As he slid he knew he had no chance of stopping, or even slowing his decent, so Lance struggled to a sitting position and turned, and gave a look to Feznatch that promised so many sinister and dark methods of revenge that Feznatch laughed. He laughed and cackled, and Lance couldn't help but smile as he majestically fell, from a slightly off-kilter cross-legged position, seven meters into the clearest pool of water he had ever seen. It had been blue before, but as Lance went over the edge of the slope, he thought for three meters of his fall that there was nothing but air, and that a magical force had done away with the water. For a few milliseconds, Lance didn't mind the cold. But then he realized, four meters above it, that on the sand at the river bed, a gold coin was sparkling. It wasn't like sun reflecting off a coin sparkling, it was sparkling like Lance knew clear water sparkled. Dancing veins of light, projected by the moving surface. He noticed how calm the water had become, and everything seemed to slow down, as things did when a lot of adrenalin is forced into one's bloodstream in a short amount of time. The second half of Lance's fall seemed to last three or four seconds, and he had time then to notice many things on his way down.
There was a large cave heading back under the river, the top of the mouth being the bottom of the platform, and the bottom lip being underneath the surface and therefore not important for at least another five milliseconds. the river continued, but the clarity, the air-like purity of the water tapered out, moving from the crystal clarity to deep blue sea-looking water, back to the brown, dirty river-water. The trees seemed a little greener around the cave, though there was no plant life in the five cubic meters of the cave that Lance could see, around the cave on the banks of the river, were greener trees. Or maybe they were just evergreens in winter. Lance had no clue, since horticulture had never held his interest longer than the Venus Flytrap had.
Lance struck the serene scene like a bombshell. Bombshell was definitely the simile an onlooker would have used, Lance's strange position producing a splash large enough to rival the iconic pose, and more than a little stinging pain in his legs and back. He was however numb, so it was very much a muted, stinging pain in his back. He tread water in the pool, at pains to disturb it, and realized that it wasn't cold. Well, it was bearable, and Lance probably would have voluntarily entered the water, had he felt it. When he had his breath back, Lance dived down to the bottom of the pool, using the vertical current of the waterfall as a taxi to the bottom.
When he reached the sand floor, everything faded into the back of his head. That's why he loved surfing, scuba diving and snorkeling so much, because when you dived, there was nothing but you and the fish and the great blue. He explored the sand, picked up the gold coin, and was just about to kick off the bottom when he came face to face with a girl that looked remarkably like Leshy. Except for the blue hair which remarkably resembled noodles. And Blue eyes. But other than those rather small things they were identical. The girl winked and beckoned to Lance, and she turned and swam in to the cave. How many girls have winked at me in the last forty-eight hours? More than the last forty-eight months. Lance answered his own question mentally.
'Tamrlaine, nymphs. Nasty, nice, in the middle? Talk to me.'
'A nymph's personality depends on her water. Judging by this river, that nymph would be right down the middle. But be careful, there is more than her living in that cave, and I'm not talking about the stupid snow cones.'
'Okey dokey. Entering deep dark cave with the sea chic after being pushed into a sub-zero river by a man who can change into a bear if he wants, and you tell me to be careful? I may be new, but I'm hardly that bad at this game.'
'That's debatable.' came the curt reply, Lance sensing more than a little jibe in the comment.
'No, it's not.' said Lance, feigning seriousness.
'And I'm Not Talking About The Stupid Snow Cones' -Tamrlaine
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