Have you ever hit the water so hard that it felt as bad as landing on the ground? Well, I did.
I felt the pain as I went inside the water. I knew how to swim with my eyes open which was useful. I found the surface up above and a glimpse of the sunrise. Beside me was Xavier who swam up with me. My head came out of the water and I took a breath of relief.
We had landed near the river bank so I swam to the shore with Xavier behind me. Amanda followed too. The water we landed in was in the shallow area and we couldn't possibly die by drowning but I watched Lily's head inside the water as she made stupid frightened faces, asking us to save her. I just walked into the water, grabbed her and pulled her out.
She was relieved to come out. "I think I just drank half of the river." She said with her hand on her stomach. All of us had faced the same problem. We were still in Pherlin Woods, near a river inside. We weakly started walking after sometime. "Damn it! I need to repair a few things of the ship." Xavier said, examining the ship. "I know you carry spare parts. But what about zartinum?" I asked. Xavier smiled and replied, "I have a tank full of zartinum stored in the storage compartment of the ship. I thought something like this could happen. This is our normal life."
I appreciated Xavier to have come prepared. "But what about Oliver? Is he still alive?" Lily demanded. I felt bad for my pal. He had risked his life fighting Mark and all I could do was sit there and watch as he fell. I regretted having not caught his hand which was so close. "I'll go find him. Friends should be together. I'll bring him back." I said and was about to leave when Amanda replied. "I'll come with you." She said. "You should be with the others and fix the ship, Amanda." I stated. She smiled and declared, "But friends should be together, right?" She used my own dialogue and I could do nothing but let her join me.
"Okay. Let's fix this thing." Xavier said, somehow excited. Lily murmured, "I already hate this." Amanda and I began our small search operation to find Oliver, assuming he wasn't dead yet and assuming the giant and Mark were dead.
As we walked, we discussed to keep ourselves going. "That's a nice weapon of yours. That was the first time it turned into a shield, right?" Amanda stated. I replied, "Yeah! It had evolved before we entered the Temple." I told her the whole story and she listened attentively. After some time of thinking, she theorized, "I think your weapon consumed some of Raptor's magic power during the final clash. That may prove why it had started shining since."
I agreed as she had a point. The discussion went on and it came on Amanda. "You seem a tough warrior. Rock Flames trained you?" I asked. She smiled and replied, "Yes, he did. He always told me that there an important role I would have to play in the future and that he was training me for that Adventure. Then I saw Mark ahead, alone.