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Kal stares at the river below him, something weird and unknown forming in his chest as he stares at this reflection. He doesn’t know what it is in his chest, but he doesn’t like it. His instincts are yelling at him, but he doesn’t know what they want.
Kal pokes the water’s surface, his finger sinking into the wetness. It makes his instincts cry out, and that weird feeling in his chest grows.
“Kalias. What are you doing? You’re going to fall in if you don’t get away from the edge.” Kal blinks at Viago. He’s right. He should get away from the edge.
Kal stands, takes two steps back, then rushes towards the river at full speed. If being on the edge made him feel weird, then surely he just needed to get deeper? He breaks the surface, dropping like the Stone itself as he breathes in.
Or tries to. That something in his chest explodes into a nearly suffocating feeling. He hates it and wants it to go away. The only problem is that he’s currently unable to breathe because of all the water, and he doesn’t know how to swim.
His vision swims, going dark. A hand grabs his arm, dragging him to the surface. He coughs, water splattering to the ground from where it was in his lungs. There’s not enough air; he needs more.
“Why would you do that?!” Viago demands. Weird; he sounds tired. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to drag someone to shore?” Kal shakes his head, his white hair flopping into his face as water pours off him.
“There was—“ He coughs a few more times. “A weird feeling in me. It got worse while I was in the river.”
Viago sighs, drawing Kal’s attention. He’s soaked. Weird, he wasn’t like that before Kal jumped in. “So you decided to test what would happen? By jumping in? That’s the worst why I’ve ever heard of to deal with an irrational fear.” Is that what that feeling was? He’s not sure. “Now, since I apparently have to dry my clothes and pouches and go through my supplies to make sure they aren’t ruined, we’re making camp here. If you go near the water again, I’m leaving you in there and drowning myself in Up and Adder.”
Kal blinks, then scurries off to gather some firewood. What a weird experience that was.