[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 5 -- A Young Girl Almost Drowns

[JMR20190312: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2018/08/we-0-05-young-girl-almost-drowns.html

Originally written between November 2017 and January 2018.
]

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We happen to be in the area again a few days later, and we see the young man and the young woman running together on the mountain paths in the early morning, making jokes, and challenging and encouraging each other. They stop near us, and we watch them stretching, laughing, talking, and exercising.

But what are these exercises they do? Is it from ballet? It does seem to be from some sort of dance, maybe modern or street. Or it could be martial arts.

In the middle of a sweeping kick, Earth Prince glances toward the lake below, and a furrow crosses his brow as he puts his weight on both feet. Water Princess looks up and follows his gaze, and gasps, then starts running towards the lake, cutting down across the twisting paths, shouting. Earth Prince kicks off his shoes and runs, too, but not down. He runs towards a precipice, and we feel alarm. At the edge, he leaps and launches himself, but it's too late to try to stop him.

The cliff is too far from the lake.

Water Princess, startled, looks up as she runs, and sees him as we do performing a beautiful swan dive in an impossibly long arc through the air over her head, dropping cleanly into the water near where they had seen the swimmer in trouble. We do not see anyone else nearby who might have seen him.

Without breaking stride, she continues down the mountain. When she sees her parents with Earth Prince's sister and brother-in-law on the opposite shore, she calls to them. Having gotten their attention, she kicks off her own shoes and runs into the water, leaning forward and kicking off as she approaches waist depth, swimming in powerful strokes to where Earth Prince had entered the water. Diving under the surface, she sees him wrestling to free a young girl from underwater vines, and the girl, in fright, fighting him.

She swims behind the girl, wrapping one arm underneath the girl's arms and lifting her free. At her touch, the vines seem to relax from around the girl, and the girl seems to calm down. Water Princess looks at Earth Prince and he points up, then turns, as if to examine the vines. She kicks out and ascends with the girl in tow, working laterally through the now easing undertow.

When she breaks the surface, the adults are launching a skiff, so she treads water and concentrates on helping the girl clear her lungs and breathe. Shortly after the skiff arrives and the girl has been helped in and is being taken care of, Earth Prince surfaces and beckons, and Water Princess follows him back under the water.

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