I try to call out her name but I get a mouthful of the sour river water instead. And then I’m long past her. The roaring is getting louder and my legs and arms are starting to get really heavy and tired. It’s not good.
I’m feeling pretty sorry for myself when something on the riverbank catches my eye. It looks almost human if it wasn’t for the blue skin. He’s huge with toned muscles and long dark blue hair. He’s gone before I can even register what I saw. Fuck, this river moves fast.
Did I mention that I hate this place?
The roaring becomes deafening and I gasp when I turn towards it and see the true source of the noise. I almost wish it was a dinosaur now.
The river ahead just disappears into the sky. Just like that.
I think back to when I first arrived on the spaceship and that woman with the crocheted teddy bear sweater got zapped by that purple electricity stuff. I actually felt bad for her. Now I’m envying her.
If I had known what the future had in store for me I would have taken that tube of purple shit and shoved it into my mouth.
I’m flying to the edge of the waterfall and I close my eyes, waiting for my life to flash before them but nothing happens. It’s either because I’ve done nothing of interest or because that whole life flashing before your eyes thing is bullshit. It’s probably the former.
The current flings me over the edge and I gasp when I look about ten stories down and see the rough water at the bottom. There’s no chance.
My stomach drops and my whole body clenches as I free fall with the strong water pushing me down even harder. My throat is too tight to scream.
And then…
Darkness.
five
A Sandroka floating in the water…only not. She’s lost her beautiful blue color and is a strange pink. But how is that possible?
She’s gone before Turic can figure it out. Taken in the arms of the powerful river and whisked away. Doesn’t she know not to swim in the Taharia? It’s full of trunelas with their long sharp teeth that will paralyze a body with the slightest touch.
Turic drops his knife and climbs up the closest tree as fast as a boomercan. The waterfall is ahead but she doesn’t swim out of the water. Strange. This is all very odd.
Turic’s heart starts thumping in his chest as hard as a masorak. The Drandroka were warned not to swim in the Taharia since we were infants but every cell in Turic’s body is urging him forward, telling him to go save this strange pink Sandroka.
Her tiny head disappears over the edge of the waterfall and before Turic can gather his senses he’s leaping off the branch of the tree into the dangerous Taharia.
The mighty Turic lands with a splash and slides the bone dagger out of his boot as he swims back up to the surface. The trunelas move fast under water and Turic will need to be quick with the knife if he is to survive.
The current is strong and angry and Turic needs both hands to stay afloat. Turic clenches his teeth down onto his dagger and swims as fast as he can to the edge.
Turic just hopes he can make it in time. There hasn’t been a Sandroka in the village since the great curse wiped them all out. Turic was barely a Drandroka back then. He was just about to embark on his Great Walk when it hit.
It’s been a long time but Turic doesn’t remember the Sandroka looking so strange. So, pink.
The waterfall brings the powerful Turic over its edge and he tucks into a straight line with his strong hands by his sides and his legs held together.
The fall is long and all Turic can think of is the Sandroka at the bottom. He only saw her for an instant but her head was tiny. She looked so delicate. Turic just hopes she survived the fall.
The mighty Turic bites down on his bone dagger as he slams into the water feet first and keeps going down until the water is cool and his head beats like Athrum’s drum.
Immediately, Turic swims up, feeling around for the missing Sandroka. His powerful hands hit nothing but water.
Turic’s head pops out of the water at the base of the waterfall where the current is not as intense. He can’t find her and he is thinking that all is lost when he sees a pink body floating away.
Turic is over there at the speed of a wicker’s strike, grabbing her tiny body and turning her over. “Krakalore,” he gasps in surprise. It’s not a Sandroka, but at the same time, it is.
Turic drops her, afraid that she has been taken by some evil curse, but he thinks twice as she begins to float away.
A tall yellow fin circles ahead and the mighty Turic hurries to get her, pulling her back towards the waterfall. Turic tosses her pink sleeping body over his shoulder as he swims around the falling water, never taking his eyes off of the trunella. Its yellow fin is standing straight up. That means it’s hungry.
He’s going to have to find something else to eat because this little one is mine.
Turic slips his bone dagger back into his boot after he pulls the strange Sandroka out of the cruel Taharia and onto the rocks behind the falls. There’s a little cave behind there. Athrum showed it to Turic once but that was years ago.