Chapter 31: Interlude V – Karlin, Water Adventure

Farmer Karlin McCray had been a farmer for most of his life, ever since he could remember he had lived in Flue Village on the road that ran from Brewyn down to Pravwell at the Southern part of Darf. It was the largest city in the South and the second-largest city in Darf. Quite a lot of traffic went past Flue Village between the two main cities of the Country. Karlin had even seen some royal convoys but in all the years' Flue had never gotten any bigger. He thought that it had to do with Pleutr Forest on both sides of the Flue River as well as very little farmland between the forest and the mountains to the north of the village. This was a village of farmers after all.

 

As he did every morning Karlin waded into the river to wash up. Martha came up to the river just as he was getting started.

 

“Karlin, honey! Do you think you could just get the sheep to the river after your done washing up?”

 

“Sure Martha, not a problem. I’ll get to it as soon as I’m done!” He shouted back to her.

 

Karlin loved his morning wash in the river. It was cold and invigorated him. All of a sudden he felt a piercing pain from his foot!

 

“Arrggghh!” Karlin might have been a little higher pitched with that than he would have liked.

 

Flinging his foot out something that had been sitting on his bitten foot flew up and out of the river, it looks like a flat bit of rippling river bed! In all his decades Karlin had never seen a creature that well camouflaged with the river. Incredulous Karlin stared as before his eyes the creature flipped end over end and then of all things wings sprouted from its sides! Wings, on a river beast? Karlin had never seen it!

 

“Karlin!” Martha came rushing over. “What happened? I have never heard you make a sound like that!”

 

Karlin grimaced at the pain but a part of him was still in shock by what he had seen, as soon as the wings had come out the creature, call it a river bed monster had glided down and into the water and disappeared, with nothing more than a ripple. Incredible! Karlin couldn’t even see it anymore, and he had been watching it like and Mountain Eagle!

 

Karlin didn’t even hear his wife calling, he immediately wadded into the river to see if he could find what had done that, not even concerned for himself or his bite. Karlin had discovered a new species of monster or creature or something. Unreal….. Just then he stepped into something soft on the river bed where he had expected stones. He didn’t think anything of it at the time but later his recollection told him that was the oddity that he had been looking for.

 

“Karlin, what happened!?” Martha was standing on the river bank now, seeing her husband not in an emergency if he was wading waist-deep in the water right near the middle of the river. There was no way Martha was getting in that frigid water! No way!

 

“Martha, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Honestly, I am not sure I believe it and I saw it with my own two eyes. Not only that but I felt it as well!” Karlin wasn’t sure how much to say. He was pretty sure Martha would think he was crazy but it gave it a shot anyway. “Well I felt something bite my foot, then next thing I know I jerk my foot out of the water and out flies a section of the river bed, with pebbles and soil and everything. Then while my foot was still out of the water, this clump of what I thought was the river bed flipping end over end sprouts wings and then stabilizes itself. Next thing I know it is gliding gently back in the water!

 

“I followed its movements but honestly, I...I couldn’t believe it! Have you ever seen a creature like that?”

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Martha knew her husband, had known him for over sixty years in their marriage and had known him for a few years before that. He was a wildlife enthusiast and loved to study the flora and fauna that made the Pleutr Forest their home but never had he been one for flights of fancy or one to make up stories for fun. Even when telling stories of his exploits into the forest to Marteen’s children their grandchildren who were only six and eight years old. Karlin refused to sugarcoat, tone down or embellish the story. Martha had had to come out and give him a scolding once or twice for scaring them. Poor Korin and little Sophie had been scared stiff from the stories of the wild, dark Forest on their doorstep. The man should have some common sense with what to tell children!

 

All this told Martha that there must be some undeniable truth in what her husband was telling her. It was just that it seemed so outside the realms of possibility that she was struggling with believing. Martha would be the first to say that while they knew more about the forest than any save perhaps the reclusive Alchemist they certainly did not know everything that lived in there and if there was some camouflaging fish-bird in there it wouldn’t be the first time they discovered something new.

 

A camouflaging fish-bird thought? Martha just shrugged and remained silent. Nothing else she could say to that.

 

“I know it sounds unbelievable, I told you it was though.” Karlin shrugged himself as he backed out of the water to join Martha on the bank.

 

“I mean it wouldn’t be the first time we saw something new and strange coming out of the woods right?” Martha sounded a little doubtful of the extent.

 

“Couldn’t agree with you more there Martha. However, there was something special about this thing. I didn’t tell you but it had fins as well, on both sides of its flat body, and at the back as well, long and thin. Then as if that wasn’t enough it sprouted wings….wings! Martha a flying fish!? And as if that weren’t enough it looks like pebbles, I mean, I have never seen a creature camouflaged that well! One or even two of those things would have been a little suspect but all three?” Karlin could do nothing but shake his head at the absurdity of the sighting.

 

“Haha, no your right, that does seem incredible and I know better than to distrust what you say. If you say it was there then it was. Where do you think it went?” Martha asked.

 

“Well, I saw it dive down around where I was wading but I seem to have lost it, it is uncannily good at hiding I tell you, perfectly blending with the background, not just colour either, like some of the other beasts we’ve seen. Texture as well! Though it is still soft so it isn’t as hard as the stones it is mimicking. It shouldn’t be hard to tell the difference if I can just get a hold of the cretin! It bit me as well, painful that was! Took a whole one percentage off my health you know. I know I’ve bit hurt worse in the ranch but wasn’t expecting that in the river was I?” Karlin was slowly descending into disgruntlement.

 

“I think you should just wash up and bring the sheep to water at the river, not much to do about it now, interesting though. Maybe we will be lucky and see it again!” and then under her breath, “or we might get lucky and it might bite you in the butt next time.”

 

“What was that Martha? Didn’t hear that last bit?” Karlin grumbled.

 

“I said that you’ll get it next time!” Martha called back.

 

Martha strolled back to their farmhouse close to the river where the top half of the barn door was open and sheep could be heard bleating inside. Karlin followed a few minutes later having cleaned himself up and wash off the bite on his foot. It had already healed, for the most part, courtesy of his high Health Regen and Stamina Regen from his farmer class. Farmers needed to be hardy after all. Shaking off the lingering feeling Karlin went over to the barn to get the sheep some water to drink.

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