jolt of lightning would give them enough view of their surroundings to allow them to continue toward the entrance of the City of Xagon.
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The sand was in heavy clumps and clinging to their feet, causing Zalan to strain with every step to pull his feet out of what felt like a bog. He was freezing, the cold water feeling as though it was seeping into his bones. Rep’s fire had to be reignited every few seconds, which took its toll on him. He was breathing hard, loud enough to be heard through the maelstrom around the two travelers. Zalan looked around the storm, trying to find a way out.
“Throw fire in the air!” Zalan suggested.
“What?” Rep asked, unable to hear clearly.
“Throw a bright flame in the air! As big as you can!” Zalan shouted.
“Why?” Rep said, open to any idea that sounded good enough.
“It will be a signal in the middle of the storm. Maybe someone can see us from a distance,” Zalan shouted.
“A signal? It will just look like a flame to them! What if they think we are a monster and decide not to come!” Rep questioned.
“I don’t have any other ideas!” Zalan admitted, his face awash with rain water.
“Me neither!” Rep agreed, immediately dropping his earlier point, throwing his fist in the air, and sending a small stream of bright fire that was snuffed out in seconds.
“Keep doing that every few minutes!” Zalan informed.
Rep stumbled in reply, his energy quickly sapping from carrying Zalan and keeping his Elemental Power constantly flowing so they could see. Zalan tried to take some of the weight off, but found himself unable to walk if he did. Not only had he lost a lot of blood, but now he couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. The rain was too cold, and he would have been dead had Rep left him behind. He quickly realized that Rep may be able to get away safely if he just left Zalan behind. Zalan could convince him to go find help to come back for him. Then he would know Rep wouldn’t die at his expense. He breathed in deeply.
“Hey, Rep,” he yelled.
“Yes?”
Thunder boomed deafeningly above them, rumbling the earth ominously over the sounds of the loud raindrops. Zalan’s heart dropped at the noise. In that instant, he knew he couldn’t stand to be abandoned out here alone. Even if Rep could get away, he wasn’t going to be the one to suggest the option. He made the sickening decision to want to keep Rep at his side even if it meant their joint death.
“Thanks for helping me,” Zalan finally replied. It was manipulative gratitude, knowing that he was trying to get Rep to stick with him, without considering the option to save himself.
“Save your energy,” Rep said, not even acknowledging the thanks. He was in a survival mode that Zalan’s words couldn’t alter. He threw up another flare above them and stumbled to the ground, kneeling down for a second to catch his breath. Zalan helped him up and they kept moving, only just crossing the entrance of the city into the desert beyond. Zalan had no idea how far the storm could go, and was certain they wouldn’t make it if they had to walk all the way back to Oriton in these conditions. He couldn’t see anything beyond them but rain and flashes of lightning. The storm looked endless.
“Are we just going to keep walking?” Zalan asked.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Rep countered.
And so they continued into the abyss of desert darkness, Rep’s flame hardly bright enough to illuminate the next step in front of them. They heard another building buckle and fall apart in the city they escaped. The sky’s rain was so powerful, Zalan felt as though he could drown standing up in this weather. He was worried that if he lost his footing and found himself falling into the sand, he would simply sink down, suffocating in wet dirt. He shivered, both from the cold and the thought.
Rep knelt down again, unable to go more than a few steps without needing to catch his breath. Lightning flashed around them and Zalan could see the strain in Rep’s breathing, just barely keeping himself from collapsing in exhaustion. Zalan looked up at the horizon, trying desperately to see some sign of civilization or travelers they could ask for help. He knew that they were in the middle of nowhere, but hope was all he had at this point.
Either that or he was in denial about everything.
“Zalan,” Rep panted, “I never should have brought you here. I am sorry.”
“What? You tried to stop me, remember? I asked you to bring me out here,” Zalan said.
“I do not believe you did,” Rep said, his voice odd.
Another flash of lightning revealed that Rep was terrified, unable to think of a way to escape the raging storm. The dark lines on his face were clear, he was lost in trying to think of a way to salvage the trip. Rep ran a dozen different ideas in his head in a few seconds and shook them all away as futile, the storm drumming his head powerfully. Another flash of lightning made it clear Rep was in anguish, the rain likely masking tears running down his face. Zalan tried to come up with something before Rep gave up entirely.
“Maybe we should go back to shelter? Try and shield ourselves from this?” Zalan suggested.
Rep looked up uncertainly, looking broken.
“Very well. We will try to wait for it to settle down. But we must think of something! We will perish!” Rep said, standing up.
“We’ll make it out of this,” Zalan said with unfounded confidence. “You got me here, you’ll get me out of here.”
“Alive, I hope,” Rep said. The look on his face made it clear he wasn’t joking. “We should hurry. The lightning is growing more frequent.”
Zalan couldn’t hurry if he tried, going at the same limping pace as earlier while they trudged their way back through the city entrance. Zalan could hardly believe this was the same entrance that they witnessed in broad daylight only hours ago. Thunder rolled above them, sparks flying between clouds.
“That building looks good enough!” Rep said, holding up his hand and shooting another signal flame into the sky.
This time, the sky responded by sending lightning down, directly into Rep’s raised arm.