7 The Lake (2)
Feather walked to the lake and washed her hands. It would be bad if the scratches got infected.
The water in the lake was warm and a bit itchy on the wounds.
Feather was there for over an hour already, and no one came through the hole after her yet, so it was safe to assume that they will at least wait till the morning before coming after her. She went around the cave several times more but didn't find anything new.
After several hours of exploring the cave Feather was a bit hungry, so she took out the food and sat at the side of the lake to eat.
:::::
The lake was the only part of the cave left unexplored, but there could be some underwater passage or another patch of land on the other side of it.
The water in the lake was still. It looked as if it was a mirror reflecting the cave ceiling.
After some consideration, Feather decided to give it a shot.
She took off her clothes and went into the water. The water was pleasantly warm.
The floor was gradually getting deeper and in less than a dozen steps water already reached her waist.
The water was very clear here; Feather could easily see the floor. She looked through the water at her feet and noticed that water here had a distinct bluish hue. She scooped up a bit of water with her hand, and it still had that hue, even when taken out of the lake. It looked a bit strange, but Feather thought nothing of it.
She went a bit further but suddenly there was no support under her feet and she abruptly sunk into the water.
It was her first time seeing a real lake, so she had no idea how the floor underwater was much deeper than it seemed, especially in such a clear water. She thought she could safely go for at least several steps more.
Alas, the floor was steeply going down here, and she suddenly sunk under the water.
As she had never seen so much water in her life, she thusly didn't know how to swim, and the water flowed into her nose, she tried to breathe with the mouth, but that made it even worse.
Big wave flew out of the lake and threw her onto the shore.
She coughed violently until her eyes teared.
She found her clothes. They were completely drenched by the wave which threw her out of the water.
Thankfully, it was warm in the cave, and the air was dry, so she didn't need to worry about catching a cold.
She spread the clothes on the ground and lay down next to them.
In a bit of time, she didn't even notice how after the day's pressure she fell asleep.
:::::
After she woke up, Feather dressed, ate a bit of dry meat and vegetables and then went up the circular path and checked. There was no sign that someone came here aside from her.
In fact, Feather didn't know how much time had passed. There was nothing in the cave that could indicate time for her.
There was nothing to do here, so she took out the swords and did two rounds of exercising.
After exercising she sat and thought hard.
She already checked the cave up and down yesterday. There was nothing there and the chance to get out of here, if there was one, could only be found at another side of the lake.
So, the only possibility for her to survive was to learn swimming.
She obviously wouldn't repeat yesterday's mistake and would start to learn closer to the shore.
Only when she learned how to swim would she try to find another shore once more.
:::::
This way two days had passed and all was going according to the plan.
After waking up, Feather would exercise and then go into the lake and try to swim.
On the third day, a new worry appeared. She had no more water in the flask.
It didn't alarm her at first. But when she tried to fill the flask, it melted into nothing as soon as it touched the water.
It was truly bizarre, as she was swimming in the water every day and nothing happened to her.
Feather was afraid to drink the water after that. But thinking to several days ago, how she gulped not a small amount of it and was still alive, she decided that she could probably drink the water from the lake safely.
As expected, nothing happened, but that reminded her of a more pressing problem. The food she had was also limited.
Surely, she could drink from the lake, and it seemed like nothing happened to her. Perhaps, it was the special property of this water not to harm living beings, she had read about such a water before.
But the food was a different matter.
When it came to food, there was nothing in the cave for her to eat.
The tree could've had fruits, but it didn't even bloom right now.
It's not like she could gnaw on its branches or leaves. And she couldn't wait for it to fruit.
So she had to learn swimming as soon as possible.
:::::
Several more days went by in this fashion.
Feather was swimming better and better. She could already more or less swim back and forth along the shore. Until she decided to try once more.
Feather observed the cave carefully and decided to swim down the wall. That way it should be easier. The shore, which she couldn't see from here, could only possibly lie somewhere beside the wall anyway.
She went into the water and moved slowly along the wall. From time to time she would stop and observe everything around her.
It was not easy for her to swim, but she persevered.
Alas, she couldn't see anything resembling a shore even after fifteen minutes of swimming.
And at that time, she felt her leg cramped.
The shore was quite a distance away from her. There was only water around, and the wall was flat, so it was difficult for her to hold onto it.
Feather turned around and went back to the shore as fast as she could.
Cramps were getting worse. She was halfway back already when she felt she couldn't continue. She didn't even felt like panicking. A pity, she thought, sinking into the water once more.
Next instant she was thrown out of the water to the familiar shore. After coughing water out, Feather looked at the lake in doubt. Was there some strong underwater current?
