Plunging straight into the water was clearly ill-advised, for the sea bore little resemblance to any ordinary one. Yet they were obliged to attempt a crossing, unless they intended to wait until some mutant creature emerged to devour them.
The more they contemplated it, the more perilous the undertaking appeared. There was no telling what might lurk beneath the surface, lying in wait for a hapless swimmer, much like the Migrel Sea Titan they had once encountered at the plunge pool.
Na-Ri surveyed the shoreline, pacing from end to end, only to discover no structure that might serve for passage. At length, she returned to the others, her expression confirming the futility of the search.
"So, in plain terms, we are stranded here?" Orion remarked with a scoff, resting his hands on his hips as he gazed with evident displeasure at the endless stretch of water.
"Not necessarily, if we could construct a boat," Adela suggested, her gaze sweeping the surroundings until it settled on a cluster of trees. She pointed towards the woods with quiet conviction.
The three of them followed her gesture, their eyes shifting from the trees back to Adela in unison.
"A fine notion, but does anyone here actually know how to build one? And even if we managed it, what assurance have we that we would reach the other shore without disaster accompanying us like a devoted neighbour?" Na-Ri replied drily, her tone sharp enough to cut through the tentative hope. All eyes were then drawn to the glimmer that pulsed faintly in the distance, signalling uncertain promise or peril.
Whether it marked survivors or a threat waiting to reveal itself, the undeniable truth remained that they needed to cross before nightfall. Sensible or reckless, action was preferable to idleness.
'Damn it. I am stranded here, no wiser than a fool. Better to act, one way or the other, than waste what little time we have,' Kyle thought, casting his gaze over the three who stood in restless debate.
In the end, he arrived at the same notion Adela had voiced, though with a touch of embellishment, as if borrowing from some fanciful tale.
"Like Adela suggested, we could simply build a boat. None of us knows precisely how, but surely it cannot be so difficult. A life hack, if you will."
Orion, buoyed by the suggestion, snapped his fingers with sudden enthusiasm. A smile spread across his face as though inspiration had at last struck.
"Kyle is right. We can improvise. Everyone here knows what a boat looks like. It is hardly complicated."
Na-Ri shook her head, closing her eyes briefly before cutting in:
"Exactly. In theory, it is simple. But if we fail to build it properly, we will sink… Unless…" Her gaze returned to the wood, lingering there.
After a moment's silence, she continued:
"I can use my ability to prevent that, and Orion, your shadows could guide us forward."
'At last. Someone understands the whole picture.'
Kyle regarded the group with a flat expression, turning over possibilities in his mind. In one sense, the striking stranger was right, but in another… would it not be wiser for Orion to send his shadows beneath the water, to discover what awaited them there, and to investigate that elusive glint ahead, if indeed he possessed the skill…
"Every element grants a skill even before one achieves full mastery. For instance, my element is Darkness, which allows me to command shadows at will. Yet, since I am not fully advanced, my power carries limitations. The first is that I can control only a single shadow — my own. The second is…
"…It cannot extend far. If it does, the connection breaks."
The others immediately grasped his point. He was correct. Each individual possessed a primary skill linked to their element, while subsequent abilities were granted later as sub-skills.
Kyle, for instance, bore two elements, a fact known only to the beautiful stranger. One endowed him with the capacity to adapt to combat or circumstance with machine-like efficiency, while the other allowed him to inherit traits from beasts he subdued.
Na-Ri's element, prior to any sub-skills, granted her resistance to cold and the ability to command it, precisely the nature of the Bond Imprint Kyle had received from her. It had not come from her sub-skills but directly from her elemental essence.
As for Adela, her element remained a mystery. She showed little inclination to divulge it, and Kyle, for his part, had no intention of making himself a fool by prying, as though asking a woman for her number or a merchant for a business card.
To seize the sudden inspiration, he admitted to himself that he was hardly clever. In truth, he was little better than a fool, and that was the very root of his self-contempt.
Yet in this moment it felt as though his mind had finally stirred to life, as though he might cast aside his old doubts and grasp something useful.
Kyle pressed the heel of his hand against his temple, his gaze fixed upon the water as if it were a vast puzzle awaiting its solution.
When at last he looked away, his eyes met the three faces turned expectantly towards him, each waiting for a plan that might carry them forward.
With a calm expression, he laid out his idea:
"Alright. Jumping in is suicide, and waiting here is merely a slower path to the same end. This is what we do. Orion sends his shadow ahead, and uses it to chart the water. It will not reach far, I know, but at least it will show us where not to die."
Orion blinked at him, wearing an expression caught between amusement and doubt.
"A tethered scout, you say?"
"Yes. A scout. You draw it back like a fishing line. If anything unpleasant is moving beneath, we know before it has the chance to clamp its jaws on us. While you are doing that, Lee lays a thin film of frost across patches of the water — not to freeze it solid, but to reveal currents and disturbances. Anything large enough to ripple the surface will betray itself."
Na-Ri folded her arms, her eyes narrowing as she weighed the suggestion.
"That I can do, though it will not last long. Still, long enough to reveal whatever might be hiding."
Orion jerked his thumb towards the heap of timber.
"In the meantime, we build a raft, not a crude slab but a proper catamaran. Two trunks lashed with crossbeams, a shallow deck, and outriggers. Lee can harden sap and bark into plates for buoyancy, and we fasten them beneath the hull. If something bites, we cut them free before it drags us down. The whole thing remains modular."
Adela let out a faint laugh, though it carried more relief than humour.
"That is far more detailed than I expected from you, Orion."
Kyle allowed himself a small grin, feeling for the first time as though he belonged among them. The sense of being acknowledged within a group was unfamiliar, and it unsettled the guarded certainty he had held about never seeking friends.
"Alright, then. We advance in bursts, twenty or thirty metres at a time, then halt for the shadow to scout. Keep a decoy prepared. If anything rises, we cast a bait bundle ahead. The raft must ride low, with no splashing and no raised voices. Should it all collapse, we jettison weight and retreat along the shadow's line." Adela contributed her part with a faint smile.
Silence followed, disturbed only by the soft lick of waves against the black sand.
At length, Orion scratched the back of his neck and spoke in a brightened tone:
"You have actually thought this through, Kyle. Very well, I will take the role of scout."
Na-Ri released a short breath through her nose before answering with detached finality:
"I shall stabilise the hull and calm the water at the bow. But if the attempt fails, I will not exhaust myself dragging any of you from the depths. I have already lost much of my strength."
Her gaze rested briefly on Kyle before returning to the lifeless sea.
Adela gave a small nod, her eyes shifting between them.
"Then it is settled. Time to build."
Kyle permitted himself the faintest smirk.
"Finally, consensus. Let us finish before nightfall turns this place into open season."
They divided the tasks without further argument.
Orion gathered vines for lashings. Na-Ri scraped resin from bark and chilled it into hardened sheets. Adela hauled timber across the sand. Kyle cut lengths with swift, efficient strokes.
Within the hour, the rough frame of their catamaran sprawled on the shore, crooked yet sturdy enough to float.
By the time the final plate was secured beneath the hull, Orion's shadow tether had already slipped into the black water, probing the depths ahead.
He looked back with a satisfied smile.
"The path is clear, for now."
The stranger pushed the raft into the shallows, foam curling around its edges. She cast a glance at each of them before stepping on first.
"Then we move. Keep low, quiet, and in short bursts. Let us not give the sea reason to notice us… if that is possible."
They boarded in silence, each taking position without further word. Orion's shadow stretched into the unseen distance, and Na-Ri's frost glimmered faintly across the surface.
With a final shove, the raft slipped free of the shore and drifted into the waiting water.