Cael walked. He didn't know where he was going or when he would get there, if ever, but nonetheless he walked, and walked, and walked. He didn't allow himself to sleep and instead walked through the night, and walked all day, and then walked through night again. The monotonous landscape of white stretched endlessly in every direction, offering no landmarks, no guidance, no hope of destination.
After a few days of this relentless march, hunger and thirst started to encroach upon him with growing intensity. He would eat handfuls of snow when the sensations became too unbearable, and that would help him forget about it for the time being, dulling the gnawing ache in his stomach. He continued to work on developing his ice powers day after day as he walked, practicing the same motions over and over. He wasn't getting much better at creating solid constructs, but he did manage to figure out a way to cool his burns from the inside, soothing his constant pain. That small mercy allowed him to push forward even longer without collapsing.
More days went by, blurring together in an endless cycle of walking and pain, and the snow wasn't helping satisfy his thirst as much anymore. His body was becoming dehydrated despite his efforts. Thankfully, he remembered learning in school that people who have awakened are enhanced humans in every physical aspect and need slightly less water and food to survive than normal people. So he'd be able to survive off snow for a while longer, but soon he'd need real food and clean water, or his body would start shutting down regardless of his enhanced status.
He slept once every couple of days, usually against his will, simply passing out on the snow from sheer exhaustion. But he would then wake up hours later, disoriented and aching, and continue his endless walk through the frozen wasteland. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of unchanging scenery, the view of the empty and barren landscape of snow around him actually changed. He noticed something new and different ahead in his field of vision.
The ground ahead looked somehow different from the endless snow he'd been trudging through. His eyes opened wide with curiosity and desperate hope as he began to run toward whatever it was he was seeing, his tired legs pumping with renewed energy. But after running for a bit and approaching closer, he only grew even more confused by what lay before him.
The ground changed dramatically ahead. The deep, powdery snow gave way abruptly to flat ground, perfectly flat white ground that stretched out like an enormous frozen lake. He looked down in confusion as he kneeled carefully to the strange surface and touched it with his bare hand.
It was rough and grainy against his skin, with a completely different texture than snow, but more surprising than that— "I-It's not snow!" he said aloud in complete shock, his voice cracking from days of disuse.
'I didn't think there were any parts of the planet left that weren't completely covered in snow besides the oceans themselves,' he thought in amazement. He kept his hand pressed against the rough, grainy ground for a long moment before curiosity led him to pick up some of the white grains between his fingers and cautiously place them in his mouth to taste.
When he did, he was filled with even more shock. "I-It's salt!?" he said in a daze, looking down at the ground below him and then at the sprawling white field stretching out before him as far as he could see. 'I've only had salt a small number of times in my life, in the domes closer to the ocean where they could harvest it, but there's no mistaking it. This is definitely salt!'
He stood up slowly, racking his brain in confusion for many long moments, trying to make sense of this impossible discovery. Then suddenly he remembered something he had once learned in a geography class about the old world. "Salt flats!" he exclaimed, realizing what he was staring at. 'I've learned about them in class before. Salt flats, that has to be what this is!'
But the realization only brought more questions. 'But still, how is there no snow here at all? I could understand how it would be harder for snow to accumulate on a salt flat and all, but the Goddess's snow is supposedly un-melting, eternal. So salt flat or no, there should still be snow covering this place just like everywhere else on the planet.'
The mystery troubled him deeply. He stood there for many long moments, staring out at the strange landscape, trying to decide his next move. Finally, he decided that he would continue forward in this direction, walking through the salt flats rather than turning back to the endless snow. 'I don't get it, but I have nowhere else to go anyway. Maybe I'll find an animal or two to eat here in this strange place,' he thought before sighing and rolling his eyes with dark humor. 'Or maybe not. Nothing's gone right so far.'
He continued to walk, practicing his ice control whilst walking endlessly as he had done for the many days prior, only now instead of trudging through an endless terrain of deep snow, he did so across an endless terrain of flat, crunching salt. It was an eerie, liminal place with nothing but him standing alone upon the open, flat white terrain that stretched to the horizon in every direction. The absolute emptiness gave him the creeps, it felt wrong somehow, like walking through a dream, but he marched forward anyway with grim determination.
He marched, and he marched, and he marched until something absolutely unbelievable happened.
He stopped dead in his tracks, staring ahead in complete amazement at what he was seeing. He licked his dry, cracked lips and gulped audibly. "A deer," he said quietly, barely believing his own eyes.
The animal stood about fifty meters ahead of him, completely still, looking directly at him with what seemed like curiosity rather than fear. Its fur was brown and smooth, a splash of warm color in this colorless world, and its eyes were gentle, doe-like, and black as polished stones.
'I've only ever seen pictures of deer in textbooks. I never thought I would actually see one in person… it's amazing,' he thought as he stared upon the beautiful creature, momentarily forgetting his hunger and pain. The deer was like something from the old world, a remnant of what had been lost.
But his sense of wonder was abruptly interrupted by the loud sound of his stomach grumbling painfully, reminding him of his desperate situation. He gulped again, the sound loud in the silent air, as he sighed deeply, realizing with heavy sadness that he was going to have to kill this amazing creature if he wanted to survive. There was no other choice. It was the deer's life or his own.
He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath to steady himself and prepare for what he had to do. Then he raised his right hand out in front of him, pointing toward the deer, channeling as much concentration as he possibly could into his palm. His brow furrowed with intense focus as he attempted to summon his ice powers, to create something deadly, something that could end the deer's life quickly and mercifully.
The deer continued to stare at him, unmoving, as if waiting to see what this strange human boy would do.