Two hours had passed since they began their fruitless inspection. The sun had reached its peak, indicating that it was noon. Luckily Tyom had brought heat reducing cream with him or else Poltas might have melted away under the sweltering sun.
"Do you think the herb even grows here?"
"It has to grow here. Otherwise we have no way of knowing where it might be."
Sigh.
Poltas continued checking plants for a few more hours. But eventually the limit of his patience was breached.
He had helped so far out of his guilt and goodwill, yet the results were disappointing. Not only had Poltas fallen into the pond at one point, he had also been pooped on by birds. But most importantly they still had no successful results in their search.
"Do you think the herb even exists?"
"..."
Tyom found that spending too much time in the sun had turned his companion into a mindless zombie who'd occasionally ask such questions. He was also beginning to see the futility of their search. None of the plants fit the description properly but at the same time, there was no way of confirming they weren't the plant mentioned in the book.
Stuck in such a dilemma, Tyom failed to see how riled up Poltas had gotten.
Poltas had switched from examining plants to plucking them out, along with their roots. A small pile of unidentified plants had accumulated next to him. Tyom was scared of this sudden change in behaviour.
"Miss, why are you pulling all these plants out?"
"Because the plant we are looking for is surely hiding somewhere, we must remove all these obstacles to get it."
Poltas said the words offhandedly and continued with his new task. But Tyom was terrified out of his mind at this psychotic behaviour. Out here alone with a stranger he had met only a week ago, he feared that if Poltas continued to search for this herb, even his own ending would be miserable.
"Miss, it's taking us longer than I expected, perhaps we should return for today and come back?"
"Okay."
Tyom let out a sigh of relief, he felt that his mind had truly run far ahead of him.
"You should help me pull out as many of these plants as we can. We should bring them back with us to study them."
The moment he was asked to help, Tyom's brain froze, he did not hear what was said after the request.
'Am I being threatened?! I didn't know this is how it would end'
Too terrified to suggest any alternatives, he aided Poltas in gathering the aquatic plants. Once they were done, Tyom placed all the plants in his bag.
Yet before they could leave the lake's vicinity Tyom fell into the lake. Poltas had experienced this once today and didn't find anything odd about it. He simply called out to Tyom but there was no response.
Even after waiting for a moment, no sign of Tyom surfacing could be seen. The lake was not too deep, when he fell inside, Poltas was able to stand at the floor with his head fully submerged, but getting out was not difficult.
'Does this kid not know how to swim?'
With this thought, Poltas unwillingly entered the lake for the second time that day. But the sight beneath the water was contrary to anything he could have imagined.
He saw pear-shaped bodies with long, distinctly elbowed antennae that were folded into what could be called a snout. The body was dark reddish brown, almost black in colour with very small patches of yellow-white scales. The most similar creature in Poltas' mind was a beetle, but he had never seen human sized beetles.
These mutated creatures were holding Tyom down and trying to take his bag away. Disgusted as he was, Poltas couldn't let these monsters take away the fruits of their hard work.
He pulled out a metal rod from his bag and unlocked its top compartment, allowing the rod to convert into a spear. Then he tried to waddle his way towards the monsters.
Underwater battles appeared very cool in movies and video games, but in reality it was a series of poorly aimed and slow attacks which did little to hinder the enemy.
As Poltas struggled to obstruct the creatures, they also failed to pull the bag off of Tyom. Due to lack of air, Tyom's movements had also greatly increased and he was resisting with all his strength.
The scene of Poltas heroically charging at the creatures and Tyom almost drowning did not last longer than 2 minutes. Unable to hold on, Poltas weaved his way between the creatures and dragged Tyom up by force so they could breath.
He felt pointed limbs pulling at his legs, but the creatures couldn't get a firm grip on him due to his clothes. Tyom's legs were exposed due to his shorts, and he ended up being pulled down easily.
Not wanting to continue an underwater battle, Poltas did not loosen his hold on Tyom's hand and swam to the edge of the lake.
'If his arm comes off because of this, no one should blame me. This is to save Tyom.'
Unsure of how much force Tyom's frail arms could handle, Poltas dipped back into the water and aimed a kick at the nearest monster. The impact of the kick was completely nullified by the water, and it did not do much to push back the creature. But his leg acted as a physical barrier, protecting Tyom's legs.
He used all his upper-body strength to catapult Tyom out of the water.