"Young lady, you should go and wait ahead with the others." Davy's deep voice echoed in the small chamber surrounding the Mystic Pond.
"That... That's my brother!" Hearing the deep worry in Maria's soft voice made me finally rouse up my head from where I was sitting and resting. Glancing in the direction it came from, I could see her trying hard to wiggle past Davy's over-sized form to get to my side.
"I'm fine," I wheezed, still trying to convince my lungs it really was okay for them to keep working. Lifting my arm limply, I forced myself to give Maria a thumbs up, ignoring all the various aches and pains throughout my body. "It's okay," I reassured her. "You can go on without me. I'll catch up."
"You will not," Maria snorted, arms firmly crossed. "We'll walk back together."
"Fine." Sighing deeply, it was the giant Davy who settled the matter for us. "So how you really doing, kid?" Coming back over to me, he held out a hand in my direction.
Taking his hand with my own, I slowly used it to pull myself to stand back up. "Honestly," I reassured both him and Maria, "I'm okay. Sore as all get out, cold as hell, and that water left a taste like sour piss in my mouth, but otherwise I'm fine."
Hearing me talk about the water's taste, Davy's brows wrinkled in worry as he stared ponderously at me.
"Wh... Why?" His expression made me worry as anxiety filled my mind. "That water isn't diseased, or poisonous, or toxic, or anything. Is it?"
Maria laughed lightly as she came over and wrapped her slender arms around my fat waist. "Don't be silly," she assured me. "They wouldn't have this place open to the public if the water was toxic in here."
"Really?" I asked, uncertain. Davy's expression was one that seriously was starting to fill me with dread.
"Yeah," Davy confirmed. "Buuuutttt…."
"But what?" I really didn't like the way he dragged out that but!!
"Buuutt..." Shaking his grizzly bearded face from left to right, Davy shrugged helplessly. "I'm certain if I tell you kids, you wouldn't believe me anyway."
"Believe what?" Rubbing both back and forth and up and down my arms, Maria stared over at Davy quizzically. "If you don't tell us, we certainly can't believe you," she reasoned.
"Fine." Shrugging his massive shoulders showing he wasn't going to argue anymore, Davy shared his worries with us. "Eons ago, before the outsiders came to this region, the locals passed down many tales of how strange and powerful these caverns were," he explained. "One thing that was always central to their tales was the pond here that you fell into.
"If you look up," Gary pointed at several spots along the ceiling, "you'll see several glittery sections along the roof. Those are veins of quartz and crystal which stretch all the way from the surface to here."
"Yeah," I confirmed, unenthusiastically. "I see what you're talking about."
I don't understand what the hell a few veins of rock have to do with the water being dangerous, I thought to myself, but didn't say. When you're as big as Gary, you can ramble on about whatever you want to ramble on about, and I sure as hell won't be the one to complain!
"Legend says," Gary continued, ignoring my silent inner protests, "that energy from Mother Gia traverses the crystals at various times of the year and infuses the chamber all around us."
"HMPPTH!" Maria snorted audibly, interrupting Gary. "So, you want us to believe some sort of magical energy just happens to float through the ground and into this pool. Grow up, already!" Putting her hands firmly on both hips, she glared icy daggers. "Magic doesn't exist," she stated matter-of-factly. "Only fools and idiots think their problems can be solved by some sort of magic!"
"Umm…" Even as much as I wanted to defuse her words to keep this big fellow from blowing up and snapping us in half for mocking him, I really couldn't disagree with her sentiment.
"I told you, you wouldn't believe," Gary shrugged, seemingly unfazed by her rejection. "But believe it or not, I can assure you that strange things do happen in this place."
"Like what?" Maria interrupted again. "Anything ever happen to *you*, or is it all just stories somebody else said about strange things happening to someone else?" I could tell, she really didn't like this type of talk at all. With her condition, nothing seemed to offend her more than fake stories which were made to give false, nonexistent, hope. "That's just known as gossip," she corrected him, obviously offended.
"To me," Gary clarified, denying her assertion. Once again, he somehow patiently managed to ignore the obviously condescending sarcasm dripping from Maria's voice.
"Back before I started working here," Gary laughed bitterly at his own memory, "I was bullied and abused even worse than you are, kid."
"Umm... I'm not bullied," I lied, trying to protect my feeble pride in front of Maria.
"Sure, you are, kid." Gary half chuckled, and then ruffled my wet hair in an overly friendly manner. "I saw that jackass deliberately knock into you, to push you over the edge."
"What jackass?" Maria's eyes narrowed dangerously, and her voice came out almost at a hiss. "I'll fucking neuter the bastard," she promised, her voice as cold as an arctic iceberg.
"Uhhh… I don't think I'll say." Staring at Maria, Gary looked almost like he was getting ready to bolt and run for cover.
I had to do a double take. How the hell can a tiny little doll of a girl like her intimidate a looming giant like him? I just couldn't understand!
"You'd bett…" Maria was forcefully shoving her finger at Gary when I wrapped my arms around her and held her in a tight hug.
"You don't need to tell us," I assured Gary, while holding Maria. "I wasn't pushed. I fell," I stressed.
"Really?" Maria tilted her head to stare at me, checking to see if I was telling the truth.
"Really." Beaming my best smile, I lied through my teeth. "Besides, ummm," I quickly changed the subject, "How did this place supposedly change you, Gary?"
Looking at me almost like a dog happily tossed a bone, Gary quickly pounced on the chance to avoid Maria's demanding gaze. "Back when I was in high school, I was a puny little runt," he began. "When I graduated school, I was all of five foot two, and weighed less than a hundred pounds soaking wet." Looking over at Maria, he stressed his point. "You, young lady, are bigger than I was back then."
Laughing halfheartedly, Gary shook his head sadly at the memory. "I was a runt, and back then, I suffered all the hell that the runts and kids who don't fit in, always suffer. And then," Gary sighed, looking around wonderingly. "I started working here. In my first year, I grew six inches and put on sixty pounds of all muscle. My second year, I did the same."
"And that's when I started to believe," Gary whispered, quietly, in the empty chamber.
"Believe what?" I couldn't help but ask.
"The tales the old timers tell late at night," Gary whispered, conspiratorially. "About this place being magic. They say," he leaned up close to my ear and barely breathed into it, "this place makes your grandest dreams come true."
Leaning back, he shrugged his massive shoulders slightly. "You might not believe it, kid, but I do. My dream was always to be big enough that I wouldn't have to worry about any more fights with the bullies, and take a look at me now."
"Ha! That sounds great!" Not that I actually believed a word of it, but I don't see what the problem would be, IF it was true. "Maybe I should go take another dip in that pond," I joked.
"No. No. No." Gary grabbed me by the shoulder and gripped me tight – I couldn't have went anywhere even if I'd wanted to! "The problem, kid," Gary stressed, staring straight into my eyes, "is the rest of the tale the old timers told. The residue of the pool is supposed to affect one slowly, until they achieve their dreams. The water itself is supposed to be too strong; it's forbidden to touch, or drink."
"The water doesn't make dreams come true, kid," Gary warned, sadly. "It makes nightmares come true."
"Hogwash!" Snorting like an angry bull, Maria twisted my ear to the point where it felt like it was going to fall off, and then dragged me down the path the others had went out a few moments ago. "There's no such thing as magic nightmare water!"
I don't know to whom she was speaking, but I certainly wasn't going to argue with her! Gary isn't the only one Maria can intimidate when she gets angry!