Merek's Ascendance Read Online Free PDF

he now stood on. Upon closer examination, he found the rocks made a wall of the cliff face. He could probably climb down and continue following the stream.
    Then what?
    Merek shook his head, pushing aside the doubts he had. There was no time to worry about that. He had to get moving, or else he wouldn’t get away from… whatever it was he was trying so hard to get away from.
    Taking a deep, steadying breath, Merek started his descent. It was slow work, made worse by the occasional stone slipping loose. Merek had never once climbed rocks before, so the experience now was new and unsettling. Trees he was used to. Rocks were hard and unforgiving.
    “Father’s a rock. A lumpy, unchanging, slippery!” he shouted as a rock came loose and almost sent Merek crashing to the ground still a long way off. “Useless,” he continued, “rock. Not that I’d ever say it to his ungrateful, lopsided face.”
    Merek was making excellent progress until he was about twenty feet above the pool of water.
    Then the whole cliff shook.
    Merek clung to the rocks with all the energy he had left, but the shaking was just too much for the rocks to bear. Though Merek’s grip on the rocks didn’t break, the rocks grip on each other did.
    With a crash so quiet Merek nearly missed it, the stones came loose and flung him towards the ground. Only pure, random luck caused by the shaking earth sent him careening to the side instead of straight down, so he smashed into the water instead of the rocks.
    It was not necessarily a good thing.
    Amongst the many things that Merek had taught himself over the years, how to swim was not one of them.
     

Chapter Three: Adaption
     
    He kicked his legs, but that was useless. He waved his arms frantically, but that didn’t seem to help him either. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down, left or right. All he knew for sure was that his heart was beating faster and faster, and there was a building pain in his chest that stretched up to his brain.
    He knew better than to scream, though every fiber of his being wanted to. The precious little air in his lungs was burning up fast, and he wouldn’t use any stupidly. His eyes shut tight out of a nameless fear, he didn’t see the hands coming.
    He only felt the m as they pushed him deeper into the depths.
    Merek thrashed then, trying to throw off his attacker, but it was no use. He could feel them pushing him farther away from the light, but he couldn’t seem to throw them off. He couldn’t touch them. They weren’t actually there.
    The realization did nothing to help him. His air was running out. He had to get to the surface, he had to breathe, but he just couldn’t.
    Do you really want to?
    Merek had no idea what said it, who owned the voice or the thought it belonged to. All he knew was that he couldn’t feel his limbs, everything was going terribly, mercifully dark… 
    His hand caught something.
    Merek latched on to it, whatever it was, with every ounce of strength he had left. It was thick enough to pull him to a stop. He grabbed it with his other arm and pulled, finally breaking the surface of the water.
    Immediately, he spit out the water that he had unwillingly breathed in. He could only breathe in in very short bursts, and for a full ten seconds he couldn’t breathe out at all. When he had at last cleared the water from his lungs and could breathe again, he flopped down on the ground lifelessly.
    He was so out of breath he couldn’t even manage to remark on his rotten luck.
    Thirty seconds passed with nothing to break the silence but Merek’s ragged breathing. He beat his head against the ground, trying to ward off the incredible pain that was the firestorm in his chest.
    Suddenly remembering, he forced himself to his knees and looked into the pool. His eyes scanned its upset surface for some clue as to who hadn’t let him up, who had spoken to him, but there was nothing. He was very alone.
    Closing his eyes wearily, he fell to his back again.