The Lost Gems

Chapter 15

March 8th 1,034
10:00 a.m

Aqua's POV:

I used my right hand to untie the knot of the cloth on my hand. It was tricky with only one hand but I managed to untie it. I unwrapped the fabric and removed the leaves. My hand wasn't as puffy and the skin almost wasn't the greenish-yellow it was a few days ago, the infection must be going away.

Everyone else was up. We decided that we were going to walk at night time so we would be less likely to be seen. So we had a whole day to rest and relax.

"Hey does anyone want to go for a swim? Tanz and I found a giant pond a few minutes away." Diamond asked.

Everyone muttered a yea sure or sounds awesome and we started walking.

I looked down at my hands they were filthy. It had been four days since we had left our home and four days since any of us had a shower. The air was warm this morning and we were still in the jungle climate where it was thick with leaves and trees and very humid. It had rained a little early this morning so the air was extra thick and everyone's hair was crazy and curly. I looked over at Sal who was surprisingly not by my side he had beads of sweat rolling off his forehead. He was talking to Rod. Rod was able to slowly walk today Sal helped him get to the pond. Clay and Diamond were hitting it off and I saw that she was laughing at something he had said. I ran up besides Tanz.

"How weird is it that there are three girls and three boys?" Tanz said with a chuckle.

"It's just a crazy coincidence I guess, but hey it all works out we all have a partner and each of us all seem to get along perfect with one another."

After a few minutes we had finally it to the pond. I was relieved and excited.

It was beautiful, the water was crystal clear. Various types of exotic flowers grew around the pound. Bright white daisy and red poppies I had never seen flowers like that in real life only in books due to the fact that we lived in hiding and where we grew up was just houses and fields of wheat and corn. We had never seen the ocean or touched the sand, we had only heard stories of how lovely it is. Something as pretty as the pond was not normal to us and was a rare thing to see. The pond was almost too perfect...

Everyone took no time to jump in. I removed my boots and untied the jacket from my waist. Sal took off his boots and shirt. He was much skinnier than when I first saw him a few days ago. I felt bad about not being able to provide enough food for everyone. The berries and carrots weren't able to cut it we needed meat and actual protein. Maybe there were fish in the pond. It was a decent size much bigger than I had ever imagined. Sal walked over to me and wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me in. He gently kissed me and picked me up by my waist. He must be in a really happy mood, why else would he pick me up? He leaned in for another kiss on my cheek but stopped as soon as his lips were centimeters from my skin. He threw me into the pond. I landed with a giant splash. The water was much colder than I had expected. I stood up and put my feet on the bottom of the pond which happened to be clay. I pushed my long now soaking wet hair back and gave him an angry face. He started laughing and slowly walked into the water. What he didn't realize was that there was an instant drop in the pond. He took a few more steps towards me while wincing at freezing water. I dared him to come get me knowing that he wouldn't resist. He slowly stepped where the drop was and instantly went under all the way. When he reamerged from the water he was shivering.

"Not expecting that huge drop were you?" I said with a devious smile. He nodded and shook the water out of his hair. "That's what you get for throwing me into the cold water!"

He sure was cute when he smiled. He dove at me and pulled me under than water. I pulled away from him and stood up laughing. Two hands grabbed my ankles and pulled me under once again the grip was tight and felt like nails were digging me. Sal didn't have long fingernails, maybe his skin was just rough and I imagined it was sharper. I figured it was Sal who pulled me under because when I popped my head out of the water there he was with his slick smile and curved eyebrows. He made me so happy and I realized that I was starting to love him. I put my arms around his bare shoulders and he dragged me across the water near Clay, Rod, Diamond, and Tanzanite. I noticed that Rod wouldn't go into the water past his waistline. His stab wound must have really been bothering him and didn't want the newly stitches to get wet and possibly sting even worse.

I really wished we had soap with us. I dipped my hair in the water and scrubbed it as best as I could. I took off my shirt and also washed it as best as I could then Slipped it back on. Everyone else did the same. I kept feeling something brush on my ankles I simply ignored it. After we were all clean we decided to get out of the water so we wouldn't waste all of our energy. Sal and I laid on the edge of the pond in the grass where the sun was hitting to dry our clothes. I unrolled my pants so they would dry faster. I noticed weird marks on my skin.

"Jeez Sal clip your nails." I said to him. He gave me a puzzled look.

"Look at the marks you left on me when you grabbed my ankles and pulled me under water." I said pointing to the red scratches covering my skin.

"Umm Aqua I never grabbed your ankles and pulled you under. I only pulled you under once and that was when I grabbed your waist and dove at you."

"I swear you were the one who kept touching my feet that whole time." I stated.

"Aqua look at my nails there short! They don't even go past my skin."

He was right his nails couldn't have possibly done that.

"If it wasn't you and everyone else was on the other side of the pond then who did this?" I nearly screamed.

We both turned our heads toward the body of water. It was calm not even a single ripple of water moved. The water was even clear. I got up and Sal did to we walked closer to the water and looked for anything out of place. I thought I saw something shiny on the bottom . I walked around the perimeter of the pond where the object was. I bent down on my knees and started at it. Was it a chain necklace? A coin?
I stared at it as hard as I could and tried to make out the shape. This part of the pond was darker and deeper. I leaned in even closer to the water my nose was inches away from touching the water. I was just about to give up and look away from the water when a grey bony hand emerged from the water and grabbed my nose.

Vote and comment! ~Ellsa