Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Row, Row, Row the Boat

Eventually, they had warmed up significantly, which, for the record, Wirt thought was much worse. Every one of the repetitive motions of rowing were pain, and even though the three alternated so that one of them was warming up and the other two were rowing, it was never enough of a break, and Wirt couldn't tell if the sharp pains in his fingers were from the cold, the splinters in the oars, or both. Every moment was agony.

At least the other two didn't seem like they were faring much better. With every rock of the boat, Norman looked sick to his stomach, and sometimes he seemed to forget that he was helping Adam lead them, so they missed a lot of turns, and either had to find another route, or fight against the current to make that turn. Every time they had to do that, it got harder and harder to fight against, and Wirt was worried that soon they'd lose to it.

"Hm," Dipper said after a while, the first thing that had been spoken in ages. Wirt and Norman looked over to him. "No matter how much the water level rises, the ceiling is still really high above us."

"That's a good thing," Norman replied. "We wouldn't want to find ourselves in a tunnel we don't fit in."

"That's true..." Dipper agreed slowly. He reached up a hand to the ceiling. "But there's no way to grab the crystals from down here."

Norman paused for a second. "Adam says that's for the best."

"Hm," Dipper said again. His gaze hadn't moved from the ceiling. "Um, Ash? Do you think you could get it down?"

Norman blinked, like he hadn't thought of that before.

"You said he could float, right?" Dipper explained, seeing his look. "Maybe he could grab it."

Norman sighed. "Ash said that he will try."

"Perfect. Thanks... Ash

Wirt and Norman paused their rowing while they waited for Ash to retrieve the crystal. Norman's eyes followed him up, so Wirt was able to follow his progress. Because of this, Wirt was also able to see Norman's sudden small look of disappointment before his eyes followed Ash back down.

"...Ash couldn't grab it," he told them. "I forgot to tell you, Ash hasn't been able to grab stuff for a while now, since we got to the cave."

Dipper frowned. "Oh... is he more transparent now, too?"

Norman blinked, and then nodded. Dipper looked troubled.

"Oh," he said. "So, do you think he'll disappear soon? What happens then?"

"Disappear?" Norman repeated, sounding worried. "Like... 'move on'? Go to the after life?"

Suddenly, Norman turned to the side, suddenly speaking to someone else. "No, Ash, I'm sure it'll be fine, you'll be alright, don't worry about it."

Dipper watched him carefully, and then leaned over to Wirt. "Huh... I guess that isn't the time limit he was talking about before."

"Oh." Wirt had completely forgotten about that. "Guess not."

Norman looked nervous as he turned back to Wirt and Dipper. "I... I'm sure he'll be fine," he said, but he didn't sound even remotely sure.

"...Probably," Wirt agreed eventually, when the silence grew uncomfortable. Dipper turned up to the ceiling again.

"Hm... I guess I'll keep thinking about that," Dipper told them, before shrugging it off, and they continued rowing.

A couple minutes later, when Dipper was on his break, he suddenly shrugged off his (still soaking wet) backpack, and rifled through it. He ignored Wirt and Norman's questioning looks, and took out a book. Wirt winced at it; it looked like it'd never open again. To be fair, Wirt doubted his notebook would either.