[some notes before you start. Triste rhymes with yeast, and Sayli is pronounced \"sai lee\" sai as in the japanese sword. Oh, and the entire scene takes place underwater]
Part 1, the Abyss
The water buzzed with the sound of two young Nothrir girls chatting on their swim home from their first day at the academy. Sayli, the older of the two sisters, had received a necklace as a gift that day, and Triste, the younger sister, wanted to try it on.
\"Come on Sayli, I just want to wear it for a little while, just till we get home, jeez what\'s the problem?\"
\"It\'s mine that\'s the problem. Get your own necklace, \" Sayli replied, putting her thumb on her nose (a slightly snooty Nolthrir gesture).
Triste scrunched her face and frowned, \"Come on, if you don\'t I\'ll tell Mom about your little boyfriend!\"
\"You wouldn\'t\"
\"Hehe, you\'re right I wouldn\'t. But come on, just for a little while? It\'s so pretty!\"
\"Oh come on it\'s just a stupid necklace why do you want it so badly?\"
\"If it\'s so stupid then what\'s the big deal?\"
\"Oh fine, you silly little fish,\" Sayli said, smiling, as she took off the necklace and handed it to Triste. It got stuck on her long pointed ear as she slipped it over her head, but eventually she got it on and smiled, swimming around gracefully showing it off to her sister.
\"Damn it Triste it looks better on you than it does on me!\"
\"hehehe yup, but hey just remember, he gave it to yuuuu, his \'loooooverfish\' hehe\" Triste said with teasing laugh.
\"oh stop..\" Sayli said with a little blush, flaring her gills.
\"Speaking of fish, I\'m hungry aren\'t you?\"
\"Ya now that you mention it, we should be getting home or we\'ll be late.\"
\"oh here Sayli, have your necklace back. You should probably hide it before Mom sees it and starts asking questions,\" Triste said as she tried to take off the necklace. One of its oddly shaped pieces got stuck on one of her long ears, however, and she dropped it. It fell fast, spiraling into the darkness below and disappeared. The two sisters floated in silence looking down into the dark abyss, \"oh Sayli... I\'m so sorry...\"
\"Oh pah, let\'s just swim down and get it, we\'re not far from the bottom anyway\"
\"But we\'re not supposed to go down there, it\'s dangerous\"
\"Come on Triste, it will only be a minute we\'ll get it and come back up what\'s the big deal?\"
\"... oh all right.\"
The light from above faded as they swam deeper and deeper into the abyss. When they finally reached the bottom, Sayli stopped swimming and took a ball of moss from her pack. She held it up to her mouth and breathed water into it, causing the bioluminescent moss to light up, casting clear white light down onto a dark hole in the stone below next to a large, perfectly round boulder, and they could just see a feint sparkle inside the hole.
\"I think it\'s in there Sayli.\"
\"figures,\" said Sayli before swimming into the hole.
\"Be careful Sayli\"
\"Ya ya... just hold that light up so I can see ok?\"
Triste lowered the moss into the hole as Sayli swam into it, lighting up a large round cavern underneath. There were large gashes and scratches all over the walls. A shiver went through Sayli\'s spine as she looked around for her necklace. There was a small platform at the bottom of the cavern carved out of stone, with strange runes and diagrams etched onto its surface with a precision Sayli had never seen before, and right in the center, was her necklace. She grabbed it quickly and began to swim up, happy to be leaving this creepy place, when suddenly she felt something brush her arm, like thin hair waving in the water, and as she looked up slowly, she saw a woman floating above her with her back towards her.
\"Triste? Triste is that you?\" she said, a tone of fear in her voice as the woman was not moving. She reached out and turned the woman towards her, and the light slowly revealed the shriveled skin of the dead woman\'s face clinging to its skull. Sayli immediately recognized the face... it was her own face. She screamed and flailed madly, trying to swim up and out of there fast, but just before she reached the opening she felt a cold, bony hand wrap around her ankle, pulling her down. The hand gripped tightly, and felt like ice against her skin, drawing in all heat. A sinking cold feeling of despair washed over her as she felt her strength leaving her.
With the last of her strength, she reached up and screamed for help, and suddenly felt Triste\'s hands pulling hers up out of the hole. The hand had let go of her ankle, and Sayli felt her strength return and quickly rolled the boulder over the entrance to the cavern, blocking it. The two sisters floated in place for a minute, flaring their gills. Triste was the first to speak.
\"What happened down there?\"
\"Didn\'t you see it?\" Sayli said with a quivering voice.
\"See what?\"
\"There was... a dead woman down there..... and.. it.. it looked like me Triste. it had my face!\"
\"Sayli I didn\'t see anything and I was looking at you the whole time. I was trying to talk to you but you wouldn\'t answer I was starting to get worried.\"
\"It grabbed me around the ankle, see?\" Sayli pulled her pant leg up and saw a small green scar faintly glowing around her ankle, then looked up at Triste, \"see it left a scar on my ankle\"
\"What scar, I don\'t see a scar Sayli\"
Sayli looked again, but the scar wasn\'t there, \"I.. I don\'t understand.. I just don\'t understand..\"
Sayli began shivering and was starting to cry, but Triste quickly wrapped her arms around her in a warm hug.
\"It\'ll be ok Sayli, we just need to get you home ok? Come on, let\'s just swim home, we\'ll be there in no time ok?\"
\"o.. ok...\"
The two sisters began their journey home, and when they arrived Triste made up an excuse for their lateness, something about a spell gone wrong and Sayli needing rest, but her sleep would be far from peaceful, and although she didn\'t know it yet, Sayli\'s nightmares were about to become very real....
To Be Continued....
