The Secret Of Croghan Water
CHARMIAN STARED DOWN into the little hole that Cloud's hoof had knocked in the ice over the pond at Croghan Water, her eyes wide with disbelief at what she saw.
The pond could not have been more than twenty or thirty feet across. She had read enough about Mackinac Island to know that it was fed by an underground spring, like those more commonly found upon the bluffs, one of which she had even been looking for when they had detoured here. And so she knew this had to be only a little pond, not even that deep...which was why the sight of caverns below the dark surface of the water baffled her so much, and even made her back away from the hole, shaking and rubbing at her eyes.
"Caves?" she cried, and shuddered. "There CAN'T be caves under a pond! The only water here that has caves under it is DEVIL'S LAKE!" She rubbed at her arms, feeling even chillier than the temperature warranted, but managed to force herself to slowly lean forward to peer under the water again. She went so far as to crack the ice a little more to make the hole bigger, just to be sure. The water rippled, completely black, but after she sat and watched it for a bit, it fell still, and again the strange, impossible image of submerged caverns faded into view. Charmian stared at them with a fluttery queasy feeling in her stomach.
"An optical illusion," she suddenly thought aloud, and let out her breath. "I must be seeing an optical illusion! There can't be caves that big, that close to the surface of a pond like this..." She fell silent and looked at them, then shivered again. "But if it's an optical illusion, still something has to be causing it..."
Cloud gave a low neigh and she lifted her head to look up at him. "Huh--? What is it?" she asked; he tossed his head a little and she frowned, looked at the hole, then looked back up at him. Her confusion grew.
"You...you brought me here. You knew I'd see this under the..." Her brow furrowed. "How did you know this was here? And why did you bring me here?"
Cloud shook his head so that his mane tossed from side to side, and he pawed at the snow. Charmian watched him do this for a moment before rising to her feet, swiping a tree branch aside.
"This is stupid!" she exclaimed. "You're obviously trying to tell me something and I can't even understand it! Horses don't talk! And people don't talk to horses!" She threw up her hands. "If you just had some way to tell me, or if I had some way to talk to you--" She cut herself off abruptly, staring with her mouth hanging open, then lowered her hands. She blinked, then furrowed her brow again, perplexed.
"Talk..." She looked at Cloud uncertainly. "You can't talk to me, and I can't talk with you..."
What did Ogimah-Quae tell me...? Someone will guide me to her...someone who I've never talked with...but who I know...
I've talked to him, but never with him...haven't I...?
Her mouth slowly fell open again. "You...?" she said tentatively, looked at the pond, then back at the horse. "You?" she exclaimed, and he just stared at her so she couldn't be sure what exactly that meant. She dashed to the edge of the water and pointed into the hole. "Ogimah-Quae!" she exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "Is she down there--? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"
Cloud's nostrils flared. He lifted his head, and shook it from side to side, which from a human she might have taken to be a negative but then again this was a horse, and she hardly expected him to nod. He did lift his foreleg as if to paw at the ground again, and waved it a few times toward the water, tail flicking; Charmian looked into the hole and still saw the cave images. She didn't know how...but something told her that those were really down there. Perhaps magnified and made to look a lot closer than they really were, by some trick of the water, but still there, beneath the surface.
"It's like Devil's Lake," she murmured in awe. "So tiny, yet so much deeper than it looks." She blinked, and took in a breath. "Ogimah-Quae was in something like Devil's Lake...!" She turned her head, then stood up straight once more, turning around to face Cloud and holding her hands out to her sides. "You were the one Ogimah-Quae told me about! My guide! Someone I've never talked with--yet someone I know! A horse!" Her face grew confused. "But--how did you know this? Where to find this? How would a horse know all that...?"
Cloud just stared at her, one ear canted to the side. She frowned, then tilted her head, then squinted her eyes to look at him more closely. She couldn't be sure, but...wait, now she was sure. His eyes...they had always looked big and black, like horses' eyes were, yet the longer she stared, the more intelligent they seemed...and a very faint blue glimmer passed over them...
Blue...
Charmian stared as if mesmerized. She held out one hand, and with the tips of her fingers, lightly touched his muzzle; at first nothing happened, but after a moment or two, the snowy woods, the little pond, the cracked ice slowly faded away, and another image replaced them.
Green, summery woods...rocks and trees and paths, the woods of the Island...she was moving up a trail, to see a large boulder near a spring, and a small boy seated atop it, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He was staring at the water. His eyes were red and puffy, his face tearstained...and the more closely that she looked at him, curious about the cause of his sadness, the more apparent it became what it must be. His ears were slightly pointed, and when he sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, she saw his teeth, and they too were pointed. He lowered his hand and stared disconsolately again at the water.
A woman's voice, with a British accent, called out from somewhere out of sight, far away: "Thomas...?"
Charmian blinked. The boy lifted his head, looking skyward, and yelled, "Coming in a minute!" He dropped his head again then, and continued looking into the spring. Then he reluctantly pushed himself up from the rock, and stood there wiping at his eyes. He jumped to the ground, dipped his hands in the water--a few ice crystals floated across the surface when he did so--and splashed it in his face, trying to get rid of the redness there.
And as he did this, Charmian could at last make out a vague shape in the undergrowth far off to the edge of the woods, staring at him. A large wolf, its fur as dark as smoke, its eyes as blue as sapphires. It stood silently while he washed his face and sniffled, and Charmian's own eyes widened.
A Shadow Wolf...
Little-boy Thomas finished splashing his face, and wiped it dry with his sleeve. He got to his feet and stood there trying to blink his eyes dry before giving up and turning back to the main trail. As he did so, he did not notice, but Charmian did, how the Shadow Wolf took a step into the clearing, tilting its head and still staring at him as if curious or...sympathetic, somehow? It watched him start to slowly walk away, his head hanging and his eyes still wet, but then it took several more steps, following him...
Watch out, Thomas...!
Thomas could not hear or sense her, this being in the past. The Shadow Wolf did not heed her advice either, pacing across the clearing after him. As it walked, it began to shimmer, and Charmian watched its body shapeshift, growing larger, heavier, until it was no longer a Shadow Wolf walking across the clearing...but a horse. Charmian stared on in stunned silence as the large dirty-gray horse with the dark mane made its way past the spring, following Thomas's trail and catching up with him just into the woods. The boy turned his head to see what was following him, and his face lit up when he saw what it was. He approached and looked it over from head to hoof, checked it for a branding mark, found none, then stopped in front of it, rubbing its muzzle as Charmian had.
"Are you alone here, too...?" he asked. "Do you belong to anyone...?"
The horse just stared at him with its large liquid eyes. Thomas stared back, then eventually, he began to smile. His tears vanished and he grinned from ear to ear, looking like the luckiest boy in the world.
"You can come with me then," he said matter-of-factly. "I'll have to name you, though..." He looked the horse up and down again, then looked at its flanks, then at its mane, then up at the overcast sky. His smile began to return, and once more he met the creature's eyes.
"I have the perfect name. I'll call you Cloud..."
The green woods began to fade, replaced by white. Charmian slowly pulled her hand back from Cloud's muzzle, and they continued staring at each other in silence. It was a very long time before she could even think of something to say.
"So...that's how you knew," she said softly, still staring into Cloud's eyes; the horse stared back at her, still the same horse, yet completely different to her now. "You felt sorry for him. You gave up everything you were...just so you could watch over him. That's how you knew where this gateway was."
Cloud's nostrils flared.
"You've been with him all this time," Charmian said, and realizing this made her eyes sting. She offered a small smile. "You're a really great friend." She tilted her head and frowned a little. "And Thomas has no idea...?"
Cloud flared his ears and shook his head again, mane flying back and forth. This time she took it as a no.
She smiled at him again. "Don't worry, I won't tell him." She turned to the pond, then looked back at him, her smile growing. "Though I rather feel that by now, he wouldn't really care." She stepped to the edge of the ice again and peered down at it uncertainly. "So, through here I'll find Ogimah-Quae...?"
Cloud tossed his head and gave a low neigh. Charmian stared at the water for a bit, then stepped back and went to touch his muzzle. "Thank you, Cloud," she said, and for once she didn't feel utterly stupid to be talking to a horse. She returned to the pond and tapped the ice with her foot. "Oh! If I'm gone for longer than a little bit, would you tell Thomas for me--? So he doesn't worry?" Cloud flared his nostrils once more and snorted, and she waved. "Thanks, Cloud! I owe you one!"
She focused all of her attention on the pond now, biting her lip and looking the ice over. "So...how does one get through, anyway...?" She tapped it, then went to the base of the nearest tree and pulled up a broken bough from the snow. She dusted it clean and broke off all of the little twigs before stepping back to the pond and swinging the branch at it as hard as she could, cracking the ice. A few more swings smashed holes in the surface, hunks of ice dislodging and bobbing around like apples in a trough, and she only stopped once a good area of the surface had been smashed and now lay open, the water rippling and sloshing at the edges. She stared at it uneasily and rubbed at her arms. The only way through seemed to be...through, and she didn't really relish that thought too much, especially not in this weather.
She chewed on her lip a bit more and peered at her reflection, which looked just like herself. If I jump in there...I could freeze to death! Hypothermia! Or I could hit my head, or drown! I wish there were a safer way...
Her shoulders sank. "Nothing worse than what Wabasso went through," she murmured, and felt a pang in her heart. Remembering the sound of the ice shattering as he'd disappeared from sight spurred her on again, and she took a step back, sucking in a great breath. Cloud still stood off to the side, watching her intently. She clenched her fists.
Here goes everything!
Charmian took a running start at the water. She jumped and tucked her legs under her, shutting her eyes and holding her breath as tightly as she could as she struck the water and sank like a stone beneath the black surface.
An icy chill, so cold that it felt searing hot, swept up over Charmian's legs, chest, then her head, engulfing her completely; she nearly let out a yell, it was so cold, but made herself keep her mouth shut. She opened her eyes only with great reluctance, and glanced up in time to see the rippling, warping circle of light which was the sky and trees overhead; before she could change her mind, she flipped herself upside-down, and began stroking with her arms, propelling herself downward as quickly as she could. It was only several strokes however before she felt herself growing weak, the cold sapping the strength from her muscles faster than she'd thought it would. Her clothes weighed her down, but also impeded her motions, so she didn't slip through the water as swiftly as she'd hoped she would. As the little circle of light faded and everything around her grew darker and darker, her fear of what might float around her, unseen, settling in, she began to wonder if this had been the right course of action after all.
Her lungs burned as she kept waving her arms through the freezing water. I wish Ocryx were here. I wish Mitchi were here! Her vision--such as it was--started to go spotty, and she had to shake her head a few times, murmuring in protest that she couldn't breathe without sucking in a mouthful of water. She started glancing around herself in the hopes of seeing one of the caves that she'd seen from the surface, knowing that she wouldn't be able to hold her breath much longer.
How deep IS this thing?? Even Devil's Lake has its caves, and it's BOTTOMLESS! Don't tell me Croghan Water is BOTTOMLESS!!
Growing desperate, she lifted her head and started propelling herself somewhat sideways--at least, what she hoped was sideways, seeing as she had no way of knowing which way was up or down anymore. She hoped she would run into a cave in this direction, and soon, else she would end up just like--
Wabasso--
Her eyes stung. She bit the inside of her mouth and pushed herself forward as hard as she could, one more tiny burst of energy surging through her limbs. She nearly felt like crying in relief when a patch of shadow even darker than the rest loomed ahead of her, and she aimed straight for it, praying that it would take her somewhere where there was air. Of all the things that Moon Wolf and Manabozho had taught her--why couldn't they have taught her how to breathe underwater?
And where was a Nebanaubae when she really could've used one? It didn't seem terribly unappealing, to be a fish, right about now...
Once the blackness of the entryway surrounded her, she started trying again to float upwards, hoping that an air pocket had been caught somewhere. She eventually felt stone against her fingertips and followed it. The tunnel was completely submerged, and she kicked her feet to move faster, her head growing faint and dizzy. A few times she had to shake herself out of it, hitting her hand against the rock to snap herself out of the drowsy feeling which was overtaking her; but the lack of air, and the cold, were such that even when her head finally did break the surface, she barely even noticed, at least not until she reflexively gasped for air and started sputtering. She bobbed up and down in the water a few times before shaking her head abruptly and glancing about to try to gain her bearings; then, realizing that that could wait until she was on land, she paddled straight ahead, and was fortunate enough to run into a bank. She crawled ashore, having to pull herself atop a rocky outcropping, and collapsed, gasping for breath at the nearly invisible ceiling. Her lungs heaved and her arms and legs felt absolutely dead. She lay there for a good long while, trying to catch her breath, not sure if she would ever be able to even move again.
After what felt like an eternity passed, she managed to drag herself up onto hands and knees, and only then started shaking from the cold. She rubbed her arms and chattered, looking around herself. She blinked and peered back at the water she'd just crawled out of, and felt like shivering anew, though not from cold.
It...it looks just like that dream of mine! EXACTLY like it!
She crawled toward the nearest wall and used it to pull herself to her feet. She rested there for a moment, then staggered back to the shore and peered down at herself reluctantly. She sighed with relief to see her own face staring back up.
"Well...at least one thing's different," she murmured, and looked at the different caves opening up around her. She had to squint, but it was not nearly so dark as it should have been; she wandered a little bit into one cave, then out again, and peered about. She selected another one that was better lit and started walking.
I guess I'm bound to run into...something...eventually!
She lifted her head to stare at the walls as they passed. Her eyes lingered over glittering gems and crystals protruding from the stone, and again she had the distinct feeling of being somewhere beneath Devil's Lake, or perhaps near the Borderlands.
Those crystals in the Gemfields, she thought absently as she went, then her brow furrowed. Those were unborn dreams! She glanced upward. Could there be any relation...?
She sighed and rubbed her hands together. "It'd be almost beautiful here, if it weren't so creepy..."
She halted immediately, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling, and her eyes flicked from side to side. She couldn't see anything, but she'd suddenly had the feeling of not being alone anymore. As if to verify this, small glowing dots began appearing in the cave openings off to her sides. She stared at them as they drew closer, resolving themselves into indistinct shapes, until she could at last recognize the forms of perhaps a dozen Shadow Wolves slinking toward her. She started chewing on her lip, all of her muscles tensing for flight, before noticing that their eyes were blue, and she forced herself to remain where she was.
Out of nowhere, a voice suddenly said, If it were too beautiful, then others would come here...and that would rather ruin the purpose...don't you think?
Charmian gasped and jumped. She let out a squeal when one of the Wolves drew close enough to touch its cold wet nose to her hand, and she jerked away in fright. The Wolf merely lifted its head, and another voice said, She is the one, and they then turned and retreated. Charmian was left gawking at the place where the Wolves had just been standing, her mouth hanging open.
That...that Wolf, she thought, confused. Was that the same one I...the one whose spirit I cleared...?
So you do remember, the first voice said, and this time she could tell that it was coming from somewhere ahead of her. She turned accordingly to look, though there was little to see. He told me of what you did, the voice went on. How you used the wabano's medicine on him, just as you did with the medicine man, and with your friend.
"I didn't use it on Thomas," Charmian said.
She sensed amusement. No, you did not. I stand corrected. That was the one time you held it in check. She sensed movement, then the voice said, Come this way. I wish to see you for myself.
Charmian started walking. She kept her eyes on the caves to her sides, spotting the Wolves as they trailed along through the adjacent passages, yet none of them bothered her. She couldn't get over her unease at being so close to so many of the creatures, though she had to keep reminding herself that they weren't the same as the ones which she'd encountered on the Island and in the Fairy Realm. It was going to take some time to get used to this.
She could see the cavern opening up ahead of her, though it was still almost pitch black. She started to dig around in her backpack for her flashlight when the voice said, What, you cannot see? Are you afraid of the dark? If you had told me, I would have prepared the place more, and the walls began emitting a very faint glow. Charmian paused to look at them, frowning in puzzlement; she stepped closer to squint at one and at last could make out the tiny spiderweb patterns seemingly etched over the rock. Her eyes widened and she gingerly touched one with one finger, feeling the filaments give way.
"Weaver webs," she murmured, and glanced up at the ceiling. "Where are you?"
Keep going as you were going, and you will find me.
Charmian obeyed, leaving the webs behind and stepping toward the big cavern ahead. It opened up high above her, bigger even than any she had seen beneath Devil's Lake, and she walked out into the middle of the room before stopping, turning in circles to try to take in her surroundings. The webs were not so numerous here, though there were still crystals set into the walls, glowing dimly and illuminating the room in a very dim carnelian red. It looked like the set of a Halloween movie.
"This looks just like Devil's Lake," she murmured aloud. "With Scott's Cave and the Borderlands thrown in just for taste."
I am glad you like it, the voice, now directly in front of her, said, and Charmian gasped and gave a little jump, when a pair of blue eyes, larger than any that she had ever seen, came into view ahead of her, the form of a gigantic Shadow Wolf taking shape behind them. It looked down its long muzzle at her, and its eyes flared.
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