by Hans Bezdek
“I-I’m not a fan of swimming,” stammered Cassandra.
I cast a curious look at her. She’s never been one to get nervous when we needed to do something. I knew elves weren’t great swimmers, but surely she realized this was one of the least dangerous things we’ve done over the past several weeks.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to comfort her. “These helmets should let us breathe. Even if you’re not an amazing swimmer, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”
Cassandra continued to stare down, not looking convinced.
“M-Maybe it’s best if I just hang back, w-while you two find the Shield.”
“Come on, we’ve come this far just for you to stop here?” I asked. “I don’t think you’d be happy with yourself if we got it and you stood on the shore the whole time.”
“It’s probably not good to get the Shattered Sword wet,” she mumbled.
“I’m confident that a magical, legendary weapon can handle getting a little water on it,” I smirked.
She bit her lip as she contemplated what she would do. Ultimately, she put her helmet on, which again fit without a problem. How did Dhot manage to do that?
“Here, I’ll swim right next to you the whole time,” I said. “If anything goes wrong, I can shoot us both up to the surface with my wind or water magic.”
That seemed to work. She nodded, and began slowly wading into the lake. I dipped a toe in to check the temperature, quickly brining it back. The water was so cold!
I took a few steps back, took a big breath, then ran and jumped into the lake. I really hoped these helmets worked…
I looked around as I swam a few feet lower, my body adapting to the cold. It looked like the lake was deeper than I originally thought it would be, but if anything that worked in our favor. I doubted Nicole’s boats would help them much beyond the surface. Scores of multicolored fish swam about, most keeping to the safety of the depths. There were some other, larger creatures in the middle of the lake. They had large tusks on their heads, and didn’t look particularly friendly. They seemed content to stay where they were, though. At least for now.
To my delight, no water spilled into the helmet. I let go of my final breath, ready to breathe in for the first time. Inhaling deeply, I laughed in surprise. It worked! The dumb helmet actually worked!
I glanced around to thank Dhot, but couldn’t see him anywhere. I could see a pretty far distance with the helmet, but there was no sign of the little guy. Where had the goblin gone off to?
It was at that time that Cassandra finally dove beneath the surface. I immediately saw why she was concerned back on the shore. Her arms shot off in random directions, sometimes pushing other times pulling. Her legs moved erratically, and she didn’t seem to understand how to use them to help propel herself forward. It looked like she had never swam a day in her life.
Still, she waved excitedly when she saw me. I gave her a thumbs up as she ever so slowly made her way to me. Maybe this would’ve been faster if she just stayed above the water after all.
I spent some time trying to teach the elf how to swim. I’d never taught anyone else how to before, and not being able to talk made it infinitely harder. There were a lot of head shakes early on, but after close to half an hour she started to get the hang of it. Or at least, she didn’t look like a drowning cat anymore when she tried to move more than a foot a minute.
Content with what little progress we made, I led the two of us around the edge of the lake. The rocky cliffs that made up the perimeter rarely had any openings, and when they occasionally did, it would just be a couple of feet deep. I would scout up ahead from Cassandra every so often, only to come back empty handed.
This went on for an hour or two as we made our way around the lake. I was beginning to worry that we would have to venture further down, and closer to the tusked creatures. I had never tried to fight anything while underwater, and I was confident Cassandra would prove to be more of a liability than any help. Still, it would make sense that the Time Shield was kept hidden underneath some sort of protection.
Right before I was about to hand sign that we were going to go fight with the tusked creatures, I caught sight of a deep looking hole further down from us. I quickly left the elf to check it out, and saw that the hole went deeper than I could see. This must be it!
Swimming back up to Cassandra, I nodded enthusiastically and pointed down at the hole. She nodded back and gave me the okay sign.
A sharp, metal object flew by from my left, just a few inches in front of my face.
What was that?!
I looked over to my left, where I watched as another metal object shot right for me. Summoning a bit of magic, I swam down while pushing my hand up, shooting off a burst of wind. This propelled me further down as the harpoon shot through where I was just a second earlier.
Looking up again, I saw what was shooting at us. Three of those large, discuss boats that Nicole had were completely submerged underwater. The three ships were slowly coming for us, harpoons armed at the front of each ship.
I waved frantically for Cassandra to keep moving, and pointed down at the hole. The elf nodded, and began desperately flailing as she swam for it. While the opening in the rocks was deep, it wasn’t particularly wide. If she could make it there, I didn’t think the boats would be able to follow in after her.
All three ships launched harpoons at the elf immediately. I threw my hands up, trying to jettison water currents at them to throw the flying metal off target. I nudged two away, while two more continued on at Cassandra. I held my breath and watched them shoot through the water in horror.
Both harpoons missed by several feet in front of the elf. It looked like her unorthodox method of swimming made it harder for them to properly track and hit her!
I glanced back at the ships, the one in the front close enough now for me to see the figures inside the glass. A gnome was driving the boat, while two humans sat behind him holding polearms at their side. Nicole Adder stood behind them all, giving me a wicked smile. I wanted to wipe that stupid look off her face.
Cupping my hands together, I began sending energy down to them as I started the incantation. My eyes widened and I let go almost immediately. Dang it… I couldn’t summon electricity while I was in the water. It would hurt or possibly kill Cassandra and me, even if it did knock out the Gray Adders.
Running through the options, I realized I didn’t exactly have any. Fire wouldn’t work at all, and I couldn’t do anything with the rocks unless I swam away and went for the ground or side. That would leave Cassandra wide open, and they’d eventually figure how to hit her. It seemed like I was stuck with just water and wind, which wouldn’t really do much to the boats.
The three boats shot out once again, sending five more harpoons our way. I pushed four of them away with water, but again one slipped by. This one missed the elf by only a few inches.
I was using up a lot of magic, and nothing was really coming of it. It was just a matter of time before I ran out, or missed the wrong harpoon headed for Cassandra.
Boom.
The water all around us vibrated from the impact of an explosion on the back left boat. Parts of the ship slowly fell away from it as bubbles sprang out all around. The people inside the boat started panicking, pointing around and arguing with each other as water began to slowly fill in.
The other two boats paused where they were, their passengers all looking back at the damaged one. The hit boat soon started ascending up towards the surface. It looked like they were out of the fight.
Everyone turned back towards us, with Nicole raising her hand up and pointing in my direction. The gnome driving her ship nodded, and the ship began moving forward again.
Boom.
The ship behind hers was rocked, metal parts slowly drifting down. Not wasting any time, this boat immediately made its way up for air. As it drove up, I noticed a strange object pop out from behind Nicole’s ship.
It was Dhot.
The
goblin kicked off from the boat, swimming towards me with surprising speed. He gave me a thumbs up, which I returned. Holding up his other hand, I saw he had a trigger. He clicked it.
Boom.
Nicole’s submarine rocked with explosions.
Water began filling her boat, and the other three passengers started freaking out. This ship began to rise as Nicole screamed, shaking her fists at me.
I smiled at the orc as Dhot finally arrived next to me. I waved goodbye to her and her Adders as they floated above, leaving the Time Shield for me and my friends.
Chapter 18
Dhot and I quickly caught up to Cassandra, who had just made it to the opening of the cavern. If it wasn’t for the goblin saving us from the Gray Adders, we would’ve been goners.
The three of us swam single file deeper through the hole. There were jagged rocks all along the path, and we had to be particularly careful the further in we went. The path went on for several minutes. So long, in fact, I was beginning to worry about the longevity of the underwater breathing enchantment. Even though it had worked so far, there was no telling if or when it would wear off. If the enchantment stopped now, none of us were making it out of Lake Quip alive.
Which reminded me… Nicole and her group were almost certainly waiting above for us now. Even if their ships were completely disabled, they’d be able to spread out and cover most of the lake. If we found the Time Shield and tried to swim back up, they’d spot us immediately.
As the tunnel began to head upwards, I decided to worry about that later on. There was no guarantee that the Time Shield was still here, or if it had ever been here. We could easily find ourselves in a dead end, or encountering a horrible monster that made this place his home.
Before I knew it, my head popped out of the water. Surprised, I waded over slightly to let the others through but I didn’t drift too far. The underwater tunnel had led us to a secret cave.
“That was exciting!” laughed Dhot, head above the water and looking around. “I feel like I really blew them away with my surprise! Maha!”
“W-Where are we?” asked Cassandra, struggling to keep her helmet and herself above the water.
“Maybe this is the secret place that holds the Shield?” I said, swimming over to the side. There was a patch of dry land in the corner, which I made a beeline for.
The others followed behind me as we all pulled ourselves out of the water and onto the cave’s floor. The three of us laid there for a moment, exhausted from all the swimming. We each took off our helmets, taking in the cold, stale cavern air. I looked up and saw countless stalactites pointing down at us from the ceiling. It would probably be best if Dhot didn’t set off too many explosions while we were down here.
Still tired but wanting to see for myself if the legendary Shield was really here or not, I struggled to my feet and walked around the corner. The place was pitch dark, but I saw a large torch off to the side of the room. Summoning a fireball, I tossed it over, igniting the torch.
The cave stretched out to be about fifty feet by fifty feet, with various stalagmites cutting off some space around the edges. The other end of the cave wouldn’t be easy to walk across, though, as it was covered by something far more precious than anything we had seen so far.
“Is… is this real?” mumbled Dhot, walking over and standing next to me.
“It looks that way,” I nodded, looking on in disbelief as well.
On the other side of the cave, scattered all across the floor, were piles and piles of gold, quat, gems, and shining weapons.
“How did all of this stuff get here?” wondered Cassandra aloud, her eyes sparkling as she looked down at all of the treasure.
I was wondering that, too. It looked like whoever hid all of these items here had done a good job collecting valuables, and would probably have wanted to come back to them occasionally. Perhaps they just brought it through the same passageway that we did. Maybe they were the ones who made this area in the first place.
Dhot didn’t seem to bothered by it, instead running up to the piles.
“There’s so much here!” he shouted. “We’re going to be rich for the rest of our lives!”
“Assuming our lives last long enough for us to get our of here with all that,” I said. “I’m not sure how we’re going to get out of here without Nicole and her group attacking us, let alone with all those valuables.”
“Speaking of valuables,” added Cassandra, walking past me and towards the goblin. “Let’s see if we can find the Time Shield, shall we?”
The three of us spent the next hour digging through the hidden treasure, shoveling piles of gold coins and quat away as if they were little more than dirt. I noticed Dhot was careful to shovel a good amount into his bag as he dug, but he eventually stopped after a few stern looks from Cassandra.
I spent most of my time scanning the various weapons, thinking through if any of them might’ve been used by the heroes of old. There were a few daggers and staves that I thought might’ve fit some of the old tales, but on closer inspection, they were little more than weapons made out of gold. About half way through our digging, I thought I might have found the Time Shield buried among some gems. When I pulled it out, though, it was just a plain, heavily used one. Nothing about it was noteworthy or exciting, so I set it aside.
At the end of the hour, the three of us sat with out backs against the wall, staring in disappointment at the heaps of wealth.
“It’s not here,” mumbled Dhot, kicking at a rock.
“Doesn’t appear to be,” I agreed. “I think we’ve checked nearly every corner of this place.”
“Maybe someone else beat us here?” offered Cassandra.
“Or maybe the rumors were just mixed up,” sighed the goblin. “People knew that there was something valuable here, and they just attributed the Time Shield to it instead of all this money. Really unfortunate, as the Gray Adders wouldn’t be waiting to cut our heads off if they knew the Shield wasn’t even here.”
“Maybe I should give them that beat up shield I found,” I smirked. “Think they’d buy it?”
“Beat up shield?” asked Cassandra, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Yeah,” I said, getting up and walking over to the where I placed it. I picked it up and put it over my arm, peeking out over the top at them. It fit shockingly well, actually.
“Why would that be here among all this treasure?” said the goblin slowly.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, looking down at it. “I assumed that whoever found all this stuff must’ve used it while they were gathering all this up. Maybe they were thankful to it, and left it here.”
“What makes you so sure it’s not the Time Shield?” asked Cassandra, standing up and dusting her pants off.
“Look at it,” I scoffed. “The things looks old and unremarkable. The Shattered Sword is all jewel encrusted, and it was glowing blue when we found it.”
“True,” she nodded, taking out the Shattered Sword as she spoke. The blade was glowing blue even then.
“Why not try using the Sword on Reimar’s shield?” offered Dhot.
Cassandra looked down at the shield as she thought about it. “That’s not a bad idea…”
“Wait, why?” I asked, taking a step back. I didn’t want to get sliced open when the Shattered Sword melted through this thing.
“The Time Shield could withstand the blows of any of the legendary items,” explained Dhot. “At least, that's how the stories went.”
“Yeah, but this one doesn’t exactly look untouched,” I pointed out.
“Maybe it was something else that cause that,” said Cassandra, holding the Sword out by her side while she approached.
“Wait a second,” I said, trying to slip out of the shield. “Let me take this thing off before you-”
Cassandra shouted as she lifted the Shattered Sword into the air, bringing it down at me with more speed than I expected. I quickly shoved the shield up above me, closing my eyes.
Cl
ang.
I slowly opened my eyes, staring at the back of the shield as it hold it’s place.
Looking over the top of it, I watched as Cassandra and Dhot exchanged wide eyes and smiles.
“This is it!” exclaimed Cassandra. “This must be the Time Shield!”
“I knew it!” said Dhot, scrambling to his feet. “Maha!”
The cave shook as the ceiling exploded down just a dozen feet away. Several stalactites crashed down around us, but none landed too close. Smoke and dust filled the part of the cave where the explosion happened, but I could’ve sworn I saw some movement on the floor.
“W-What was that?!” I shouted.
“We’ve got company, guys!” shouted Dhot, his Goggles over his eyes.
“What kind of company?” asked Cassandra, the Shattered Sword still out before her.
Two figures stepped out of the smoke, wiping residue off as they walked. It was a woman with her hair up in a ponytail, along with a bald man. As the smoke cleared, I noticed a giant drilling machine behind them. How long had they been drilling to end up here?
“Do my eyes deceive me, Jacquie?” asked the man. “I could’ve sworn we’ve seen these three just last night.”
“They don’t, Domino,” said the woman, eyeing us with suspicion. “Looks like they somehow made it past Nadeem.”
“Made it past?” called out Dhot. “Maha! More like removed him from the planet!”
The two dragons in human form exchanged a quick look. “No… there’s no way your three insects could’ve done that…”
“Well, we did,” said Cassandra, waving the Sword to get their attention. “You two dragons better leave now while we let you, or you’ll soon be joining your friend.”
Even though Cassandra was saying it with an unwaivering voice, I knew she was bluffing. The three of us were exhausted from our swim, followed by the hour long digging we did to find the Time Shield. I didn’t even know how the thing worked yet, so it wouldn’t be much help to us. No, we needed the two black dragons to leave. We really weren’t ready for a fight.