The Whisperer

Chapter 14- Mojo

 Swipe! Thrust! Block! Stab! Never give up! Never give in! I repeated Flint’s words over in my head. Taking a deep breath, I wiped the sweat from my brow. After the chat with my family, I had thrown myself into a training session. Celeste still wasn’t back yet. Dilenis hadn’t either.

All in all, I was feeling lonely.

I took another jab at the dummy I was practicing on, and then shoved my sword back into the sheath. Looking down at it, I wondered when I was going to be taught how to use my dirk, knife, spear and sling. There were so many things to learn!

I decided that to cool off, I’d go take a dip in the river. I grabbed my bathers and an old t-shirt to go over the top, and headed off in the direction of the river.

I waded into the water, relishing its cooling effect. I dived under the surface, and came up gasping like a fish. A big grin split on my face. All of the stress from the night before was rolling off in waves. I began to giggle. Then laugh.

Not that anything was actually funny. I just hadn’t been able to be my age for a long time. With Celeste and Flint around, I felt as though I always had to act older than I was.

I lay on my back, and closed my eyes, not caring that the river was slowly taking me downstream. It was so relaxing. The water was holding me up like a mattress. Wait. The water was holding me up. I realised only half my body was submerged by the river. How did my mind manage to always surprise me? I mean, it was my mind for goodness’ sake! Bur somehow, I’d subconsciously willed the river to support me.

I closed my eyes again, having complete faith in my ability to keep my afloat. Drifting down that river was rather lonely. If only Arrow was here.

“I am.” I heard a whisper. Jerking upwards, I scanned the forest for someone. Nothing moved. Fabulous. Now I was hearing things. Perhaps I fell asleep. Maybe I said it out loud and someone decided it would be funny to answer. But then again, I was the only one here.

Or so I thought.

I dipped my hand into the water flowing past me. For some reason, the ‘water bed’ was moving slower than the river itself. Then I felt a pressure on my hand, as though someone was squeezing it. I pulled it out of the water. Okay. I tried to pull it out of the water. I frowned.

I looked into the river, and shrieked.

A kind of water creature was grasping onto my hand. I jerked my hand away as hard as I could. And with my luck… well… the water creature came with it. A wet sprawling figure landed on top of me.

“Get off me!” I screeched. It payed no attention to me.

“I’m out of the water!” it said in a bubbly voice.

“Well der!” I exclaimed. “You’re also on top of me!” The creature seemed to notice me for the first time.

“Oh. I didn’t see you there,” the watery figure said sheepishly. Then I realised wasn’t getting wet. The thing on top of me looked like a normal person. They wore an aqua blue t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. Well, it did, except for slightly blue tinged skin, and the hair. The hair was electric blue with dark blue streaks. Did I mention it stuck up in the air like someone had used a hair dryer underneath it?

“Let’s go to shore,” the blue person suggested. I nodded. I willed the ‘water bed’ to drift over to the grassy bank. I scrambled onto dry land.

“Wha… who are you?” I asked curiously.

“Me? Oh I’m Mojo.” Why did all mystical beings have such weird names?