"Let's go, Syll," Revvyn said, shouldering his bag. "We've got a forest to cross."
The adrenaline from the fight didn't last nearly as long as the soreness. As they left the ridge, the cool mountain air seemed to evaporate, replaced by a dry heavy heat that felt like walking into a steamer. Revvyn's boots crunched on dead, brittle leaves that looked like they hadn't seen rain in years.
He looked at his hands. They were still stained with the dark, irritating blood of the Goblins. It was starting to dry into a crusty, uncomfortable film that made his skin feel too tight. He wiped them on his pants, but it didn't help much.
Beside him, the red-haired girl was already ten paces ahead. She didn't look back to see if he was following. She just moved with a steady, focussed pace that made Revvyn realize his Agility didn't mean a thing when it came to actual endurance. His legs were heavy. Every step felt like he was dragging his weight through deep sand.
"You will win, and you will fail at the same time."
The old woman's words came into his head.
He had beaten the Goblins. He'd survived the "King." That was the win. So what was the failure? Was it already here, hidden in the rising temperature? Or it was still yet to come.
As they descended deeper into the basin, the air changed. It wasn't dry anymore. It got thick. It felt like breathing through a hot, wet cloth.
"I didn't know the whispering springs was this hot. Is it always this hot?" Revvyn rasped. His throat felt like it was lined with grit.
The girl didn't answer. She didn't even turn her head. But Revvyn noticed the way her shoulders were beginning to slump, just a fraction of an inch. A thin sheen of moisture was finally starting to break out on the back of her neck, darkening the collar of her singlet. She was managing her composure, but the heat was clearly a physical weight on her, too.
Whispering spring shit... More like hell fire spring.
Then the smoke started.
It was a low, gray mist that leaked out from the roots of the trees. It didn't smell like woodsmoke; it smelled like stagnant water and something sweet—like flowers left to rot in a jar. It was cloying. It stuck to the back of Revvyn's tongue, making him want to gag.
"Whispering Springs," she muttered, the first words she'd spoken in an hour. "Be at alert. Things might get messy...also don't look at things too much."
Revvyn wanted to ask why, but he didn't have the energy. His vision was starting to get "swimmy." The edges of the world were blurring into the gray mist. He looked at his feet, focusing on the rhythmic thud-thud of his boots on the black peat.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He felt dizzy. The heat was a physical pressure against his temples, making his pulse throb in his ears. He squinted, trying to find the girl's red hair in the fog, but she wasn't there. The space beside him was empty.
"Hey," he called out. His voice was a thin, pathetic sound. "Where are you?"
The mist didn't answer. It just swirled around his knees, feeling oddly cold against his skin. He stumbled, his knee hitting a slick rock, and he gasped. The pain didn't even feel real. It felt distant, like it was happening to a body he wasn't fully inhabiting anymore.
He looked up, blinking rapidly to clear the haze from his eyes.
The mist parted.
Standing ten feet away, right at the edge of a pool of water that looked impossibly blue and clear, was Lily.
Revvyn froze. His heart gave a hard, painful thud against his ribs. She looked exactly the same as the day he'd left. Her hair was loose, and she had that soft, annoying smile that always made him feel like a kid trying to act tough.
"Lily?" Revvyn breathed. "What... what are you doing here?"
"My Revvyn," she said. Her voice was light, exactly the way it sounded back home. She didn't look like she was in a dangerous forest. She looked safe like she'd just stepped out of a dream . "You look terrible."
Revvyn looked down at his blood-stained clothes and his shaking hands. "How did you get here? The Goblins... the forest..."
She chuckled. It was a low, warm sound. "I couldn't stop thinking about you... so I came for you, love."
Revvyn felt a heat rise to his face that had nothing to do with the Springs. A blush crept up his neck, stinging his skin. He felt a weird mix of relief and total confusion. "So you like me," he said, the words coming out before he could stop them.
She chuckled again, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "You look so thirsty... Come drink some water, then I'll answer your question."
She pointed to the spring. Revvyn's throat practically screamed at the sight of it. The water wasn't like the mud and sludge they'd seen earlier. It looked pure. Cold. He could almost feel the chill of it on his tongue just by looking.
He stumbled toward it, his legs moving on autopilot. He reached the edge, dropped to his knees, and cupped his hands. The water felt like ice against his palms. He drank, gulping it down, the liquid sliding down his parched throat in a way that felt better than any level-up notification he'd ever received.
"I've drank the water," Revvyn panted, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked up, his eyes searching for her. "Now. My answer."
Lily wasn't on the bank anymore. She was in the middle of the spring. The water was up to her waist, and she was beckoning him with a small, graceful movement of her hand.
"Come closer and I'll answer you," Lily said.
Revvyn didn't hesitate. He wanted the answer. He wanted to know why she was here. He stepped into the spring. The water was shallow at the edge, but it felt thick, like it was trying to hold onto his boots. He took another step, the cool blue surface lapping at his thighs.
He was still at the edge. He reached out his hand to her.
SLAP.
The impact was so sudden and violent that Revvyn's head snapped to the left. A sharp, stinging pain exploded across his cheek, and the "blue" of the world shattered.
He blinked, the spots in his eyes clearing.
The red-haired girl was standing right in front of him, her face red with a mix of sweat and pure rage. Her hand was still raised.
"What are you doing, you idiot?!" she screamed.
Revvyn looked back toward the center of the spring.
Lily was gone.
Standing in the middle of the pool was a creature that made his stomach turn. It was gray and bloated, with skin that looked wet and rotting flesh. It had a human-like torso, but its head was a nightmare of needle-teeth and huge, black, unblinking fish-eyes. Stringy, moss-like hair hung over its shoulders, and it was dripping with a foul-smelling slime.
The hell. Revvyn's brain finally caught up. The smell hit him then, the stench of a dead fish left in the sun for a week.
The creature let out a piercing, jagged squeal that rattled Revvyn's eardrums.
"You... are... mine... now!" it croaked, its voice sounding like water bubbling in a clogged pipe.
The spring didn't look blue anymore. It was a murky, dark green. Suddenly, the water beneath Revvyn's feet began to churn. A violent whirlpool opened up right where the creature stood, the force of it dragging at Revvyn's legs.
"Get out!" the girl yelled. She grabbed Revvyn's arm, her fingers digging into his skin as she tried to pull him back toward the muddy bank.
But the current was too strong. It felt like a giant hand had wrapped around his ankles and was yanking him down. The girl's boots slipped in the black peat, and a surge of dark water slammed into her, throwing her backward into the trees.
"Hey!" she shouted, but she was out of reach.
Revvyn was being dragged into the center. The water was up to his chest now, the coldness of it turning into a biting, heavy pressure.
"Syll! Back to me!" he roared.
The purple slime materialized into a mark on his hand, chirping in a frantic, high-pitched tone, but Revvyn couldn't even find his footing to give an order. The whirlpool claimed him. The murky, foul water rushed over his head, filling his ears with a dull, roaring sound.
He couldn't swim. He never learned. The weight of his bag and his soaked clothes felt like lead.
He thrashed for a second, his hands clawing at the water, but all he felt was the slimy, cold touch of the creature's fingers closing around his ankle.
His lungs began to burn. The light from above turned a dull, sick green before fading entirely.
Revvyn closed his eyes.