▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 21 ║▌║▌║█│▌

I sat up off the ground, and I rubbed my eyes to get the water out of them. I looked around the now colorful marsh, and I saw a hulking creature laying to the right of me. It looked almost exactly like the dinosaur-like creature I saw earlier that almost crushed me, but this one had large fins for feet instead of the large legs. I looked up at her as my eyes grew wider. The creature moved his long neck down to me, and it gazed into my eyes. “What are you staring at?” She asked me.

I looked down in submission, and I told her, “Sorry, you look familiar to someone I saw earlier when I first entered the lake area.”

“Ahh…That was probably my cousin. Sorry if he was rude, he isn’t the most perceptive fellow.”

I let out an awkward laugh as I reminisced on my near-death experience of him crushing me. I was knocked out of the scary thought when someone punched me into the side of the humungous creature. I unstuck my face from the side of the creature and let out an annoyed, “Ow…”

I feel like it would’ve hurt me a lot more when I first came to this land, but the sap bath I took helped me out a lot. The scales on the creature were a lot harder than I thought. I heard a voice cry out behind me saying, “That’s what you get! What were you thinking?! You just saw John and that red-haired girl get lost yesterday by staying behind the group, and you went and did the exact same thing they did today!”

I turned around to see that it was Sasha speaking. Before she could finish what she was saying, that red-haired girl she was talking about piped up and said, “My name is Giselle!”

Sasha shot her a threatening glance with here red eyes, and Giselle quickly backed away in fear. Sasha commanded her, “Shut up!”

Sasha turned back toward me and said, “If I hadn’t asked Nessy to help look for you then you would have died! Jeez I didn’t know humans could be so ignorant! How did you end up in the lake anyway?”

I looked down, realizing that my story is probably unbelievable, and told her, “It’s a long story…”

Does this mean she was worried about me though? She actually tried to look for me? I wonder if the others were trying to look for me too? I didn’t think that anybody would care enough to do that. Thinking about that, I was reminded of my time with the Lady of the Lake. I looked back at Nessy and asked her, “Have you ever heard of the Lady of the Lake?”

I was curious if she was well known around here. Since she said she hasn’t talked to anybody in a long time, I wonder if the creatures around the lake know of her. Nessy gave me a confused look and said, “Who is that?”

This confirms that the Lady of the Lake stays hidden from other creatures of the lake. I wonder why? If she wanted to talk to someone, the creatures here seem to be nice enough. Garen made his way through the crowd of spectators around Nessy, and when he saw me, he said, “Cody! What happened my friend? Why do have that sword strapped to your back?”

“Sword?” I asked out in confusion.

What sword is Garen talking about? I reached behind to my back, and I felt a sword scabbard on my back. When did I get this on my back? Is it the same sword that the Lady of the Lake was cleaning back in the cave? Conor, the ginger leprechaun, teleported to my shoulder again to look at the blade. His weight suddenly on my shoulder almost made me lose my balance and fall, and he grabbed my hair to not fall off and told me, “Woah there, lad! Keep your bearings on yeh!”

I put my right hand on Nessy to keep from falling, and I annoyingly told him, “No need to worry there,lad.”

I’m cold, wet, and tired, and I am easily agitated right now. “Ohhh…Got some sass on yeh now, do yeh? Calm down, I’m just lookin at yeh new tool. Hmm…It seems to have some magical power to it.”

Garen walked over and waved at Conor—who teleported off of my shoulder. He said, “Give the kid some space, will you? He has been lost in this dark and gloomy land for about five hours. He is probably tired, hungry, and freezing.”

I was confused a little bit when he described the land as dark and gloomy, but I realized I’m probably the only one that can see the true nature of this place. He was right about the tired, hungry, and freezing part though. I looked around the crowd of people around me for John, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. I asked Garen, “Where is John at?”

Garen put his hand on my shoulder, and he told me, “Don’t worry he didn’t get lost too. He is back at the campfire meditating to try and awaken his powers faster. Trust me, he was almost as worried as Sasha about your disappearance.”

Sasha protested this remark saying, “I was not that worried.”

Garen let out a lighthearted laugh, and he said, “Okay, okay…Let’s head back to the campfire to get this kid warm. You have a lot to tell us about your adventure by yourself.”

We walked over to the campfire, and I saw John sitting next to it crossed-legged with one of the minotaur brothers next to him keeping an eye on him. John seemed unphased at the influx of people around the campfire. I hurriedly sat down at the camp fire to get warm. I put my hands so close to the fire that Garen told me, “Careful, you’ll burn yourself.”

“At this point, if I even feel anything it will be an improvement from my frozen hands.” I retorted.

Sasha and Garen sat down on either side of me, and the rest of the group gathered around the campfire. “So…What happened out there?” Sasha asked.

I looked at her, and she seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. No one has ever really been interested in what I have had to say in my life except for John. People have always brushed me off. Then I looked around the campfire, and everyone seemed to be genuinely interested in what I had to say except for Giselle. Even Nessy followed us back to hear my story. I guess I should start to tell them my story…

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌