Dunst Till Dawn

The Quest for Excalibur

Morgan: the mere memory of her was enough to place him back into a state of pure bliss. She was exactly as he had imagined his ideal girl to be. Light brown hair, like his. Eyes bluer and more superb than even the waters of the Bahamas. And cute slightly chubby cheeks that made her look all that much more adorable. Especially when combined with her lean body, and her nice perky... um... other aspects he appreciated. 

It wasn't just her physical aspects that drew him to her. She seemed to have that whole personality thing down as well. The sweet kindness of his step-sis, Dawn. As well as her humbleness, and her down-to-earth-ness, and her adorable personality-ness. 

Gratefully, he let his mind wander back to the first time that he had met her. How cute she had looked as she pleaded with him for him to help her. How she had told him how he was her only hope. And how her tears ran down her sweet little innocent face as she explained to him how her sister had been kidnaped and was being held for ransom. And how the kidnappers wanted the ancient magical sword Excalibur, in exchange for her sister's life. 

It broke his heart to see her like that. Taking his empathy, to levels that were in danger of surpassing even that of his sister's. It was at that moment that he swore that he would find the sword for her and rescue her beloved sister! (After getting paid of course.) 

Did he just see what he thought he saw? No, that couldn't be. He must have been seeing things. His mind was just wandering around after all. It was probably just a trick of the light. How could a fish swim through solid rocks? 

Yet it was enough to shock him out of his pleasant daydream and send him back into his unfortunate cold-ass wet reality. Well, it was worth checking out at least. So, Jack, still in his black and red merman form, swam over to the rocks to investigate, placing his right hand on top of them. And like the Brown Trout he had just seen, his hand went right through it. For the rocks were nothing more than an illusion.

Pushing his hand farther through the pile of gray rocks, he found himself going deeper and deeper through them. What was on the other side?  He wondered.

To find out, he placed his head through the rocks instead. He could hardly even believe what he was seeing. A long corridor. Its walls, floor, and even its ceiling were blood red. Every part of the corridor was. All except for a door that was on the far side of it. It was  pitch-black. And it clashed quite dramatically with the rest of the otherwise red room. 

Other than the door, the only other source of color besides red within the whole red corridor was a plethora of white skeletons that littered its floor. Dozens of them. Each with a 1-inch hole through their legs, or crotch, and out the top of their skulls, shoulders, or chests. Indicating that all wasn't as peaceful and quiet as it may have seemed. 

Swimming farther into the cave, Jack was surprised to find that he was now back on dry land. And that his former fish form had transformed back into his original human form. He had to look back to make sure that he was still under Windermere Lake and had not been transported elsewhere. Sure enough, there were the Brown Trouts, still watching him from behind their wall of water. Where the water had just stopped, literally stopped, as if held back by an invisible glass, at the threshold of the cave. 

Beyond that wall of water, Jack could see his two interns, Patrick and Emma, still searching the lake for Excalibur. Should he tell them what he found? They weren't adventurers, just interns. They helped out with simple things or did things that he didn't want to do. And on occasion, they helped out his research team. But they weren't really the ones that he would've picked to have by his side when it came to dangerous adventuring. 

His sister would be. But she was busy on her own mission. Which was his stupid idea. Though he didn't expect her to go alone. Though as much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right about how she would be better off without having others slowing her down.