This will be another minor break point. Over the weekend, I want to have another interlude and see what the rescue effort looks like back on the surface. I have a suspicion it is now rather involved, with tech, engineering, and politics all playing a role.

Always take a towel.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

“Additional batteries, two emergency oh-two bottles, surgery kit,” Alicia said each out loud as she unpacked the rucksack.

“Surgery kit?” Allen asked, just back with three fish.

“Emergency only, of course, like a compound fracture or appendicitis,” she explained.  “Oh!  A towel!  I’ll use that now to clean the pistol.  I was afraid it was going to rust after the waterfall.”

“Why would someone pack a towel?” he asked, borrowing her knife again.

“You have got to be kidding me, Uncle,” she said with a withering glare.  “You always pack a towel.”

Uncomprehending, he turned to chop some of the plants as a garnish.

“I suppose,” Alicia mused, calmer, “that we should make an offering to the local spirits at the shrine?  I mean, sure, I’m Catholic and all, but local traditions, and all that.”

“What shrine?” Allen asked, handing her a bowl.

“The one behind the waterfall, silly.  That meter-high column with a ball on top.” She took the bowl.  “Thank you.  Itadakimasu!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he admitted.

“A tentacle monster shares a lake with you for three years and you had no idea,” she said with a smack to her own forehead.  “How many times have you been through that waterfall and never once looked at the wall, behind it?”

“I guess I never bothered to,” he admitted.

“Incredible.  We’ll go right after this meal.”

Meal over and hands rinsed from the water out of the pipe, they made their way south.  Allen noted she had added the pistol to her belt, next to the knife.

“Collecting weapons?” he asked.

“As many as I can, Uncle.  I’m a little girl in a lost world,” she said.  “But, as it already had one too many rinses to today…”

Just before the waterfall, she moved off to the right and placed the gun behind a rock.  Into the water, she led him to the stone wall at the back.  The falls cascaded over them and the ground was a little slippery.

“See?  Just there!” she raised her voice.

Taking a step, Allen’s right foot slipped and he hit his head onto the plinth with an “Ouch!”  Looking up, he noted what Alicia called Crabbie writing in the dark metal, wrapping around the column and ran his fingers across it.  At that, the ball began to glow.

“What in the…?” he said, reaching up.

“Don’t touch that!” she screamed, now alone, with water washing over her.  And guessing this might have been something similar to what happened to Faustina and Edward.

“Whelp.  Guess it’s just me, now. Could have left the fishing pole, Uncle.”

She walked out of the water, retrieved her gun, and returned to the hut.  Pondering her future.