I awoke to the refreshing feel of ocean water upon my lips and could feel the waves curl around me like a cold yet embracing blanket. This was a welcome feeling for my body still felt as if it was on fire and my insides felt as if they were crushed. I lay there motionless and allowed the waves to pull me back and forth as the tide moved up and down the beach. I tried to heal myself but I somehow was unable to cast even the simplest of spells. Eventually the true temperature of the ocean forced me to crawl up the shoreline and towards the trees nearby and each movement caused me more pain then the last. After about an hour I looked back and saw that the tide had receded and even with it's help the distance I had covered was pathetically less than I could have imagined but the trees were now that much closer. I used this inspiration to finish the long and painful journey until I came to a sweaty and exhausted heap a now full one hundred meters from the debris on the highest edge of the aforementioned shoreline. I chuckled about this for I was definitely in a deliriously exhausted state and the jostling of my laughter was so painful I passed out.
I woke up a great deal later as the sun had now set and the moon was high in the sky with stars beautifully speckled across it. I looked across the heavens for a familiar constellation to act as a map so I could find my way but I could not find one. In fact, the sky was all wrong and I didn't see any star patterns that looked remotely familiar, except one. The moon. But no, even the moon had marks on it that differed from the moon I knew since childhood as its marks were nothing I had seen before. Confused, I gave up for the moment and decided to find some wood for a fire as the rock around me gave me the flint-type materials I needed since my fire spell was no longer accessible to me, in fact I could no longer remember the incantations for any of my white or black magic spells.
After a few hours of failing at making a simple fire I decided to try and sleep although the cold had now frozen my fingers so bad I was now fearing I would never wake up if I did sleep, but I took the chance anyhow.
When I awoke the sun was just peeking its wonderful warmth just across the ocean and directly into my face. I was starving and I slowly managed to get back to my feet. The pain was still an issue but I now had grown used to it and had a measure of renewed vigor as the mist around the rocks started to disappear and revealed a familiar shape.
The castle was on an island out in the ocean and although it was too far for me to swim, it gave me hope that there had to be a settlement nearby. I figured the snow capped mountains to my north were a clear sign of the cold so I headed southwest along the coast until I reached a point where the land turned inward and east. I could see another body of land across the gap to the south and again a sense of hope filled me as I knew that there had to be a port or at least a river coming from the east inside of this inlet but I was wrong.
I had continued South and stayed along the coast until I again found a similar inlet as before with the land across and it choking the water closer together towards the east but this time I saw a ship. It's white sails looked beautiful yet ghostly as it silently glided across the waves and out into the open sea. Now I knew there was people here. I began to pick up my pace and soon I forgot about my pain as I ran towards my destination.
It was early morning of the following day when I finally reached the seaport at the end of the gulf and upon entering the port I realized I was in luck as the townspeople were elves, a race I knew well as I myself was also of same same pointy eared race. I just hoped that they spoke in a tongue I could understand and I also was very wary as I did not know if these were friendly folk or not. However the elves from my lands were a proud race and so I stood tall and marched into the port's entrance.
