"Frac are you alright?" the voice from above called again.

"I'm fine."

"What's it like down there?"

"It's pretty interesting. The light dances all over. I feel great."

"How long are you going to be down?"

"I don't know? A while I suppose. I want to check this place out a bit," Frac said while dunking underwater and was startled upon turning and running face-to-face with Dagon--underwater.

And Dagon spoke to Frac--underwater, "I can't let you do that. If you are not with us, then you're against us and I can't let anyone stand against us."

The way Dagon spoke was calm and low-toned, but it chilled and frightened Frac. Though the words were somewhat threatening, the eyes were more so. "I'm not against any of you. It's just you ask too much. How could I ever lie to Haniel? And, Raziel knows me better than I know myself." Then Frac realized that they were still underwater and sort of panicked, began choking on water and rose right to the surface, sputtering. Frac could hear the tale end of sentence from Raziel, something about waiting by the lake.

"Wait! Don't leave yet," Frac called, still sputtering a bit.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Frac said while scanning the area where Dagon was, trying to peer through the surface into the water. "Just hang on a moment. Don't leave yet." How was it that they were speaking underwater? Frac realized everything had been fine--talking (and breathing?) underwater--until being cognizant of the fact. Frac couldn't see Dagon through the surface of the water and dipped back underwater to see if Dagon was still there. As Frac's vision came into focus, it seemed a huge fish tail darted around the same corner that Forneus had went. Dagon was nowhere to be seen, but there was a lot to see.

Fish of every imaginable color, size, shape and combination were about. Some chasing other fish, playing? Some just dazzily floating there. Some glowed and left multicolored, dissolving trails of light as they darted about. None seemed to fear Frac and Frac didn't fear them--even the long, slender one with big teeth. There seemed to be an understanding among all these fish, as well as the creatures scurrying along the floor and Frac seemed to understand it also. Oddly, everything was quite visible, yet Frac still couldn't figure out where the light came. It just seemed to be there. Some of the fish seemed to just appear there, too! Very interesting. Frac turned around and there, face-to-face, was Forneus, just seeming to be there.

"Surface," Forneus said and rose to the surface. Frac followed. "I don't know what you did to upset Dagon, but you are not welcome down here, and Dagon rules here."

"All I said was..."

"Doesn't matter," Forneus said in a low, quiet voice, "You have to get out of here as quick as you can."

"Where's the Underwater Wind?"

"It's right there where the ceiling dips into the water," pointing in the opposite direction from where everyone else had gone earlier, "But it doesn't matter, The Underwater Wind is not blowing and it hasn't in three days."

"Why didn't you tell me that before I came down here?"

"Well, who knew that you wouldn't follow Dagon?"

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"How much food do you have?"

"NONE!"

"Who goes on a journey without supplies?" Forneus laughed.

"When does the Underground Wind start blowing again?"

"No telling. Could be a minute. Could be days."

"So what am I supposed to do Forneus? How much food can you give me?"

"No can do friend. It's against the rules." Frac was becoming exasperated, Forneus said, "Listen, I am sorry. You've got choice to make right now. Either join up with us right now. I'm sure I can persuade the others into it and I, or someone, should be able to cool Dagon down. Or, two, you can sit right here, no, rather right there," pointing to a large crevice, or cave, that rose out of the water into the ceiling, just to the left of the Underwater Wind area, "until The Wind starts blowing. And don't even think of wandering from there. If anyone catches you about... who knows what."

"What's so special about that over there?" Frac asked, referring to the crevice in the ceiling that dipped into the water, right to the left of the Underwater Wind area.

"That's MY area. It's my own, private asylum, so to speak. Everyone gets one here. Nothing catch touch anything in there... without my say so. So, what's the story? Are you in, or out? Can you keep you mouth shut and join up with us, or are you going to sit in my cave and wait for The Wind for who knows how long?"




© 2001 John Gnotek