by netta j.
His descent was not what he expected. As soon as the water had grabbed him he thought that he would be sucked down into the lake's depths in a spiraling vortex of icy blue water while remaining virtually untouched by the stinging spray. Thus it came as a surprise to him when he began to float through the water, gradually sinking to the lake bed. He tried valiantly to resurface but it seemed that he suddenly weighed a ton.
Beneath him the sand moved, shifted. The lake bed sunk slowly under his weight until he slipped through and plummeted below it.
Trowa awoke alone under the heat of a midday sun. He felt like his skin was on fire, red hot tongues licking at the flesh, and knew that skin was probably pink with sun burn. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was not the glaring luminosity of the sun, but it was the glassy blue of the lake, his lake. Except that it was not his lake. Where ever he was it was very warm. There was no forest only rolling green hills dotted with the occasional tree and the expanse of the blue sky above him.
For the first time in his life, he felt utterly and completely lost, but not alone. No, never alone. He was used to that by now.
He rose to his knees, the legs of his pants crackling from having been dried in the sun. The back of his shirt and his socks were still slightly damp due to his unintended dive into the lake. He moved a hand through his hair, fingers lifting the strands that fell over one side of his face so that his eyes were fully apparent. Gingerly he touched a tender patch of skin right below his eye. He crawled on his knees to the side of the lake and looked at its glassy surface. There was a red pattern right below his right eye that sat on his cheekbone. He began to lean in, hoping that he would be able to decipher the pattern, but remembered what happened the last time he did that.
Sighing he sat back on his haunches and collected his thoughts. First off, he didn't know where he was and there was no one he could see that would tell him. Secondly, he didn't know how he got there. During his school days Trowa had been quite the scholar, soaking all of the information he could, and he knew without a doubt that people did not sink through lake beds and find themselves in some other dimension. It just wasn't something that happened. Ever. Except that it had happened and it had happened to him and he had to find a way home, which was the third thing that he thought.
He bent over the lake once more, suddenly overcome with thirst. His throat burned and his eyes watered with the effort of producing saliva to hydrate his parched palette. He stuck a hand into the water tentatively, and when a few minutes had passed and he hadn't been sucked down into the depths of the lake he put his other hand in and cupped the two together to create a makeshift glass. He drank greedily, each gulp more refreshing than the last and in the end he had to force himself to stop because of the rolling of his stomach.
Trowa stood up and wiped his hands on his pants. He then calmly stepped away from the lake, opened his mouth and proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs.
"Hello!"
He held the word out for as long as he could and when he ran out of breath he sucked in more air and yelled again.
"Can anybody hear me?"
"Yes we can hear you. There's no need to scream at the top of your bloody lungs."
Trowa froze his eyes widening. Almost immediately he became hyper aware of everything around him, of the lake, the few trees and all of the facets of his body. He turned around slowly and was nearly blinded by the glint of the sun off of some object high in a tree far away from him.
He raised his hand to protect his eyes.
"Sorry about that," the person called and the light went away.
Trowa lowered his hand to see a figure jump from a large bow in the tree. The figure rushed towards him and he could tell as the person came closer that it was a young man. He had two sword swung across his backs in an "x" shape and the handles shone in the sun. In his hand was a small cross bow, the arrow already knocked. He wore cream leggings and tall leather boots that reached his knees. His tunic was cerulean blue, bringing out the color of his eyes and illuminating his already golden hair. The blue of his eyes made Trowa stare. The person in the lake had blue eyes, but they weren't like this. They were more... he couldn't describe it and the harder he tried to the more indistinct the color became.
The young man ran around the lake and came to stand a few feet away from Trowa. He was smiling and his teeth were almost brighter than his hair.
After a moment of silence he said, "You know, it took you forever to wake up after she spit you out." He gestured toward the lake. "Quatre Winner," he said sticking out his hand and leaning in, "you can call me Quat though."
Trowa stared at Quatre's hand, as if it had the potential to bite him. In all honesty he thought that this man with the swords and the crossbow could probably kill him, no matter how bright his smile. He decided to go with it and shook Quat's hand.
"Trowa Barton. Does the lake do that often?" He asked looking at the body of water. It looked harmless enough but he knew better.
"Spit people out?" Quat asked letting go of Trowa's hand. "Oh yeah, happens all the time around here. She dropped you down gently though. I think she likes you."
"I suppose that's a comfort to know," Trowa said softly.
Trowa was still looking at the lake when he noticed that Quat was staring at him, more specifically the mark on his face. His face was a mask and Trowa could not tell what he was thinking.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," Quat said smiling suddenly. "Well we better get going."
Trowa had to jog to catch up with Quat who was now making his way across the grass. "Going? Where?"
"To town of course. It's quite a ways from here so we better hurry if we want to make it before nightfall. She might like you, but I'd rather not be stuck out here when the sun goes down with her and you don't want to be either."
Trowa looked behind him as he walked and had one last look at the lake that sat shimmering innocently in the sun.
to be continued...