The water was cold. Icy. Faust held his breath. He would rather pass out than drown.

The shock hit his body and his heart rate went down, the blood moved from his extremities to his vital organs. The cold reactivated his senses as the strong currents of the river carried him away.

‘Oh fuck. This is so cold!’ he attempted to hug himself and nearly screamed when he remembered his shoulder was broken.

‘I can only surrender myself to the currents. Will I be able to hold my breath long enough to pass out?’ he was terribly afraid of drowning. He was set on passing out.

If one held their breath for too long underwater and ignored all the urges successfully, they would pass out and their body would cramp up the muscles in their throat to not let in any water. Eventually, their brain would run out of oxygen and die.

Of course, Faust did not know this. He had only ever heard, that if one held their breath too long underwater, they would die in his current situation that sounded much more appealing than breathing in water and brutally suffocating with liquid in your lungs.

His thoughts spun as he felt the masses of water pressing his body in a general direction. He was slowly sinking to the bottom of the river and eventually hit the ground, slamming against it before being carried further down the stream.

By now Faust was on the bottom of a river deep inside a cave with no way out. He was flushed through a large underground tunnel filled with water. He was smacked against the walls multiple times and barely managed to hold his breath while he somehow managed to keep his head uninjured.

His entire body hurt, and he couldn’t catch a clear thought. He only managed to barely hold his breath under the ruthless assault of the elements. He felt his ears hurting and the urge to breathe became unbearable.

Slowly his neck started tingling and his lungs burned like hell. He could hear his heartbeat like a set of drums. His fear of drowning was bigger than his urge to breathe.

He would die regardless, so why not endure a bit of suffering to avoid a cruel death? And as he said that the first contraction arrived. His diaphragm cramped up painfully in a forced attempt to breathe.

Faust curled up and groaned. His head started to hurt as if someone was hammering a nail into it.

He had his eyes closed shut. Yet all in all barely a minute had passed. He had been battered by the current throwing him against walls and he definitely had accumulated multiple injuries. He couldn’t move either of his arms and didn’t even feel his legs anymore. His entire skin was numb.

That’s when the floor suddenly disappeared. He was out of the tunnel. The small body of Faust was sent shooting out of a small underwater opening. He entered a vast mass of water. Slowly he felt the current getting softer and at the same time felt that he was sinking. Rapidly.

‘MY EARS!!!’ Faust cursed when he felt the pain increase to unbearable levels… when he noticed something was off… light? Is there light? Am I not underground?’ He saw a weak source of blue energy behind his closed lids.

When he opened his eyes, trying to see the light source another contraction hit him, forcing him to look downwards. Directly below him was the source of light.

Just as the pain in his ears became unbearable… it suddenly disappeared and was replaced by an incredible change in temperature. The water… had become even colder. Much more so even. Faust had never felt so cold in his entire life. It slowed down his blood flow and numbed his entire body.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

After a second or two, he had gotten used to this new state enough to be surprised by the sight that lay before him.

His entire vision, which should’ve been pitch dark was enlightened by a dark blue light that seemed to come from deep below him. He was like hypnotized when he looked at the orb that was emanating enough light to brighten up an entire lake. He could not discern what the source was as his vision was extremely blurry.

‘Beautiful…’ was his last thought before slowly but surely his field of vision collapsed and darkness enveloped him.

Faust’s broken body slowly sunk into the abyss, lifelessly. He looked as if he was floating through space. Even though the water was incredibly clear, and the source of light emitted a strong light one could not see the end of the lake in any direction. The water had a deep blue color that grew brighter and more intense as Faust’s body approached the bottom, where the source was located.

The water had continued to turn unnaturally colder, and the effect of pressure had oddly been negated. His face showed peace. His skin had turned blue and on his lips, ice crystals started to form. There was still a faint heartbeat in his body, but it was continuously slowing down as more and more of his body froze.

First his lips, then his face, and from there it spread until it covered his entire body in a skin of dark blue ice. He was unrecognizable at this point and his heartbeat slowed down further… until it finally stopped.

His vital organs had stopped working. It wouldn’t be long until his brain shut down for good. His death was approaching. His body had reached its breaking point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A day later, Caurium

Leona had slept for an entire day. The exhaustion from several days of marching, fighting, and adding the mental strain it was all too much for her. Her sleep was so deep she had no dreams at all.

When she woke up, she slowly stood on her feet and put on a fresh set of clothes. Her hair was unkempt, and her bun was messy. She really needed to wash. She took a few swigs of water from her waterskin, sat down on her bed again, and covered her face with her hands. She had cried herself to sleep the night before.

‘Faust… I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself as you asked me to…’ She was on the verge of tears again when she suddenly had a thought. A sliver of hope. Something to cling on to.

‘What… if he wasn’t dead and found some way to survive?’ she had to chuckle at the thought before she reprimanded herself.

‘You’re a lovestruck fool, Leona! Nobody can survive that situation in his state…’ She had to think of his broken shoulder.

‘What you think is absurd.’ She told herself.

But then there was this spark of hope again. ‘But what if?’

Her mind didn’t give her a break. She went to a nearby river to clean herself properly for the first time in days and the cold water brought some reason back to her mind. As she brought her elegant, naked body into the small stream to rinse herself she started to ponder the situation.

‘It's highly unlikely that he survived… the others even say it’s impossible… but I don’t want… I can’t believe that! I can’t accept it yet.’ She shook her head. Her chest tightened and she felt as if someone had put their entire weight on it. The pain of losing him was too much. She couldn’t deal with it.

She wouldn’t deal with it. She stood up after cleaning her body and dried herself with a cloth she had brought. Then she dressed herself with new undergarments and a fresh tunic. It felt good to have clean clothes.

But no matter how good her body felt she could not muster a smile. Every time she thought of him, she felt her tears pressing against her eyes.

She did not want to be around others. She spent the day outside of the camp. She couldn’t face anyone else without crying. At least when she was alone, she could cry without anybody judging her.

‘They expect me to be strong and stoic… but have they no friends, no lovers? How can they expect me not to mourn?’ she sniffled as she thought of some other recruits who had looked at her with mocking glances.

‘Why do they look at me like that? Judgingly… without empathy… is it because I'm a woman? Because I’m a noble? Not truly one of them?’ she sobbed. She had never felt so alone.

‘It’s so unfair… I miss Faust… he only ever saw me as the person I am… not a generic noblewoman that mingles in warfare… he has never looked down on me because I am a woman.’ She hugged her knees as she sat on the ground a bit outside of the camp.

After lamenting for a few more hours, she grunted.

‘I just can’t keep my feet still. I have to do something. I need to know. I will look for him in the peripheral forest… maybe he’s there… that shouldnt be too dangerous.’

She tried to convince herself that she had a chance. Deep down she knew how minute this chance was, but that single spark of hope was all she had to hold on. It was everything to her.

That night she would leave the camp. Alone.