Deep Secrets

Slowly, I was pushed further and further into the depths of the lake... The lights of the jellyfishes and the sight of the flying fishes and creatures faded more and more the farther and farther away I was from the surface of the lake, leaving me in darkness, eventually.

I couldn't see if the fox managed to stay on the surface or if it was dragged together with me... It was even worse to get the feeling that I was dying only very slowly. It was almost as if the lake wanted me to struggle against its impossible to escape grip... It wanted me to see me wasting my last energies to fight and then see my hopes dying along with myself. It was torture worse than dying to those water knights or being the food of that creature...

It was obvious I couldn't do anything... My lack of oxygen would kill me before I was able to swim to the surface anyway... And it seemed like it was happening already... I felt the need to inhale oxygen, but only water would enter me if I tried to breathe. For a second, I felt like my consciousness was leaving me and slowly I closed my eyes to accept my death... The Underground Lake was made to prevent anyone from entering, wasn't it? The knights and now this trap were here for a motive...

Darkness had already embraced me when the lights from above disappeared, but with the eyes closed, the true darkness reigned in my sight... Was death welcoming this one to its world? One could only try to guess, but even guess is hard when you feel like you don't have a conscience anymore...

It doesn't hurt to attempt to think, but thoughts just don't come... As though they were no longer with me, but abandoned with the corpse. But then... Then... I felt the water letting me go... It was so strange, it was as though the lake just had chosen to give me a second chance, stopping to embrace me with its cold wet arms... Giving me a chance to breathe again...

Suddenly with the eyes open, I caught my breath the fastest I could... I felt like there was water in my throat already. Above me, I could see the lake, it was floating above my head... And I had just fallen from it. It wasn't a small fall, it hurt a lot and my hard armor only made it worse.

After the pain went away, differently from my lack of oxygen from which I was still recuperating, I managed to stand up on my feet... That was a little bit of a traumatizing event, but I was happy that it had ended at last. I suppose this trap wasn't really made to kill anyone, but rather, it was to test endurance.

This place where I was now was a little strange... Who would ever think that under the great and marvelous place that is the underground lake a chamber would be hidden away from the eyes? Perhaps there are even more secrets to this place that catches my eyes...

Well, soon it was the turn of my arms to catch something, however. From above, in the lake, a small ball of fur fell on my hands... It was the fox. I guess we did become good friends, it was ready to risk its own life to follow me and try to save, despite how crazy it should be for a fox to swim and save a human.

"Thank you... But you didn't have to go through that...", I said to it.

"But this only proves its fidelity and friendship towards you... And you have proved that you're worthy of it as well", a strange voice suddenly said.

Without thinking twice, I drew my sword to where the voice came from, holding the fox with my free arm. The voice had come from the ceiling, an area from where some water drops started to fall, forming a water puddle over the rocky floor below it...

Suddenly, it shaped itself in the form of a humanoid creature, wearing frozen majestic clothes that made her look like a goddess, above all of us... And it was indeed someone who cannot be below any creatures such as me and the fox...

"You... You're..."

"I am Water, the goddess of the element I was named after... And I know why you're here... I had the chance to take a peek at your papers with the water of the lake as you passed through my last test, the test of ultimate patience", she explained to me.

I got desperate once I heard that... Wouldn't it mean that the papers got wet? But the goddess smiled in reassurance once she noticed my desperation.

"Do not worry, knightess Everblade... For your papers are dry with you... Now... I know what you seek, you want my element, the magical pure water. It's not something you can obtain extracting water from wherever you like or even from the own Underground Lake... It can only be obtained from this chamber...", she said.

I was going to ask about it, but with the eyes closed, she raised her right arm. Water drops started to come from the spaces between the rocks that formed the floor of this chamber... Quickly, she joined her hands onto each other and the water drops followed the movement, joining at the center of the chamber... For the final touch, the water of the lake descended and involved the water from the ground below... Then it froze in the shape of a bottle, holding inside it the water I sought.

"... And may I have it?", I asked the entity who smiled at me just faintly... I interpreted that as a yes and, impulsively, I walked towards the frozen bottle...

"This is your last test", she suddenly interrupted before I could reach for the bottle. "Grab the bottle, only if you can!".

I couldn't help but feel a little insecure when I heard those words leave her mouth. With fast action, she pulled the frozen bottle to herself, trapping it inside her water body... I was a bit unaware of what she was doing until she rose her hand and waved it once through the air, leaving small water drops floating in the air... And then she pointed them to me, starting this combat... I would have to face the goddess herself to get the bottle.