▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 19║▌║▌║█│▌

The woman wavy blonde hair and a flowy white dress. Her skin was almost as white as Sasha’s, and her intense light blue eyes reminded me of the clear blue sky. She seemed to be a little taller than me (though I can’t tell since she’s sitting down), and the sword she had in her hands would probably come up to a little below my waist. She continued to stare at me intently, but for some reason I didn’t feel threatened in any way. In fact, I felt calmed down a little. My muscles relaxed from being cold and sore, and I felt at ease in her presence. She had a warm aura on her, and instead of being frozen in fear or backing away, I found myself slowly walking toward her. She still hasn’t said a word or responded to my call of hello in any way other than her intense glare. I asked her, “What are you doing here? Did you get trapped here too?”

I just wanted to get a response out of her, but she still just sat there staring at me. Eventually I made my way where I was about an inch away from her. My curiosity about her aura and her mysteriousness finally got the best of me, and I asked her, “Who are you?”

Finally, she responded to me, “I suppose it’s fine. You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago. You can call me Lady of the Lake. I protect and live in the foggy land around this lake. It is a source of great magical power that a lot of people want for themselves, but the power of the lake is meant for everybody. People can meditate and recuperate their strength here, and they don’t need to be charged with anything. Many people over the years have tried to take this place for themselves, and many people have failed to take it. That being said, I ask you this. What are you doing here human?”

Taken aback by what she said and her beautiful, airy voice, I was hesitant with my answer. I eventually told her, “I umm…I’m here with a group taking one of Zeus’s sons to Mount Olympus. We were supposed to be staying here at the lake for tonight because it’s supposed to be safe. I know the son very well. I was actually brought here because I was with him at the time. He’s my best friend. Sometimes I feel like I don’t even deserve his friendship because he’s so much better than me in every single thing, but he still stays with me anyway. I really need to get back to them. Do you know any way to get back to the surface and to the lake’s edge?”

She gave me a puzzled look as she asked, “Shouldn’t they be looking for you right now? If you stayed by the entrance of the cave, I’m sure they would find you eventually.”

“That’s the thing.” I told her, “I don’t really know if they are or not. John would probably want to look for me, but the group probably wouldn’t allow it because it’s too dangerous for him. Apparently, there are a lot of people that want to see him and Zeus’s sons dead, and the group probably wouldn’t waste resources or put him in danger for someone that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Is that hole in the ground the only way out of here?”

She looked back down at her sword as she started to rub it again with a cloth, and she told me, “Hmmm…There are other ways. Why do you want to go back to them so badly if they don’t care much about you though?”

I thought about it for a bit. She is right in a certain way though. Why would I go back to a place where I’m not wanted by anybody except for one person? I then thought about John, and how he has done so many things for me in my life. He didn’t have to do anything for me just because we grew up together, but he’s been my best friend and looked out for me anyway. I nodded my head in understanding of my thoughts, and I told her, “Because I feel like I need to be there for John. He’s been there for me my entire life now I feel like I need to be there for him in this new world. Plus, I think this world is interesting in a way. I’m curious about the dynamics of things, and I want to know about the people and creatures that live here even though I can die easily. I feel like the best way I can accomplish those things is to follow the escort group back to Mount Olympus.”

“Hmm…I don’t think you’ll die as easily as you think you would.” She said, “I sense a deeper power within you.”

I heard the same thing from Gala at the Fairy Forest. I brushed it off though and told her, “You are probably just sensing the extra energy and flexibility I got from bathing in the Fairy Forest’s sap.”

She abruptly stopped rubbing the sword and looked up at me, “You bathed in the Fairy Forest’s Sap? Gala let you do that?!” She asked.

She seems really shocked by this. I know that people being allowed to bathe in the sap is rare, but I don’t think it would be so rare that a protector of the lake would be this shocked. I told her, “Yeah…Is it that rare?”

“Very…She usually let’s only a couple of people bathe in it every hundred years.”

My eyes widened when I heard this revelation. I didn’t think it would be thatrare. The Lady of the Lake stood up for the first time since I arrived, and she started to walk off into the dark while putting the sword in its sheath on her side. She turned around and looked at me still standing next to the fountain. She asked me, “Well, what are you doing still standing there for? You wanted out of the cave, didn’t you? Follow me, and you will find your way back to your escort group.”

I walked away from the fountain, and I followed her pearly body through the darkness.

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌