The Rencer

To my surprise only one card eluded me. Though many were torn and crumbled, I was coming to realize that nothing was beyond repair.

With the faded cards of past glories carefully tucked away, my journey began. A pilgrimage through rence and water, straying as far from human life as I possibly could, but of course, not even that could last forever.

The moons seemed unusually bright to me, well lighting my path so that.. hopefully, no misguided steps would find me throat deep in water. I had purposely waited for the darkness, so that I could slip by the stilted houses unnoticed. Twice I had seen the water beasts reeling beneath the sea, but both times they were far enough away so that I hadn’t worried about them. My luck was about to run out… again.

I had just made it past the lowly lit homes of those that worked the rence and water for a living, wondering how I was going to cross what I thought looked like a particularly deep ravine. There were shadows in the distance, black silhouettes against the lightness of night sky, standing erect atop floating platforms, with what looked to be a long stick, which I assumed was used to move the makeshift boats. I new it was now or never. I would have to cross here and now, or take the chance of being found out.

Silently I slipped into the water, small rippling watery circles pushing away from me as I fully immersed myself. The water was cold and I was shivering before I was even half way to the other side. It was then I realized my folly, feeling the sandpaper rough flesh of something slithering past me. Immediately my movement ceased and I closed my eyes, my jaw clenched tightly, awaiting for something to sink its teeth into me, or at the very least, drag me beneath the water where I would disappear forever.

But nothing happened. Some frozen ehns later I started to move again, only to stop for a second time at the feel of something moving past me. I could not go back, I could not go forward, my progress stalled by whatever it was I shared the water with. I could see the shadow that had loomed some distance away was closing in on me, the long stick pushing through the water making a quiet swishing sound, but this time I could feel the creature that swayed against my leg hurry past me, so quickly in fact, that I thought I would surely lose my balance. And it was headed in the direction of the rencer.

I called out to him in warning, a warning as I had feared had come too late, the thrashing of water heard, the small droplets of unforgiving waves spilling over my face. It was during this confusion I decided it best to attempt passage to dryer land, hoping the commotion would prove to be excellent cover for my hurried motion. When I looked back over my shoulder, the raft was empty and the waters had stilled. I had survived.. at the cost of another.