ISLA'S POV:

 "Well, the journey to friendship is the longest journey, isn't it?" 

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"You aren't a mute, then?" Loralai said to me. I hinted a sense of playfulness in her voice, but I did not take kindly to it.

"No," I said briefly. I had been betrayed and left behind too many times, I wasn't going to trust Loralai no matter what she did to try to earn my trust, because I knew she would only betray my trust like everyone else always did.

"So you heard what I said about having to swim across?" 

Swimming. I always hated it. I can't see anything. How do expect me to swim? Where do I stop swimming? How far do I swim? How deep is the water? How fast is the water moving?

To put it bluntly, I can't swim. Never even tried. Was never allowed to try.

If your father is willing to build an entire city by himself to protect you, he's likely to prevent you from swimming, where it is easy to drown.

"I'd carry you across the water, but we'd both drown," Loralai explained to me, that same playfulness I did not appreciate heavy in her tone.

I can't swim, and even if I could, how was I supposed to swim when I can't even walk...?

"Are you sure you can't carry me?" I asked, I felt horrible at how desperate I was.

"What?" Loralai teased me, "Can't swim or something?"

"Yes."

"Really...?" She sighed, "Alright fine, I'll try. But if we both drown, it's your fault."

"Why is there even water here anyways? Why not build a bridge?"

"Then the water would be pointless. We have to keep the creatures away somehow."

We? Was she talking about me and her? Or... did she have someone else with her?

Suddenly, Loralai was carrying me again. I could tell where we were going. To the water.

She stood on the edge, right between life and death. And also between water and land.

I thought about what might come out of this. There was three options I saw.

One, we would both make it across fine, and I'm being ridiculous for even thinking anything else might happen.

Two, she can't carry me, and we both drown, and I'm being ridiculous for even thinking anything else might happen.

Three, she can't carry me, and lets me drown so she lives, and I'm being ridiculous for even thinking anything else might happen.

I really could completely see any one of these three happening.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Loralai suddenly leaped into the water.

I was clinging blindly onto anywhere that I possible could so as to not drown.

Loralai started laughing, and I could only imagine that I looked ridiculous. She became more serious and started swimming.

Water splashed and sloshed around me, my head just above the deathly water. But we were barely moving at all.

Why were we so slow?! Couldn't you swim any faster?!

I was so tense, so utterly paranoid Loralai would leave me to die, like what had happened to me so many times already.

And then I slipped.

I fell from Loralai's grasp.

And sunk what felt like as fast as a rock toward the bottom of the water.