Mysterious Pond

"Ehhh? You're just going to shrug off the injury Ullr gave you?" Dani asked me. Her eyes darted all across my face as I wiped more blood from my nose.

"It doesn't really hurt that much, my nose does, but I'm fine otherwise. I'm much more worried about our surroundings than I am about Meat-Head anyways." I said. I looked at the dark forest right behind us. The brown of the tree trunks complimented the oddly black landscape that followed, it was enticing, pulling me in just by its uniqueness.

As I slowly walked towards it, the black landscape began to brighten up. The formation of the trees must've been the cause, as most sunlight was blocked from a certain angle when looking into the forest, but it shone in once we all entered. To my surprise, my weak cloth boots slammed into something hard and sharp. I looked down to see what it could've been, realizing somebody had left an axe made of some metallic material on the ground.

"Woah! That's so shiny!" Red spoke her mind. A girl with a basic name who was attracted to shiny things. I guess Red was just an all-around simple person.

"Yeah, it's shiny…" Carl paused, gazing deeper into the forest by squinting his eyes before turning to me. "But how in the world did one of us get something like that?" I turned away from him and continued to stare at the axe itself.

Something bothered me about it, maybe it was the way the axe was sitting or the dull edges on the blade, but it had a certain aura about the handle that wouldn't leave my mind.

"Well, why don't we use it? It looks like an axe, so we could use it to cut down the palm trees on the beach, right?" Dani suggested, looking back towards the beach while pointing.

I took note of Dani's knowledge of palm trees and axes. I didn't take her as the type to know nothing and try to eat sand, but her basic knowledge, just like everybody's knowledge, seemed to be inconsistent in many regards. I was silent for a while, just staring at her without taking any action, and I think it finally started to take its toll on her.

"Q-Quit staring…" She hid her red face and turned the opposite way, I couldn't help but smile.

I picked up the dull axe and flipped it on all sides, looked at all edges, and practiced swinging it. In my eyes, this wasn't an axe used for trees or trunks, this was used as a weapon.

[Physical Authority: 1]

I swatted away the invisible letters and held the handle with both of my hands. It wasn't too heavy, but it also had an uneven weight distribution. It was safe to say this was a two-handed weapon.

"So, we can use that to cut down the trees for shelter, but won't everybody on the beach want their weapon?" I turned to Domin.

Why did he call it a weapon? I never referred to this as a weapon, while Dani only looked at the axe like it was for trees alone. I took time to scan everybody's look, but nobody seemed surprised to call it a weapon besides Dani.

I finally began to speak up, "I would prefer if we didn't resort to using it as a weapon, but it can't be helped if need be." I put the axe's handle up against my shoulder and began to turn around.

"Hello?" I looked back at Dani, then turned to what she was looking at. The only thing I could see was a little pond sitting in the middle of the forest, but why hadn't I noticed it before?

"What did you see?" Her stare was blank, and she was unresponsive, just looking back at the pond.

"I've never seen hair like that…" She paused, and I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I slowly approached the pond with the axe in both of my hands, slightly tiptoeing forward until I reached the edge. Once I peered in, I realized that this pond was super deep. This wasn't a pond at this point… I felt like this was more like an ocean I was staring into.

"What do you see?" I crouched down by the rocks outlining the pond as Red began to ask the question I couldn't even answer.

"I just see… blue…" I studied the pond as I answered, I really couldn't see anything at all. "I'll go in." I started to take off my shirt, and Dani grabbed my hands, trapping me within the collar of the cloth.

"Are you insane?! You only see blue, yet you want to dive in there?! I saw somebody in there! What if they get you?!"

Carl sighed, "That would've been useful information beforehand, what did she look like?" Dani let go of me and went to Carl, using her own body to demonstrate what this 'person' looked like. I took it with a grain of salt, she did hit her head, maybe she was seeing things.

When everybody was distracted, I threw my shirt onto the ground and dove right into the pond. The cold water made me realize this was a mistake, but the sight below the pond was something that captivated me, I even forgot about the cold liquid surrounding my body.

Brightly colored coral and several animals were swimming beside me and right past me, living their own lives. Gray, smooth fish went right past me, swimming in a school. Some pathed off into the coral reef under me, while others continued to swim onwards. Even some turtles were just cruising through the water. I could hear screaming above me, but in the moments before that, it was like the whole world had a sense of peace it never had before.

My tour was shortened after I saw an animal with sharp teeth begin to approach. He must be the reason everybody was swimming or hiding. He had a notable scar on his snout, and a look in his eyes that almost perfectly mimicked Ullr's. I came to terms with having to swim back up and quickly climbed out, pushing my wet hair out of my face before climbing back up on the grass.

"Well, it's alright now, I'm not in the water and I'm not that cold. We should continue exploring, shouldn't we?" I slowly diffused the situation and walked in front of everybody else, looking up into the forest once more.

"Hey, check that out!" I pointed upwards, but the glare from the White Stone in the dark was blinding me.

Carl caught on, "A statue? What is that doing here? Who built that in such a short time with… such perfect accuracy?" Carl took time to appreciate the craftsmanship, but I wasn't so concerned with who did it. I was concerned with why it was up so high and who it was for.