Hold on, if the lake was constantly draining, where was it being fed from? Dakota, swam around the edges, looking for clues. Nothing materialized. Well great. He answered one question only to replace it with a more confusing one.

Swimming back to his clothes, he checked on the lamb again. The blood in its wool was drying, creating a crusty tar around its body.

“That won’t do.”

Gently lifting the creature, Dakota placed it into the shallows of the lake. The lamb didn’t like the cool water, crying softly as he scrubbed the filth from its coat. He wouldn’t have dared cool the animal like this normally; however, the sun was directly overhead and it was sweltering.

The lamb eventually fell quiet, laying in his lap as he worked out a stubborn clump of dirt. His gaze drifted as he worked, resting on the lake. Something had to feed to it. And if it wasn’t being fed from around it or above it, it must be fed from below.

He set the lamb on the shore, wrapping his clothes around it as a bed and then swam into the center of the lake. Was there a light down there? Dakota dove, pausing to de-pressurize his ears periodically. He wasn’t the best swimmer but he had always prided himself on being a decent free diver. A hobby he had picked up while vacationing in Australia. He had trained his breath hold and could go for nearly three minutes now.

Five feet…ten feet…twenty feet. Dakota could just see the bottom. Interestingly, it wasn’t getting any darker the further he dove. He floated there unsure of whether to go deeper. Twenty feet was the deepest he usually went. Any further and his ears would seriously hurt.

A light from below caught his eye. Something in the deeps glowed for a moment, before slowly fading. A minute passed before another pulse came. Dakota held on for one more minute to confirm the pulsing before swimming for the surface. Her broke through with a huge gasp.

Something was down there.

He tread water. Did he even want to find out? It could be dangerous.

Dakota sucked in a breath, he had come up here to look for answers, clues, anything. He wasn’t going to give up that easily.

His ears started aching as he passed the twenty-foot mark. The light took on a distinct blue colour the deeper he went. Idly, he appreciated the ability to see this deep. Most lakes he had swam in became dark as night after only ten feet or so.

The light coalesced into a line. He was almost there. Dakota clenched his teeth, fighting the instinct to swim up and relieve the pressure on his head. He only needed to go a little further.

The fuzzy line morphed into a windy, zig-zagging line. He was only ten feet away. The line pulsed, appearing to have a membrane of sorts. He gave one more mighty kick downwards and arrived at the bottom. His lungs heaved as they tried to breathe in. Dakota kept his mouth clamped as he viewed the line. The light was fading, leaving a dull ocean-blue glow emanating from its center. It was almost like looking through his fingers while holding them against the sun. The glow illuminating imperfections along the outside. The line was as thick as his thigh and ran in both directions.

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What was it? It almost looked like a… Dakota paused, unsure if he wanted to continue down that line of thinking. It almost looked like a… vein. It was obvious now that he thought of it. The membrane, the pulsing. But what would require such a massive vein? He floated there, thinking as his lungs screamed at him.

An island. An island would need veins the size of a small tree. He crouched, preparing to push off of the bottom but paused at the last second. The vein had grown dark, plunging him into an inky, terrifying world. His hand reached out to where it had been. Something warm brushed his fingertips. Liquid energy suddenly poured into him, burning him as it raced through his arm and into his chest. The vein pulsed, glowing a brilliant, eye-watering, blue. This time, it kept glowing. Growing brighter and brighter until Dakota turned his eyes away. A pressure was building in his chest but not the pressure of the water. Something finally broke within him as a surge of water pushed him away from the bottom.

Dakota shot through the water, breaking the surface in an enormous spray… and didn’t stop. Ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, he finally reached the apex of his ascent, hanging for a heart-stopping moment as his inertia changed direction. He landed in another explosive splash, ears popping.

He dragged himself to the edge, ears in pure agony. He couldn’t have got a nice gentle ride to the surface…nooo. The STUPID ISLAND needed to blast him through forty feet of water at the speed of sound. He collapsed onto the shore, spent. A little “baah” greeted him after a few seconds.

The lamb lay in his clothes, drenched.

The goblin chief waddled to his tent. Things were not going well. The claiming, which had been steadily progressing, had come to a grinding halt. It was the human’s fault. Too much interference. The chief also had the impression the island was resisting him. Him. The thought sent tremors through his expansive gut. When he got the chance he would wring the flesh bag’s little neck.

He couldn’t do much about it right now. The tribe had become superstitious about the farm and no one dared go near it, no matter how much he beat them.

“The worthless gremlins.”

The fact any of the inferior breeding would resist his commands showed how far outside of the society they were. Anywhere else and their heads would have rolled by now. But he needed them so he would suffer their disobediance…for now.

The chief was about to crawl into his tent, it was time for his afternoon nap, when the ground began vibrating. He whipped his head around, looking for the cause. It was the island. The island was trying to say something!

The goblin chief gleefully stepped into the open. He knew this day would come. He knew the island would recognize his magnanimous nature.

“I am ready island… I am ready to be your master.”

He stood there, arms splayed out, awaiting…the rush? The chief didn’t actually know what it would feel like to bond with an island. He waggled his fingers, was this it?

Suddenly, a blue light burst from the top of the mountain, shooting into the sky. A deep rumble followed, causing the chief’s tent to collapse into a cooking fire as the ground bucked and rocked. An immense spray of water brought his attention back to the mountain.

Goblins ran around screaming as the chief felt the distinct impression of another person bloom into his mind.

“Crap.”