Starboy

(Chapter 4) The medic Merling

After swimming for a while, Jimmy took a break and allowed himself to sink to the bottom. On the stone floor of the underground river, he took a seat.

He positioned his hands in front of him as if holding a basketball while waiting. A fish eventually showed up and slipped between the blonde's hands. Jimmy quickly closed his hands, and the fish was instantly killed by his claws. He did this about three more times until he had enough fish to satisfy his hunger and could continue swimming.

Jimmy noticed that he was swimming more and more upwards and that the water had recently grown progressively colder. That had to indicate that the valley was drawing nearer.

The water got even colder after swimming for a while more. The Cod hybrid felt it, though it didn't particularly bother him. Along with the occasional axolotls he saw, the local fish population was also declining.

The only underwater creatures he now encountered were glow squids and fish that could survive in cold water.

He observed that the water was becoming increasingly lit, which indicated that either there was a surface exit or that a portion of the water tunnel would pass through a lush cave. The second had previously occurred, but this time the light wasn't the mellow orange/gold light that glowberries emitted.

This was the sun's light.

Jimmy grinned as he swam swiftly uphill to the light in the final stretch.

When his head came up, the first thing he did was shake it. to remove the majority of the water from it.

When Jimmy turned to look, he could see that he had emerged in a clearing bordered by trees. It didn't look like he could get to land. The distance between the land's surface and the water's surface was at least one meter.

Looking up, the blonde noticed a single tree with a few branches hanging over it next to the water. Jimmy slowly lowered himself underwater and, with great speed, shot upwards so that he could just grab hold of a branch. He started to hoist himself out of the water when he heard voices.

His whole body froze, and he carefully looked around. He focused on the voices that he could hear in the distance between the trees. Jimmy noticed that the few people who emerged from the forest were not friendly right away.

He immediately released the branch, falling back into the water with a splash and more noise than he had anticipated. Jimmy looked up as he quickly disappeared into a hollow as his body operated on autopilot. The Cod hybrid was almost sure that he wouldn't be visible from above.

The sound of people running was quickly followed by the voices he had heard earlier. Jimmy remained motionless as a few heads peered over the edge.

He didn't budge.

The hunters eventually left, but Jimmy was aware that they had only stopped looking at the water. They knew that there was something in the water here that they could grab.

Jimmy cautiously emerged from hiding and quickly dove down. He began to scan the area in search of a different waterway he could use to get closer to the valley, but he came up empty-handed.

He was only able to swim a very far distance back and then choose another route or wait until the hunters had left.

Jimmy decided to swim back because it was the safest and best course of action, and he did so until he heard a rumbling sound. The blond noticed cracks in the wall above him when he looked up.

His fight or flight response kicked in, and he swam back a short distance right away. Just in time, because the wall collapsed and lava came flowing down.