The Land of Broken Roads

Dirt stuck his hand into the water and found it colder than he would prefer. “You go first,” he told Socks.

The giant pup jumped right over him, blanketing him in shadow as he passed. Socks hit the water with a tremendous splash and hardly sank at all before his head and neck popped back up out of the water. He traveled in a narrow circle, then dunked under the water again only to pop up a moment later a few paces away.

-It’s easier than I thought. It’s the same motion as running. Just keep your legs moving. Come, Dirt, jump in and swim with me.- Socks sounded a bit more proud of himself than usual. He was always confident, except regarding Mother, but Dirt suspected he’d been a little nervous.

Dirt was certainly nervous. He had no idea what to expect. “You have to pull me out if I sink so I don’t die. I’ll try over and over until I figure it out, but promise.”

-Do you think Mother will mind if I help you?-

“She told me to learn to swim, not to die. And she said to keep me alive. Will you come a little closer, just in case?”

-You will be fine. Jump in.-

“How long does it take to die if I sink?”

-Just hold your breath until you come back up. You can hold your breath, right?-

“Yes, but—“

-I will toss you in if you do not jump yourself.-

Dirt scowled at Socks, treading water like there was nothing to it. He just paddled his paws placidly and hardly moved. He seemed awfully smug for someone who’d never done it before right now.

Well, this was the price of being friends with a wolf. Courage, Dirt. He took a few steps back, trying to make his legs stop quivering by an act of willpower. It didn’t work.

He ran forward, looking at the horizon instead of the water so he wouldn’t get scared and stop, but as a result, he misjudged by one step and collapsed into the water rather than jump. He hardly had time to shriek before he hit the water and sank.

The sudden cold shocked his system. His whole body locked up, it felt like, even though he was desperately waving his arms and legs.

Looking up, Dirt saw the outline of the sun through the water, but everything was hazy and it hurt his eyes. He saw enough to know he was sinking, though. The deeper he got, the harder the water pressed his ears.

Dirt kicked his legs in a running motion like Socks had said, but it didn’t work. He didn’t swim. Panic set in. His lungs burned from lack of air. He shouldn’t have shrieked.

He flailed his arms, clawing for the surface. He kicked his legs. He twisted his body. Nothing worked. “Help!” he cried out in desperation.

Socks appeared beneath him and Dirt grabbed on. Socks swam upward and only a heartbeat later, they were out of the water. Dirt gasped and spluttered, inhaling as hard as he could to sooth the burning in his lungs. It went away quickly, thank Grace.

“Thanks. I can do it. I just need to keep trying,” thought Dirt with confidence he didn’t feel. Dirt had serious doubts that humans could swim after how that had gone, but he made himself stand up on the wolf’s back and get ready for another jump. He paused, trying to catch the rest of his breath.

-Try running like a wolf, not a human. Lean forward. Actually, get down on your hands and feet now, and I’ll let you down slowly.-

Dirt knelt forward as instructed. Socks let his back sink, and the cold water rose slowly enough for Dirt to make peace with it. And besides, Socks was right there.

Just as his head was about to go under, Dirt moved like a wolf running on all fours and miraculously, he didn’t sink. Gods in Glory, he was doing it! It took all his effort, but Dirt paddled as hard as he could in the direction of the basin wall and when his nose was an inch away, he shot his hands forward and grabbed on.

“I did it!” he shouted aloud, then repeated it right after in his mind for Socks. Then he gave a long howl of triumph, which Socks found amusing. The pup joined in, and his howl was much louder and longer. But he had bigger lungs.

Dirt held the stone edge with one arm and wiped the water out of his eyes with the other hand. He swished his legs back and forth, feeling how the water moved against them. The chill of the water was wearing off, making it easier to breathe.

Socks was eager to keep playing, however. He sank back under the pellucid water and swam all the way to the bottom, then jumped upward, pointing with his nose. He flew out of the water with another big splash, one that might have sank Dirt if he’d been closer. Socks soared high in the air for a moment, then fell back into the water with another huge splash, closer this time, which made waves that smacked Dirt against the wall.

Dirt laughed, suddenly enthused. He climbed out, got a running start, and jumped out into the water as far as he could. He swam in an arc, ending back up at the edge.

They played separately for a bit. Dirt practiced swimming and found it was easier if he slowed down and tried to push the water instead of hitting it. Socks swam and jumped and flew every direction over the basin. Sometimes he leaped from sunken pillar to sunken pillar, landing with perfect balance every time. Once he noticed Dirt farther out in the water and fell out of the sky right next to him, creating a wave that tossed the little human ten paces away.

That was so much fun that Dirt insisted on being thrown a few more times, and the best was when he balanced on Socks’ snout and let the pup simply toss him. Not too high, though, because it hurt a little when he came back down. That was good practice for both of them.

Socks said, -I bet I can swim across without taking a breath. I’ll swim under the water. Watch.-

Dirt swam to the closest pillar and climbed up onto it to sit in the sunlight, surrounded by calm, deep water on all sides. “Okay, I’m watching!”

Socks reached one end of the basin and said, -Here I go.- He swam down to the bottom and kicked off the wall, hurtling forward.

When he reached the middle, Dirt sensed confusion coming from him. The pup suddenly started moving sideways.

-The water is pushing me…-

The pup turned and struggled against the water, but the flow was too strong and it pushed him farther and farther.

-I can’t get a grip on the ground!- said Socks with a burst of fear. The pup struggled in earnest, but there was simply too much strength behind the current.

Dirt jumped in and swam to the next pillar, but he was too slow. Socks was getting farther away.

The current was pushing Socks toward the far end of the basin, near that lump or hill or whatever it was, where the water seemed to drain out. Dirt sensed the pup’s growing desperation, his lack of air, his fear at being helpless, unable to move by his own power.

Suddenly, the giant pup seemed very, very young. Without all that confidence, Socks was just a little child, like him.

“Fight, Socks! Swim hard! You have to!” screamed Dirt mentally as panic set in.

The giant pup’s lungs ached for air. Dirt could feel his determination to keep his mouth shut, but it was getting harder by the second. The wolf’s chest throbbed, his own muscles fighting against him.

-I can do this! I am stronger!- said Socks in a mental shout that wasn’t aimed at anything. The pup’s desperate resolve was almost too much and Dirt had to fight not to get swallowed up in panic. It made him want to scream or cry or both.

For a moment, Socks kept pace against the current, but his strength diminished by degrees, and he slowly moved back.

-I need air! It hurts!-

Dirt stood and looked in every direction, wide-eyed and terrified. What could he do? What could he do!? The water came in from the river and sank right there at the mouth, leaving water calm all around it. It must be going under there, and then running all along the bottom to the other end where it drained. Could it do that? Could part of the water move and not the rest?

Socks’ emotions were firing out in every direction—rage, panic, frustration, desperation. The pup was getting weaker. Dirt could feel his pain, his weakening legs and the fire in his lungs, the strain not to inhale water. And fear. Fear of the black pit he was moving toward, slowly, surely.

Then it stuck him. Dirt screamed mentally, “Swim sideways! Swim to the side, not forward! Please, Socks, you can do it!”

Socks replied with a single bundle of wordless thought: if he swam sideways, the water would carry him away faster and he would be lost in the cavern.

Dirt sent back a hasty image of the water making one long, underwater stream that ran from the river to the drain, and Socks jumping out of it to the side.

With nothing left to try, Socks made one last effort and turned to the side, swimming forward with what little strength remained in him. Even at this distance, Dirt saw the moment he burst out of the current. One moment Socks was being dragged helplessly along, and the next he was swimming upward at top speed.

The pup’s nose finally broke the surface and Socks exhaled and inhaled so hard that Dirt heard gusts of wind.

Dirt swam as fast as he could to try and help, but it wasn’t very fast. Long before he could get close, Socks made his way to a pillar and rested his head on it, breathing heavily. Dirt could feel the pup’s heavy relief, his shock at having been challenged by something so simple as water. Just water.

The panic of the moment faded, and they both began to let their minds calm down and process what had just happened.

-So much for keeping you alive,- said Socks, amused.

“Maybe next time she needs to mention keeping yourself alive,” said Dirt, grinning mentally.

But then a new mind appeared, and both he and Socks saw it at the same time. An old one, a large one, and not far away. Likely it was in that hole where the water went. Deep inside that blackness, something had awoken and become aware of them.