Flames of Ember

00| The Moon's Mockery.

I lost count of how many times I tried to open a portal.

And I failed to fulfil my objective in every one of them.

I'd been trying to create doorways to different worlds for thirteen years and yet, I was never able to do it — no matter how many portals I created, not matter how many times I went in and out of those portals — it was all futile. I always landed right where I started from — in the meadow.

Will I never get my powers back? I thought as I stood in the middle of the meadow, the wildflowers surrounding me, the night breeze making them sway and grazing them gently. The meadow was silent and the only sound that I could heard was just crickets and their flickering, and leaves rustling due to the breeze and my own slow breaths.

The moon shone down at me. It always did whenever I opened the portals, like a constant. It was almost as if it was mocking me for not being able to succeed, mocking me for coming back here once more, and for creating yet another doorway only to find nothing upon entering it. It was as if the moon was taunting me for never being able to find the girl I loved most dearly, taunting me as if I'd lost all hope.

But it didn't know that I was anything but hopeless.

It didn't know that even if I felt hopeless, I would try again — and I would try again and again — until there's no energy left in me to create portals, until I tell myself 'Let's try again tomorrow. You'll find her, keep trying." It didn't know that I would never stop trying, not until I met her, not until I could see her again, not until I had my flames back.

It didn't know anything.

And so, I spread my arms, my palm facing nothing as I closed my eyes, energy flowing through my veins, thrumming against my skin, vibrating through me as I focused, forgetting everything that was happening around me as I opened my eyes and saw my surrounding changing.

A few feet ahead of me, dark red particles appeared, swirling and circling around, growing in numbers, creating a giant circle doorway as it consumed the space of the meadow, the crimson specks still surrounding the doorway, the inside of the portal too bright to see what's behind it, making you only curious to walk further and be pulled by it inescapable force. The sparkling specks still grew in numbers, making the circle more bigger by each second, making me drop my hands immediately before it got too big to handle.

The portal stopped growing and I watched it in awe albeit I watched it everyday but it still awestruck me every time I saw it. The crimson specks, the glowing doorway, the excitement of not knowing what was behind it, what was waiting for you there, what kind of world was waiting for you to come and check it out, the exhilaration to know what was beyond it, what kind of civilisation you were going to encounter — everything about it was awe-striking. And yet, I was never able to experience that due to some unknown defectiveness.

I closed my eyes and stepped inside the portal as it consumed me, pulling me so forcibly that there was no chance to resist and I gave myself in, waiting for yet another failure.

I opened my eyes, expecting to find myself in the meadow again, only to find myself standing on what seemed like a balcony to me and it didn't take me long enough to notice the girl who was admiring the moon, the very moon who was mocking me for failing so much but now, I don't think it was going to mock me anymore. Because this girl — this girl who was standing there, who just noticed my sudden appearance, who was staring at me with her wide deep deep amber eyes, her dark hair flowing with the air, her wrist which was glowing alongside mine — she was Amber.

My Amber.

"Amber. . ." I said, not being able to believe that I was calling her, right in front of her and she wasn't in my dreams anymore. She was real and she wasn't disappearing when I was coming closer to her.

I swallowed, and suddenly, I forgot if I was breathing or not because I was not believing what I was seeing. I wasn't dreaming — I told myself again and again — until it seemed real enough. I saw her wrist again, it was glowing — so brightly that even the moon would shy in front of her and looking down, even my wrist was glowing — our signs of connection was glowing and it only meant one thing: this is Erin.

I didn't realise when I suddenly had tears in the corner of my eyes, ready to fall and I let them fall because nothing mattered to me — not the fact that Erin was absolutely bewildered to see what just happened, not the fact that I hadn't closed the portal yet, — nothing mattered to me at that time.

The only thing that mattered was that I found her and I had no idea how.