The Cinders of Dezu

18th: Moss Linga (1)

From the cliffs, Julian watched without realizing how hard he was pressing both his palms into the sides of his head. When he saw Cairo deliberately dive beneath the waves after the creature, he finally stopped and began to pace frantically.

"Crap! Crap! Crap! No! No!"

He stopped and looked to the ledge.

"Okay..."

He shook his hands with his fingers splayed out. He backed up and started to run for the edge.

Beneath the surface, Cairo looked around. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the waters, he saw the tentacles of the monster propelling it deeper and towards the edge of the pool. As Moss Linga's arm stroked the water back, he saw a light in his fist. It was the dim light of a fire engulfed in bubbles. The fist of the sea monster shook until the light went out. He threw a figure farther down into the depths. The figure of a girl.

Cairo started frantically trying to swim down, knowing before he even started that he was too far to save her. The monsters octopus-like tentacles propelled him in a wide circle as it began to go around the edge of the pool. Cairo could see the wall of the pool gave way to a deep dark cavern underneath. The cavern stretched all around the edges of the pool, only discernible from underwater. Cairo swam as hard and as fast as he could toward the shadow of the limp young woman. Her silhouette stirred and began to slowly tread water. Cairo sparked with hope just as he felt his body begin moving faster through the water.

It was much faster than he knew his arms were capable of taking him. He stopped swimming. It felt as though he was falling towards her quickly, like he was being pulled through the water. He looked up and down until he spotted Julian wading in the water just above him. He was looking down with his arm outstretched. He wasn't reaching out to him though. He looked like he was guiding him.

He turned his head to see Talia but he caught a glimpse of movement. He froze as he saw the beast of the lake rear it's body toward them both. The gaze of Moss Linga's ferocious face narrowed on both of the boys. He had a unmistakable shine in his eye. The look of a predator who just spotted prey.

Cairo's speed suddenly increased. He looked up to see Julian had seen it too and was now propelling them both through the water. Cairo looked ahead to Talia who was treading water and facing them. Cairo could see her face now. She was assessing her surroundings before looking bewildered as she started quickly falling backwards without her control.

In a powerful serpentine motion, Moss Linga began his pursuit. Down and down they went with escalating speed. The darkness grew closer and closer. Cairo grew terrified of running out of air.
Julian felt the fear of suffocation creeping in too, but he knew something Cairo did not. As the three of them passed through the mouth of the caverns, Julian looked up. There they were. Between broken and intact stalactites, hundreds of clams were floating on the ceiling of the underwater cave. Julian was soaring through the water with his arms out to his side. He spun like a propeller to get visual on three specific clams. In the same motion he changed their polarity from the ceiling so that each clam gravitated towards them, one for Cairo, one for Talia and one for him.

Julian's powers were starting to feel like muscles he could stretch. He held the three of them now, along with the three clams. This made six objects at once. It didn't feel like he was maxing himself out either. So now it was time to try his clam popping trick, and hopefully not pop his friends at the same time. The clams drew closer to each of them, nearly colliding. In unison, they snapped open.

Cairo's eyes widened as the clam he just noticed in his peripheral came at him with its 'jaws' wide. In an instant, Cairo was enclosed inside. He let air out of his lungs in a panic. When fresh air pushed water out of the shell he was almost scared to breathe it. He finally relented. As his eyes adjusted to the translucent shell, he heard a powerful rumble.

Just outside, a pillar had shattered. Several stones rained down to the cave floor. Julian, still at the back of the line, looked back to see a disturbingly close Moss Linga opening his mouth. As he did, a force emanating from his jaws manifesting as a ball of water could be seen tearing through the stone columns around them. It travelled past the three of them in their clam shells and disappeared in the water ahead. Talia, the farthest in front, could see a light at the end of the tunnel just before the force of the displaced water spun them out of control.

In the swirling confusion, Julian lost control of everyones gravity but managed to catch some of the falling stones and reverse their polarity in the direction of the sea monster. He temporarily slowed his pursuit as he was pelted. As they slowly rose to the ceiling of the cave, they all got a sense of the shape of their surroundings. The cave was a pathway. It was a size large enough for the creature of the lake to move from the lake to the center of the island and back again. They were traveling the hall to his sacrifice.

From the ceiling between stalactites, Julian looked down to see Moss Linga shake his head and look around for them. Cairo was beginning to realize how helpless he was without Julian carrying them through the water. Talia was measuring the distance to the surface in her head to see if she'd be able to make it if she burned her way out of the clam.

Moss Linga searched all around his tunnel and then looked up at the ceiling. Julian held his breath. Moss Linga kept staring with reflective eyes the size of manhole covers, glistening with the light of the exit that they were so close to. He seemed to be looking right at him. But he wasn't. He realized the creatures predicament. The ceiling was covered in floating air-filled clams. The three of them were just new additions to the pile.