Whats inside the water

Solban
Solban moved slow, too slow to actually still get somewhere today. But his trip throughout Blackwood had been harder than he had ever expected, and he was so tired. He had been walking all along the side of this river for almost a week now, but with spring just starting, there was too much water coming from the mountains. So there was really no place to cross this damned river. His hooves were tired from the long traveling, and his body heavy by the lack of sleep. He had known no place was safe in blackwood, and so he had not been able to catch more than just semi-wakefull naps under the large trees. But atleast now he was close to the river, there was food to eat again. Spring was starting, and the weeds alongside the river sides were growing again. The day was almost ad an end, a pinkish light was already to be seen at the horizon. Solban knew he would not cross this damned river today… but maybe tomorrow, it had to be tomorrow. He looked up at the sky and begged his god ‘please Gealach, let it be tomorrow’ than he started looking around for some ‘safe’ place to spend the night.

Weed
Ohh this river was nice! This river was so nice! The water felt so nice and soft, and there were so many fat fishies in here. Weed had not really wanted to go out of the water for a long time, but circumstances had made him, and well, now he had found this river, which was not bad at all! It had been a long time since he had seen so many delicious fishyies in so little square meters. He happily swum down the river, hiding slightly against the greenish grass that grew alongside of the river. And then he saw him… the strange, small fawnling who was walking along the riverside. His head was hanging low and he looked like a corpse, if he hadn’t been walking Weed would certainly have thought the fawnling was dead already. Weeds nose told him this was a stag… but it looked way too small to be a stag, he had never before seen a fawn so small, except for those just born. Interested and fascinated by the baby-yet-adult stag, he pushed his eyes out just above the water and watched as the stag went by.

Solban
Somewhere, somehow, Solban felt like he was being watched, as he tried to find a place to spend the night. But no matter how deep he inhaled, he could not catch the smell of any other animals in the surround, except maybe fish. Neither did his eyes or ears tell him anything useful. Maybe it was Gealach who was watching him, he thought, yes, it certainly had to be Gealach.
And yet, when he had finally found a good spot to stay for the night, cold shivers ran down his spine… something was not right, no matter how desperately he tried to convince himself there was nothing wrong. At first he tried to sleep, but his consciousness would not let him. Did he see something move in the water there? It was almost dark now, and he had difficulty seeing well, yet it seemed like two dark eyes were staring at him from the water… It couldn’t be right? There were no such things as crocodiles in this part of the western isles, though he had stories about them in windborne. Slowly he stood up and walked towards the water, careful not to slip, his eyes locked on the water, his ears carefully scanning the surrounding.

Weed
The stagling skelet seemed to have stopped for the night, laying his head across his legs and closing his eyes to go to sleep. Even though Weed knew it was unwise, his curiosity made him go closer to the tiny winy staggy, wondering what to make of this. He pushed his cloven but webbed hooves into the soft muddy ground and went even closer towards the riverside, to get a better look. With his eyes he followed every movement the small stagy made, blowing bubbles through his enlonged muzzle in the meantime. Suddenly baby-adult fawnling locked his eyes with Weeds, and weed panicked, staying frozen in the spot, unable to move, what should he do? Should he flee? Yet the stag was way smaller than him, he could nog be a real treat right… right? His heart was racing as the baby-stag moved towards the water, not once moving his eyes away from Weeds. And then the stagling started to enter the water, slowly but steadily, moving closer and closer… than Weed could no longer hold it and he dived inside the water, swimming downstream to go and hide inside the plants on the riverside as fast as he could.

Solban
Solban moved inside the water towards the eyes, pulling on the water around him with his magic, as a defense. Suddenly Solban heard and saw something splashing inside the water in front of him, he froze on the spot, to see some dark shadow, shaped almost like a fawnling, dive away inside of the river water, and it swum away. Without even thinking, Solban jumped after the strange creature and started swimming, but the thing was way faster, and he could not keep up. The stream of the river was strong and pulled his body underwater. As hard as he could, Solban pushed himself towards the surface, desperate to breath, pulling on his magic to push the water around him, including himself, upwards. Within a few seconds, he could breathe again, but he felt his energy drain from his body. With all the strength he possessed in his body, he swum towards the river side, where he ended up in a small patch of water plants, steadying the muddy river ground under need his four hooves.

Weed
From the place where he had hidden, he could see the staggy struggle with the water, but where most fawnlings did not survive the heavy pull of the river during spring, the stagling somehow manage to reach the shore safely… Strange… very strange, how did the baby-stag reach the surface that easily, it was so unfawnling like. However, Weed was not very happy having the other fawnling so close to him and HIS river. With a frustrated hiss he decided it was time to teach this awkward stagy whose river he was in, and with a large jump he pushed himself out of the water, to land right behind the skeleton stag, snarling at him at the same time.

Solban
Before he realised where he was (on the other side of the river), something was behind him… snarling. He tried to turn around, but was too late, the creature put his hind leg and Solban yelped as he could feel the sharp, pointy teeth sink deep inside of his skin and muscles. No matter how painful, he tore himself loose from the iron grip of the snarling creature, and jumped and turned around. In front of him was a fawnling… or a fish… he wasn’t really sure, it was greenish, perfectly camouflaged against the green riverside, with scale like skin and spikes on its back. But before Solban could decide with it was, it attacked again. This time Solban was fast enough and evaded the attack, creating a ball of water and splashing it in the creature’s, gealach may know what it was, face. However, that seemed not to disturb the creatures mind, as even through the ball of water, it jumped forward, and bit Solbans shoulder, taking a dive and drawing him under need the surface. Water filled solbans lungs as the screamed for air, was this how he was going to end, in the mouth of some water monster?

Weed
Blood filled Weeds perfect river, spoiling the smell of his fishies, making Weed even more angry at the tiny stagling. But no matter how tin the staggy was, it was full of will to live, as it pulled loose from his grip. Some water splashed in Weeds face, but he did not care, as he could breathe underwater anyway. Furiously he attacked the baby-adult stag again, this time full front, and as soon as he felt the flesh in his mouth, he dived under, trying to drown out the tiny stag, it was so small that it wasn’t even that hard to keep it under the surface. But then Weed felt the water around his tail become hotter and hotter, until he held no more and he had to look. He released the tiny stag from his grip and lashed at his tail with his tongue, trying to cool it down from the heat that seemed to try to burn his tail of off his body. He yelped and screamed, but suddenly the heat seemed to go away as quickly as it came… but the stagling in front of him had reached the surface again, and was now fleeing towards the riverside. Swimming as fast as he could, he snapped his sharp teeth at the not-so-defensless stag again.

Solban
As he started losing his eyesight, Solban realised he had to do something, and very quickly. The Fish-fawnling was more heavy and strong than he was, he would never win this on physical powers. Water seemed not to hurt the monster either, so there was only one last hope: heat. With all the energy he could miss to still stay alive, he started boiling a small patch of water around the tail of the creature, heating it up as far as he could, the seconds seemed endless and for an instant he thought the creature would not let go at all. But then it yelped and released him, trying to lick its tail. And Solban swum, he swum as hard as he could, he swum for his life, kicking in the water away fastly. The riverside was not far, he could make it! When he started feeling ground under his hooves again, he felt the snapping jaws brushing his legs again, and he kicked and bucked as hard as he could, hitting the monster right between the eyes, with one last jump he reached the safety of land and ran as far from the river as he could before the lack of energy and blood left him so shaken he could no longer run.

Weed
A hard hoof hit him right between his eyes as he tried to grab his prey on the flee, it left him dazzled and with a burning headache. When the stagling was too far out of the water, Weed gave up, he did not desire to fight it on land, and it had left his river by now. Angrily Weed blew bubbles inside the water, cooling his tail deep inside the river. Whoever this strange skeleton-baby-yet-adult stag had been, it had not been the right fawnling to mess with, especially since he had used water, HIS water, against Weed… betrayal… He snorted frustrated again, before he sunk underneath the river surface, looking for a safe place to lick his wounds.

Solban
Solban inspected his wounds, licking away the blood to not attract anymore predators, luckily none of his wound were too serious. With a few herbs from his pouch he stopped the bleeding and the throbbing pain, but he knew they would leave a nasty scar. During his healing, he kept his ears turned at the water, making sure the creature would not follow him out, but it did not. After he was done with his wounds, he inspected his surroundings, and to his liking, he figured he had reached the other side of the river Thank you Gealach, for showing me the way he whispered softly, and with one last lingering look at the river, Solban continued his journey, homewards.