Previously: Marie and Luciene’s hunting trip was cut short by an emergency signal. Upon arriving back at the village they discovered who’s emergency it had been - Bahr’s. He’d been bitten by a venomous animal. There is a cure, but the plant only grows on a small island in the middle of a nearby lake.
When Valentina said she'd leave without me, I had no reason to disbelieve her. I grabbed my bow, some arrows, and my duffel bag from my host's home without so much as a word of explanation. I checked the charge on my gun as I ran into the woods - a terrible violation of safety norms. I shook my head as I put the gun away. If I was in such a hurry that I couldn’t stop to check it safely, then what would I have done if the battery had been low? It didn’t matter. The battery was just as full as it had been the last time I’d looked at it, hours previously.
It was starting to rain now. I realized this the second time I almost slipped on soggy vegetation.
Valentina was waiting for me when I got to the shore. "Will the rain make it harder to sail?"
"Yes. Will that stop you from coming with me?"
"No."
The rowboat was large, more than enough for the two of us to sit comfortably. There was only one set of oars, which seemed heavy and far apart compared to Valentina's small frame. I wasn't sure which would irritate her more — if I offered to help or if I didn't. I opted for the latter.
Valentina rowed us into the mist without hesitation. "Do others in the village sail?"
"Only a few. There are many medicinal plants on the island," Valentina responded, in a hushed whisper I could barely hear.
"Does anyone fish?" I matched her volume.
"No, there's barely anything in there." She tilted her head. "They didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"About the serpent in the lake." Valentina rolled her eyes. "No one ever gives out important information.”
"You could have told me earlier..." I begun the sentence before I'd thought it out.
"Would it have changed your mind?"
"About coming out here? No."
"Good." There were a few more minutes of silence.
“Someone may have tried to tell me about the serpent, but if they didn’t say it in English..."
"Don't you speak in -----? Like your ---- who's ---- sick?"
"Not really. That's a long story." Valentina didn't ask for any explanation and I didn't offer it.
"They gossip about you. About your arrival," she said, switching back to English.
"Me?"
"You brought up my father right away, when you walked into camp. I had gone years without having to listen to all that." The oars splashed a little louder. I glanced down at the bag between my feet, wondering why I'd brought the whole thing instead of just my weapons. I'd been in a hurry, and now the notes from Henrique were in a duffel bag in the rain, with a daughter who resented him.
"I'm sorry. I had to ask. I came here alone, you know. I thought I'd never see another human."
"I know," she replied, hissing through her teeth.
"Valentina..."
"I said, I know," she snapped.
"No, I mean..." I squinted out at the water ahead of us, past her shoulder. Something in the water was greener than everything else. It was moving.
"You can drop it, moon girl. I'm doing you a favor and..." I leaned forward, put one hand over her mouth and took out my gun with the other. The oars stopped moving and she stopped talking.
"Does it track noise? Scent?" I said in less than a whisper
"Just noise. That gun will do nothing but irritate it. We wait."
"But Bahr..."
"We wait." I sat back down. I adjusted my grip on my gun. Like a child pulling up their bed covers to hide from monsters, it was a useless gesture. Though in this case, the monster was real.
Minutes passed. Sometimes a mass of scales would pop above the surface for just a few seconds. Sometimes it was nearby. Sometimes it was far away. Once, I thought the boat was pushed.
"Bahr is dying," I mouthed. Valentina hesitated, rolled her eyes, and started rowing as slowly as one could. Then the something bumped the boat again, with more force. Valentina started rowing faster.
I turned around and scanned the water. There was so much fog. I spotted something that looked like rocks, some sort of sand bank, and fired at it. Pebbles scattered, hitting other rocks and splashing into the water. It was not nearly as noisy as I had hoped but it worked. The mass of scales appeared again, closing in on the sand bank.
"How much further?" I asked. Valentina didn't answer; she didn't have to. The bottom of the rowboat skidded across sand, pitching me forwards. I grabbed the side of the boat to break my fall, gaining some splinters for my trouble. I ignored them. I picked up my bag and scrambled after Valentina onto shore as she all but disappeared into the thick fog.
"Cave," she whispered waving at me to follow her to some opening in the rocks I could barely see. It was not so much a cave as a hole. I turned around to lower myself backwards like I was climbing down a ladder. As I did so I faced the lake we'd just left. There was a shape looming above the waters — a thin, vague shadow, maybe ten feet tall.
"It's not far. Just drop." Valentina’s whipered voice echoed against rocks, bouncing around a large chamber. I let go and fell into darkness.