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Luz skipped down the hill and gazed in wonder at the sight. The land had been leveled out in a hundred-foot circle. Carved from end to end into this flat space was a deep, shimmering pool of water, so dark and blue that she couldn't see the bottom. The all-encompassing forest hid the spot from sight, creating a cozy atmosphere. She squealed.
“Eda! I thought that all the lakes and ponds on the Boiling Isles were too dangerous to visit? Why isn’t this one?”
The Owl Lady marched across the grass and up to the edge of the sand. She grinned at her excitement. “Remember when you were telling me about how much you loved swimming? That you were bummed that we couldn’t all go out to a lake together?”
“Yeah. Did you find this one all by yourself?”
“Find it? Kiddo, I built it! Terraformed the whole place. The water won’t boil since it came from the glyphs you taught me. A couple nights of digging, a whole lot of explosions and boom! D-I-Y pool!”
“Eda,” she placed her hands on her heart, smiling widely, “you did all this for me?”
“Surprise, kid. Happy late birthday.”
She received a big, bouncing hug. King walked to the water and looked at it with distaste. “You know that public pools have been a thing for years, right? And they're not stagnant sand water?”
“Yes, and I’m banned from all of them. Don’t mind him, Luz. He’s just grumpy because there’s no lifeguard. He can’t swim an inch.”
“I can swim!” King spat. “...If I have arm floaties! I just don’t like to because it makes my fur all heavy and it’s impossible to dry!”
“That’s okay, King,” Luz scooped him up and nuzzled his skull like he was a cat, “I can teach you to swim. It’s super easy once you get used to the water.”
He went limp in her arms, glaring at the sky. “You go on ahead, Luz. I’m a land demon to the bitter end. Eda! My crown!"
She rolled her eyes and pulled a sun hat out from her hair. She tucked it over his horns. Luz set him down by the shallows, giving his head a tiny pat. She looked at Eda, struggling to stay still.
"Do you need an invention?" Eda teased. "I'll follow in after you in a second. Give it a go! If you like it, then I bet we can bring your friends down here tomorrow!"
She giddily slipped a foot into the water. Chilly. Perfect for a hot day like this. She jogged backwards to give herself a running start and barreled forward. She leaped far out and landed ineptly on her side. King scrambled away from the wave and hissed. She stifled a laugh.
Stroke by stroke, she made her way towards the center. The bottom was sloped like a real beach, so it grew deeper the further she went. She dived, did some happy flips under the surface, and occasionally plunged deep to check how far the ground had sunk. By the time she reached the deepest point, it was probably four or five times her height.
She looked back to the land and prepared to shout more thanks to Eda. To complement her work and fully appreciate her efforts. But something else caught her attention first. It was impossible to see below her waist, but she felt something glide by her feet. It was accompanied by a dark shadow.
"Hey Eda! Where did you find fish to put in your pond?"
"Ha-ha, Luz. I'm not that gullible."
"No, Eda, really! Something just swam under me." It did it again as she spoke. It was round. Far bigger than she thought, too. Almost her size. It suddenly made her grossly uncomfortable.
"There's nothing in the water, kid. The Boiling Isles doesn't have any freshwater fish, and we're the only ones here. Cut it out."
Luz watched the blurry blob circle her. It dove out of sight. Her spine tingled.
"Eda? I'm not joking. There's–"
Her mouth and nose filled with water before she could finish speaking. It was so sudden that her words manifested in a bubble, filled with most of her oxygen, and went flying towards the surface. She was falling. Rapidly. She heard Eda's indecipherable cry muffled by several feet of water. After all of these things registered in her brain, she absorbed the fact that something was holding her by the ankle.
She kicked at it, but its fingers were locked and steely. She couldn't connect a single blow. She clawed above her. There was nothing to grab hold of. It grew darker the farther the sun became. Darker and darker until her feet met the rocks on the bottom. It let her go.
Her chest was already burning. She paddled as uniformly as she could manage, which was spastic at best. She got halfway up when the inside of her body tightened. Her head hurt. Then, cruelly, something boney wrapped around her torso. The creature didn't drag her any lower. It held her in place and let her watch the radiant surface bleed into an unreachable wall of black. She felt her lungs filled with water. She lost consciousness.
***
Luz sat up and felt her chest. She looked down and saw her shirt rippling around, flowing freely. She felt her hair do the same weightless dance. She was illuminated by some faint blue light. The rest of the world was pitch black. The ground beneath her was grainy. Her eyes widened.
She was still underwater.
She gasped and sucked in through her nose. It didn't burn. The murky drink was just as crisp and life giving as the air on the surface. She opened her mouth to test. Yep. Just like air, only heavy and cold.
"What in the…"
She jumped at her own words, which, too, we're unhindered by the depth. Now that she was free of drowning, her mind could focus on far more concerning realities. Where am I? Why aren't I dead? What Dragged me under? Where are Eda and King? Where is that blue light coming from?
Blue light. She looked to the source. Feet away from her hovered a humanoid creature with deep bluish green skin. It was smooth and scaly like Vee, but fleshier and with knobby joints throughout its tail. That long, long tail, making up maybe two-thirds of its body, ended in something like a caged lantern. The glow was like a more powerful firefly. That's where the blue light came from.
The water made the black, stringy hair on its head dance, too. It looked jolly. It smiled with its turtle-esque beak and drifted closer.
Luz cowered behind her arms, pinching her eyes tightly closed. She didn't want to see it bite her, or suck out her fluids, or any of the other things she knew deep ocean creatures to do. But nothing happened. She slowly peeked at it. It inspected her curiously, giving her no personal space, but not touching her.
Luz wanted to find an exit route, but couldn't take her eyes off of it. It sniffed her clothes. When it came back up to her face, it seemed shocked and disappointed with her displeasure. Its leathery beak had enough mobility to frown. It turned away, swam a few feet along the sandy floor, and returned with a tiny, pink, spiral shaped rock. It held it out to her and purred, cocking its head while it waited.
"I'm… a little confused. Can you understand me?"
It nodded.
"Uhh. Okay. Can you speak?"
It outlined an 'X' over its throat, blowing air bubbles and shaking its head.
"Right. Okay. I'd like to leave, please. I can't stay down here. My family must be worried sick looking for me."
It frowned again. At least it didn't seem aggressive. It pushed the pretty rock forward more. Luz looked at it anxiously.
"I don't fully understand. Do you want me to have this?"
It gently cupped one of her hands in its and slid the gift into her palm. Then it closed her fingers for her. Its purr continued to rumble the water.
"That's really sweet. Alright. Thank you and all, but I have to go now."
She carefully backed away. It didn't pursue her. She took that as her que to swim as fast as possible, up and away. The light faded behind her as she made distance. She passed the threshold at which the darkness reigned over everything.
Her chest immediately began to hurt again. The water had given up its truce and returned to smothering her. She flailed, but ultimately began sinking. Without air in her body, there was nothing to help her float. She blinked rapidly as the dark grew thicker once again.
But it didn't take her this time. The creature shot through the water and gathered her body in its arms, guiding her back to the floor. It hung its light over her. The glow rejuvenated her. When her vision cleared, she could see terrible worry in its face.
"Oh, God. That hurt. That hurt a lot."
It hugged her. She didn't dare to move. The slick feeling of the scales wasn't welcome, but it dawned on her that it wouldn't hurt her. Nothing with a hold so gentle would. It was just enough to make her content with not running away.
Luz glanced at the lantern hung high above their heads. "The light's letting me breathe and talk, isn't it? That's why I haven't died yet?"
It nodded proudly.
She slid out of its arms, which it didn't seem to mind. "If you control the light, could you please take me back to the surface? I really need to leave."
It cast its eyes down glumly. It pouted as much as its rigid mouth would allow. Then it sank lazily to her feet.
Luz frowned at it. "It's really important. Please. I need your help."
It rolled over, turning away. She sighed. "Okay, what do I have to do to get back home? Is there something I can help you with? Maybe I can do you a favor on the surface? Come on, work with me!"
It brightened, wiggling itself forward. It didn't go too far away, so Luz didn't drown. It returned quickly with another rock. This one was about the size of a baseball and almost as round. It tossed it to her.
Luz caught it. The creature rolled through the water in unbounded joy. It took off, prancing circles around her and sending up the occasional clouds of sand. She likened it to a dog in the park.
"Did you just want to play? Is that why you kidnapped me?!"
It gave a gleeful thumbs up, wagging with all of its body.
Luz rolled the stone around the palm of her hand. "Well, it's better than I was expecting. Next time you run into someone, though, don't do that. You seem sweet. I'm not sure you recognize how uncool that is."
It did, in fact, look surprised. It respectfully nodded. It corkscrewed impatiently, not taking its gaze off of her.
Luz smirked. She spiraled the rock forward. The water resisted it, only allowing it to tumble a pitiful distance. The creature wasn't disappointed. It swept to where it would land and caught it. Its eyes shimmered.
Its throws held much, much more force, as if the water wasn't there at all. Luz barely snagged it with her knuckles. The substitute ball went back and forth. They built up a rhythm. It liked to go high and drop the ball down to her, seeing if it could beat it to the bottom. Each time it did, it mutely cheered.
Thirty minutes passed. If it was keeping score, Luz knew she'd be well and beaten. After all the play, it was slowing down. It looked sleepy. It had the same droopy eyes and wide yawn as King when he got tired.
King .
Luz rolled the ball one final time. "Hey, it's about time for me to go. Are you satisfied?"
She waited tensely for the answer. She hadn't yet thought about what she'd do if it said no. Her blood froze considering it.
Seemingly sensing her discomfort, it locked fingers with her and smiled. It tipped its head.
"Thank you." She said it more breathlessly than she intended. It simply squeezed her hand and hummed. It pulled her along.
They traveled swiftly. An anxious pit formed in Luz's stomach when she realized the ground wasn't tilting upwards. They went on for minutes. Minutes. The pool is not this big. Where am I?
Finally, after almost fifteen minutes, they started to get funneled higher. The surface was at least ten times further from the floor than Eda's pond was. The creature deposited her in the shallows, nudging her to go on land. Luz did so.
This was not the woods. This was no part of the Boiling Isles that she had seen. The earth was a pale vanilla color and spongy to the touch. The air was painfully cold. The waveless, unending water at her back had an oily film over it. Everything in front of her was flat and barren, but a heavy fog prevented her from seeing more than a hundred yards.
She turned with a shiver, absolutely thankful that her guide hadn't swam off yet. It peaked the top of its head out of the water to look at her.
"This isn't right! I-I don't know where I am! Please don't leave me here!"
It hushed her with a soothing tone. For some reason, it made her cry. It pulled its tail from the water and dangled it above its head like a halo. The light was slightly different above water, now twinkling. It gave her a tiny wave, smiling one more time. The light flashed, blinding her.
When she opened her eyes, she was back on the shore she had first set out from. Her body was exhausted to the point of paralysis. She was face up in the sand, blinking away tears to see a starry night sky. It was dark out, meaning at the very least ten hours had passed. More than nine of those hours disappeared .
She tried to draw in real air, and she managed a modest gulp, but it mostly resulted in a pitiful whine. She couldn't even crawl away from the water, let alone pick herself up.
"Nnnuu-"
The only intentional sound she could produce. It was enough. She was overjoyed to hear Eda.
"Oh, bloody hell! King! I found her!"
Loving hands lifted her chin. Eda loomed over with an expression somewhere between complete devastation and utter relief. The older lady tugged her high up the slope and into the grass. She caressed the girl's hair.
King's tiny legs could be heard pump before he screeched to a halt. "Quick! Suck the water out of her lungs!"
"You're thinking of snake bites, King. Water isn't venom."
"Then what do you do?!"
"I don't know! Nobody ever drowns here! Kiddo, can you hear me? Can you say something for me?"
Luz coughed out a liter of phlegm. Her lungs felt gooey. "Eeeda. I c-can't m-move. What h-happened?"
"You just vanished ! I combed the entire pool, and you were just gone. We've been looking for you all day, and you washed up on the beach out of nowhere. Titan, kid, I had a heart attack! Are you okay?"
Luz tilted her head forward to peer at the deep. It was impenetrable and dark and still. Part of her thought that if she looked away, it would turn back into that alien landscape. She kept her eyes fixed on it.
"I'm fine now. I'm just so tired."
King hugged her head. "You can sleep in my bed back at the Owl House if you want. It's like yours, but better!"
She chuckled, her throat damp. "That sounds like heaven. Thanks, buddy."
"Here," Eda scooped her ragdoll body from the dirt, "I'll get you home and in bed ASAP. Don't worry about your mom. I'll call her and you can go home in the morning. I've got you, kiddo."
"Thanks, Eda. I love you."
She smiled. They all started walking, Eda carrying Luz close to her bosom. As they crested the hill, the child took one more glance at the pond. She watched as a blue light fell into it, swallowed in a ripple of star lit water.
She gasped. With the last of her energy, she fished around her pocket. She pulled out the only thing inside.
"Cute rock," Eda complimented, "that's a keeper."
Luz held it tight. One thing was certain. It wasn't a dream.