"So, if it does start blowing, what do I do, just go? How do I know if it's full wind or just a gust?"

"Listen, I... have... to go now. You'll know. If I can, I'll be back later. Don't leave that area," Forneus said, pointing to the cave, and was gone by the time Frac turned back.

"Raziel!" Frac whisper/yelled. "Raz, are you still there?"

"Yes. And I heard everything," Raziel whisper/yelled back. "What's that about joining up with Dagon?"

"Never mind. This could be trouble, I don't have any food."

"I'm way ahead of you. I'm sending a coconut down the chute."

Frac heard a rolling type of sound, echoing through the entire underground chamber... that crashed... smashed... and then shredded on the last curve, spewing a confetti of coconut fibers and bits of shell in a wide umbrella over the water--a treat for the hundreds, or thousands, of tiny fish that voraciously ate the pieces as soon as they hit the surface.

"Did it make it?" Raziel asked.

"Minnow food."

"Is there fish down there? Eat fish!"

Yeah, Frac thought, then a realization struck Frac, "I can't do it. It's not allowed."

"Not allowed?" Not allowed with who... the fish?"

"Yep."

Raziel didn't see the logic in this, but didn't push it, not yet anyway as Frac was no where near starving at the moment. Raziel fell silent in thought, as did Frac. "Can you see down the underwater cavern to the lake?"

"Good question? I'll have to check it out." Frac, sitting partially out of the water, leaning into Forneus' crevice, slid back down into the water, and peered down the cavern where the ceiling dipped into the water and descended what looked like about twenty feet before it appeared to bow back up. No telling how far it went or what was beyond the bow. The only thing that revealed anything was light appeared to illuminate from beyond the bow. But on the other hand, light was tricky down here. Out of corner of eye, Frac seemed to see that body/fish tail shape, in a vertical position, dash behind a column of stone, some couple hundred feet away. Dagon? Frac surfaced and went back to Forneus's asylum.

"No telling what's beyond twenty feet," Frac whisper/yelled to Raziel.

"Wait there, don't go anywhere. I want to see if there are any clues anywhere up here."

Frac sat quietly, completely in Forneus's crevice, trying to peer through the surface of the water, but mostly only getting reflections of the dancing light that just seemed to appear from nowhere. Once in a while, a dark, massy shape could be noticed slithering beneath the surface, and Frac knew not if was a big fish, or--Dagon. Frac wasn't happy at all, particularly not with Forneus, who Frac seemed able to blame for the situation. But nonetheless, this certainly was an enchanting place, not like Frac nor most anyone for that matter, has ever experienced. And Frac was the only "child" to ever come down here. "Child, what a laugh," Frac thought. "May be the only child to come down here, but I still have to get out."

Sitting there, Frac suddenly realized the unusual smell of this place. It was really an overbearing smell, and Frac didn't particularly like it. It had a biting taste to it and Frac noticed it had an intoxicating effect, and began to become lightheaded. Slipping back into the water, staying very near to Forneus's asylum, Frac's head cleared and was fine as long as breathing was right near to the water's surface. Frac went underwater to be yet amazed at the display all around--marvelous lively lights, awesome fishes, and an unusual clarity of thought. All these multi-colored, multi-shaped fish just reveals that The Great ONE truly does have a sense of humor and an awesome artistic touch. That is what Frac really wanted to be one day--an artist. Not like the ones in the markets, but one like those that work for the Keepers of The Truth, sculpting and painting their Sanctuaries. But that was quite unlikely with the relationship that Frac's Guardians had with the Keepers of The Truth.

Frac watched a school of thousands of finger-long, silver fish all with a blue, glowing streak on their side. They didn't dart all over the place--they moved in perfect unity. They went forward together, then all turned toward Frac together, all on identical axis, then they went forward right, and then forward left. Forward right. Forward left. Forward up. Forward down. Forward right up, Forward left down. It was hypnotic... a visual melody. But beyond this fractal mosaic, the muddy shadow that Frac was certain was Dagon, dissolved into the shadows of the background. Frac went above the surface, gasped for a gulp of clean air, and pulled closer to Forneus's cave.

"I'm back," Raziel announced. "It's an eight-minute pace to the lake from here. That's a direct line, too. Who knows what curves you may have. I'm not sure that you could overall swim much faster than that either, so best case scenario--hold your breath for eight minutes while exerting the kind of energy needed to swim it. I don't think so. Our best bet and biggest worry may be to get you food and wait for The Underwater Wind. Sure you can't eat those fish?"

"No! Anyway Haniel will come looking for me before long. Are you going to lie to Haniel?" Frac asked while dipping underwater for refreshness. While under, Frac watched a hand-sized, slender fish, multi-colored like the walls of this cavern or the shells on the beach. This fish just hovered in front of Frac's face. Its cheeks began to expand like a bubble in a tar pit. Bigger and bigger... until each cheek was three times the size of its body. And it just hovered there, eye-to-eye with Frac. And Frac just stared back at it, eye-to-eye. Then it dawned on Frac--the cowhide!

"I got it," yelled Frac, quickly realizing the volume, scanned the water surface for the dark shadows. Nothing. "Raz, I got it! My cowhide."

"Your cowhide?" Three seconds later, "Your cowhide. Brilliant, simply brilliant," Raziel commented with glee. "Will it hold air though? For how long? Try it and time it."

"I've got to find it first," Frac said, and dove beneath the surface toward where it should be. It wasn't. Frac was in the middle of this great underground cavern, but underwater was simply a great intersection of various caves, tunnels and passageways. Just moments ago this was active with a myriads of fishes going each which way. Now, only the long, slender fish with the big, sharp teeth and the creatures that scurried the floor loomed about.

Frac watched a creature, the size of a hand palm, on the floor scurry sideways, something dangling from its large clomper, as it disappeared into a crevice in a large stone. Frac's cowhide evidently wasn't lying on the floor where it should be--where Frac had landed. There wasn't a current, so someone or something must have carried it off. Frac didn't recall Forneus, Dagon, Tau, Resh, Janax or Olivier with it, though had a terrible feeling that Dagon had come back for it. Frac watched another of the sideway, scurrying creatures with another chunk of... meat? in its clomper. Frac looked closely at the meat in the creature's clomper, then looked toward the direction from which the creature was scurrying. Frac noticed the silhouette of the big tooth fish directly above. There was another of these "hard-skinned" creatures, Frac noted, while picking it up. The creature dropped the meat it was holding with both clompers and pinched Frac with both clompers.

Bubbles transported the sound through the water to the surface, "OW-W!" A few drops of blood mingled with the water. The silhouette of the big tooth fish twisted and turned excitedly.

"Are you alright?" Frac heard Raziel asking. But Frac had not surfaced and was still underwater, catching the meat that the hard-skinned creature dropped. It was a piece of the cowhide. Frac clenched the punctured finger tightly in a fist, then followed a trail of these ill-tempered little creatures to a large crevice of some large rocks lying on the floor near one of the huge rock vaults. Frac peered in, reached in and grabbed a corner of the cowhide. It seemed snagged or as if someone was playing "pull-the-vine." Frac nervous of the big tooth fish pulled with all might and dislodged the cowhide. Frac tripped on some stones behind and came tumbling backward, in a slow underwater motion. Frac watched one after the other of the angry little creatures come dislodged with the cowhide, some clinging to the cowhide, and some in free motion landing right on Frac's chest... arm... stomach... face. The dislodged cowhide followed in a sweeping motion, wrapping Frac with the big clomper creatures.

Fighting both the clompers and the smothering cowhide, Frac was flailing and splashing and kicking and gouging, half out of the water and half underwater, causing Raziel a great panic.

"Frac!" Raziel was yelling. "Say something!"

"Shut up. Quit yelling," Frac replied while pulling the last clomper creature off of a leg, and unwrapping the cowhide that was blocking the view of... DAGON... nose-to-nose with Frac. Eyes as intense as Frac had ever seen them.

"Why are you upsetting this little thing of ours down here?" Dagon ferociously asked. "You've seen a bit too much."

"I haven't seen anything... really... or relatively, rather." Frac seen Forneus behind Dagon, eyes pointing to the asylum.

"Dagon, wait!" Forneus said, "Frac's my responsibility." Dagon turned to Forneus, Frac grabbed the cowhide, with one clomper creature still clinging to it, dashed to Forneus's asylum.

"Be it as you wish," Dagon chillingly stated to Forneus, drawing a sharp fingernail across the right side of Forneus's jawbone, beading a string of fresh blood droplets to mingle with the water. The large tooth fish stirred in excitement again. Dagon was gone.

"What are you doing? I said stay in my asylum. Now my hide is on the rocks. If you say anything to anyone about anything, it won't be you that Dagon settles accounts with, it will be me. That goes for you too peanut," Forneus yelled toward Raziel. "Both of you promise me--right now--that you forget all this. About Dagon, as well as about the wonders here. It was just a stupid thing to do that could have gotten you killed. This is just a water hole. Nothing more," Forneus persuaded, "RAZ?" Raziel replied promise. Frac tried to read Forneus' eyes.

"Frac, there is honor in repressing information upon a promise to protect someone in a compromised position."

"I promise."

"Good, now stay in my asylum until The Wind blows. Chew on your cowhide--as the crabs were." Forneus disappeared around the same corner as before.

After Frac could no longer hear Forneus, "They're gone."

"See if it will hold air."

Frac drew the cowhide's four corners together and tried to capture air into a rawhide bubble. It wouldn't work. "The crabs have it too ripped up."

"The what?"

"There's rips and tears all over"

No sooner had Frac said that, and some blobby looking... object? creature? came floating (or swimming) nearby to Frac, who was right next to Forneus' asylum. This blob was now right in front of Frac who gave it a gentle push to move it away.

"Uh-h-g!"

"What the matter Frac," Raziel said.

"This blobby, goopy thing just floated up by me, and as I went to shove it off--it stuck to my hand, then my arm. I can barely get it off--and now it is just spreading all over the top of the water."

"I know what those are. Is it kind of a see-through jell blob?" Yeah... I guess you could say that."

"Quick! Spread your cowhide over the blob."

"What? Why?"

"Do it. It'll seal the holes in your cowhide."

"Yeah-h. Brilliant, my friend." Frac held the cowhide as stretched as possible for one person, and dropped it over the largest part of the blob. Then Frac patted the cowhide down gently and evenly. A piece of the blob the size of Frac's hand escaped and Frac pushed the water in front of it, so as to not touch the sticky goo and managed it back under the cowhide. Then Frac tried to capture a bubble of air with the cowhide again.

"It works!" Frac yelled, a little too loud, and caught notice of the shadow again, or so Frac thought. Frac pulled the cowhide bubble, which was about the size of a medium watermelon, underwater--just a light stream of tiny air bubbles escaped for a minute until they steadily diminished as if someone, or something, had shut them off. "And it's waterproof. What was that goop?"

"Never mind for now and listen. I'm sending down a handful of reeds, and some cord. Pick the best reed, if they make it down alright and stick it in your cowhide bubble and then tie it in place tightly with the cord."

"Gotcha. You are the one... but... I am not supposed to leave this asylum, otherwise Dagon could get me."

"Don't buy that. I heard Forny. Do you think that if Dagon really wanted you, you'd be safe in some imaginary boundary of water--just because Forneus claims it as a personal sanctuary? I've seen Dagon go right into some villager's hut and rip a leg right off of a roasting chicken--just because--it was lunchtime."

"Yeah, good point," Frac replied, "What do you think they are up to?"

"I'm not sure, but let's get you out of there first," Raziel said in a very toned down voice. "Do you have any idea where the others are?"

"They went around a corner about 150 feet away, Dagon just sort of disappeared, but I keep seeing a shadow that flees when I spot it."

"Well, here goes. Get the bundle however you can."

A sound echoed gently and a moment later Frac seen the reeds tied with a cord drop from the ceiling of the cavern into the water. Scanning above the water, then below, Frac seen no sign of Dagon, nor of any of the others. Frac placed the cowhide in the crevice of Forneus's asylum, and quietly slipped underwater to retrieve the reeds.

"Got them," Frac said a moment later, back at Forneus's safe spot and with the reeds, "The reeds are fine... for the most part," then proceeded to build the air supply bubble made of the cowhide, sealed with the jelled creature, with a reed tied in place through the bubble. "I'm out of here. Meet me by the lake."

"Frac! Be careful. Pace yourself. Try to stay calm and steady. You have at the very least about eight minutes, seven best, before you make it to the lake. But, it could be a lot longer too." Frac was certain that making it to the lake would be no problem, especially with the cowhide air bubble, but is that what Frac really desired? Frac had no desire to be any part of any entourage of Dagon's, but did want to investigate this cavern more--much more, and the only way to do this was join up with Forneus and Dagon. So, join up with Dagon, as this was the last chance--if Dagon would even accept that now, or get out before something happens.




© 2001 John Gnotek