So, I Transmigrated Into The Heavenly Realm

3. At Least There Aren't Robot Crabs Here

3

Although Dax was chained beneath the water of the lake, its surface remained as still and silent as a mirror. His attempts to release himself despite the weight and restrictions of the chains holding him down, did little other than to hasten the dispersal of the golden pigment through the water. Which glittered in the low light, obscuring the crystal clear waters with its reflective pigment. In time it would sink to the lake bed and lie amongst the fronds of red seaweed below.

Time was meaningless here, there was nothing by which you could mark it. No natural light, only the high rugged walls of the cave that surrounded the lake and a gentle glow from the mushrooms growing at the waters' edge. They were spindly and tightly packed together in clumps, many of them almost reaching the cave ceiling. The flesh of their caps and gills emitted a soft purple light just bright enough to illuminate the floor of the cave.

On a rocky outcrop that overhung the lake, the mushrooms that grew there, were reflected on its surface. Soft though the light was, it was still strong enough to make out the chunks of rose quartz studded into the stone beneath them. Their facets were heavily polished and engraved with intricate symbols for some unknown purpose.

A gravel beach surrounded the lake, larger in some spots than others but gently sloped as if the ground had been softly scooped out to make the lake. The gravel deposit was thick and filled with smooth basalt pebbles eroded from the rock floor of the cave.

On the far bank, the only other living being, besides Dax and the glowing fungi, that could be seen, was a giant tree covered with a brilliantly white bark. A bark that almost shone on its own, despite the purple cast it took from the mushroom light. Except for two golden leaves that clung on desperately to a thin twig high up in the tree's canopy, it was entirely bare.

Despite its height the trunk was deceptively thin and forked into three just below the crown. The entire length of its pure white bark was pockmarked with considerably darker diamond shaped fissures as if someone had hacked into it with a small axe hundreds of times.

At the base of the tree the trunk grew increasingly black and knobby before splitting into roots that powerfully gripped and penetrated the solid rock. Countless golden leaves lay among the roots, dry, wrinkled and shining like a dragon's hoard. Undisturbed, they lay in the exact place they had fallen.

Waiting.

Everything was waiting for something.

The penultimate leaf quivered. Not buffeted by a breeze or shaken limb. The cells holding it on to the rest of the tree were weak enough now. It was time to fall. To lay among the others who had once also hung beside it.

And so it fell.

Unlike the others though, it did not fall straight to the ground to join the pile of dried leaves beneath but like a paper aeroplane glided across the lake. It slowly descended before dropping into the water somewhere near the middle.

The first leaf to land upon the water and the last.

Ripples emanating from the leaf's point of contact spread out in continuous rings until they reached the lip of a large crystal bell hanging from the cave ceiling directly over the lake. The heavy milky coloured bell, carved with decorative plants and runes slowly began to move, pushed by the ripples until it gathered enough momentum to begin ringing. The thin chain swaying as it did so, made a soft clinking noise but it was overshadowed by the much larger sounds of the bell's tolls.

Every ring from the bell echoed off of the rock walls of the cave, becoming louder and louder with each toll. Vibration from the sound caused the lake's ripples to increase in size and frequency, jostling the bell with increasing vigour until a large piece of rock fell from the ceiling crashing into the water.