Lone Warrior-Chapter 2: Drowning in Disbelief: (Continued again times 5)

"Now all we have to do is swim through the arch an..."
Martina interrupted me, "Swim through the arch? Are you crazy? We'll be zapped to pieces by the...the..." She broke off.
"The heat" she added lamely.
Megan snorted. "Well if YOU want to stay out here and drown, that's find by me. But personally, I would prefer not to end my life at age 14, perhaps you have similar preferences?"
If we had not been in this position, I would have laughed. Martina's cheeks coloured, like they always did when she got mad. "Fine, but I'm warning you, if we go through that arch we'll die too. So, would you rather die by being burnt or would you prefer to drown?"
I thought that one over. I would rather die by being burnt. "I'm going through the arch." I decided.
"Me too" replied Megan.
"I'll come."
Martina obviously wanted us to believe that she wanted to go through the arch, but I could tell that she would much rather stay and drown.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Lone Warrior-Chapter 2: Drowning in Disbelief:Continued, (Again and again and again and again)

"Martina!"
This time I yelled her name. Struggling to push her soaking brown hair out of her eyes, she swam over to me. "Why did you drag Taledo under?" Megan questioned suspiciously.
"I wasn't sure who she was, I thought the best way to find out would to be to see her under the water."
"You opened your eyes under the water?"
I shuddered, my eyes always stung really bad if I did that.
"It feels quite nice actually" Martina stated matter-a-factually.
Then a a blazing light's reflextion on the water covered us. I tried to cover my eyes, while not sinking into the sea. It was an arch, but an arch like I had never seen before. It was made of pure light, yet it looked a if someone had carved into it with a chisel, creating a series of words. I could not read the words, they looked as if they had jumped right off a Persian tapestry. Squinting, I looked beyond the arch, what I saw, could have given an even healthy young man a heart-attack. "L...o...ok, beh...in...d th...the arch" I stuttered. For the last word, my mouth could barley form the word, "Land."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Lone Warrior: Chapter 2-Drowning in Disbelief (Again and again and again!)

Once again, I was overcome with a sensation of freezing. You know when you stick your ungloved hand in the snow and it gets so cold that it burns? Well, imagine your whole body engulfed in a freezing fire. Luckily, as a instinct, I had taken a deep breath before being pulled down. Even so, my lungs ached for fresh, unsalted air5r, like the kind wafted to you from a lake. My head began to spin, I needed air, now! Suddenly, a thought popped into my head, if the thing dragging me under was human, it would have to come up for air too. This thought triggered another one, which was not in the least comforting. The thing hadn't come back up yet, which could mean, it wasn't human. Almost immediately after that idea, I felt the pressure around my ankle release and then I found myself floating upwards. I used my numb arms to propel myself to the surface. My lungs felt ready to burst, black spots lept before my eyes. After what seemed like eternity, my head broke the crest of the waves and I filled my body with air. though it had a tinge of salt, it seemed like the cleanest, purest air I had ever inhaled. I was hyperventilating, I tried to slow down my breathing. Telling myself to take deep breaths. but I couldn't, I hungrily gasped and coughed, trying to get more air than was possible. I wanted ALL the air, I wanted to drain the world of it, sucking it all up for me, no one else. You can tell how long I'd been underwater. A few feet away, my assailant shot out of the water. Swimming ina circle, she turned to me. My heart thudded. One word left my mouth, "Martina."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Culture of Epsicron

Hello! this is not part of the story, it is just some information on the culture of Epsicron.





Culture. Hardly an adequate word to describe the rich legends and history of Epsicron. From Larkeen to the gypsy market, religions and traditions are virtually the same. Imagine a world that had only one belief...Epsicron is one such land...

Across all the reaches of Epsicron, the maker of all is the Creator. Some say he lives deep in the heart of the Lassandrin forest, others are sure that he walks the land in the form of a beggar. Neither is completely true. If you are a lonely pilgrim, the Creator might come in the shape of a fellow wanderer and keep you company. He is neither human nor god, perhaps something in between.
But he has a weakness, two in fact. Firstly, his name: the Creator, allows him to only make not destroy the things in Epsicron. Secondly, his sister, Estianesto is not actually his sister. Estianesto was the first Caygan leader. Though she has, of course, lost her Caygan magic, her mind and heart still remember the days of fighting and mind-reading.

Estianesto is the patron goddess of Virgins, Wisdom and Sword-play. As the story goes, the Creator gave her two swords as a gift. These two swords held extraordinary magic when wielded by the correct warrior. Omicron, the savage one, was destined to Sumner, the leader of the Caygans. Epsilon, the sword of Strategy, was to be the blade of Taledo Trayk. Both of the swords were found by the correct people, but in the end only one of the destined ones possessed their true weapon.......
Although Estianesto was kind, (To females), she made a few enemies in her day. Unfortunately, her worst rival, Fate was the goddess of Destiny. Fate put a curse on the swords letting them only kill one person a-piece. Omicron could only kill the Lone Warrior, Sumner’s son. Epsilon was given a peculiar target, Prince Orlov, son of the great King Ornkorthe of Larkeen.

The creation of Omicron will be told always, by the few people that know it. It was made in Toupelae, the Mount of Katari in the Broks Mountains. The sword was welded in the flames and then cooled in the salty waters of the Serenithian sea. The Creator found it buried in a pile of sand and shells. He brought it back with him and when his sister was old enough, gave it to her.

Omicron’s twin, Epsilon has a similar history. Created in Toupelae and then bathed in the Serenithian sea. The legends say that the Creator gave Epsilon to his sister, but in truth, Estianesto found it herself. She was only eleven when she travelled to the gypsy market and found Epsilon wedged between two wagon wheels. Nobody could pull it out except for Estianesto. That is how the story of Camelot was created. Epsilon is the Excalibur of Epsicron.

Lone Warrior: Chapter 2-Drowning in disbelief: Continued (Again and again))

To my relief, the hand was attached to an arm, and the arm to a torso. A red haired head bobbed up to the surface. "Megan!" I chocked.
Megan didn't respond. "Megan? Megan? MEGAN!" I screamed.
She lay there, stiff as a board, floating above the water. I wracked my brains, trying to conjure up what could have happened. Firstly, she could have hypothermia. I quickly un-zipped her gray sweater and pulled off her shoulders, letting it drift away. She could have also been bitten by an un-recorded sea creature that nobody knew about that released a poison so strong that it killed you within seconds. I highly doubted the second option, but hey, I was panicking. Then a thought struck me, this had happened to Megan before...and in the water as well. I hurriedly searched her pant pockets until I found what I was looking for. A blue and silver inhaler with her name on it, literally. I inserted it between her purple-looking lips and gave three sharp puffs. Megan took in one, shaky breath and then another. She continued doing that until her breathing slowed and her chest stopped pounding. She coughed up one more mouthful of salt water and then lay on her back, quivering. "You okay?" I asked between breaths.
Megan nodded, still finding it difficult to breathe. Until that point, I had been treading water. My arms ached and my legs felt numb with cold. We had to get out of the water before one of us died of drowning or hypothermia, at the moment, none of them sounded appealing. I rolled over onto my back, heaving great gasps and spitting out seaweed. That was when I felt a pull at my leg, pulling me under the water.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Lone Warrior: Chapter 2-Drowning in disbelief: Continued (Again)

It was the smell that awoke Martina up. The tangy scent of salt. She moved as if to roll over, only to inhale a gulp of water. Caughing and spluttering, she rolled onto her back, heart pounding. After regaining her breath, she went back onto her stomach. A gray...something...floating in the water caught her attention and she swallowed another mouthful of water. "Could it be shark?" Martina thought, panic seizing her. Then her logical mind woke up and came to it's senses. It couldn't be a shark, the water was to cold for them. Martina caught a glimps of pale yellow and what looked like a pair of black shoes. Blinking salty water from her eyelashes, Martina surged forward, ignoring the fact that it could very well be some kind of creature you don't want to meet in a dark alley way in the middle of the night.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Lone Warrior: Chapter 2-Drowning in disbelief: Continued

I resufaced...wait, did I say resurfaced? A cry arose from my throat and my mouth imeadiatley filled with with water. What was going on? I felt something brush against my leg and I let loose a high-pitched shriek. Very uncharacteristic. I saw a flash of orange, and then a pale hand shot out of the water. I thought back to all the mystery books I had read, all the hands with nothing attatched to them floating in the water. But I recognised that hand and it's thin, feminine, fingers. Against my better instincts, I grabbed the clammy hand and pulled.

***

Megan was in the water, the freezing water clawed at her arms and legs like icy fingertips. Her lungs felt heavy and full, it became harder and harder to breath. at first, Megan paniced, not knowing what was going on. Then, it hit her and the truth was even worse than she had dreamed. She was having one of her asthma attacks.
mwegan felt light headed, she was now so cold that she scarcely noticed the change in temprature as her head slipped below the water. In a last desperate attempt to get help, she stuck her hand above the water, hoping that someone would rescue her. Her hand was only out of the water for a few seconds, but Megan felt someone grab her hand, felt herself being lifted from the water, then, she blacked out.

TO BE CONTINUED...