“It’s not funny,” Kyrus snapped and managed to get a mouthful
of water and sand, went under, and came up before he pulled Werfas down and got
him panicking again. Tizzy fell off his head and swam in a circle and tried to
climb onto his face, blunt claws raking. “OW! Help.”
“Sorry. Sorry.” Even
as she said it, she was pulling loops out of the edge she’d stabilized,
threading rope and tying it off to drop a line down the centre, away from the
edges. The sinkhole Werfas had opened
up was a ragged, jagged toothed maw, with gallium crystals, the razor edges of
peacock shards, the light glittering on smears of aluminum and the wild growths
of all colours of salt. Bright blue glints
of copper sulfate showed on rings of manganese and all the way from the water
surface to the top, showing how wildly the water-level had changed over the years.
The razor sharp walls were seething with albino oyuks and as
they skittered around the crystals they exposed blotches and daubs of
phosphorous. The water was murky, full
of bits of oyuk, and their feces. Whippy,
slithery life filled the water, ranging from particles too small to see to
thumb-sized cells that swam by lashing tails and cilia, seething and bouncing against
the boys. It was fairly easy to float,
the water was so full of salts and opaque with gelatinous life. Oyuk reek was thick inside their nostrils,
ammonia and grease combined, in contrast to the salt-bitter stench shrivelling their
nose-hairs.
“Sorry, wing-brother,” Werfas said. “I didn’t expect the stone to just drop out
under me like that.”
“S’okay. I’m glad
there was water down here for you to land in, instead of you breaking both
legs.”
“Um. I’m glad you know
how to swim... where did you learn?”
“Basin. People hated
us for illegal swimming in the water and kept trying to catch us. Some of the ‘kulu were taught to swim to
block us... we al’us were dunkin’. We
weren’t pissing in it, twas was drinking water, not stinkin’ water. We even washed with soap afore we went...
soap sand’s everywhere for te digging.
Slippy drippies we were.”
The light from above dimmed as someone joined Hara. It was Da.
“Here comes the rope,” he called and the end splashed into the water
next to Werfas. Tizzy chirred and
grabbed the rope, swarming up first, lashing him across the face with her tail
as it whipped in wild circles until she had all four paws dug into the
fibres. She skittered up the rope as
fast as a striking pitter and vanished over the edge.
Wer grabbed the knot and Ky looped the rope around him, under
his armpits. “Haul him up!” He called. “I’m
fine.”
He didn’t mention that the cuts he’d collected were burning as the cell things tried to eat his blood and shrivel up and die, or bite into the wound. Like all humans on the planet though, he was too acid for them and they bloomed and blew up even from his sweat, much less his blood, as it ate into their skins and broke them open. He was surrounded by a weird slick of dead cells until his motion stirred them into the thrashing soup he swam in.
“Da! I’m going to
mander a hold for me. I’ll get out of
this stinking mess quicker that way.”
“All right. Just be
careful.” Da and Ilax both
answered. “The karst is so friable you
don’t want to bring the whole hole in on top of you.”
“Nah. There’s not much
of a current here... I’ll be careful.” He wanted out of the water so bad he could taste
it. Thank the Light he’d been able to
swim but, endarkened he really wished this rescue was done already. Werfas was almost at the top, ducking under
the stone bar they’d grown across the top to hold the rope stable and away from
the walls.
“Wait, son,” his da called.
“Don’t disturb the rock that much.”
“Da, it’s all right.” What does he think? That I’m an idiot who'll bring the whole thing on top of me? He reached his hand up out of the water and a dozen brightly glowing dragonflies landed on his fingertips. I’ve grown handholds and stick-ems a bunch of times for class!
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