Part Two - Chapter 5

Part Two and a new story begin!

Part Two. The Feeling of Death.

Somehow her words made me believe that my training was over and I’d have my first assignment in the morning. A bit naïve, I guess, but that’s what I thought. I still had no idea what those assignments were like or what the Line One beasts did on them. Nobody bothered to explain that to me.

I should’ve asked Lita.

I was ready for anything early in the morning, but she didn’t come for me. After about two hours a human who looked at me as if I was Grim Reaper himself brought me a bowl of food and hurried to leave. All of my attempts to get any information out of him were futile.

After finishing the breakfast I spend forty more minutes by the door and then jumped into my pool. After all, I’d sense her approach once she’s on this floor, no need for me to sit around waiting like this.

I tried not to be excited about the coming mission, but I was �" just a bit. I was bored here! There's not much to do in my room really… okay, nothing at all. I’ve already read all of my books, and more than once, I could almost retell any of them. I wondered about whether Lita would agree to bring me some new ones. She wouldn’t make special plastic ones for me like they used to do in the lab, but I could read average books too. I’d just have to stay on the surface to read them, and still it was better than counting the tiles in my pool!

It was almost 4 pm when I could finally hear the familiar footsteps in the hallway. She wasn’t wearing high heels again, which I took as a sign of something unusual. It was supposed to be unusual since we’ve never gone on missions before; I wasn’t surprised.

By the time she reached my room, I was already out of the pool, wearing that ridiculous outfit they provided me for training. Technically, I could argue, but I saw no sense in it. I’d wasted enough time already, and I knew they’d make me wear it anyway.

Upon seeing me, Lita nodded. She looked pleased:

“You’re catching on with the rules fast. That’s good. Now come on, we’ve got work to do!”

That last phrase would have actually made more sense in the morning. We'd already lost a whole day because of the delays! It's not like I minded; she was the one complaining that our time was limited.

In the elevator, she pressed the highest level's button for the first time. She'd never touched it before.

“We’re going to the surface,” Lita explained. “You and some other beasts assigned to the mission will be transported to the area via cargo helicopter.”

The very word “surface” made the blood in my veins run faster. Even back in the lab all my contact with the outer world was represented by a rare moment of permission to look out the window. I was not allowed to go out. I understood why, but I couldn't accept it. And now I was about to go to some new and unfamiliar place.

Actually, any place was an unfamiliar place to me. What can I say… I’m new to this world!

And we were going to travel in a helicopter �" that mattered too. I had little idea what the thing even was. A flying machine, it seemed, that’s all I could remember, but all of it paled in comparison with the fact that I’d see the sun again!

Unfortunately, my dreams of the sun were crushed with my first step out the door. It was raining heavily outside. The dark wall of cold water sufficiently lowered visibility and hit the ground with a deafening noise that was a nasty blow to my sharpened hearing.

Lita led me to a large machine with a strange propeller on its roof; she let me walk in first. That didn’t save me from the noise, now the rain was hitting the metal, reverberating through it, which actually made things quite worse. To prevent the coming headache, I covered my ears with the membranes I usually used to keep the water from getting into my ear canals.

Apart from me and Lita, there were four watcher-beast teams inside the helicopter. One of the beasts, a male with an unusual copper shade to his armor, started growling once he saw me. His watcher stopped it by slightly hitting him with a rolled newspaper. That was a curious method of training! I wondered if that beast got dog biscuits for good behavior too…

Lita noticed the newspaper too:

“Nice move, Zhenya.”

“Trademark move. That’s my idea of discipline,” he smirked in return. He was a young man with very light, almost grey hair. “So this is the famous new generation?”

They started talking; Lita sat beside her colleague, while I had to take the place next to the copper beast. I didn’t exactly like it; he kept giving me vicious looks, probably gnawing off my tail in his imagination. This one wasn’t nearly as big as Leo, but I still didn’t want to start a fight with him inside this machine. Or at all. Dumb opponents are the worst ones.

The engine of the machine stirred with a dull roar, the helicopter shook a bit and started to take off. I could handle the sound, especially with my ear membranes out, but what I couldn't handle was the fact that we were no longer connected to the ground. That scared me. And inexplicably everyone around me was calm, including the beasts, so I preferred to suppress my emotions and keep them to myself; I just made a mental note to myself that I didn’t like flying.

Lita was carried away by talking to that whitish watcher, and I felt I needed to remind her that I was with her:

“So what am I going to do?”

Zhenya  looked at me in such a shock as if I had just given birth to five kittens.

“He talks! Look! He really talks!”

My watcher was unimpressed.

“And often talks back,” Lita shook her head. “He also argues, tries to prove his point at any cost and…”

“He has his own opinion?!” Zhenya  interrupted her.

“You bet he does.”

“Awesome!”

Luckily, she didn’t start to innumerate my other talents, as it was quite unnerving. I wasn’t flattered by his honest amazement, I don’t like being discussed like this. It makes me feel like some kind of trained circus dog that can ride a bicycle or something.

Lita went straight to business instead, she finally decided to explain the mission to me:

“A cargo ship sunk tonight. The crew was partly rescued, but the cargo remained aboard. The storm continues, so humans can’t work there. Your task is to find the ship and get the cargo to the shore. We’ll take it from there.”

I asked the most obvious question in the world:

“Can’t we wait till the end of the storm?”

She had no idea how hard swimming in stormy water was. Well, theoretically, I had no idea either but part of me intrinsically knew what it was going to be like. And it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“We can’t,” my watcher replied. “If we could wait, we wouldn’t have used the beasts for that operation. This cargo is too precious to waste even a single moment. And it must be removed before anyone knows about it. That’s why it’s up to you, not human divers. There are �" or at least originally were �" twenty-eight boxes on board, you’ll find them in the hold.”

“Forget the hold, how are we supposed to find the ship?”

The sea during a storm is like that dark water we used for training sessions. Me and the other beasts would be blind there! Not entirely, of course, but in no condition to perform a major search operation.

Lita’s eyes became dark in her frowning, and I didn’t like it. I was almost sorry to see my watcher had stopped hiding her emotions from me. Then I’d have to worry less! I couldn’t understand if her expression was because of me or not.

“The search is the reason why you’re coming,” she explained. “It’s something like a test assignment. We’ve never done anything like this before. You’ll be given a radar you'll use to find the ship. The Line One beasts are not capable of working with such complicated devices, so you'll be leading them.”

It wasn’t really an honor, and I wasn’t going to pretend I was impressed by such trust. Frankly speaking, it’s not trust, it’s just extra responsibility.

“Listen, that makes absolutely zero sense! I’m new to this job, it’s my first assignment! I don’t know how to work on my own, let alone with someone else. I don’t know those beasts.”

My reasoning didn’t work.

“You don’t need to know them, their watchers will order them to follow you. Rey, your job is to find a way to the ship, then they’ll do whatever they're told. You won’t even need to lead them there again, they'll remember the road.”

Sure they would, all beasts know how to find their way in water once they know where they're going. The problem is, they may well rip me apart before I even find the damn ship in the first place! Leo and that copper one especially seemed to find this idea very alluring.

“I’m still against it!” I declared.

She stood up even though the shaking helicopter made that difficult. Barely keeping her balance, she went to the furthest part of the helicopter cabin. Without waiting for any words, I knew I needed to join her there for a private little chat.

When a few large metal containers hid us from the others, she pulled a book out of her backpack and handed it to me. I’ve never read this one.

“Bribe?” I didn’t remember the word’s exact meaning, but it felt like it was the right moment for it.

“An advance” she smiled. “Try not to get caught with it. I don’t want them to know you can read.”

I didn’t argue; I had no reasons to do so this time. Something about the act of giving me presents for my work was rather funny to me and… well, good at the same time. It made me feel less like a slave in the situation.

She had different ways of making me shut up and accept my mission. But she chose the best one this time, one that spared my dignity. I’ll remember that.

“Mikhail Bulgakov, 'Heart of a Dog,'” I read the cover. There was no picture on it. “What is this?”

“Judging by the books I saw in your room, you have no certain preferences in reading. So I decided you might like this.”

“I like everything.”

“I think this one will be interesting to you,” she gave me a mysterious look.

“Why?”

“Because it’s about another creature from a laboratory.”

I guess I could take it as an insult, but I didn’t. There was no anger in her at the moment, I could sense it, so I just laughed.

Her little present was quite timely, because the flight lasted for hours. Lita returned to her place beside Zhenya, while I stayed hidden behind the containers. I had to remove my ear membranes and cringe from the noise again, but now I was sure nobody would sneak up on me and see me reading.

When we were finally there, I finished half of the book. She was right, I liked it in a way, though I hoped her choice didn't hold implications toward me. The book made me feel strange.

The helicopter landed on the shore. I couldn’t see any buildings around us, only two trucks waited there for our arrival. Lita told me to stay here; she ran toward one of them �" it was raining here too, and the strong wind made umbrellas useless.

Other watchers were talking to their beasts in the meantime. They were periodically nodding at me, so I could easily figure out what they were discussing. I hope “Don’t kill him, he’s nice” was among the day’s agenda!

Soon Lita returned with a small device that looked like a bracelet. In the following five minutes she tried to explain to me how to use it and what the signals were about, though I could tell she didn’t completely understand it all herself. Strangely enough, I figured it easily. This little piece of equipment was actually rather primitive.

“You must find the way to the ship, take one box back with you on your return to this position,” she finally said. “There’s no need for you to go back to the ship after that, they’ll do the rest.”

“I’m aware, but I can help…”

I didn’t want other beasts to think I was privileged or something… they didn’t like me already.

“No doubt about that, but it’s not my decision,” Lita informed me. “We have to follow our orders. So do what you are told, please.”

Pity. It was going to be my first swim in the sea, and I wanted to make the most out of it! But someone had a different idea apparently. And now with the beasts’ attitudes toward me… ah, to hell with them! After all, they’re as important as the humans to me.

The watchers preferred to stay out of the rain, so we went to the sea without them. The Line One beasts walked behind me; I didn’t like the emotions that were coming from them. It was as if I had a knife aimed straight at my back! They obviously didn’t like the privilege of leadership I’d been given... just as I had suspected.

Once we reached the beach, one of the beasts lunged at me. I didn’t expect them to be that blunt while still on the shore, so I had no time to move away. Luckily, I didn’t have to, because the attacker didn’t make it to me. He was suddenly pulled away from me �" by the beast with copper scales. A second later the aggressive one was already restrained in the sand.

“No,” the copper one pronounced it slowly, but clearly enough.

I’d never heard them use human speech to communicate with each other, I even doubted it was possible. Kathy’s “daddy” didn’t count, it wasn’t really communication. I wondered why Zhenya was so surprised by my vocal abilities if his own beast wasn’t mute either! Or maybe separate words weren’t good enough to him, he needed phrases?

I decided to let it go and concentrate on the mission. Lita said it was important; and the sea was waiting for me.

Entering the water turned out to be difficult. We were thrown back by strong waves. It was easier for my companions to move due to their heavier weight, and they were proud of that advantage. To be honest, I was insulted �" I was usually hiding my superiority and they were being too demonstrative about theirs! So when we were all under water, I gained high speed at once. Serves them right!

I expected them to catch up, but they didn’t. At first I thought they were doing this on purpose, but once they were left far behind I figured they simply couldn’t swim as fast as I did. That was just how things were, no games. An advantage for them and an advantage for me; mine was better.

What a chance to escape! Ah, but the bombs inside of me were still ticking so I needed to be a good pet for the humans right now.

It wasn’t the right time for competitions with other beasts, so I waited for them and then continued to move forward. It was hard to swim because of the storm, but I still enjoyed being in the open water. I wish I had more freedom in this moment! Better weather would’ve been nice too, since all the sand in the water made it hard to see more than a couple of feet ahead of me, I had to rely on the radar.

Because of that I almost bumped into the ship we were looking for. It was lying on its side, and it was smaller than I imagined. What could humans possibly transport in that bucket? Whatever it was, it was an important something if they decided to use us to retrieve it.

I didn’t waste my time on thinking about it �" or on looking for a way into the hold. Instead I gestured the beasts to swim closer, and the copper one was the first to follow my command. I couldn’t understand whether he disliked me less than the others or if his watcher just trained him better.

I pointed my tail at the side of the ship. He seemed to understand me, at least, he reacted in the way I wanted him to. In one strong and precise blow he broke a hole in the metal and started to widen it. The other beasts helped him, though he didn’t ask them to. I had to swim aside, there was no place for me among them.

Show offs! I already figured they didn’t want me in their little pack, no need to demonstrate it once again! What made them think I wanted to belong there? So far, it was easier for me to communicate with humans than with them! Well, at least some of the humans.

Together they created a sufficient passage for us to use; even the largest beasts could fit through it, not to mention me. That completely ruined the ship, naturally, but it was beyond repair even before we began.

Just as Lita told me, we found the boxes inside. They were medium sized, but heavy, and I decided not to take more than one. My watcher made it clear that I wasn’t here because they needed more carriers. I suspected it was another test for me... not only for using that radar, but also to gauge my potential desire to escape. Or not. I’m not going to make a break for it when they expect me too!

I didn’t wait for the others this time. I was confident that the Line One beasts could remember the route just as well as me, so I didn’t have to worry about them getting lost.

When I returned to the shore, I saw that there were two helicopters waiting there now. The rain almost stopped, so the humans were standing by the trucks. They were watching the sea, as if trying to guess who’d make it back first. I wonder if they made any bets…

I placed the box in front of them as I tried to find Lita. Useless, she wasn’t there. I was surrounded by unfamiliar watchers.

“She's behind the helicopters,” Zhenya said quietly. He seemed to be disturbed by something. “She’s talking to the big bosses. They’ve just arrived, looks like a serious matter. Something about you and her…”

Now what?!

I didn’t ask him straight out, because I wasn’t completely sure whose side he was on; I decided to just wait for her to return.

Lita appeared from a different direction than I expected, but I saw her from afar. She called me with a sharp gesture. In the past I would have taken it for a sign of her arrogance, but now I knew her a bit better, so I figured she was upset.

She went into the helicopter before me this time. When I joined her, she was already trying to dry her hair with a towel.

“What happened?” I asked quietly.

Instead of answering she looked around attentively. When Lita was sure we were alone, with even the pilot standing outside, she talked.

“A mess! I’ve been expecting them to try and make things harder for you, but I was hoping they’d at least play by the rules! Too optimistic of me. We’ve just been assigned for another mission!”

Bitterness and anger were in her voice, just as I expected, but I couldn’t find any sound reason for such a reaction from her. And I didn’t really know who “they” were. Her entire speech confused me.

“What’s wrong with that? I thought things were meant to go that way. You and me going on missions.”

“Not exactly,” she shook her head. “This is our mission! The cargo ship and the radar! You were supposed to finish it and return to Headquarters! No-one changes such plans at the last moment, it’s just wrong! It’s a trial of your intellectual abilities and your ability to work in a team with the other beasts. This is how it usually goes. A new beast works with the more experienced ones for at least three missions. For you it was extremely important since your training period was untypically brief. It was decided this way, I saw the documents. And now out of the blue comes a new assignment, specifically for only the two of us!”

“You think I can’t make it alone?” Now it was my turn to get angry. So I’m not going to work with other beasts… big deal! It’s actually better this way: I like them even less than they like me.

But Lita didn’t share my opinion:

“It’s not about you! It’s about how this should be done! Individual assignments are left for the best teams who have enough experience working together. I know your situation is special, but even with that you and I were supposed to go solo only at the end of your trial period! Besides, in any situation the watcher has the right to decide whether they agree to take an assignment or not. And I was simply given an order! And last but not least, there’s always some time for preparation, especially for the missions of such level. But we’re flying there right now, in the middle of the night! They didn’t even give me a chance to return to Headquarters and discuss this with the management!”

Even I could see how wrong all of this was. But, to be fair, Lita was more concerned than I was. I got used to humans playing dirty.

“In other words, someone’s trying to make our life harder?”

“Yes, and I don’t like it,” she nodded.

“I bet!”

“No, Rey, in a different way. I generally don’t like how things are going. And how they’ve been going from the very beginning.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” I smirked.

She ignored me and continued:

“They made you fight Leo, though they knew that bull might seriously hurt you. You barely managed to avoid suffocation! And now they gave us this assignment. Someone is trying to set you up, deliberately give you an assignment that you’ll most likely fail. So far you’ve been winning somehow, but they’re persistent. It’s done at the higher levels, and they want to show that you’re worthless to confirm their original decision to kill you.”

“What higher levels?” What was she was talking about?

“The management. One of the bosses doesn’t want you to live, but he can’t just kill you outright. He has to prove that you’re useless or harmful to the project, because the rest of the Council decided to give you a chance. That means it’s not Semenov; we’re dealing with someone of a lower rank. But if that someone succeeds in making everyone view you as an enemy, he'll win.”

She was really worried about me… Nah, I guess she was scared my failure would ruin her career. She couldn’t possibly care about me, she was a human!

“Okay, so we have to complete this mission, big deal,” I shrugged.

“It’s not as easy as you think!”

“But not as hard as you fear.”

She was about to continue the argument when she was called out again for further negotiations. She threw the towel aside in irritation and went back into the rain, which had become stronger during our conversation. So much for drying her hair!

I didn’t like the things she said, but I wasn’t thinking about them. I was trying to figure out what she thought, or even felt, about me. If someone told me a week ago that Lita was in any way capable of emotions, I would have laughed in their face. And now… there was something strange in the change of her attitude toward me. Even wrong. Of course, I wanted to get her support, but I hadn’t done enough to receive such a reaction.

There had to be another underlying reason for her sympathy. The exact reason I couldn’t guess, since I didn't have the full picture. I didn’t even know if I understood her correctly to begin with. My senses were telling me she was concerned about me, while my brain kept whispering that I’m being an easily trusting fool again.

I needed to know more about her and about why she became my watcher, but that would have to wait.

Lita returned twenty minutes later with a bag in one hand and a folder in the other. The pilot soon took his place too. It looked like we were ready to go.

“At least they bothered with preparing some luggage for me,” she grumbled. “They still pretend they follow some sort of operational guidelines.”

The engine started to stir, the propelled blades were spinning faster and faster. I had to move closer to her in order to hear her voice through the noise.

She hid her hair under the towel once again and opened the folder. I couldn’t see what was inside, so I waited for her to tell me. The pause was getting longer, and I had to remind my watcher that she wasn’t the only one who was part of the next mission:

“So what are we dealing with?”

“A big problem,” she sighed. “We’re heading to a Natural Reserve in Altai region: a large lake surrounded by miles of forest. It’s generally a protected area, though tourists visit it often, it’s a very beautiful place. Some time ago those tourists started disappearing without trace.”

Looks like she decided to concentrate on the mission instead of trying to deny it officially. Smart move. Her desire to say no could be taken as a sign of weakness by some. Even if it’s stupid and against the rules, we’ll just deal with it. If her bosses think that defeating me is easy, I have a surprise for them!

“And exactly how much time is some time ago?” I inquired.

“Seven months ago. One of the bodies was found in the lake three weeks ago. The others might be there as well. Our task is to find those bodies and figure out what happened there.”

“You know I’m not an expert on humans, but why are we the ones to investigate it? I thought this was the kind of thing police dealt with. Not only because you and me are a new team, it’s pretty stupid to send a beast for a job like this!”

“I agree, I think there's no need to use beasts for situations like this. But that’s only my opinion, and we have our orders. Maybe getting the police there was more expensive than sending the two of us, maybe they already failed, or maybe the one who’s trying to set you up chose a mission that is impossible to complete and too risky for a beast. We can’t know that now, but I think you can guess what theory seems more likely to me,” she gave me a meaningful look. I nodded slightly, showing that I understood her. “We'll do our best �" avoid any civilians who might be there. No-one must see you. God forbid they catch you on camera.”

“So our secondary mission is keeping this all a secret?”

“Exactly.”

So the one who wanted me to fail chose a mission with the highest chances of me being spotted. I think that’s one of the worst mistakes a beast can make, but hey, it’s a good enough reason to kill me I'd imagine. Eliminate the beast who brought unnecessary attention to the project, what can be more logical?

“And who exactly are the locals there?” I specified. “Squirrels?”

“Very funny. The ranger who watches the reserve, his wife and two of their daughters. Sometimes tourists stay at the ranger’s guesthouse, but I have no information on them at the moment.”

“I know it might sound a bit obvious, but… can't that ranger be the one who’s killing the city folks? You know, like in those cheesy detective novels? The killer is always the butler…”

“No. Judging by the trauma on the sole body that was found, the killer is a very strong person. Almost inhumanly strong. And the ranger is not young, besides, he lost his right arm twenty years ago. He’s not defenseless, but he’s out of the suspects’ list for those reasons.”

“How were those people killed anyway? Or rather, that one person that was found, to be precise.”

Instead of answering, she just showed me the picture. I was sorry I asked.

The thing I saw was shapeless. It looked more like a pile of minced meat than a human body.  Time hadn't made it any better: the decay process was obvious, and being under water only made it worse. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to whatever the thing was I’d find at the bottom of that lake!

I wasn’t a big fan of humankind, but seeing this made me angry. It wasn’t just cruel �" it was unnatural to do something like this to a living creature.

“Where’s the face?”

“Left corner of the picture,” Lita replied.

That's the face?!

“Damn… how long had the body stayed in the water?”

“A week or two.”

“And the disappearances started seven months ago?”

“Yes.”

“Can I please stay away from that lake?!”

A lake full of rotting corpses… the one who assigned us to that mission found a nice way to welcome me into the project!

“No way,” she shook her head in denial. “If it makes you feel any better, the assignment won’t be any easier for me. I’m going to stay in a tiny hut by the lake with no sign of civilization near it.”

“And how exactly is that worse?”

“Let's put it this way, the bathroom is the bush you choose for it,” she explained imperturbably.

“Ouch. Why can’t you stay in the guesthouse?”

“Because I can’t be that far away from you, and you need water. Apart from that, most of the victims were women who came to the lake alone or in groups of two or three without any males in their company. If I stay alone there, my chances of attracting the killer increase.”

I liked the assignment as much as she did, and she was playing the role of the bait. But if she agreed to this, I had no right to stop her �" or keep complaining for that matter.

She’d been reading the documents from that folder during the rest of the journey to the reserve, but I wasn’t interested in them. I was thinking about what I had to do. I was going to live inside the lake half-filled with corpses. At the same time, I’d be responsible for her safety, because she was too weak to protect herself. Humans weren’t planning to go easy on me!

The flight to the Reserve didn’t take as much time as the one to the shore. It was still dark when the helicopter started to land. The rain was drizzling slightly, but it didn’t stop completely.

The pilot didn’t leave the machine. He waited for us to get out and then raised the helicopter back into the sky without so much as saying a goodbye. We were alone in the middle of the forest. In the dark. With no means of escape.

It was a normal situation for me �" hell, I’m a monster myself, I’m not afraid of other monsters! But I could only imagine what Lita must’ve been feeling. I could protect myself, she couldn’t. That meant a lot right now. Still, I couldn’t sense any fear coming from her, and that deserved respect. She was shivering, but only from the cold.

“Where’s the lake?” she asked, hugging herself for warmth.

I could sense water at a distance, so I led my watcher after me. Lita had to fully rely on me, she could barely see in the darkness, while my night vision was working perfectly. I remembered what she said during the final test about having to fully rely on me on some missions. That moment came earlier than either of us expected! But to be fair, I wasn’t doing any of it out of sympathy, the bombs were constantly on my mind.

We reached the lake rather quickly. It was very large �" a bit of a relief for me to be honest. That meant the water wouldn’t be as dirty as I feared it to be. Now we only had to find the house.

“Do you know where to go?” Lita asked. She reminded me of a lost child.

I just smirked, because I could already see the hut. We were lucky, we came out of the forest not too far from it. If it turned out to be at the other end of the lake, we would have had to walk for another hour!

When we came to the hut, Lita was shaking with cold and she didn’t even try to hide it. I felt sorry for her, but there was nothing I could do. Or rather, I preferred not to think about the ways to help her. I myself wasn’t bothered by the cold at all. After staying inside a globe of ice, this was nothing.

With shaking hands Lita opened the rusty lock and moved in. I followed her to make sure this place was safe.

The room was so small that both of us, including my tail, could barely fit in it. The only furniture was an old bed covered by some dirty rags. It appeared that Lita was in for one hell of a night here.

“Can’t you sleep on the surface?” she suddenly asked, and then blushed. “Never mind, it was nothing. You can go now, both of us need rest.”

She was afraid this time, the fear was radiating from her. She was confident by my side, and now she understood I was about to leave her alone. Her emotions caused a strange feeling to appear inside me…

I still couldn’t help. With my health in normal condition now, I could stay on the surface longer that before, in the cell, but I wouldn’t dare to fall asleep here!

“I’ll be close to you,” I reminded her. “I can sense you from there. It’s the same as watching you.”

I was tired, though not as much as I was during the training. Getting into the lake of corpses was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had no choice. I’d need water sooner or later, so there was no point in postponing the inevitable.

From the first step into the lake I could feel something was wrong. The water was clean, the whole place was peaceful, but that wasn’t enough to make the feeling of death go away. However, this death wasn’t born in the lake. It came from outside and didn’t threaten the natural features surrounding it, so the nature certainly didn’t notice it.

But I did. And the further I went, the stronger the desire to get out was. I forced myself to move, cursing the humans who’d sent me here silently. When the waves closed above my head I decided I went far enough. Letting out all the scales I had, I attached myself to the bottom of the lake with my claws and tail and fell asleep.