The Forest of No Return

Ch. 10

I feel the rush of cold water hit me, putting my body into a shock state before it adjusts. I swim further down looking for my dad. Where is he? I turn in circles looking in all directions. I can't lose him again. I start searching more. He couldn't  have gone too far. Spinning around again I slightly see a black outline of a figure further ahead. I swim closer to him grabbing his arm, when he turns around it's a sight that horrified me. It wasn't my father. It's a pale green humanoid fish thing with sharp teeth and fins protruding from its face, arms, and legs. Its eyes were a pale white that sees right through you. It reaches out to grab me as it bares its teeth at me. I kick back trying to get away from it but it's fast. It grabs my arms digging its claws in. I kick at it and thrash around trying to get out of its grasp. It's pushing me down towards the bottom of the lake. It's trying to drown me!  I start fighting it more. Trying to push it off. Trying anything to get myself free. As I kick at it I see a flash of silver in my boot. My knife! Thank the gods I always put a knife separate to my other weapons. I pull the knife out from its sheath and stab the creature in its side. It lets out a screech that is painful to my ears as it lets go. I twisted the knife in deeper to make sure it does more damage and then rip it out. The humanoid fish drops further down towards the lake's bed as red seeps from its wound.

Swimming to the surface seems so far away. My lungs are screaming for air as I try to push my body to go faster. The further I push upwards makes the surface seem further away. I start to see black dots line my vision as the surface becomes just out of reach. I kick hard trying to break the surface but my body feels like concrete. My lungs are screaming for air. Wishing for relief. My kicking starts to slow as my body starts to feel numb. I reach my hand up feeling the waves ripple across my hand as I start to fall into unconsciousness. I was so close. I thought as my vision went black. The last thing I felt was something grabbing my hand and my body floating.

I gasped awake taking a deep inhale of air and then coughing up heaps of water. My body felt cold as the soaking wet clothes clung to my body. I look over to see Thyr looking at me worriedly.

" You okay?" He asked.

" Yeah." I said.

" Good. Why did you do that? You could've died" He said.

" I thought I saw my father." I answered.

" You're fathers dead." He stated.

" I- I know. It's just I saw him touch my foot on that bridge asking for me to help him. He fell back in the water. I thought that this could be my second chance. That I could save him this time. Because I couldn't the first time. But when I dove in it wasn't him. It was this human looking fish. Almost like the sirens in the stories that lure sailors to their death. It attacked me and tried to drown me. But I killed it. I was just too far down to make it back up." I explained feeling upset by my stupidity.

" It's not your fault. That was a water spirit. They use your weak points to lure you into the water to drown you." Thyr says.

" They never get this close to the village. Are you sure it was a water spirit?" Someone asks beside me.

I look over and see and older man. Probably around my fathers age. He had dark brown hair cut short on the sides and a Mohawk style on top. He had tanned skin from the time he must've spent outside in the sun. There was a jagged scar that went from below his eye and to his forehead that made him look rough. He had brown eyes that were set in a hard look. He had a dark brown beard and mustache that wasn't too long but well kept. Trailing across his beard, that's when I see his ears. His ears are... pointed? Why would he have pointed ears? Looking back at his eyes I notice that he's looking at me. Did I miss something?

" What?" I was confused and embarrassed that I was caught looking him over.

" I asked you if it was a water spirit that you saw." He repeated.