Two ancient scrolls now rested in Andini's hands. One pulsed with a breeze she was beginning to understand, its patterns of energy now somewhat familiar. The other, however, was heavy and still, emanating a deep, foreign presence that she had yet to comprehend. Yet both radiated with immense power, potential that awed and frightened her. If such artifacts fell into the wrong hands…
No. I won't let that happen. She closed her fingers around them tightly. These are dangerous. But they came to me. That has to mean something.
For now, this cave was her fortress.
Her first priority was survival. Carefully, she applied the last of her healing salve and used what she remembered of basic internal recovery techniques. The process was slow, but she pressed on with quiet determination. To survive, she established a simple routine—catching rainwater near the cave's entrance, and using her improving Wind control to snare small animals that strayed close.
Time passed in stillness.
Andini threw herself into training. She focused on the Wind scroll first, tracing the swirling symbols with her fingers, mimicking their flow. Her control over the air grew stronger. Her gusts became more refined, her ability to direct the currents sharper. She could now channel the element with a solid level of active mastery.
This cave, dim and damp as it was, had become her sanctuary.
But she couldn't ignore the second scroll. Its quiet strength beckoned her. Though unfamiliar and unmoving, it called to her in a different way.
She held it with both hands one night and simply listened.
This... feels different. The scroll was heavier, the markings stiffer and etched in angular lines. Where the Wind scroll had been light and fluid, this one radiated density, gravity, and silence. A pressure. Not hostile, but unmoving.
The longer she held it, the more a quiet realization began to settle in.
If the first was Wind... could this one be Earth?
It was a guess at first. But it didn't come from nowhere. Her senses, now sharpened by hours of meditation and connection to the Wind, told her this was something else entirely. The texture. The aura. The stillness. It wasn't intuition alone, it was resonance. A silent, steady pull from deep within the stone itself.
But that silence remained impenetrable at first. Unlike Wind, which had responded swiftly to her will, Earth was quiet. Cold. Distant.
Still, she refused to give up. Day after day, she pressed on, pouring her awareness into the scroll's energy, grounding her breathing, steadying her thoughts.
Stone does not speak with noise, she reminded herself. It speaks in stillness.
And then, one evening, something changed.
Not a voice. Not even a whisper. But a faint vibration from the cave floor crept into her fingertips. It wasn't imagined, it was real. A deep hum, patient and calm, but undeniably there. It crawled up her arm like the pulse of the ground itself.
She stilled her breath.
And in that moment, she felt it, the resonance of Earth. Subtle. Strong. Enduring.
From then on, her senses grew sharper. She could distinguish where the cave walls were thick and where hollow gaps might lie behind them. It wasn't vision, it was intuition, channeled through the new awareness now blooming inside her.
Still, her curiosity didn't stop there. She studied one symbol on the Earth scroll that didn't resemble a movement or stance, but instead looked like a diagram, a map of internal energy flow. She experimented during meditation, using it as a guide to draw energy from the Earth itself.
At first, it felt rough and unrefined, but undeniably rich. The power slowly pooled into her hands. Her arms grew heavier, not with fatigue, but with solidity, as though her limbs were being coated in invisible stone.
She tested it.
Raising her hand, she struck a protruding rock along the wall with the side of her palm.
It cracked. Then shattered.
She gasped, pulling back in awe. What was that?
She wasn't moving the earth, not yet. But she had drawn strength from it. Reinforced herself with it. It was a primitive form of Earth attunement, but it was real.
A power to anchor me. To protect me.
Days blended into nights. She didn't know how long she had lived in this place of stone and silence. But eventually, she knew it was time.
She had healed. She had mastered Wind to a degree. And now, she had begun to walk the path of Earth.
She was ready to escape.
Clutching the two scrolls to her chest, she made her way toward the crack in the wall—the same one she had tumbled through so long ago. Crawling upward through the narrow crevice, she emerged once more into the small vertical shaft of the cliffside.
This was the real challenge: the sheer wall of stone she had fallen from.
She pressed her palm to the rock.
The Earth responded. She could feel the sturdiness of each ledge, sense the weaknesses in the stone. No longer guessing, she knew where to step.
Then she called on Wind. Her body felt lighter, as if the air itself was holding her up, relieving some of the strain with every step.
She began to climb.
Each foothold was chosen with care. Each handhold confirmed by her growing Earth sense. The Wind steadied her balance. It was a slow, draining ascent, a dance of precision between gravity and grace, strength and subtlety.
At last, her fingers found the cliff's edge.
With one final pull, she heaved herself over the rim, collapsing on her back on the dry, solid earth above. She lay there, gasping, beneath the open sky.
She had made it.
She stared at the sky, then back at the chasm below. The wind rustled her hair. The Earth cradled her weight.
She was alone... but alive.
And she now held two elemental truths in her hands.
Her journey had only just begun.
I survived. Against all odds, I made it out.
She sat up slowly, brushing dirt from her clothes, her body still aching but filled with something she hadn't felt in days... resolve.
The scrolls… they called to me. I don't know what they are yet, or why I could feel them. But I heard them. I answered. That has to mean something.
Her fingers tightened around the Earth scroll, feeling its calm, grounded rhythm pulse faintly into her skin.
Her eyes turned toward the forest beyond. The wind stirred the leaves in response, and beneath her, the earth felt steady and alive.
If these powers spoke to me once… maybe they will again. And next time, I'll be ready.