The wind swirled mischievously, weaving happy spirals in the clouds. Below it, the ocean roiled and crashed, sending walls of deep blue against the cliff face. The cliffs stood firm, shattering the power of the waves with ease, and sending up columns of white foam high up into the air. For a brief moment at the peak of the waters flight, it froze, suspended over the ocean that had birthed it. Then all too soon, the water fell, crashing down back into the deep blue of the angry ocean, only for the cycle to repeat once more.

The wind twirled happily above the carnage. It danced with the white foam, indecipherable patterns emerging from their duet. The cliff face recovered from the blow, water streaming down from its craggy surface, as the ocean prepared its next strike. Then, the wind laughed, and with a jubilant swirl descended, grabbing a faint puff of the white water that rose upwards from the ocean’s wrath.

The wind lifted, rising higher and higher, with its package in hand. It waved triumphantly at the endless combatants, and with a joyful eddy, raced over the cliffs, heading inland.

The land below was lush and full of life. The wind spun happily, passing over the verdant landscape with glee. The little particles of water that it had stolen from the ocean, shaped a fluffy cloud that floated demurely along behind it, cheering silently at the wind's joy. If only it could last forever.

But it was not meant to be. The greenery soon faded. Leaves yellowed, and bark blackened. A foul viridian mist clung like a parasite to the land. Polluting both the earth and the sky with its unnatural presence.

The wind continued its journey. Now more passive in the presence of the mist. It passed over the black soil glumly as it reached a strange sight. A crater in the land. Oblong in shape, with a long tail that grew shallower until it merged fluidly with the rest of the land. Far in the distance the remains of an old farmhouse lay in ruins. Old wood that had stood for generations lay rotten in an abandoned field.

At the deepest section of the crater lay a rather unusual object. A spheroid made of old steel lay half buried in the black soil. Its surface was pitted and rusted, with evidence of extreme heat along one side. Numerous tunnels wormed their way into the core of the steel asteroid, and it was into one of these tunnels the wind blew into.

It movies through the tunnel, its movements no longer jubilant but cautious. Slowly making its way deeper into the unnatural occurrence. The tunnel abruptly ended, revealing a small hollow space in the center of the asteroid.

The space was not cozy, as its walls were made of a dull steel. No sunlight managed to navigate through the winding tunnels that led to the outside world. A heavy viridian mist obscured the few contents of the room.

From the near wall of the room, a small metal chair lay welded sideways such that the seat was pointing towards the center of the room. A metalicized table stood next to it with several silver books embedded onto its surface. The meager furniture was not only strange because of their orientation. Such a fact could easily be attributed to the rotation of the asteroid upon its landing. In fact, it was only understandable that the orientation of the furniture was not exact.

No. The mystifying aspect of the furniture was that both the chair and the table had wood grain inscribed into their surface. As if they had been built from organic materials and later transmuted into their present metallic form. Regardless of the cause, the space was surreal. Alien in all meanings of the word. It was not a room the wind had ever visited before. Or at least, not one that it had visited in living memory.

The wind passed over the metallic furniture and proceeded into the center of the room, where a humanoid floated calmly therein. Its body was supported by thousands of needle-like strands that embedded themselves into the walls of the room. Its hair was long, and voluminous, reaching all the way to its heels and taking up as much or more space than its entire body. Its eyes were held closed, calm and at peace in its sleep.

Unlike other humans that the wind had touched over the years, this humanoid wore no clothes. And yet, it did not need them. As if the creature was not a human, but rather a model of the ideal human. Its skin was made of bright silver. Polished to perfection, and even in the darkness that pervaded the inner sanctum, managed to reflect what meager light invaded the space. Sadly, the perfection of the creature was marred.

Thousands of hairline fractures spread across the surface. Most were thin, barely perceptible, while others spread wide, creating fissures across the surface of its skin. Surprisingly, no blood leaked from the cracks. In fact, where the cracks were widest, a black void seemed to peer out of the creature's core.

The wind continued, swirling around the thousand strands, and brushing against the silver humanoid, attempting to study the strange creature. As it did so, a thunderous crack echoed through the chamber. Several of the cracks that were visible on the humanoids face spread. A chunk of the humanoid's face, containing its left eye and a part of its nose, detached and, as if in slow motion, began to fall.

The piece collided with the steel floor with a boom, denting the hardened steel as if the fragment of the creature was much denser than it had any right to be. Where the fragment had once resided, the back of the humanoid's skull was visible. As if the creature was just a shell made of some silver steel to house a real human.

Panicked at the loud noise, the wind bolted, leaving behind a thin film of condensation on the freezing creature. It rushed into a random tunnel, fleeing desperately from the preternatural horror that occupied the steel cage.

As the wind fled, the humanoid stirred. With the patience of mountains, it opened its remaining eye, flooding the small space with orange light. However, this was of no consequence to the wind. It had already escaped after all.

Swiftly, it rose high into the sky, keen to forget the nightmare it had just witnessed. When only blue and white surrounded it, the wind calmed, and gave a happy little twirl. Its cloudy entourage sighed, relief evident in their every movement as it released its burden upon the land below.

Kilometers passed, as the wind raced the black thunderclouds. Flashes of blue lightning arced across the sky, periodically crashing into the earth. Fire erupted below, but was quickly quenched by the downpour.

Soon a large encampment of humans passed below the wind. Thousands of tents, and a few more permanent forms of housing lay sprawled over the wasteland. Near the largest of the tents, a group of impressive looking humans sat around a campfire telling stories. Their tabards proudly displayed seven silver spires piercing the clouds. One of the humans stood at their head, a small golden circle sat on his head.

But they were humans. Not the same as the creature from before, but close enough. The wind shuddered, before accelerating. Behind it, a peal of thunder shook the heavens. The rain intensified, flooding the land.

The wind continued. On and on it flew, racing the clouds until it reached a range of craggy peaks. It flew higher and higher. The freezing mountain air leeching the strength from it and causing the thundercloud to collapse upon itself.

It passed over the mountains, energy spent and cargo offloaded. Tired, the cool dry air stilled. It fell quietly downwards directly into the center of a small caravan. One particular caravan caught the wind. Within it four figures sat, happily talking about mundane things.

* * *

Ril took a deep breath in through his nose. The air was crisp and cool. Stinging the inside of his nose as he filled his lungs. The air smelled like winter, but it also had a faint hint of something else. Thunderstorms and battle. Possibility.

Ril smiled. Leaving Evelyn in Anduin had been difficult. He had run away from Elkshire specifically because he was looking for friends. The fact that the first friend that he had made on his journey had told him to leave had hurt.

But he had recovered, and left the city. Mostly because of his companions. Specifically Eren. She was sitting at the head of the wagon. Her brown hair pulled into a ponytail. She had reinvigorated him and had encouraged him to continue.

Amazingly, she had decided that she would come with him. She was part of the failed Aquila family, and had found the opportunity to leave with Hauke, her little brother, too good to miss out on. Or she just cared about Ril. So far, he couldn’t rightly tell.

Either way he was happy that they had joined him. They had made the long journey exciting just by their very presence. Especially the excitable Hauke, with his constant jabbering about inane topics. Speaking of Hauke, Ril was pulled out of his thoughts as the boy spoke up again.

“I’m telling you, what they are doing makes no sense.” Hauke said to his sister. Eren for her part didn’t pay too much attention. Preferring to keep both of her eyes on the view of the landscape as they slowly trundled along the road.

Ril smirked, and looked down at the chess board that was set up in front of him. He had gotten bored hours ago, and had decided to try and mess around a little. A little game of chess was certainly a good way to pass the time.

“What do you mean it makes no sense. I am just playing some chess.” Ril responded, keeping a straight face.

“Against yourself.” Hauke shouted, pointing accusingly at Ril's opponent. Indeed, opposite Ril sat an exact replica of Ril. He wore the same worn cloak with the hood pulled low. He seemed to be deep in thought, pondering his next moves against Ril himself.

“What? No! That’s Ril 2.0. A new and improved version. Much smarter than me. That’s why I’m playing chess against him. It's good practice to play against someone so smart.” Ril said sincerely.

“That’s not how you said your ability works! You don’t actually split your mind. Which means you know every move that ‘Ril 2.0’ makes” Hauke said, making air quotes when he said that last part.

“Aha!” the clone said, moving a piece forward into a checkmate position. Both Hauke and Ril turned away from their conversation to study the board.

“See, If I could read his mind, why would I let him win like that.” Ril said, flippantly, “Hey Ril, want to play another round?”

“Sure, I’ll be white.” said the clone, resetting the pieces on the board.

“No, you always win when you play white, I want to play white.” Ril replied, crossing his arms.

“But you played white last time.” The clone said, looking up from the board.

“Lets play rock paper scissors for it.” Ril offered.

“Sure.” the clone acquiesced.

“Rock... Paper... Scissors... Shoe.” They said in unison.

“Ha!” The clone crowed. His hand was closed in a fist, while Ril’s hand had two fingers extended. “I win!”

“Two out of three.” Ril grumped.

“Hey, Eren.” Hauke whispered, tugging on his older sister's sleeve. “There aren’t actually two of them right?”

Eren turned towards them, taking in the scene in one quick glance before she snorted. “No, he is just messing with you. Hey Ril, stop confusing Hauke and look. We arrived.”

“Aww.” Ril moaned, but there was a grin on his face as he joined Eren at the front of the cart.

In the distance the road ended at a tunnel at the base of a gigantic cliff. The tunnel continued into the cliff face, only a black hole from the distance that they were at. Considering the absence of any buildings or people, it didn’t look like much of a city. However as Ril squinted his eyes into the distance, he saw that the cliff face wasn’t nearly as barren as he first thought. Thousands of tiny balconies were visible in the distance, overlooking the road that they had been travelling on for the last couple of days.

They had arrived at Sela, the city of stone.