Four knocks echoed through the apartment as Jacques had expected. Another four rapid knocks on the door as she headed to see to her guest.

“Hold onto your gliders,” Jacques shouted, reaching for the knob and opening the door.

Standing in the corridor was Luce, visibly sweating through her scarf and clothes. Her eyes were red but dry. She had been crying, but given what Jacques knew of her, she had dried her eyes before coming over. Jacques decided not to mention that bit of information.

Luce, stressed and panicked, exclaimed, “I can't do it! I can't kill Titans! They are living creatures, Jacques! Do you get it?” Jacques just smiled and nodded back, standing back from Luce as she entered the apartment in her ire, stomping through the room. “If the army finds out about this, I'll be executed! They've got no use for a Titan Hunter who can't kill Titans. Who came up with such a stupid law anyway? And why aren't you surprised by this?” she screamed in the end.

Jacques continued smiling, pointing to the inside of her home. Luce turned and surveyed the empty scene. The furnitures were gone, and not even a single electronic was left. The only thing within the apartment was a backpack in the middle of the living room floor, filled and ready to go.

Jacques told Luce, “I go where you go. Sometimes a little faster but, we'll be together in the end.”

***

She could hear Luce's voice, shouting,“Jacques! Jacques!”

Slowly, her eyes flickered opened. Still dangling on the edge of the cliff, Jacques had somehow managed to fall asleep in the uncomfortable position, hugging her pick that had stuck in the wall.

She looked up at Luce who gestured her to look down. Below, the tides had finally lowered, and the sand bank was visible. Josh had already begun his descend. Pulling out her pick and uncurling her rope, she followed quickly, with Luce swiftly lowering herself down after. At the landing, they unhooked themselves from the rope and started removing their harnesses.

Josh reminded, “As light as we can.”

Sarcastically, Luce replied, “Yes dad...”

Jacques laughed at the exchange, only to get reprimanded herself, Josh telling her, “And no magic!”

They quickly prepared the rest of their gear, as according to Josh, they had less than half an hour to cross the Helm. Jacques unslung her spear, taking it in her right hand with the walking pick in her left. Luce walked over to the edge of the sand bank and stared at the current.

“Careful,” Josh warned. “If you don't pick in before stepping in, you'll get swept out from under your feet and washed away.” To prove his point, he tossed his harness into the water and it was promptly picked up by the current and shot out into the deep of the river.

Jacques noted, “That's not funny.” She finally unstrapped herself and walked towards Luce.

At sea level, the wind was not as strong as they were on the cliff face. But she found it unbelievably chilly, with the constant sea breeze blowing through the Helm freezing the air while carrying the scent of salt water that continually stung her nose.

Josh jogged up past them and took position a step away from the water. “I'll go in first. The two of you should spread a little. As I go further pull the rope taut between us and hold it above the water. Otherwise, it might get caught on a rock or something and pull me under.”

The pair nodded back and Josh gave them a thumbs up and a smile of reassurance. Jacques was glad they had managed to find him as their Guide. He might have been the only person who had survived multiple attempts at the Helm, and his relatively confident and knowledgable personality had kept them calm throughout their journey.

They watched as he took a deep breath before jabbing his two pick-sticks into the bridge. Once he was sure the picks were stuck into the floor below, he pulled one leg into the water instead of fully stepping in, stretching and tensing his muscles against the pick to make sure he did not get swept away. Once he secured his first footing, his second stepped followed, and he seemed to strain even harder, but managed to fully submerge into the waist deep water.

“Just follow my movements,” he instructed, apparently having gain full trust in their capabilities to learn and adapt.

He started his slow move across the bridge. Right pick forward. Right leg forward. Left pick forward. Left leg forward. Rinse. Repeat.

Jacques noticed how the water did not froth as rapids are known to, and concluded from Josh's stable and smooth gait that the currents must have shaped and smoothed the path below to a point where there were little to no resistance to impede the flow of water.

Even then, it took five full minutes of fighting the underwater current for Josh to be far enough that the ropes between them finally tightened. Luce looked nervously to her, and Jacques gave a reassuring smile before planting a quick kiss on her lips. They started walking away from each other, straightening the ropes between them. Josh signalled for them to start moving and the two took their first pick to the water.

Jacques set her pick in first, leaning heavily into it against the current. Her left leg went in first and she could immediately feel it being pulled away. Staggering, she stiffened her body and steadied herself. She looked over to Luce who was having similar problems.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you okay?” she shouted.

“Shut up!” Luce yelled back, her eyes focused on her movements. “I'm trying to concentrate!”

Sighing, Jacques returned to her own movements. She pushed her leg through the current. It felt as if someone was constantly pushing and pulling at her feet as she did so. Once she found footing on the group, she stabbed her spear in and started moving her last leg into the water, her body stiffening into a lock to prevent itself from being washed away.

Once both her feet were set on the underwater bridge, she looked to Luce, who just settled in as well. Finally, she nodded to Josh, who nodded back and started moving forward again. The couple started forward as well, and their Guide looked back every few seconds to make sure they were not too far or too close.

It was a painfully slow walk for the stone throw distance. After what felt like fifteen minutes, they were only halfway across. The water had receded further, making it knee deep then, but the underwater current became even stronger, as if the decreased of depth meant the flow had to increase to make up for a lack of challenge.

There was a scream.

Jacques turned just in time to see Luce splash into the water, her picks left behind in the bridge. The section of rope that connected Luce to Josh was angled into the water, stuck and caught. The section that connected to Jacques tensed and she was pulled away, her legs sweeping out from under her.

But she managed to hold onto her spear, and she could hear Josh shouting, incoherent over the water that rushed around her. She gasped for air, pulling herself up and against her spear, using the pick as a platform for her feet.

That was when she heard Josh shout, “The rope's about to snap!”

She turned to Luce, who struggled to keep her head above the water in the strong current. The section of rope between Jacques and Josh had stretched to its limit, hindering the Guide from moving quickly towards the struggling girl.

It won't hold! Jacques realized. It was impossible at the rate he was moving for Josh to reach Luce in time. And Jacques herself was in no position to move. If the rope snapped, there was no way for Jacques to pull Luce up by herself. They would both get washed away.

She felt her shoulders flare up, could see the glow from the corner of her eyes. She could hear Josh shouting, “Don't do it!”

One deep breath later, she managed to pull her spear out of the ground, stabilizing herself against her pick. With left hand free, she gestured upwards and a earth wall shot out of the land bridge, catching Luce and bringing her out of the deep currents.

Luce flailed out of the water, desperately grabbing onto the newly formed landmass. She looked around confusingly, disoriented by the near drowning. Then, she stared at the rock formation and turned to Jacques in shock, mouthing, “What have you done?”

Almost immediately, the water started to stir, the currents changing direction out of the Helm and into the sea. The moment the underwater current weakened enough, Josh made a beeline for Luce, untangling the stuck rope in the process. He looked over to Jacques in worry.

She used the sharp edge of her spearhead to cut the ropes that tied her to Luce and Josh. To Josh, Jacques shouted, “Get her out of here!”

“What about you?” he yelled back.

The water around their legs began to lower and she nervously turned to face the entrance of the Helm. The whirlpool that signalled the entrance of the Ohmir swirled as it displaced the water further. She held her spear in both hands, readying herself for the attack. The river fully drained off the bridge, leaving them on land.

“Jacques!” she heard Luce screamed. But she did not dare turn her head, fearing that one look at her beloved would weaken her resolve.

Breaking the surface of the water, the four pronged jaws of the Ohmir shot out of the sea, gaping wide and opened. The Titan turned to face Jacques, and she finally comprehended just how big the creature was. Jaw to jaw, she felt she was just a cubicle within an office. It lunged, the body bursting out of the water, arching as the Ohmir jabbed its opened maw at her like a spear.

She focused all her energy on the ground below her. She squat, planted her left palm faced down on the earth. With a heave, she pulled upwards and an earth column shot out, launching her into the air just as the Ohmir sliced into the ground she stood on, smashing into the bridge.

She could hear Josh shouting for Luce to, “Come on! Move!” She took a quick look back and watched as her two companions ran full speed across the waterless bridge.

“Buy time,” she mumbled under her breath.

The Ohmir dragged its body over the bridge, destroying the first half of the structure long before the back half of its body even reached the surface, completely submerging itself back into the Helm once the path was cleared.

She reached towards the opposing cliff wall and pulled. A slab of earth shot out, crossed the helm, and embedded itself into the cliff of Katoki, creating a makeshift platform which she landed on with a skid.

Josh and Luce had managed to reach the end of the bridge, and Josh readied Luce's grappling-lance, holding the girl back in his arms as Luce continued to scream for Jacques. Again, she was thankful that it was Josh who had took up their request. A lesser man would have left them for dead, but he fought to keep Luce from running off, fully intent on saving her life. With the Ohmir fully submerged again, the water was quickly rushed back in on them.

Jacques set her spear down and pulled her right arm back. With another focus of energy, she threw a punch into the opposite cliff face, creating a cave indented into the side. Transferring the momentum of energy into her left, she delivered an uppercut, pushing an earth spike through the middle of the makeshift cave as a pillar of support.

Josh witnessed the act and turned back to her. They nodded to each other in understanding and thanks. He turned back to the wall and fired the grappling-lance. With finesse, aim, and quick snaps from her finger, Jacques created two small spikes right where the grapple landed, giving it a stable hold. Josh pulled Luce up just as the tide rushed over the last bit of land, burying the remains of the bridge back under water.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Briefly, she contemplated on launching herself over to the other side with magic, but knew the heavy wind would simply push her off trajectory and back into the dangerous water, or fling her smashing into the cliff face. Looking up, her only choice left was to make the climb back up to Katoki. At least Luce is safe.

She took a step forward. Her legs gave way and she fell to her knees. The smell of blood blocked her nose. Her magic circuits burned in pain from the sudden overuse and tax. The platform below suddenly broke off and crumbled as the Ohmir smashed through it. She remembered the last thing she saw before hitting the water was a glimpse of the clear skies beyond the corner of the Helm. She remembered hitting the water. Water that was red with blood.