Nate Elfirm and Cloey Taffel walked slowly in the grass parallel to the river. Anytime that both of them came upon something peculiar in the wall, both of them would stop and use a stick they found lying around in the ground to dig through the shallow ends of the Volanten River.
It isn't really better than actually going in the deep water, but it's a start.
Nate looked over at the riverside, noticing that not much distance had been covered since they started.
Well... I guess it will be a long day for both of us, huh? I'm sure that we'll find this soccerball sooner or later.
Remaining slightly optimistic about the current situation, Nate thought to himself about the good fortune that may come to him after experiencing the bad parts of life.
He has this mindset where, even though bad days come by every so often, there's bound to be good things to come out of it, leading Nate to not dwell on being depressed.
It's like that one time when Nate lost the backpack that he used to own. It was such a little blue backpack that every kid in school wanted for themselves.
But then, when Nate was ready to leave for school in Jakob's car, a dog apparently went by and stole his backpack, and it ran as fast as it could with its four legs.
Jakob and Bethani looked for the backpack or the dog that had stolen it for weeks, checking out parts of the city and asking their neighbors for its whereabouts.
Poor Nate was sobbing from the loss of one of the only cool things he owned.
Although that was the past, the things that Nate has right now are probably what were given to him for losing his childhood backpack, which was required.
And right now, he wished that one of those good lucks might be due for him, and that he and Cloey would find the ball in no time.
"It's kinda refreshing to hang out with other people besides just the Quad Four, don't you think?"
Cloey stretched her arms into the air, as if to feel the breeze sweep through her fingers.
She continued. "And the day here is super sunny. It's such a good day to be outside and just let it loose."
"Yeah," Nate said, "and it's a good thing that I don't have any plans for today. That would totally suck if I did have any."
Cloey softly chuckled.
"Yeah, me too. Unlike Manson, I feel bad for having to force him to come along."
Nate went to a nearby bench and leaned against it.
"It must really suck for him, though, you know how he is always a stickler for anything artsy and stuff."
"I know that, but at least he could just go out once in a while. I'm honestly worried that he stays in for too long," Cloey admitted.
Nate could only agree with her.
Manson is a guy who always stays behind while his friends are out doing group things.
In fact, he is probably the guy everyone calls "The One Distant Among Others," not because they dislike him, but simply because he is distant. It's just being playful at best.
That label is probably more closely associated with Sheila than Manson.
"I'm guessing we got a good grade on that science project, right?"
Cloey turned to Nate while patting the dirt away on her dress.
"Do you really think so? I thought it was okay, like a C would have been the grade we would get," Nate wondered.
"Yeah, with how that rock was so weirdly shaped. Sam even made the class excited with an exaggerated story that he used."
"The rock that we had pales in comparison to the other people's projects. I mean, did you see what Mosan had for his project? It looked like something you would make in art class, and not something in a science class."
Cloey widened her eyes.
"Oh my gosh, yes! A volcano made from papier-mache! Just the way how the lava flowed from the top to the end; it was something like a miracle or a blessing," she said with positive expression.
"Okay, okay, let's dial it a bit down there. As much as it looks good because of how detailed the art overall is, it's just a common science project everyone knows about."
Nate Elfirm quickly added to his statement:
"Not trying to diss it or anything. It looked cool."
Cloey arched one of her eyebrows, which was accompanied by a smirk in the corner of her mouth.
"Let's be serious, though," Cloey said. "You're probably jealous because you didn't get the idea first before him."
Nate held his breath and put his hands in his pockets.
"Whoa—what! It's not like that at all! Mosan's project still looked crappy, and I definitely do not want a crappy project for anyone to see in class, okay?" Nate blurted out suddenly.
"It's okay if you didn't like the project. I'm not bothered by your opinion even the slightest, so it's cool."
Bending down over the grass, Cloey started to sweep through the strands.
"If we didn't find something to present to class, we could always ask someone else to help us."
"I guess that's also an alternative..." Nate murmured as his words trailed off.
He noticed something within the waters of the river, but had barely pieced out what exactly it was.
It was a dark, irregular shape with multiple glowing spots surrounding it.
Maybe it was actually a real thing Nate noticed, but perhaps it was just him not wanting to know if there was something truly residing in the depths of the water, and he made sure to convince himself that it was something else.
Regardless of what it actually was, that dark spot reminded Nate of what happened back at Vivid Forest.
He even felt unsure if he was supposed to tell Cloey about it, but remained quiet.
Nate viewed the whole river with widened curiosity, wondering what other sorts of items, whether they were valuable treasures or simply just trash, made him motivated to search faster.
Cloey came up to him with a distracted expression on her face.
"So... about Sam. I've been thinking about what he is doing currently. Ever since all five of us went to that forest a while ago, he seemed like he was focused on something else."
Nate's curiosity made him turn towards Cloey when he heard her mention Vivid Forest.
"What is it? Is there something different about him when you see him—maybe it's his appearance that was changed?"
She shook her head.
"No, something else is bothering me, but the way he acts," Cloey added, "...but every time I look at his face whenever I had the chance to, it was super stony, like he hadn't had any time for sleep."
"Oh, jeez... I didn't even know about that. So, how is he doing right now—is he doing okay so far?"
He saw that her eyes remained on the ground as they talked about Sam.
"Well, I tried to call him today, but no luck there at all. And then the times when he did manage to call back led to just a few seconds of talking with each other. I know that he told us not to worry, but he was always focused on his own things," Cloey stated.
"At least he's not the same as Manson. He'd just not bother to call us at all if he were the one out."
Cloey softly chuckled. "Heh, I guess you're right about that one."
"Give him some time—sure, he's not here with us with this search right now, but it just means he has more important things to do. I'll tell you what, you and I will proclaim together that this whole search is dedicated to the absence of Sam Craigell Davis. When we're done with this, we will all tell him about our whole adventure... in just one mile of the Volanten River. And if you're the one who found Aliana's ball first, I bet he'll be proud of that, right?"
"Yeah, I think so..." Cloey admitted, "but I don't think he'll be happy if we're just walking only one mile in the same spot."
"Oh, yeah, he'll probably be disappointed in us, you know how he is with his whole regiment thing going on with him," Nate said.
"For sure, if Sam and Aliana worked together, I bet that it'll take us no time to find the soccer ball, for probably in an hour—no! Maybe even in just under thirty minutes."
The two of them chuckled again as they joked around with each other.
It was always like that with Nate and his friends. Ever since he met them when he was young, sometimes he would invite them into his father's bookstore. Cloey, Nate, and Sam would play around and sometimes topple some book pile towers, while Manson and Sheila would be engrossed in the mountains of books the store has to offer.
In a way, Nate realized that it may potentially be one of the first hangout spots they dedicated to.
But as to most things in childhood, some of them do not last long, and that includes Quad Four's hangout spot.
Since Jakob had to use the bookstore for things related to Grandpa Arley, there was less time for Quad Four to play in the store, and then, eventually, by the urging of Nate's mother, we had to go somewhere else to hang out.
However, it does not mean Quad Four's close connection with each other is over; it just means that we have to have our own way to hang out. Talking to new people in class, learning about different hobbies and life skills, and even trying to better themselves in their class work, much to the chagrin of Sam.
Nate thought to himself that his group is closely knitted, and there aren't any faults that would break any friendships among them.
Cloey pointed to the portion of the river with a noticeable structure of something piling up—leaves that were circling to form giant clusters of other leaves.
"Do you see that over there? Let's check it out."
The two of them walked by the river and arrived beside the leaf pile in the river water. Upon closer inspection, Nate could see that there must be a hole underwater, which would act as a vortex for the leaves to conjoin to each other.
It wasn't something a person would see in the Volanten River, especially in this portion of the river.
"Oh—cool! That's awesome, with how those leaves are grouped up together," Nate pointed out.
"Don't get too close. You might fall in and get sucked in there, and I'll have to save you by myself if that happens."
"Yeah, right—like that would ever happen to me. I'm not that careless, unlike Brandin. And also, you can just call for the others for help, while I'll try not to drown myself underwater. I think I can handle a few minutes without breathing."
Cloey looked at the spot with the leaves, some of them from the season of autumn, while the others were from the season of summer. A mixture of yellow, orange, and green seemed to be mixed up together.
Nate also detected a single leaf, a type that is lightly pink in the middle, along with its edges seemingly blacked out. It was super out of place compared to the other leaves — it even made him think that it wasn't actually a leaf, but actually something else entirely, or even just a piece of junk.
He surveyed the pile and the area around, with nothing worth looking at or taking, or even Aliana's soccer ball.
The air was noticeably sparse, like something dead had come by here recently. It really made Nate's nose scrunch. He could also tell that Cloey didn't notice anything off yet when drawing closer to the leaf pile.
Nate once again looked over to the floating leaf pile. Once again, but with considerable consideration in carefully observing what's really around it.
Then Nate saw that the leaf pile was not above some shallow water, but was actually floating above an area very deep below the surface of the water.
A place deep enough for a creature to live in...
He shuddered at the thought.
N-No, it can't be something like that. I mean, I've heard stories of people getting attacked by a monstrous creature, but that was outside of the city. For something to be just casually living inside the Volanten River... what an unsettling thing to think about. However, it might just be something I happened to see, like that shadow in the water. Yeah, that's probably it. If that green light back in the forest was just a part of my imagination, then maybe this is the same case.
Nate tried to compose himself, but still felt shivers of cold sliding onto his back, and it wasn't even a very windy day, despite it being in the autumn.
"Let's go give it a closer look and see it more closely," Cloey said as she walked towards it.
"Wait for me—hold on."
He scurried over to Cloey, careful of the possibilities of something or someone that might show up at the river.
The two of them were now at the edge near the river, where they could clearly see the details of the floating leaf pile.
Cloey glanced over at the river, her face looking unsure, like something so close, yet so far.
Upon seeing this, Nate tried to reassure her, worried about her.
"Hey, what's wrong. You're acting like Sheila when she feels something wrong."
"I don't know, Nate. Something was bothering me about how that shoe was just floating around. Like, Volanten River has those purifying pumps, right? Why is there something here right now?"
"Let's just focus on our search before we're too absorbed in these shoes in the river. It's probably nothing."
Nate looked into her eyes. Her pupils still darted towards the river.
Here it is, Cloey is the type of person who would check out anything that piques her interest, whether it is major or minor, depending on what she thinks. She suddenly took off her socks and shoes, where she folded the former inside the latter.
"Nate, I'm just going to check the water. Hold on to my shoes and socks, okay?"
Cloey gave her belongings to Nate with a shove, with him stumbling in the process.
"Hold on, over there's deep water!" Nate worriedly exclaimed to her. "I don't think we should go near it one bit!"
The girl swam towards the leaf pile, not with a care that her outside clothes would get wet in the process.
"I'm doing this swim so you don't have to, Nate! Also, maybe I'm doing this for you to owe me one in the future. Oh gosh, the water here is super cold—yeah, I think I know why you wouldn't choose to swim here first."
He looked over to Cloey with a worried look painted on his face. Nate tried to utter another word to express his concern before his vision flashed with intense green light.
"Auugghh!"
Nate loudly grunted in discomfort from the sudden green flash.
Huh?! What? This feeling... these things that I am seeing—the green flashes from before... so they are the same as the green gases above the city.
But why... why am I seeing this green light all of a sudden... No, it can't be, there's something und-
Cloey looked over the leaf pile while she softly floated with her swirling hands in the water. Nate glanced towards the water, distant from her on the side.
He could see that something underwater was gradually accelerating towards Cloey, with no indication of stopping at all.