"Let's go. Forget them."

"You're not going to wimp-out are you?" the voice below questioned, while a round of snickering and splashing of water could be heard coming from the same darkness. "You won't get hurt as long as you do as I told you."

"Frac! Frac, forget them. You heard what happened when Zavebe was coaxed to jump in there. A broken leg. A broken wrist. Four missing teeth and a busted head which still gives Zavebe terrible headaches. And Zavebe was three years older than us," Raziel pointed out, "What's to be proved?"

"If Forneus can do it, I can do it," Frac replied, "And... you can do it too, if you want to. Forneus is only a few months older than us."

"That may be, but those other morons are a lot older and Forneus is an idiot, you know that," Raziel pointed out while peering into the shaft of jagged rock that led to the underground pool where Forneus and friends jeered.

"I knew you two wouldn't do it," one of the older voices called.

"Frac will do it. That peanut Raziel won't, but Frac will," Forneus' voice could be heard, apparently to the older ones, which Frac guessed to be about five others. It was usually the same five--Tau, Resh, Janax, Olivier and of course Dagon, plus maybe another half dozen other villagers, all two to five years older than Raziel, Frac... and Forneus. They discovered this Underground Pool several months ago--by accident--with Hauras falling in headfirst trying to catch a rabbit. It seemed most discoveries were due to the result of some accident, anyway, Hauras's fall made Zavebe's mishap seem as a scrapped knee by comparison. Hauras was found near unconscience floating and clinging to a tree branch in the great, salty lake, not far at all from the village. What was unusual was Hauras had no broken bones or open cuts, though Hauras's legs were twisted, one slightly and the other pretty grotesquely, as if they were broken and healed--unset. Hauras was also found with scars which had not been there before falling into the rocky shaft, seemed like years old, unstitched wounds--though Hauras was found within a day of falling into the shaft--and the mysterious underground pool.

"Com'n Frac, forget Raz. It's keen down here. Trust me," Forneus pleaded.

"I'm going," Frac stated to Raziel, who was giving Frac that you-know-this is-stupid look. And, Raziel was always right.

"I'll be down in a moment," Frac called down the near-perfect, tubular shaft. Frac adjusted a piece of cow hide the length of one's legs at the mouth of the shaft, while sitting down onto it. "Raziel, it's the only way to get down there. I've gotta see for myself. Again, if Forneus can do it, I can do it."

"I'm not going!"

"I'm not asking you to."

"This is stupid."

"You're always right."

"You trust Forneus to give you the right instructions?"

"They're pretty much like what I've heard Zavebe tell a hundred dozen times."

"Call if you need help."

"You know I will"

Frac and Raziel had known each other and have been friends for as long as either could remember. It's like they're one--though they were so different from one another. Frac, though always loyal and true to Raziel was a bit, quite a bit, more free-spirited, as well as mischievous. Both were good-hearted, honest and smart. It was just that Raziel was more level-headed and sensible, whereas Frac was more passionate and did things without thinking. Or, if knowing or sensing the danger, would do things regardless, feeling a sense of destiny lie in the future and a simple act along the way wouldn't--couldn't--detract from it. Raziel seen no logical sense in this way of thinking. But Frac almost always seemed to drag Raziel into these illogical predicaments, most often during Raziel trying to talk Frac out of something, or because Raziel, as well, really wanted to do whatever it was that Frac was getting into, and this was always after Frac blazed the trail, or... because they were as one--in a manner of speaking.

"Take my sandals," Frac asked/commanded.

"I'm sure you can handle the shaft ride alright, be really careful when you leave and swim with the Underwater Wind. I heard that you have to hold your breathe for over four minutes before you're spit into the lake. If the Underwater Wind isn't blowing right, it could take longer, or you could get stuck down there until the Underwater Wind feels like blowing again." Frac really hadn't consider that. Oh, the four-minute plus journey under a wide underwater shelf to be sure, but the fact that the Underwater Wind might not be blowing really hadn't occurred to Frac. Was this really worth the risks this time? Raziel was right, the shaft part was no big deal, even Raziel would do that--for fun. Frac, sitting on the cow hide, ready to go, suddenly wished for a cache of food to take--just in case. Frac heard someone in the Underground Pool below say, presumably to Forneus, that they were all going around the bend to the "soothing waters."

"Are you coming or not?" Forneus yelled.

"I said I was, so just hang on a moment!"

Yeah, the risks would be worth it Frac felt. Everyone who had been down in the pool, which was quite a number of villagers, all talked it up. That is until Dagon went down, and has been there since, kind of ruling the place. All say that the waters are magical--Zavebe's mysterious healing, Forneus claims a remarkable new swimming ability and claims the ability to know what animals think, which no one believed. The shaft, an almost perfect tubular shape, was about 1-1/2 to 2 foot wide, on a steep 50-60 foot slope to the pool below. You had to kind of contort you're body through the cover rocks to get to the mouth of the shaft. There were sharp rocks embedded in various places throughout the shaft, but Frac's cow hide would protect from most, and Forneus let Frac know where the big ones were and how to twist to avoid them.

The pool below had about a foot of breathable air above it and the water was supposed to make one feel the energy of a child, but with the wisdom of one older. This in itself was enticing to Raziel. It was just in leaving the pool that the only way was via the Underwater Wind, a long and wide tunnel where the ceiling above dipped completely underwater. No swimmer in the village could ever hold their breath long enough to swim the length to the lake without the power of the Underwater Wind, though Forneus would brag the ability to do so now. This was the big deterrent to Raziel and now made Frac think about that as well. And, this was the only way out! Some had tried to go down and back up the shaft with vines, but the way the shaft twisted and turned, sharp edges always cut the vines.

"You don't have to do this Frac. Nobody will think less of you. No one not of age has ever done it. Even Forneus is of age--barely, but nonetheless, of age."

Frac, sitting on the cow hide, could back out right now and could probably even give Forneus a good excuse, or just go for it and actually be the first villager not yet of adult age to attempt it.




© 2001 John Gnotek