The Hall of Heroes

24. - Behind the Sheet of Falling Water

When Fanda saw what was behind the sheet of falling water, he got a similar feeling as when he first saw the cave of the hill giant through Horden's eyes. There was an air of alienness about the place he came to. He could not understand the purpose of the place, and that made it look unreal. His heart started pounding.

The cave chamber behind the waterfall was large with many alcoves or terraces dug into its walls. Different-sized pools of running water were everywhere. The dim light inside was coming from luminiscent algea living in the pools of water. Water was running in streams, feeding the lower pools with water from the higher ones. Strange implements like corals or giant seashells were places in such a manner that suggested they were furniture. And weird creatures, walking on hind legs, but hunched forward and looking like something between men and fish, walked about or crawled up the stone surfaces between the terraces. There might have been about twenty of them in the whole cavern.

On one of the terraces further back, Fanda saw four women crouching on the floor, guarded by one of the fish-creatures. These must have been the women kidnapped from the farm, or perhaps there were some from another place that had suffered a similar fate.

He didn't want to face all the twenty or so creatures (along with who knows how many of them still hiding in some branching tunnel) in a direct skirmish, so he had to come up with a stealth plan. The water that pooled everywhere in the cave seemed to offer a possibility of moving about unseen and Fanda knew he would have to utilize it even though it seemed ill-advised trying to outsmart water-folk by hiding in water.

Fanda crept to the nearest pool of water accessible to him through the waterfall and quietly sank in with only the top of his head above water. What little noise he was making was drowned in the sounds of dripping and streaming water that filled the entire chamber. 

The first part of the way he had to cross led through a long shallow pool. As he crept slowly onwards, he watched carefully the few water-folk visible from his position. Some were sleeping, some working on strange weapon-like contraptions, some eating what looked like kelp, or sitting about half asleep. Their idleness made Fanda think they were only passing time until some moment arrives. Perhaps they didn't go out by day and spent their days down here waiting for darkness. He got through the first pool easily.

He climbed over a small rock levee into a next larger pool, thankfully unnoticed. The best way towards the captives now led around a group of four water-folk engaged in devouring some large kelp with their backs to the pool. If he made little enough noise, they should not be able to see him.

Trying to stay close to the rock and making the water splash as little as possible, Fanda crept slowly and carefully up the rock just a few feet away from the strange water-folk. At such close distance, he could take a better look at them. Their skin was scaly, their fins ran all over their bodies on places where humans have hair, and their heads were wide and attached to their shoulders with no neck. Their faces all resembled an angry fish, their hands and feet were webbed and skeletal.

And then, he stepped on something soft in the water. Freezing in place, he slowly turned his eyes downwards. At first he saw nothing through the rippling water. But when the ripples dispersed, he saw a shape lying on the stone floor of the pool beneath his feet. It was another one of the fish-creatures. And its eyes were wide open.

Fanda clutched his sword and started panicking, contemplating if he should sink in the water and try to hide, or face all the creatures in the cave in an open fight. But he soon realized that the thing underneath his foot was not moving. It kept still even though it was stepped on. Inspecting it closer, he saw that it was probably sleeping, even though its eyes were open. He remembered from the times he used to go fishing with his father, that fish have no eyelids, so they have to sleep with their eyes open. Taking his foot off slowly and carefully, he went on. The creature did not move.