“You saw that thing!” Iric says. “Nothing can kill it! It’s practically made of teeth! And did you see how far it jumped out of the water?”
“Not far enough to reach us on the cliff. We’ll be safe up there.”
“No, we’re safe back at the tree house.” Iric tries to get around me.
I move with him. “You’ve come all this way. Iric, you made us spears! We have a good plan. We can’t leave before we’ve even tried. What harm will a few throws be?”
Soren steps up beside me. “She’s right, Iric. Let’s give it a try first.”
Iric wraps his arms around himself. “I can barely stand the sight of it. That beast has haunted my dreams for the last year. I hadn’t realized just how big—”
“It doesn’t matter how big it is,” I say. “Nothing can survive with its head cut off. You said the plan yourself. We weaken it. We drag it on land. You saw those fins—it will be useless on land. Then you deliver the killing blow.”
“You can do this,” Soren says. “We’re not leaving you to do this alone.”
Iric rubs his arms before dropping them. “Fine. One throw.”
“Each,” I say. “One throw each. Then we can discuss our next move.”
Iric agrees, and he leads us up the small cliff face. We each carry our own spear, the length of rope attached to it coiled around one of our shoulders. We come to a stop in a line along the edge, and we carefully place our ropes behind us, so that when we cast our throws, they will unspool without trouble.
“Let’s do this,” Soren says, the prospect of a battle exciting him.
I nod. “For Iric.”
“For Aros,” Iric says quietly to himself. “For Mother and Father. For us.”
Iric begins pulling the sheets of armor from his clothing, and Soren and I follow his lead. It feels so wrong to go into battle without armor, but I know it is a necessity. Should we fall into the water, we can’t be burdened down, and armor will not stop the hyggja should anything go wrong, anyway. Though I can’t help but wonder which death would be less painful, drowning or being eaten by the hyggja?
Would it bite a person in half? Or would death be more slow and painful? Perhaps I should not indulge in such thoughts.
From up here, I can see the hyggja. The skin of its back skims the top of the water, and the rest of its outline is easily discernible below the surface. Its eyes are located at the top of its head, and I swear I see them watching us.
As soon as we approach the edge, the water beast swims toward us, moving in circles below the rise.
Definitely watching us.
Iric holds his spear at the ready. He sizes up the beast. “The water plays with the eye. You’ll want to throw just ahead of where it looks like the hyggja is.”
“How do you know that?” I ask.
“Aros,” he says, and he throws.
The spear moves too quickly to track it, but I know it hits home because it halts when it’s halfway submerged in the water, and a gurgling growl, unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, surges upward. It’s the kind of sound that instinctively makes me want to run.
“I hit it!” Iric gets his hands on the rope at his feet. He holds tight as the hyggja starts swimming in a mad jumble below us. Red turns up with the bubbles. “Hurry! Someone else cast!”
I take aim and throw, but the hyggja is moving too disjointedly. My throw misses by a foot, and I hurry to reel my spear back in.
In the next instant, Iric’s spear dislodges from his quarry, the hyggja’s pulling finally freeing it from the weapon. “Damn!” Iric says as he pulls his rope end over end to go for another throw. A small chunk of flesh comes up with the spear’s tip.
I gag again.
“Soren, throw before it swims off!” Iric bellows. He rearranges the rope at his feet so it will unravel easily with his next throw. It somehow managed to get mixed in with my spear’s rope as the two of us reeled them in. We scramble to separate them. Meanwhile, Soren pulls back his hand to his ear and launches his spear forward.
Soren whoops. “Got it!” he says over the top of another deep growl from the beast. Soren’s hands go to the rope near his feet.
“Good!” Iric says. “Whatever you do, don’t let go. We’ve almost got this sorted out.” Iric and I finally have our ropes separated, but we have to wind them carefully on the ground so they will unravel with our throws.
“It’s trying to swim away,” Soren says with a grunt. He takes a couple steps forward to keep his hold on the beast.
“Let it go,” I say.
“Do not let go!” Iric says.
“Soren, drop it now!” I shout.
“It’s too strong!” Soren says.
“Don’t you dare let go of that rope!” Iric yells.
“Shit.”
The hyggja yanks Soren clean off his feet, and I watch in horror as he’s pulled right over the edge of the cliff. He lands in the water, flat on his stomach.
I whirl around. “Why would you tell him that?” I scream at Iric.
Iric’s frozen to the spot, staring where Soren disappeared.
“We have to move!” I tell him. I pick my rope coil from off the ground and throw it over my head and shoulder; then I grip my spear firmly in one hand.
“No one goes in the water,” Iric mumbles weakly.
“Too late.” In the next second, I take a deep breath and jump.
The shock from the cold only lasts a few seconds before my body adjusts. The water here is murkier than the washing pools, so I can’t see as far ahead as what I’m used to when we practiced.
I don’t know how much visibility I have. Seven feet? Maybe ten? Everything looks so different when underwater. Even still, I’m certain I don’t see Soren or the hyggja. I kick my way to the surface and look.
There.
Water churns up maybe twenty feet in front of me. Panic sets in as I worry it might be Soren getting eaten alive. I kick my feet right for the spot, and when I’m closer, I dive back down.
The hyggja tumbles in circles, trying to shake off the spear, meanwhile Soren holds on for dear life to his rope’s end, some ten feet from me.
A sound hits the water behind me, and I pray to the goddess it’s Iric joining us in the water and not anything else foul living in the lake.
Before I can reach Soren, the hyggja manages to dislodge his spear. The weapon sinks to the rock-covered lake bottom as Soren swims to the surface for a breath.
I watch the hyggja turn to the side, so one of its large eyes is pointed directly at me—its prey. But rather than swim at me, it turns tail and swims in the opposite direction.
Unsure of what else to do, I swim after Soren to get another gulp of air.
“Where is it?” Iric’s voice from behind us.
“It swam off,” I say.
Soren gasps from next to me, still holding on to his rope. While he treads water, his arms pull at his rope, attempting to reel it in. He makes a face.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“It’s stuck on something.” Before I can tell him otherwise, Soren breathes in quickly and goes back under.
Damn him.
I get a mouthful of air before joining him.
Soren tugs on his rope, using it to pull himself down to wherever it’s stuck. Bubbles fly out of him as he goes. His head must be pounding from going down so deep.
I swim after him with Iric at my side.
The sinking feeling in my gut has nothing to do with how far I’m traveling under the water. The hyggja didn’t turn tail and run. It’s doing something. I’m sure it’s not used to anything fighting back with any sort of success in this lake, but all creatures have instincts. The instinct to eat is more powerful than the instinct to flee for a predator that’s never had to fear for its life.
When I reach Soren’s side, I see it. Not the hyggja, but the remains of the gunda. Its head is still mostly intact, though its eyes are glossy. But the middle area, where that mouth was, is gone. Nothing but bones with faint remains of stringy flesh left to see. Bile threatens to rise in my throat as I think of what I’m swimming in.
Instead, I turn my thoughts to Iric. My friend. I’m doing this for him. He deserves to go home to his family, and we can make that happen.
If we don’t die first.