The Heart of the Storm:
Our journey continued in a chilling silence, broken only by the sound of our quickened breathing and the impact of our feet on the muddy ground.
The reflective rain gear was unsettlingly effective; we each appeared to the other as mere silver phantoms, shifting slowly in peripheral vision, reminding me how difficult it was to see anything else in this dreary landscape.
The scent was a heavy, fatal mixture of ozone, smoke, and humidity, thick in the air.
As we ran, the ground began to slope downwards slightly, indicating we were nearing a valley or a depression. The scene grew darker as charred branches and trees began to obscure the faint light filtering through the cloud-covered sky.
Suddenly, I heard a sound different from our panting and the noise of our footsteps; it was a strong, continuous, roaring sound, like rushing water.
"...a strong, continuous, roaring sound, like rushing water."
"Did you hear that?" I whispered faintly, trying to keep my voice within the cover of my reflective hood.
Louis nodded slightly.
"The waterfall. We're here. Or at least, very close."
We stopped for a moment, listening to the sound that grew louder with every passing second. It wasn't just falling water; it was an infernal din, like a thousand drums beating at once, suggesting an incredible, immense power.
We started moving forward slowly and cautiously.
Suddenly, the scene opened up before us.
It was not just a "huge waterfall," but an enormous wall of water. The water plummeted from a dizzying height into a deep, black pool, generating a thick mist of cold spray that enveloped the entire area. Despite all the trees we had seen burned, the trees here were intact, as if protected by something.
"This is it... exactly as the narrative described," I said, rubbing my eyes in awe of the sight.
This waterfall was so colossal it looked ready to consume anyone who challenged it. Perhaps if I had an energy crystal, I would feel its power, but unfortunately—or fortunately—I did not.
I looked at Louis through the swirling mist. The reflective rain gear made him look like a mirage; I could barely make out his features. He gestured toward the back of the waterfall, where the thick curtain of water concealed a large cave or a dark opening.
This was the "Gate."
"How... how are we going to cross this roar?" he asked, louder than necessary, but his voice was immediately swallowed by the waterfall's power.
I didn't hear a single word Louis said.
The hellish roar of the cascade devoured all sound, turning any attempt at communication into a hollow scream. I shouted "HA!" at the top of my lungs, but the sound immediately returned to me, drowned out by the water's noise.
Louis raised his hands and wiped them across his reflective hood to clear the spray, then slowly gestured to me, using visual signals instead of speech.
Signal One: He pointed to his ear, then shook his head vigorously (We can't hear).
Signal Two: He pointed to the dark opening behind the waterfall (The Gate).
Signal Three: He pointed his finger to the sky.
I looked at the sky he indicated. The thick, gray clouds still gathered heavily, but a relative calm prevailed, disrupted only by the waterfall's roar.
Signal Four: I pointed to my wrist, then quickly spun my hand in the air, indicating that time was running out incredibly fast.
We had only minutes before the storm returned at full force.
I pointed to my ear, then pulled two cotton balls from beneath my reflective gear, handing him one. Louis received the cotton ball with a grateful nod. It was an obvious but necessary idea; any amount of noise reduction would help us concentrate.
Louis quickly put the cotton ball in his ear, then motioned for me to do the same.
As soon as I secured the cotton in my ear, the waterfall's roar subsided slightly, transforming from a hellish sound into a loud, bearable noise.
I gestured to the sturdy rope coiled around my pants. I had taken it out of the bag earlier on the way here. I knew we would need it—well, Yuna had always insisted I join her mountain climbing. I hoped my minor experience would help me survive.
I began to quickly and skillfully uncoil it, my hands moving in a familiar, repeated pattern, a sign of my experience with ropes. I held up the uncoiled rope and pointed to myself, then to Louis, then to the rope, indicating a mutual tie-in, to ensure neither of us lost the other in the force of the water flow and the thick mist.
Louis nodded, agreeing with the idea. I smiled at his silent communication, and began tying the first end of the rope around my waist with a secure knot I learned from Yuna.
As I tightened the knot, Louis pointed his index finger at the rope, then at himself, then raised two fingers. I understood the signal: "Is this rope genuine or a fake? I hope it holds."
I nodded reassuringly and tossed the other end to him. He tied it around his waist with the same skill he showed, as if trying to replicate what I had done.
The first priority was stark and clear: crossing this waterfall and surviving.
My gaze eagerly scanned the surroundings, checking left and right for any possible tool. I was looking for a solid rock, exactly the size of a baseball, and within moments, my eyes found what they were seeking; a stone of about that size.
I quickly bent down, picked it up, and immediately drew my sharp blade. I began carving one end of the stone with intense focus, transforming it into a sharp, pointed tip. As soon as the tip was ready, I tied the stone tightly to the rope.
With every movement of carving and tying, my eyes never strayed from my secondary target: the rock hidden behind the flowing curtain of water. My gaze weighed its size and position, planning it as the crucial next step in this dangerous maneuver.
Louis remained calm, his eyes fixed on what I was doing.
I had finished quickly tying the sharpened stone I carved to the other end of the rope. This simple tool was intended as a weight or a primitive grappling hook to secure our passage behind the roaring wall of water.
I held the stone, weighing its heft in my hand, then looked at Louis with focus. I pointed my index finger at the stone, then raised it toward the dark opening behind the waterfall, pointing to the solid rock. The plan was clear: The rope... would be used to secure a crossing point.
I looked at the rock in my hand, then at the massive wall of water roaring before us. The task seemed impossible. How could a simple throw—no matter how powerful and accurate—overcome this sheer volume of water and turbulent air?
Throwing through the waterfall was like shooting an arrow into a thunderstorm.
I looked at him again. There was a knowing look in our eyes.
"Ah... I wish Luyian were here," we both said at the same time.
In that moment, we missed him; he was the most experienced in this. His strongest pitch was thrown at a speed exceeding 250 miles per hour. It wasn't a physics-defying throw, but the maximum a human body could achieve when strength, speed, muscular harmony, and everything nature could grant to a single person came together.
Luca's knowing look held the weight of the entire moment. He measured the wind speed, the wildly spraying mist, and the tremendous force with which the waterfall struck the target rock.
Luca was not Luyian. He did not possess the superhuman arm strength that could propel an object of this weight through a wall of angry water at that speed.
Luca knew his only weapon was precision and timing.
He looked at the edge of the waterfall, where water droplets drew jagged white lines in the darkness, and began calculating. His heart started working like a timer, focusing on the constant, insane rhythm of the flowing water. He was looking for a mechanical loophole, a fraction of a second when the water's cohesion relaxed.
Luca gripped the rope tightly, his heart beating wildly, but he controlled himself. Then he placed his right foot in a solid, grounding stance, mimicking Luyian's posture before a throw. He took a deep breath, then pulled the cotton ball from his left ear for a moment, letting the waterfall's full, shattering roar return.
But this time, he didn't listen to the sound; he listened to the rhythm of the water.
"Now!" Luca muttered, a sound swallowed by the roar but clear in his mind.
In that critical instant, when the water's movement was slightly disrupted by a passing gust of air, Luca released the stone. It wasn't a throw of blind force, but a projectile of calculated precision. His movement was quick and sudden, like a viper's strike, relying on the spin and the sharp angle he had carved into the stone to cut through the water barrier rather than just penetrate it.
The stone passed through the waterfall's curtain in a flash, disappearing from view. There was no distinct sound of impact, just a slight tension in the rope held in Luca's hand.
Luca looked on eagerly, putting the cotton ball back in his ear. He pulled the rope hard, seeing that the end had indeed secured itself. The fixation wasn't due to a tight knot around the rock; rather, the stone had embedded itself at a perfect angle in a narrow crack behind it, holding firm against the tremendous pressure of the water.
It was a miracle throw of mechanical analysis more than one of pure force.
Louis smiled from beneath his reflective hood. He pointed his index finger at the rope, then gave a thumbs-up.
I smiled happily, then retrieved the bag and put the dagger and the magnifier inside. The reason I hadn't put them away earlier—as Louis had put the radio—was my fear of one of us getting lost, especially on these rugged paths. Well, it's good to always keep emergency tools close by.
I asked Louis to take off his hood because it would hinder us, and I put it in the bag too. Then I motioned to Louis with a nod toward the rope, indicating it was time to cross.
Louis nodded his agreement, approaching the firmly anchored rope. He looked at the wall of water, then at me. He pointed his index finger at the cotton in his ear, then at me, signaling to keep mine in place.
"Now!" I said, but my voice was barely audible because of the cotton dampened by the waterfall spray.
Louis grasped the rope with both hands, cautiously placing his foot on the wet edge of the rocks. He began to move slowly, step after step, heading toward the water curtain. The closer he got, the stronger the push of the air and splashing water, threatening to drag him into the black pool below.
Louis slipped behind the water curtain in an instant. He didn't vanish completely; he transformed into a blurred, shifting mass, enveloped by the gray twilight mixed with reflective flashes from his rain gear.
Luca tightened the rope around his waist to check the knot, then began to follow Louis. The first steps were the hardest; as soon as his body touched the wall of water, he felt a shock of cold and a tremendous pushing force. It was like crossing a curtain of liquid steel. The falling water felt like tiny needles, but the pain wasn't severe.
The waterfall's roar subsided slightly as soon as my ears were behind the water curtain, the noise turning into a muffled, continuous drone, allowing my mind to begin processing the surroundings.
I found myself in a narrow, wet passage behind the waterfall. Louis was waiting for me, standing tall, his reflective rain gear on, making him almost invisible in the dim light. I breathed a sigh of relief, shedding some of the pressure.
I gestured to Louis: "Are you okay?"
Louis nodded vigorously. He pointed to a spot on the nearby rock wall where the stone I carved had firmly embedded itself, securing the rope. Then he pointed ahead, to a very dark opening deeper in the passage. This was the true cave entrance—the Gate.
"This is where the real adventure begins, Luca," Louis muttered, gesturing for us to untie the rope.
I untied the rope from our waists, quietly returning it to my bag, then took out my hood and put it on. The priority now was stealth.
The place smelled strange; a mix of moisture, ozone, and burnt metal. The heat inside was slightly higher than outside, which was illogical next to a waterfall.
Louis cautiously advanced toward the dark opening. The entrance was very wide, surrounded by cracked rocks that looked as if they had been repeatedly struck by enormous lightning.
Louis stopped at the entrance, silently pulled the broken radio and the magnifier out of his bag, then took out the bottle of hot sauce. He began to open the cap very slowly, his eyes fixed on the darkness within.
"Are you ready, Luca?" Louis said in a very low voice, leaning toward me to overcome the muffled sound of the waterfall. "We go in, look for signs of the beast, and prepare the distraction plan if needed."
I nodded, my hand feeling my bag, ready to pull out anything I might need. The time for joking was over; we were now in the lair of the Storm King.
I felt my feet tremble slightly. What we were about to face was something beyond our capacity. I took a sharp breath, then forced my feet to move. I crossed first, and Louis followed me.
Inside the Beast's Lair...
It was an abandoned cave.
As soon as you stepped inside, eternal darkness descended upon you, thick and heavy, as if it were a physical entity pressing on your lungs. The faint light of your lamp became just a desperate pinprick in a sea of blackness that absorbed hope.
You heard nothing but the clicking of your footsteps, the quickly fading echo, and the sound of your accelerating heartbeat, which seemed unnaturally loud.
The rock walls were rough, covered with noxious moss and stones slippery from moisture. You felt as if the rocks formed distorted faces watching you with cold stares in the lamp's reflections. The floor was muddy, slick, and scattered with strange debris difficult to distinguish in the dark—perhaps bones or pieces of sharp rock.
Every step was fraught with risk, with deep black gaps extending under your feet, like mouths ready to swallow you. In some corners, the silence was broken by the slow, continuous dripping of water, which sounded like a timer counting your final moments.
But the worst was the low sound, like a distant moan or a raspy whisper echoing from the twisting passages. You couldn't pinpoint its source, but you felt it slowly approaching.
This is what we were supposed to find behind the waterfall, wasn't it? An abandoned cave, cold, damp, chilling silence.
So... then what is it that I see right now?
I turned to Louis to confirm he saw what I saw. I found him looking in surprise, his eyes wide open. I wanted to speak but couldn't from the shock.
"....."
".... "
The Lair of the Storm King...
It was never what we imagined.
And here, at the threshold of darkness, everything began to change.....