Wet Fire

A Great Chasm (E5)

Adair

    It was at sunset when they were nearing the grove. Adair's throat was bound with a cloth, that Cass had instructed him to wear in order for his wound to heal more quickly. Occasionally, Cass would have to remind him to douse the cloth into the sea and tie it back into place. She said that this would make his wound stronger.

Cass believed in the water more than any of them. Not only did she know the proper methods to clean and heal wounds with water, but she also knew how to obtain drinking water. Even though they travelled perpetually with an enormous body of water nearby them, it all was undrinkable. Cass said that she had been born on a trading ship off the coast of the city of Summervale. She had traveled more places than Adair had been in his entire life before she was old enough to know her name, and water had brought her there.

"There was once a trade ship from Watereel that halted us on the high seas. My father initially thought that it was a pirate ship, come to rob us of the grain that we were carrying, but, luckily it was not. Their captain had long, dark hair, which was braided down his back, and silvery eyes that shone like the moon. I was young at the time, maybe eight, but I remember what he looked like. His appearance was so strange-so striking." She paused, "He was from the desert."

"...and,"

"He told me about what attracted him to the seas."

"The water." said Adair.

"Yes, it was the water." Cass looked out to sea. "Miles and miles and miles of it. The sea is so vast. He said that he wished to sail all of it before he died. Never rest until the entire world was explored."

Both Cass and Adair spent a moment in silence. Kade walked a ways behind them, gathering driftwood and searching for any washed-ashore items that could be of use.

"Why not build a raft and go out to sea? There is enough driftwood and supplies here to build a whole fleet of ships. Why do we have to suffer through the desert when there is a better way out?"

She continued, "The desert, the captain said, was a lot like the open ocean. From the surface, both look calm and desolate, but underneath is an entire ecosystem. Danger and death could be lurking right below you and you would not even know it until it was too late.

            "I was born at sea, and I have been many places. I would not risk the sea over the desert, especially in a makeshift raft." Cass stopped Adair in his tracks. Her hands clutched his shoulders and she looked him straight in the eyes. "Imagine you in your raft...at sea. Waves, waves as tall as a castle come crashing down around you. You can barely see through the driving rain and through the flashed of lightning. Pirates waiting for you at the edge of the storm. Sharks in the water, snapping at the raft, bloodthirsty. Do you think that a tiny wooden raft would escape unscathed?" Cass let go of him and walked onward towards the grove.

            The sight of green foliage made Adair's heart leap. He was right. It is an oasis. The freshwater spring was about five-hundred feet from the shoreline, and it emerged from a large crack at the foot of a tall red bluff. Around the spring, tall grass and dwarf palms grew along with at least a dozen tall washy palms.  Sure enough, plump purple dates grew in bundles on the tops of the palms, swaying with each gust of wind. There must have been food there to last them a year.

    "This way." urged Adair's uncle as he took the lead.

    Kade led them further into the grove to the banks of the spring, and as they moved into the brush, the air became cool and moist. The spring itself was small, but incredibly deep. The bright blue water was so clear that Adair could see the specks of rocks submerged half a hundred feet below its surface.