Chapter 43: Under

Neo opens and closes his mouth, unable to give her a proper response as he hears what Charlotte said. He is taken off guard, and a part of him wants to respond with an immediate yes. Yet he is held back by other parts, one of them being that he thinks he should reveal everything to her.

A moment of silence passes.

Froosh!

The water explodes, flying upwards and the earth beneath his feet shakes as he loses balance from the violent shaking.

"What the─?!" he exclaims as he drops his sword and uses his other hand to hold onto Charlotte.

They hear an ear-piercing sound, something akin to a haunting and lilting song as something emerges from the huge lake at the bottom of the waterfall. It jumps so high that Neo and Charlotte see it passing by the cliff they are on in an unreal fashion, bringing up so much water with it that it looks like an upside down waterfall!

As it reaches above the cliff, it wiggles its tail, hitting the cliff they are on.

"Oh no!" shouts Neo.

"Run!" urges Charlotte.

Neo attempts to escape but isn't even able to get up. He looks behind and his brain in a rush and panic decides to throw Charlotte's head to safety before she falls with him. But before he even prepares to do so, he feels a sharp pain of something piercing his flesh deeply.

He looks down at Charlotte's head that he is still holding onto tightly and finds her teeth digging deep into his arm. He understands and holds on as they both fall with the rubble through the water that is like a waterfall flowing upwards.

Time seems to slow down for them as they fall, and it takes almost forever to reach the bottom and hit the lake. Neo looks momentarily to see what the huge creature is doing.

A whale swims in between of water that's flowing up and down. That's what the jellyfish-like creature flying above it gives the image of. It looks as if the whale is trying to reach it . . .

Splash!

They hit the lake, falling down the water slowly and away from the light shining above.

Neo has a sensation he has never experienced before. His body almost swears to him that it has swam before and that he should know how to, but his body's screams are to no avail. The only response he has is, that he doesn't know how to swim, and thus, he continues to sink slowly.

He looks at Charlotte who is looking around.

What am I doing? I should search for something that I can do to get out!

Neo starts to look around in desperation as well, in hopes of spotting anything that will help him reach the surface.

If I lose consciousness here, will I be stuck under the water forever?

Is this how it ends?

I can't let it end here!

I want to go with her!

If only I had everything!

These are the only thoughts clouding his mind as he feels himself slowly losing consciousness.

Looking up, he sees a huge shadow falling over them.

Splash!

The whale has approached with mouth wide open, swallowing him and Charlotte whole.

. . .

"Neo! Neo! Neo, wake up!" hears Neo as he comes to his senses, and opens his eyes slowly as a somewhat blinding light is coming from the left side. He lifts up his left arm to cover his eyes, and looks down, finding Charlotte on his lap next to his right arm that she had bitten onto. His back rests on one of the inner walls of the whale's mouth.

He looks to his left and sees the jellyfish-like creature glowing light onto the entirety of the whale's mouth.

"It's stuck," comments Charlotte.

"Huh?"

"This one is too big, so it got stuck at the entrance of the esophagus," she explains.

Neo sighs.

"What's up with us being eaten by things recently?," remarks Charlotte as she chuckles.

Surprised, Neo looks at her and cracks a smile.

Things have become so absurd to them to the point that they can't help but see it as a big dark comedic idea that brings forth only a peal of small painful laughter in madness as a response. It is all the two of them do . . . laugh and smile.

"What do we do now?" asks Neo.

"Well, with us, when food is stuck, we tend to spit it back out or vomit it. I am sure that if we wait long enough and hang on, one of the two will happen eventually. Until then, look around and check if there is anything we can do," suggests Charlotte.

"Alright," he nods, attempting to stand up while holding her with his left arm.

Neo notices the flowers have bloomed around them.

So why haven't they set themselves on fire yet?

"Ouch!" he exclaims, registering the pain in his right arm.

"Sorry about that," says Charlotte, sheepishly.

He shakes his head, "It's fine. If you had not done so, my unconscious body would have let go of you most probably and I would have lost you," he says, starting to walk and look around in the whale's mouth.

Neo's steps splash around in the water as they venture into the well-lit mouth of the whale, searching and looking around carefully.

"Wow!" says Neo, almost falling as one of his steps falls through to a lower foot level. He is close to the middle of the center of the mouth, he pulls back and regains his balance.

"What is it?" asks Charlotte.

"The water towards the center seems to be deeper,"

"That's great!"

"Yeah it─ Wait what? It is?"

"Yeah! Whenever this whale kicks us out, we have no idea if we will still be underwater or not! It might not necessarily do it above water," explains Charlotte.

"Wait . . . are you suggesting what I think you are?" he raises an eyebrow.

"Well, I might as well be! It's best to do what we can while we are here to increase our chances of survival,"

Neo takes a deep breath in and exhales slowly.

"You are gonna be learning how to swim!" announces Charlotte.