The River

Chapter 12

Logan was almost running, he could not trust the mermaid and her creature. On the way, he noticed that the light insects were all over the place. All the tunnel was lit up with little blue lights, and it was continuing straight forever. It was a magical scene. Finally, he reached their stuff, picked them up fast, and started going back to Laura.

He slowed down a little bit because his speed was making the light blow off, suddenly he saw the light insects again and blew off the light and walked fast toward the underground lake.

He reached by Laura’s side and sat beside her. She took some of the mushrooms out and started to squish them, so she would eat them easily.

The mermaid was not around and the creature was sleeping at the same place as before. Logan laid beside Laura and looked at her for some time. After some moments the mermaid swam toward them and Logan sat up to see her.

She came close to them, “Did you bring the plant?” asked the mermaid, Logan showed her the mushrooms, then she nodded, “I don’t think that’s enough,” said the mermaid, “You have some wounds too, I strongly suggest you eat some too,” Logan looked at her for a while and then stood up, grabbed the light and lit it up with his especial stones, walked toward the other side. Logan had his light in one hand and his dagger in another when passing by the creature. But the creature did not move at all. It looked like he was in a deep sleep.

After a little walk, Logan found some mushrooms by the side of a stone near the lake. He picked up as much as he could and went back to Laura.

The mermaid was not there again, Laura moved a little and then opened her eyes. Logan was by her side and she smiled, “How do you feel?” asked Logan with an eager voice, “I’ve been better,” answered Laura with a smile, “Sit up,” said Logan, “Let’s eat these,” Logan showed the mushrooms and continued, “Apparently they can help us heal faster,”

Laura sat up and saw the creature, a shiver ran through her body, Logan put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a kind look. Then they started eating lots of mushrooms.

The mushroom was very delicious and juicy and the more they ate the more they wanted to continue eating. Logan has picked a lot of mushrooms and they ate them all.

For some time they just laid down beside each other, “I feel dizzy,” said Laura “And for some reason, I feel happy,” “Yeah,” agreed Logan “I feel I know everything,” “What do you mean everything?” asked Laura with laughter, “I mean everything,” answered Logan “Ask me a question, any question,” “Ok,” said Laura “What should I ask?” “Anything,” answered Logan, “But,” said Laura “I don’t remember any questions,” “What?” asked Logan, “Ah wait,” interrupted Laura “I found the perfect question,” “What is it?” asked Logan, “What is what?” said Laura, “Your question,” asked Logan “What is your question?” “I don’t have any questions,” answered Laura, still laughing “Do you have any questions?” “No,” said Logan, “I have answers,” “Answers?” asked Laura “Answers to what questions?” “I don’t know,” said Logan “I just have the answers, that’s why I’m seeking a question,” “But,” said Laura, “I thought you are searching for the source,” “What source?” asked Logan, “Source of the river,” answered Laura, “Oh yeah,” agreed Logan, “Where is the river?” “Which river?” asked Laura, “The one we are searching for,” answered Logan, “I don’t know,” said Laura and then burst with energy “Wait wait, I think there’s water,” and pointed at the underground lake, “Oh,” said Logan in awe “But that’s no river,” “Really?” asked Laura disappointed, “Yeah,” answered Logan with a feel of deep knowledge “You see, rivers and water reservoirs are different, there are who walk and there are who don’t, I can walk, you can walk, but that rock can’t walk, so the river is like us, but this ocean, is just a rock of water,” “I see,” said Laura with wonder “So the rocks can move,” “Sometimes,” answered Logan “But those who can’t will live longer,” “Can’t what?” asked Laura curiously, “Can’t move,” answered Logan, “Who?” asked Laura, “I don’t know,” said Logan with a gesture.

Laura turned on her back and looked at the top of the cave instead of Logan, “Oh, look at those stars,” said Laura in wonder, Logan turned on his back too and stared at the ceiling of the cave’s dome “Some of them are moving,” said Logan with joy, “I thought we were in a tunnel,” said Laura, “Yes we are,” said Logan, “So,” said Laura “How is it that we can see the stars? We are out of the tunnel I think,” Logan thought for a while “Maybe I better check,” said Logan, “Check what?” asked Laura, “The thing,” said Logan, “What thing?” asked Laura, Logan started thinking again, “I don’t remember,” said he as laughing “But I remember someone said if we don’t move we will turn into rocks.”

Then Logan tried to sit up but couldn’t “I can’t sit,” said Logan, “Why?” asked Laura, “I don’t know,” answered Logan “But I can’t move from here,” “Good for you,” said Laura “You will live longer,” “Yeah,” answered Logan as laid down again with a happy face, “I will, so can you?” “Can I?” asked Laura, “Can you get up?” asked Logan, “If I want to,” answered Laura, “Are you sure?” asked Logan with a mocking tone in his voice, then Laura jumped up and stood straight, she looked around for a second, she didn’t look like someone who can stand erect without a problem and then threw up.

Laura fell on her vomit and then started to laugh out loud. Logan looked at what happened for some moment and then joined Laura and started to laugh. The creature woke up and looked at them, then started walking away into the cave that led to the Labyrinth.

Laura and Logan stopped laughing after some time, “I think I better wash myself,” said Laura, “I will join you,” answered Logan, then they took their clothes off and washed themselves and each other with the water from the underground lake.

After cleaning themselves, they cuddled and made love and fell asleep by the lake.

Laura woke up with the sound of water splashing, she remembered fighting with the creature, and then a mermaid came from the water and washed her wounds, and after that, she fell asleep till now. She felt so rested, it must have been a lot of time since she went to sleep.

Laura opened her eyes slowly, still scared of what could be going on around her, she felt a little light-headed, but that was nothing to be worried about. Laura suddenly realized that she is naked and saw Logan lying naked beside her. Then she saw a shadow, slowly turned, and saw the mermaid sitting beside Logan outside of the water.

The mermaid had a glass bottle in her hand with a dark red liquid in it, then Laura realized that it was blood. The mermaid looked straight into her eyes, Laura jumped and saw the mermaid was sucking the blood out of Logan's side and pouring it into a second jar.

The mermaid smiled at Laura, “Don’t worry,” said the mermaid “You can go, I just needed his blood,” Laura felt so angry and wanted to attack the mermaid, but she was naked and had no weapon on her, she saw her bow and the only three arrows left nearby.

Laura jumped and launched a shot at the mermaid, she jumped back to the water and the arrow missed her and dropped to the water. Laura ran toward Logan and shook him while shouting his name. Logan slowly opened his eyes, “What?” nagged Logan “Let me sleep,” “Get up,” shouted Laura “Logan, get up, we need to go, he’s coming, the creature,” Logan turned his head and saw the creature coming toward them slowly, “No worries,” said Logan with a smile and closed his eyes, “The mermaid said he won’t attack us anymore,” “Logan,” shouted Laura.

The mermaid was in the water near them, she was looking at Laura, “There’s nothing you can do,” said the mermaid “Just go before I change my mind about your life,” Laura jumped toward the mermaid and stabbed one of her arrows to the neck of the mermaid, it happened so fast that even mermaid could not move away.

The mermaid screamed so loud that made Logan jump out of sleep, he looked around and saw the creature running toward Laura, while she was naked by the lake and watching the mermaid going under the water. Logan jumped toward Laura and at the last moment before the creature reached Laura, he hit the creature and they both fell into the water.

Laura saw them fall into the water, she reached out her arm to grab Logan but he was a little far away. The creature and Logan fought for some moments in the water, Logan didn’t know how to swim and his only chance was to grab the creature. Finally, he managed to get on the creatures back. It rolled several times but Logan didn’t let go. Creature saw Laura and swam toward her not caring about Logan on his back.

Laura saw the creature swimming toward herself, and pulled her bow with the last arrow left, then she changed her mind. There was a good chance of hitting Logan. She looked around and saw Logan’s dagger, she grabbed it and stood by the water waiting for the creature, the moment they were close enough Laura tossed the dagger to Logan, he stabbed the creature several times in the head and jumped out of the water himself.

The creature moaned in pain but still managed to get out of the water, both Laura with her knife and Logan with his dagger attacked the creature again and didn’t let him move at all. They stabbed him all over his body and finally, Logan kicked him hard and threw him back to the water. The creature went down and after a moment his carcass came back on the water.

Logan realized his wound on his side, it was not bleeding, nor was it in pain, but it was a big wound and he could easily see the mermaid's teeth mark around the wound. Then he looked around and saw the bottle full of blood.

Laura told Logan all she had seen from the moment she opened her eyes. After that, they put their clothes on and gathered their stuff, but they were so tired and wounded, so they decided to rest there a little bit.

Moments later the mermaid came back on the surface with the creature in her arms, she started shouting in some words that had no meaning for Logan and Laura, but it was the scariest sound they have ever heard.

The mermaid had a wound on her neck but the arrow was not there anymore. She was shouting with a loud voice, her voice was again a combination of different pitches from high to low.

For some moments Logan and Laura stood in shock but they grabbed their stuff and ran as fast as they could. The voice of the mermaid was not getting lower, it felt that she was chasing them with her voice. They looked back several times, the mermaid was not there, but her voice was powerful enough to make them run still.

After a long running inside the tunnel, the light insects reduced in number and they could not see anything anymore. They slowed their speed and lit their small lamp. The voice of the mermaid stopped eventually, but its horror was still in their bodies.

Logan and Laura kept walking with a fast paste without talking. They knew that they would not stop until the end of the tunnel. They were horrified, wounded, tired and in pain, but they continued their long walk.