Solaris's eyes slowly opened. The ramshackle house was unchanged, standing upright; he recalled all of his shards. Leaving them out wouldn't be as helpful now that he was awake.
Looking over while stretching, Solaris saw that Ember was nowhere to be seen. Panic slowly crept into his mind, running outside he looked around before calling out his name.
"Ember!? Where are you?!"
Turning around, he saw Ember standing on the house's roof. The relief hit Solaris like a truck. He had feared that the being had attacked Ember in his sleep, but luckily, this wasn't the case.
Ember's head turned, looking down at Solaris, before jumping off and landing before Solaris with a small thud.
"You ready to go?"
"Yep, was just looking for you. Did you see anything up there?"
"kinda, I found something, so I want to go check it out, if you're cool with waiting... or you can come with."
Noticing the questioning look on Solaris ' face, Ember motioned for him to follow.
The two once again began to walk, their stomachs aching from hunger, yet they had no remedy for it. Their only options were to walk.
"I wonder what happened to this place?"
"beats me."
"...if I had to guess, probably a natural disaster of some sort, all the windows are shattered, and the furniture has been taken, and with no signs of life, it must have happened so long ago."
"I think I was something unnatural... maybe a bomb."
"Why do you say that?"
Solaris looked at Ember with questioning eyes.
"...that simple, there's no wind."
Solaris had noticed the lack of wind but hadn't thought too much about it, but now that Ember brought it up, his mind began to question it much more.
Why is there no wind? And a better question is, why is the moon still in the same spot?
Looking at the sky, the moon had remained unchanged, even though at least a day had passed since they had arrived. An uneasy feeling settled over Solaris; everything about this place was wrong.
Looking forward down the tightly packed streets, Solaris' stomach growled. His hunger was growing. He had eaten a little bit after his fight with Ember, but it wasn't a full meal.
As his feet grew tired and his skin grew colder, Solaris asked Ember to take a break, yet he did no such thing. He just continued walking, without a word leaving his lips. Taking it as a sign they were getting close to what he wanted to look at, he pushed through the growing chilliness of his body.
Everything was in pain, even his mind began to suffer from the circumstances, the constant silence, and the steady unweilding cold began weighing down his mind.
His eyes began to slowly open and close as his body grew closer and closer to total exhaustion.
He had neither water nor food, so he was getting closer to death as the moments passed. His body was aching; it had been so long since he had asked for a break, and yet Ember showed no signs of stopping; it just kept moving and moving, it was like he was a machine.
Solaris was beginning to wish he had just stayed behind and waited for Ember, but there was no turning back.
***
Solaris had his shards in clusters, scouting around, as his mind started to drift, the shards did the same. He constantly had to keep waking himself with a pinch, yet eventually this wouldn't be enough, and he may have to start doing more extreme measures of waking himself. He hoped that he wouldn't have to do such a thing, but if it was required of him, then he would.
After a long stretch of time, Ember's voice finally spoke.
"Stop."
Looking up, Solaris saw something different from the usual city landscape: it was a lake, a shiny, deep lake, filled with everything Solaris needed: water, food, and a place to rest. A massive smile emerged on his face.
beginning to move forward, his eyes filled with greed for survival, yet before he could reach the lake, he was grabbed by a hand.
"What are you doing?"
Solaris turned to look at the source of the question rage filling his eyes.
"LET GO OF ME I'M SO THIRSTY!!!!"
"I doubt that would quench your thirst."
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? LET GO OF ME!!"
Slowly, Ember turned Solaris to the lake, the pristine water without a ripple looked so tantalizing, yet as he stared at it for longer, the truth of the matter was revealed.
The lake's color was not that of blue or even a greenish color; the color was a sticky crimson. The lake was not filled with water at all. The entire thing was made up of nothing but blood, countless gallons of blood, filling the lake.
Solaris ' eyes widened as he was immediately brought back to reality, looking around, the city was still there, and now they were in a completely different section, a section made up of smaller and worse buildings, or at least some. The lake seemingly was placed in the middle of the slums, tearing some houses in half; everything was in disarray.
After getting a lay of the land, Solaris sent his shards to survey the land a bit better, as their eyes shot open even more, and a wild grin appeared on his face, his lips parted, and a single word left them.
"Movement."