The Contaminated Lake

Having finished examining the lake, he turned his attention towards the towering waterfall. Falling from a height of several thousand feet, the massive curtain of water, hundreds of feet wide roared as it fell from the top of the mountainous wall before finally crashing down upon the rocks below with an unending series of thunderous explosions which deafened the ears.

Just as Orso reported it still was a lovely light blue color. Seeing the waterfall was transparently clean, Salvatore headed towards it following the shoreline, figuring it would be the best place to start his investigation.

As he neared the waterfall the thunderous roar of a million gallons a second crashing onto the rocks below grew increasingly louder, while the air was filled with clouds of mist which cause various prismatic rainbows to appear.

After walking for several minutes he stopped having reached the closest point on the shoreline to the base of the waterfall which was still almost a thousand feet away. Staring across the dividing body of water, he closely examine the lakes surface and noticed that the area directly beneath the waterfall was actually several shades darker than any other part of the lake.

Discovering such a blatant anomaly which prompted a closer examination did nothing to ease the apprehension Salvatore felt towards entering the clearly toxic water which was almost assuredly far more potent in the area he wished to investigate.

As he continued to study the polluted lake water, his eyes slowly scanning the area, he suddenly noticed a flash of light which appeared from behind the curtain of water. Focusing upon the darkest part of the falls were the powerful collision unendingly occurred he suddenly saw the flash of light again. After several seconds he saw a third flash and realized there must be a hidden cave behind the waterfall.

Now completely intrigued Salvatore lost all hesitation and quickly ran in to the nearby forest. Finding a large copse of trees roughly 3ft thick, with a few quick swings of his blood red blade he cut down dozens of them then effortlessly tossed them hundreds of feet thru the air onto the beach.

Heading deeper into the forest he quickly located several thick vines hundreds of feet long and harvested them then quickly raced back to the beach. Trimming the logs with a few swipes of his hand he lashed them tightly together with the thick vines forming an immense raft.

Kicking it into the water towards the falls, he leapt into the air and landed on the moving raft with a soft "thump" then picked up a large oar he had made for steering and carefully guided the raft as it slowly floated along. As the raft made contact with the dark green water a light hissing sound of corrosion rang out, which lasted only a few seconds before weakening into a soft murmur.

Examining the rate of corrosion, he determined the damage was negligible and could be ignored for by the time it had grown dangerous he would have already finished making a round trip. Slowly paddling towards the deadly falls, after traveling a few hundred feet he moved towards the front of the massive raft to guide it around the many jagged rocks which emerged from the dark murky depths of the toxic lake.

Due to the sheer number of jagged rocks as well as the size of his raft his forward progress slowed to a snails crawl, and while making his raft smaller would have enabled him to travel much faster, speed was of little concerned to Salvatore.

What was of concern was the deadly corrosive water which surrounded him for although he was certain he could probably make it back to shore, he was equally sure he would not be able to do so unscathed.

As he passed thru the water striation were the waters colored changed from a yellowish green into a dark green the low murmur of corrosion once more rose in volume as the rate of corrosion rose due to a higher concentration of toxin in the water.

Seeing small clouds of yellowish mist rising from around the slowly melting raft, Salvatore increased the rafts speed as he headed directly towards the part of the lake were the dark green toxic water turned pitch black.

Suddenly as he neared the pitch black area, the water began to bubble and shake while great clouds of toxic black mist rose from the violent water. Seeing the bubbling water Salvatore quickly raised the massive wooden oar, using it as a shield as he hid his entire body behind it.

At the exact moment he hid the violent water exploded skyward, hurtling hundreds of gallons of the highly corrosive pitch black water into the sky, which upon reaching the apex of its heavenward climb reversed its direction drawn by gravity and began to rain down.