“What is Dale doing talking to a Sun Thrower?” I asked.

“Lovers?” Ynec mused.

“I appreciate the effort, but I don’t think so. They looked like they were negotiating something.”

Dale followed the Sun Thrower out but stopped at the door. He called out as the paladin walked away, “Wait! You said you’d cover the drinks!”

Dale wore a guilty expression as the bartender came from behind the bar to talk to him. Dale dug through his pockets. He stayed distracted as the bartender argued over whether or not he had any cash.

I whispered to Ynec, “What could the Sun Thrower want? Dale doesn’t even rule over the whole lake. He just owns a portion of it.”

“Most valuable portion?” Ynec said, “Or Ra need something from Dale.”

I looked over at the hooded murderer as he got smaller and smaller from the open door. What could he want that was that valuable? Did Dale have more pull than I thought? He got farther and farther. “Ynec. You go follow the Sun Thrower. Check out where he’s headed to for a couple of hours. We’ll meet back at the pear tree tomorrow. I’m going to follow Dale. See what’s so important that would make a Sun Thrower come to the mountains. But most importantly, to see if he’s canoodling with anyone”

Ynec nodded his head, “Understand.”

“Do not engage,” I said.

Ynec looked at me like I was crazy, “Was not planning to.” Ynec slunk off and closed the bar door behind him. I sat in my stool while Dale tried to explain to the bartender that he didn’t have much money. I watched him go on and on trying to explain how the other guy said he’d pay and that Dale was the god of a lake so he never carried any material wealth. The bartender wasn’t having it. So I sipped my kiddie wine while Dale had to roll up his sleeves and wash dishes for a few hours to work off his debt.

Dale then left, thanking the bartender for being so reasonable and began his journey back home. The walk to the lake involved six hours of Dale trying to make a song about the things he saw on his journey but he couldn’t find anything that rhymed with the Tethran word for ‘tree.’ It wasn’t a hard word to find rhymes for. I thought of, like, a hundred. Dale was just dumb.

We reached the lake. I watched behind a piece of driftwood as he waded into the water and doggy-paddled; his horns bobbed above the surface for a while until he made it to a cliffside, then he dipped under the water. I waited for him to reemerge but he didn’t. Did a god need to hold his breath? I had no clue, but my answers lied underneath the water.

I took my clothes off as well as my shield and sword. They were heavy and difficult to swim with. I entered the water in my skivvies. I thought the air was frigid but the cold water was a shock to my senses. As soon as my ankles touched the water the bite of the cold emanated through my body, up my legs and caused my teeth to chatter. I slowly waded in, biding my time but knowing that I could lose Dale if he moved from that spot, or worse yet, bump into him on his way out. I gritted my teeth and let out a breath as I entered. Then a few gasps and I was neck deep. I closed my eyes, took a big puff of air and buried my head in. I adjusted to the water as I swam through the lake. I tried to make it over as soon as possible. Who knew what kind of fucked up monster or creature could snatch me. Occasionally, I’d feel something slimy against my skin. I kept my head above water. Choosing to believe that it was some aquatic plant rather than an animal. I made it to the cliffside at the general area I’d seen Dale disappear into. I took in air and dove. The water was so clear, so virginal and untouched by man that I could see right to the bottom. My instincts to not look down were correct. This large lake was teeming with all kinds of life. Some fishes and aquatic animals and semi aquatic animals. In this vast open embankment, there was fauna I recognized and others that must have been concocted by the gods as a prank. Creatures that could only be described as Precambrian. They were bizarre insectoids that fluttered through the water with their tentacled mandibles pulling them through the current, or mollusks with chitinous armor that stomped on the ocean floor, kicking up sand and sucking the riverbed with their vacuum-like mouth.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It was a wonder. This was the most wild animals I’d ever seen in my life. The gods had said they’d done away with evolution, maybe they decided to bring their favorite creations back. Maybe they made new ones. Before I knew it, I was out of breath.

I pulled myself back up to the surface, took in another deep breath and swam back down. To counterweight my buoyancy, I gripped to what I thought was some lake plant that had affixed itself to the rocks. Instead, the animal or sentient plant quickly darted away as soon as it felt my hands on it. I swam close to the cliff, trying to see what could be the thing Dale disappeared into. There was a small rift under the cliff near the bottom, I held onto it, being slapped by waves into the rocks as I pulled myself along it. Then, I shifted my hand, aiming for a rock and found nothing. A small chasm going up the ridge in the cliff. This was how I knew I had found it. I pulled myself further down to look and there was a small patch of surface. The water ended but I could see faint lights coming from the other side. I lifted my head up and let out the breath. There was a large clearing! And on the other side of that large clearing was… Dale. Sitting on a wooden bench. He wasn’t sitting alone. She had seaweed for hair, sickly green skin, her lips were stretched out rested on her chin like a balloon knot and she was giving ‘fuck-me’ eyes to DALE!

I stayed in the small breach. I could not leave the little exitway, or my body breaking the surface would cause too much noise. Instead, I did my best to tuck myself under the mouth of the exitway as I listened in. My normally fluffy red hair was completely tamped down by the water.

“I’m telling you, baby.” Dale said, “This guy will give us anything. A-ny-thing. As long as I’ve got this, he’s ours.”

And with his free arm (his other arm was wrapped around the shrieking water spirit) he slapped a metal chest next to him over and over. Each time his godly hand interacted with it, elven etchings lit up. Holy shit. An Ibexian lockbox. It took me back to my time in the separate cage of the Chacali camp. My finger burning when trying to use magic on it. I stared at the tiny chest. The thing that the Sun Thrower wanted was in that lockbox.

I listened in as Dale continued to talk to the water spirit. The one time he didn’t call her ‘Babe’ or ‘Babers’ he called her Hosu. Also… he never let her talk! This guy kept blathering on and on. And yet, no kiss. If I didn’t see any action, he would slip out of it. Say she was just a friend. Anubis would forgive him. I needed to see them kiss. I stayed under the water, staying so still that I could feel tiny fish nibbling on the dead skin on the bottom of my feet. I was no longer cold. I was, however, angry on my friend Anubis’ behalf.

After a long time spent gloating, but never revealing what was in the box, he looked at her and said, “It’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.”

What the fuck? That’s from The Notebook. I had seen it like thirty times and Dale was no Ryan Gosling. He was stealing lines from movies. Hosu let out a giddy wail and leaned in. Dale leaned in too. They were about to do it. Kiss. My smoking gun.

The fish had stopped nibbling at my feet. Instead, I felt a sharp tug that pulled me back into the water. I turned and saw an arm. A hairy arm with a darkened palm gripping around my childish ankle. What was the arm attached to? I had no idea. It stretched so far down the clear lake that I could not see its origin. The stretched arm retracted, pulling me toward whatever creature awaited me.

I tried to free myself from the simian arm’s grasp. I could not. It had a fierce grip of me underwater and I was not just fighting the arm, but the lake itself. I was not given the courtesy of taking in a deep breath, I was already out of oxygen. I kicked it and punted it but… there was no spell I could cast. Under the water, I gurgled out, “Second Wind!” and attempted to use my surge in stamina to swim up to get more air, but it was useless. I had no weapon and was not able to cast a long drawn out Elven spell. Whatever was taking me, I was at their mercy.

I tried to stay conscious, but my heart was in a state of panic. It drew more blood than usual and my lungs had no oxygen to feed the rest of the body. My eyes slowly closed and my mouth opened, a tiny bubble of my remaining air disappeared as I faded into darkness.