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Above the marshy water landing the climb through the valley and up either side of it to the ridge tops got more and more difficult. There were larger boulders to climb. There were hills nearing sixty-degree inclines. The stream was becoming smaller as it had less runoff from the ridges to fill it towards its source but it was more rapid. Time crawled along with what seemed to Daniel very little progress. The alcohol he’d stopped drinking nearly eighteen hours earlier had long since burned off and the residual headache he had been entertaining prior to his prayer in the attic was ancient history. Now his body ached with prolonged and unanticipated use. His shoulders started to nag at the pack he was carrying and his thighs and calves felt as though they would cramp up entirely if he stopped moving.
But as he broke over yet another rise he realized: the rain had stopped. Moonlight was brightening the group around him.
He looked up and could see a white smudge, still mostly hidden by cloud but definitely there. It was a solid presence in the dark and it was smiling upon him. The area before him on his path had widened a bit and a small meadow through which the stream flowed was filled with grasses rather than snow as it might normally be this time of year.
Here the stream slowed and widened and made several pools in the rock. It was cleaner than the marshland he’d left behind and the whole scene was very inviting. If he had to guess he’d say the temperatures were climbing as well. Relishing the break in precipitation of any kind he removed his coat and laid it with his pack on a boulder to the south side of the stream. It was time to get that drink he had passed on earlier.
The pool itself seemed to be lined and kept by the granite and river rock bedding of the mountain’s roots. It was clear and blue and fresh. Daniel squatted down and splashed one hand into the reflected moon and made a small scoop to bring a small sip to his lips. It was indeed refreshing.
He took another scoop. He found himself watching the moon reflecting on the water and in the back of his mind grew irritated that he hadn’t made more time for living like this before. Though incredibly tired, he felt new. Air, water and earth were giving him life and the moon his energy. A fleeting thought of home and work rushed past his consciousness and he resolved that if he must go back to normal work-a-day life after recovering Rachel he would make it a habit to hike into the canyons above his home at least once a week if not more often.
Wanting to get a better fill of the water, Daniel knelt on his right knee and stretched his left hand out to balance himself on a rock, scooping with his right hand again. But his left missed its mark. There was no rock or perch beneath his palm and it dove heavily into the pool. Having lost his balance in the surprise his left hand plunged into loose silt and soil at the bottom of the pool and he slipped nearly up to his shoulder, right arm waving about for a purchase, legs sprawling out behind and to his right.
“DAMNIT!” he yelled.
He quickly tried to right himself with what balance he had, but his left arm and shoulder would not lift. He was caught! The bottom of the pool had somehow grasped him and he did not have the strength to pull himself out.
Lightning flashed somewhere up above on the mountain and it surprised him. He looked about the meadow as the thunder quickly peeled through the air raising the hair on the back of his neck. And then he saw the shaman again.
He was there, arms at his side, observing. The shadow stood on the other side of the pool in the grasses. This time teeth clearly shown at him in the moonlight, along with the red glinting eyes. Satisfaction played out on the creature’s face.
Daniel quickly regained his knees under him and planted his right hand on the shore, but still he could not pull his arm out of the pool. Lightning flashed again and with the boom of the thunder shortly after he heard the rasp of heavy rains rushing down the mountainside towards him, striking leaves and ground and splashing about him. The moon was fading behind another thick cloud ahead of the current storm surge and Dan’s heart murmured. He was trapped. And this fight looked like it would become deadly very quickly.
A low laugh that could have been distant thunder had Daniel not looked across the pool to see the shaman raise his head in jest, rolled at him. Still his hand, arm and shoulder remained deep in the pool. The shaman had won! He should have been more careful. Of course he should have known the water would be dangerous. Why hadn’t he brought his canteen or done something other than plant himself right into the devil’s own element?
He was on the shaman’s turf and playing by the shaman’s rules and he realized, perhaps the whole abduction and months of misery had been all for this. Why would the shaman be pursuing him so?
Then he heard a new sound. He looked up the hill towards the stream flowing into the water in which he was imprisoned. Rushing water moved around the stones and shore about the pool and rose up Daniel’s shoulder further. It pooled around his legs and his knees quickly chilled in several inches of water about him. The water itself was burying him!
As the water climbed quickly to his chin Dan sputtered and blow the liquid from before him. He pulled and splashed trying to release his arm. His head turned sideways, the water neared his waist and submerged his left ear. He cursed at the water as he pulled and pulled but he knew as he did it was too late. Drowning! he screamed inside his head. In many months after winter had finally come and passed he knew his body would be found and someone in the coroner’s office was going to be perplexed at how he managed to drown in the middle of a peaceful, serene meadow in the roots of the mountains he loved.
The figure standing on the opposite side began laughing. It reverberated deeply and seemed to be full of the thunder still echoing around them as well.
Raising a dark staff the shaman said, “Um ason piw a’ni!”
It then turned and left through the tall grasses in the field.
For a minute, as water splashed about his chin and left side of his face Daniel watched the figure walk away, perplexed. It spoke! His mind reeled. The implication that almost immediately came to mind was that the shaman was still human…mostly. And if he was human than he can be dealt with! Either by reasoning or by force, there surely must be a way for Daniel to stop him from attacking.
“NO!” Daniel yelled. “Stop!”
But the figure was already gone.
Dan closed his eyes and focused on the seconds he had left before his nose and mouth were under water. He ran through the experiences of the last few weeks and thought about attempting to call the rain or command it somehow as he had done for the fire in Woodland Hills. Instead his mind latched onto a word and screamed it inside his skull. Rush!
Suddenly the swell of water all around him gushed before him past the bounds of the small pool area in the meadow and out through grasses. The stream quickly returned to its normal volume and at the same time Dan tugged his arm easily free of whatever had bound him to the bottom of it.
A low laugh emanated from beyond and above the grasses on the west side of the stream and Dan supposed the shaman had climbed further up the vale towards the origin spring. It was time to follow. It was time to fight back.