Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 54: Under the Water

Chapter Fifty-Four: Under the Water

Nobody slept.

The only reason it was obvious was because of the exhaustion lining everyone's faces the next morning. Xaphile, finally giving up on it himself, rolled his sleeping bag up and latched it onto the backpack he'd been given at the start of their trek from Chisago.

Everyone else was already in the process of doing the same.

"What now?" Amelia asked, glancing at Gus from behind her glasses. "Where do we go?"

The blonde didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to walk over to the cliff side.

Tucking the map into his pocket, he peered in both directions, then seemed to spot something.

"Follow me," he grunted, waving them along. "We're cutting through the woods."

When he stepped into the forest and began to tread through the underbrush, everyone followed him without question. The walk took maybe about fifteen to twenty minutes, roughly, but when they arrived to the spot Gus had been leading them to, Xaphile blinked since part of the enormous chasm before them had crumbled and the side had fallen into a deep slope.

It acted as a shoreline.

He examined the lake with cautious eyes as he and the others headed downward to terminate in a rocky strip of beach that bordered the strange body of water. The lake itself stretched so far away from them that he could hardly see the bank of its opposite shore. 

It glittered like malicious silver, churning and writhing beneath the sky. 

He could hardly look at it for fear of going blind.

"We're not swimming across that," Ella finally muttered. "I can't swim."

"Discounting Sinmir and Vrael, nobody here can," Amelia noted, swallowing as she eyed the lake with nervous eyes. "Although, I dare say even if we could, we would still have trouble."

"But we've gotta get across, right?" Vrael asked, hesitantly looking around. "The people who can help Phil are on the other side of it, aren't they?"

"Yes, and I'm certain that this lake isn't the one we're looking for," Gus , staring at the cliffs in blatant fascination. "This gorge doesn't even look like a natural rock formation."

That much was true, since the gorge did indeed look unnatural. It was almost like it had been carved out by something enormous smashing into it at a very high speed instead of forming over a long period of time, like a crater. 

Actually, now that I think about it, that would explain the weird melted rock, Xaphile realized, feeling amazed. Did a meteor actually fall here?

He didn't know, but the water and the chasm itself went on for miles in either direction. 

If they tried to go around it, the journey would likely take weeks. 

"We have no other option," Sinmir muttered, pointing at the shore. "The cliffs don't look like they end for a good while... if they do at all."

"So we have to swim it," Ella growled. "Gods, this is a nuisance. Does anyone have a trick to cross whirlpools?"

Xaphile did a double take, then looked at the water, squinting against the brightness of it.

"Whirlpools?" he muttered, frowning. "Where?"

After a few seconds, his sensitive pupils adjusted... and there they were.

His eyes widened when he counted seven swirling pools of water that marred the surface of the lake: seven gigantic spirals at least a quarter mile in diameter and an eighth of a mile deep in the depths of their basins. Staring at them made him feel ill, like he was getting sucked into them despite the fact that he was so far away.