Resilience Run

Chapter 17

While I was trapped in the cave with the sea monster, Rhys was freaking out. Much to Daniel's chagrin, Jagos and Baugh came over as well, also freaking out because Rhys was freaking out.

"What's going on?!" Jagos yelled, "Where's Mom?"

"The Oktu-damned sea monster got her!" Rhys yelled, "We have to go down there and get her! We can't waste time, we have to go!"

"Everyone, please, calm down!" said Daniel, "We can get her, but rushing down there is a bad idea."

"And if we don't, that thing might eat her before we can get to her!" Rhys said, "We have to get down there now! I'm gonna go make some water-breathing potions!"

Baugh was already trying to dive into the lake himself, but Jagos held him back, using some of his own inherit magic to enhance his strength to do so. Before Rhys could run back to the Inn, Daniel stopped her.

"Rhys, it'll take too long for you to make them!" said Daniel, "I have a better idea, but you're going to have to trust me."

Rhys was antsy, but she did just that, stepping over to Baugh to calm him down as Daniel stepped over to the lake and, much to the confusion of everyone else, stuck his head into the water, completely submerging it.

Within a couple of seconds, a shadow rose from the water and made its way towards Daniel. Rhys pulled Jagos and Baugh back, but the shadowed creature made no attempt tobreak the surface, or seemed to try to hurt Daniel either. There were some bubbles that broke through the surface, but eventually, the shadowed creature returned to the depths and Daniel came back up, not even pausing to take a breath.

"Alright, I think I got something," said Daniel, "Though it's cautious, and we're gonna be risking a lot."

"You're familiar with merpeople?" Rhys asked.

"Salt-based merpeople, mostly," said Daniel, "But I can speak some of the fresh-water language, and more importantly, I can breathe and speak underwater, and might be able to work out getting some help from them."

"Help in what way?" Rhys asked, "Backup?"

"Possibly," said Daniel, "But they're pretty hesitant, considering the sea monster in question has been causing them problems too."

"Then why wouldn't they help us?" said Jagos as he stepped forward, "If they want to get rid of that monster too, wouldn't they want to help us kill it quickly?"

"It's not that simple," said Daniel, "That thing's been killing mer-people down there, and only recently started coming up to the surface. They're kind of just happy that they aren't the ones being targeted anymore."

"Well that's gonna change soon if we don't deal with this thing now!" said Rhys, "What can we do to get them on our side?"

"I'm working on that now," said Daniel, "I might have to go down there to explain the situation, but even in a worst-case scenario, we'll take that creature ourselves and hope for the best."

"And we don't just go for that, why?" Rhys asked.

"We tried that, twice," said Daniel, "It kicked our asses and kidnapped Riley, remember? On our own, we don't stand as much of a chance as we would with other people."

Rhys kicked at the sand, sighed, and finally said, "Alright, let's get to work."

"I feel like we should be trying to escape right now." I said.

I was still stuck in the cave. The creature had made no attempt to come near me, or hurt me, it had spent what felt like forever just staring at me, and I was staring back. The intense stand-off had ended when the creature turned around and dove pack into the hole in the floor where the water was, disappearing from sight.