Chapter 11
Rohan
My lance splits through a low-level monster we’ve been encountering here and there on our journey back to town.
Speaking of. I would rather jump into a pit of those bees we were fighting earlier than admit Tyson may have been right.
The sun hangs low in the sky as we trudge through grass that comes mid-way to my thigh.
Tyson kills off a couple more monsters closer to his level that approach us while we navigate through the grassland.
And thank God, because we’ve been walking for so long, I’m starting to feel a little breathless. Tyson stops in front of me, and I straighten up when he glances back.
“I hear water,” he says, his voice low.
“Water?” I run up to his side and, lo and behold, the sound of the water is definitely clear.
I can even smell it wafting in the air around us as the wind picks up.
Tyson sets off in the direction we’re supposed to be going in to get back to town.
I follow after him, and when he pushes the last bit of grass out of the way, we both see where the sound was coming from.
There’s a wide river flowing between the path we need to be on.
The only path.
Unless we turn back and take Tyson’s, but we don’t have enough time before the sun fully disappears for the night.
“There wasn’t a river here before,” I whisper to myself.
Tyson hears me. “It’s fine,” He says, walking close to its mouth. He crouches down cautiously, examining the surface.
“Shit, we might have to swim across. It doesn’t seem too deep, so it should be okay,” Tyson sighs. He looks pissed, and I feel my cheeks burning. I really don’t remember there being a river on this map. I shift on my feet a bit when he looks back at me, his expression now unreadable.
“Yeah, I guess we have to. It’s getting dark.”
“Alright,” is all he says before walking up to the bank and stepping into the water. He keeps going until the water is up to his neck and starts swimming across. I’m still standing at the river’s mouth as I watch him quickly reach the other side.
Of course he’s good at that too.
My heart thrashes in my chest as I begin to wade into the water.
It’s ice cold against my skin, and my body instantly freezes up a bit, but I try to ignore it and keep going.
Tyson is already fully out of the river, and now I wish I had gone in at the same time as he did.
I gasp as the water rises past my chest and try to start swimming, but the waves slam back against me.
I feel like my body is trying to push past an invisible, immovable wall.
I feel so stupid as a wave pushes me under, and I quickly try to swim back up. I didn’t want to tell Tyson this.
But I can’t swim.
“Rohan!” I think I hear him on the other side of the river, “Rohan!!” He sounds scared. I’ve never heard him sound like that before. He always seems so untouchable, indifferent, so sure.
Like nothing could ever crack his armor.
I come back up gasping for air, but there’s water in my lungs. My heart is beating so fast, my body is trembling. The panic is overtaking my mind. I can’t think straight. I can barely even see, and it feels like the waves are getting more and more aggressive.
“Fuck! Rohan!” Tyson shouts again before I hear something splash against the surface of the water.
I try to cry out to him before the river drags me completely under. Everything feels like it’s fading away around me. I can’t breathe. My body feels so light.
My eyes slip closed. All I can see around me is darkness.
Tyson.