Chapter 19

Alex stood frozen as she watched first the book, then Koa enter the river.

"That can't be good." She mumbled to herself.

Minutes passed as Alex nervously watched the river for some sign of the elf and the book. The longer she waited the more anxious she became. What if he couldn't swim? Can Elves swim?

Adamend explained to Alex where she was, how they got here, and why he was dressed strangely and Koa had pointy ears. Apparently Alex was now in some place called Aisling, which was basically a fantasy world. There were the usual Elves, Humans, Dwarves and a bunch of other things Alex couldn't remember. Koa was an Elf and Adamend was a Wizard or Mage (depending on where you were from), which was apparently a human with some magic ability. So Alex understood that Koa was an elf and that he was some kind of warrior or knight or assassin or something. Alex didn't know if that mean Koa could swim and the longer Alex stood there waiting for Koa to surface the more she thought that maybe elves were terrible swimmers.

Alex began to panic as wilder ideas entered her mind. Finally, she had had enough. Throwing off her hoodie, Alex moved to the edge of the river and prepared to dive in. Thankfully, before she could act on her impulse a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Alex turned and found herself face to face with the very elf she was determined to save. Relief consumed her and Alex threw her arms around Koa's neck. "Thank god! I thought you had drowned or something!"

The now surprised Koa froze, arms slightly raised, his hands in the air, unsure of where else he should put them. "Umm..." was the only thing from his lips.

It wasn't until Alex started to feel wet that she realized two things: 1. She was currently hugging a very wet Koa, and 2. Koa just appeared out of nowhere.

Alex pulled back confused "Wait, where did you come from? Oh my god! Are you some kind of transforming merman creature? Are you even really Koa?!"

"What are you talking about, idiot girl?" Koa looked back at Alex a moment before turning his attention to the very wet book in his hands.

"Both you and that book where in the river and I did not take my eyes off the spot you entered. How did you suddenly get behind me? Who are you?... No, wait, what are you? " Alex backed away and pointed at the thing that looked like Koa.

"You really are an idiot girl." Koa responded without looking up.

"Explain! And I'm not an idiot, stupid, pompous elf!"

Koa sighed before looking up to meet Alex's eyes. "The water is flowing at high speeds and this book, despite being large, is rather light for its size. When the book entered the river the water carried it further downstream. I had to enter the water and swim downstream in order to get the book. You were looking at the place I entered, not downstream where I caught the book."

With that Koa placed the book onto a large, flat rock and proceeded to remove his wet clothing.

"What are you doing?" Alex stared in shock as she watched Koa reveal a very well toned upper body. She felt heat rise to her cheeks.

"My clothes are wet and we are in the middle of the woods." Koa sat on another nearby rock and removed his very wet footwear.

"B-b-but there's a girl here you know!" Alex stumbled with her words while staring at the half naked Koa.

"Uh huh"

"What do you mean 'uh huh'? I'm a girl. You can't just go around taking off your clothes, you know."

Koa ignored Alex and continued removing the wet items from his body without concern for his audience. Alex only grew more flustered.

"Ahem... if I could just interrupt you two kids a moment, I have a fire started." Adamend interrupted, saving Alex from her awkward situation.

"The book!" Alex shouted a little too loudly. She ran toward Koa and the book, picked up the book and turned. "We can dry the book by the fire! Great idea, Adamend!"

She ran with determination toward the fire, holding the soggy book in her hands. She thought her heard Adamend say something about fire and magic, but she wasn't sure. She was determined to fix this wet situation and to get away from the nearly naked and very sexy elf. As she took off, she reminded herself that she hated that very sexy elf and it would be much better for everyone if he remained fully clothed for the remainder of this journey.

Then Alex pitched forward. The book she had just held in her hands suddenly flew forward right out of her grasp. Someone's arm snaked its way around her waist as another arm reached around her in an attempt to grab the flying book. Everything seemed to slow down as Alex watched long fingers brush the edge of the book, which continued its journey right into the middle of the fire. She stood frozen as the book made a sizzling sound followed by a "POOF".