The sun was high, and the air was thick with the smell of moss and wet earth. Henry and Jeff stood at the edge of an oddly still lake, its waters dark and bottomless.
Jeff scratched his head. "So, uh… why exactly are we here again?"
Henry crouched, examining the glimmering surface. "I'm looking for… Red Nentis. It's a rare herb. Grows around these parts."
Jeff frowned. "Red what?"
"Nentis. Helps with headaches. Old family remedy."
"You don't look like a guy who gets headaches."
Henry gave a casual shrug. "Well, prevention is better than cure."
Jeff squinted at him. Something felt off. The guy was always too calm, too composed—like he was hiding something under those buttoned sleeves and polite words. He glanced around nervously. No signs of plants. No signs of anything. Just water. Lots of it.
"You sure it grows in the lake?"
Henry stood up and rolled his sleeves. "I think I need to go deeper."
Jeff blinked. "You gonna… dive?"
Henry stepped forward, bare feet sinking slightly into the mud. "Yes."
Jeff's mouth opened. "Wait, do you even know how to swi—"
Before he could finish, Henry took a single step into the lake and… feel on his face but didn't sink. He just… lie down on the water, heaving, peacefully. Like a feather resting on a pillow made of clouds.
*One Luck Points exists*
Jeff's jaw dropped.
"What the hell?!"
Henry waved calmly, not even rippling the surface. "Relax. I've got… experience."
Jeff stared. No movement. No swimming. No effort. The man looked like a spiritual monk on vacation.
Meanwhile, inside Jeff's brain, chaos bloomed:
Did I accidentally eat some poisonous mushrooms for breakfast? Maybe I'm hallucinating. Or… or Henry's an alien. That's it. He's a fish alien. A mermaid in disguise! No—merman. A merman with anti-gravity boots? Is this some kind of prank show? Am I being filmed right now?
He looked around frantically, half-expecting someone to jump out of the bushes with a camera.
Or maybe… maybe he's the Chosen One. Like those fantasy books Mom used to read me before bed. A guy with powers. Miracle powers. Yeah. That makes sense. But why's he looking for a herb? Maybe it's not for headaches. Maybe it's for summoning sea gods. What if the lake is cursed? What if he's diving down to talk to an ancient sea king and I'm just the dumb comic relief in his story?!
Jeff's legs trembled.
Henry, oblivious to the mental spiral happening behind him, began to gently lower himself into the water. He sank just enough to be fully submerged… and then breathed. Breathed. Underwater.
Jeff's eyes widened further.
I knew it. He's not even human. Water Breathing ?! Did the puppet show about slaying demons I used to watch as a kid became real!? How's he doing that? Did he eat a frog?!
He knelt by the edge and whispered, "Henry… bro… are you, like, secretly a frog prince or something?"
Henry, going deep in the lake, didn't respond. "Finding the herb."
Jeff stared. "I hate how chill you are. It's disturbing." Muttering to himself.
The water pressed around Henry like a cold, slow-moving blanket. Darkness swallowed everything below.
He floated down like a falling leaf, his eyes locked on the faint red glow far beneath. That was it. The Red Nentis. The flower that only bloomed in dead silence, in places long abandoned.
His lungs didn't ache. His body didn't pull for air. The Luck Point was still working, allowing him to breathe and hover freely. But it wouldn't last forever.
"Two minutes, maybe less..." he muttered to himself, bubbles rising from his mouth. "I should be panicking, but—thanks, Luck."
The shipwreck appeared like a jagged mouth in the dark. Its spine was split in half, wooden ribs broken and wrapped in moss. There, amidst the cracks in the hull, glowed the Red Nentis flower, its petals pulsing like a heartbeat.
Henry reached out and gently plucked it.
That was when the water around him trembled.
A distant, guttural growl echoed through the silence. Then a flash of movement. A giant shadow peeled away from the seabed, eyes glowing yellow, its wide mouth baring rows of jagged teeth. A fish... no, a sea monster. Twice the size of the wreck, with long fins and thick armor-like scales. It was heading straight for him.
"Oh no... NOPE."
Henry kicked his legs, spinning in the water, the flower tucked tightly in his chest pouch. But he was slow. So slow. The Luck Point's duration was nearing its end, and now he could feel his body getting heavier.
The monster was almost upon him, its jaws open wide. Henry tries to swim but fails. He twisted his body swinging out from the mondter's attack. It crashed in a big stone. The Monster stared back patting its head horrifyingly.
" If I knew it's my last day, I could go and visit Mimi's grave once. Wish I could just swim five times faster if my Dad didn't left me."
And just like that, he did, unknowingly.
Henry's body shot forward like a torpedo, slicing through the water as if the lake had turned into air. Pressure screamed in his ears, and the creature fell behind in an instant. The surface became visible, sunlight piercing through.
He breached the surface like a rocket, soaring several feet into the air before crashing headfirst into the muddy shore with a wet splat.
Jeff, who had been nervously pacing by the lake, screamed and jumped back. "What the—? Henry!?"
Henry groaned, covered in mud and algae, coughing up water. He rolled onto his back, clutching the Red Nentis in a trembling hand.
"You... you were down there for ten minutes," Jeff said, blinking. "And then you exploded out like a salmon on steroids."
Henry spit out a leaf. "Don't question miracles."
Jeff blinked at him, then looked at the Red Nentis. "You found it?"
Henry nodded. "Almost got eaten, too. Big fish. Very angry."
Jeff still stared, stunned. "Are you gonna explain how you didn't drown?"
"I'm just... good at not dying," Henry said, sitting up. Thinking how did he do that. He himself was confused. Could it be a trait of "The Peer" Route?
Jeff's mind went wild with imagined explanations, Maybe Henry's secretly half-fish. No, maybe he trained in an underwater dojo. Wait! He could be a mutant with secret gills. Or maybe... he's a member of any secret organisations or club. A Project Neptune! That's it!
Henry stood up, dripping. "I need to change. I smell like fish guts."
"Right. You do. Badly," Jeff muttered, still staring at him like he'd seen a myth come alive.
Henry sighed. "Next time, you go swimming."
Jeff paled. "Hell no."
....
The desert wind was gentle, brushing over the endless sea of sand like a whisper. A small campfire crackled beside the tent, casting orange light that danced in the dark.
Above them, the sky was wide and clean. Stretched with thousands of stars that blinked like soft memories.
Henry lay on the cool sand, arms crossed behind his head, eyes lost in the beauty above. Jeff was next to him, hands folded over his chest, humming lightly to himself.
"It's nice, isn't it?" Jeff said. "All quiet. No creatures chasing us. No nightmares breathing down our necks. Just us… and the stars."
Henry nodded slowly. "Peaceful. Too peaceful. Kinda makes me nervous. After calm comes the mourn."
Jeff chuckled. "Always suspicious. You need to learn to enjoy communication with others."
They stayed quiet for a moment, just listening to the crackle of the fire and the soft rustling of the breeze against the tent cloth.
Then Jeff spoke again, more thoughtful this time.
"You remember what I said?" he asked. "Back when we were helping Mary Janet fix up the town… I told you I'd take you all on a vacation once it has done. A real one."
Henry smiled faintly. "I remember. You said you'd go somewhere warm and lazy."
"Yup. Turns out, deserts are hot, but not very lazy. But I'm still counting this as vacation."
Henry turned his head slightly. "You dragging me into this too?"
"Of course," Jeff grinned. "You're my weird, unlucky-lucky travel partner."
Henry chuckled. "Sounds like a death sentence."
Jeff laughed, then went quiet for a moment, staring at the sky again. "You know," he said softly, "when I was a kid, I used to lie down like this… look at the sky and make up rhymes. Like little spells. Thought they'd protect me or something."
Henry raised a brow. "Oh? Let me hear one."
Jeff hesitated, then smiled shyly. "It's silly. But alright. I called it… Supernovae."
He took a breath, then recited:
"Shine, shine, O Dying Star,
Burning bright in cosmic ballet.
A dance of stars, so old, so wide,
Guiding lost hearts through the night sky tide.
Flicker not, my starlit flame,
Even shadows fall in your fame.
Fall, but never lose your hope ,
You are light when dreams are faded.
In the dark, you still crawl for us,
A golden hush in endless miracle rush.
Even when my world turns gray,
O Dying Star, take me with you away."
Henry blinked, then clapped. "That… that was actually beautiful."
Jeff's eyes widened. "Wait—you really mean that?"
"I do," Henry said, grinning. "Didn't expect it from you. But it was full of… feelings. Like something that was hiding inside you."
Jeff looked away quickly, covering a small smile with his hand. "Heh, You're the first person who ever clapped for it. I used to read it to my dog. He just farted."
They both burst out laughing, rolling slightly in the sand. The stars above twinkled as if laughing with them.
"Next time," Henry said, still smiling, "bring your dog."
Jeff grinned. "You'd probably feed him Grass or something."
They lay quietly again, fire slowly dying out, the stars holding them in a silent, eternal embrace.
It was one of those rare moments—where nothing was broken, no one was bleeding, and the night simply… held them. It was a peaceful moment between two comrades, just for now.