Children of the Glimmer Pool by Obstinate Anarchist (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

The log was shuddering under the weight of the two girls and its ancient age probably wasn't helping the fact that it could split right down the middle at any time. In only a few mere seconds, the log started to break free of its prison between the rocks at either end. It splintered and cracked, two sounds that were sending waves of fear through all three girls.

Overcome by pure panic, Iris launched herself toward the log in an attempt to somehow save both Farren and Nova, however, her adrenaline kicked in too late. The log suddenly split in a transverse fashion, separating both girls for just a second before they dropped into the frigid river.

Nova's muscles went rigid and her first instinct was to grab for the nearest half of the hollow log. This proved to be a challenge seeing as the fast moving current was already sweeping her downstream. She kicked her legs as hard as she could, despite being a less than average swimmer, and managed to latch onto one of the halves.

It provided the soaking girl with a short period of rest. As it turned out, the hollowed out log was not all that buoyant. In fact, it was weighing her down a little. Nova still managed to keep her head above the water before she started to feel her everything grow tired.

And then she remembered Farren had been on the log with her. Frantically, Nova tried to heave herself up onto the log in hopes of being able to have a more clear view of the rushing rapids around her. This was only in vain; she hardly had the strength to hold on to the log as it was. Feeling a little frustrated, she blinked the water from her eyes. "Farren!" She thought perhaps she could just call for the younger girl and this might have proven to be successful had the log not suddenly dropped out from under her.

Nova grit her teeth and struggled against the water for as long as she could before she noticed that the area surrounding her started to grow progressively dark. Surely it wasn't twilight already? That was really all the brown eyed girl could think of before she could no longer hear the roar of the river and before the world went dark.

 Widened green eyes the size of saucers stared at the open space above a river where a log had been just moments before. Iris dropped to her knees and crawled over to the edge of the grassy area. She grabbed fistfuls of the long green stalks as though if she fell, they would prevent her from toppling into the river like Farren and Nova. If she hadn't been there to see her friends fall into the river with it, Iris would never have known that a log had connected one side of land to another.

She leaned over the little cliff as far as she could without throwing herself offbalance, searching the rough water for any signs of human life. The area below was devoid of anything to show that Farren and Nova had ever been in the waters. In fact, not even the pieces of the log was there.

Iris swallowed the lump in her throat and reluctantly heaved herself off of the ground, off of her knees, and to her shaky feet. If she hadn't any hope for the survival of her friends, she might have just remained in that position and grieved for who knows how long. Fortunately, she did have some shred of hope, no matter how small. She hadn't any sense of direction but she knew she needed to -no, wanted to- find Farren and Nova, and the only sensible thing she could think of to do was to follow the river downstream.

Without a moment more of hesitation, Iris scanned her surroundings. The only other way down to the riverbed was more or less a steep slope. Trees were almost uprooted trying to bury themselves amid the rocks in search for actual soil and not just sand and silt. She could either take the same detour Farren and Nova had or she could try for the unstable slope. Neither sounded very safe. The girl grit her teeth and subconciously tightened her grip on the rope in her hand.

The rope. The rope in her hand. The rope in her hand that was knotted to the dog sled trailing along behind her. Iris could literally feel the gears in her head furiously working away at a plan. She might have grinned if she had someone to share the joy with.

Instead of smiling to herself like an idiot, Iris set the dog sled down just at the top of the steep hill. Sure, she could have used intense math and physics skills to predict the trajectory and the height and all of that nonsense, but at this point in time, Iris was thinking blindly and she didn't care how she got to the riverbank, just as long as she got there.

She seated herself on the small, dog-sized wooden sled, tightly winding the rope about her hand to prevent it getting tangled in anything. Iris made sure to set the sled in a position that was more or less out of the way of any stray rocks or pitiful shrubbery.

In one fluid motion, Iris reaced her free hand out to the side, slowly easing herself off of the balance point atop the hill. It took just a second for the sled to gain motion and just like that, the blonde girl was seeing blurry outlines of her surroundings before her sled came to a slow stop just at the bank of the river.

It actually took Iris a few minutes to process that she was already at the bottom of the hill. Slowly, she stood upright and allowed the rope around her hand to unravel just enough so that the sled had room to trail along behind her and just like that, Iris started to hurry downstream.

*******

Farren had never been so painfully aware that a river could be so cold. She had managed to crawl up the riverbank, soaked to the bone and shivering. The brunette girl wasn't quite sure what all had happened after the log split in half; she'd slid off of the thing and hit the water before anything else.

She had surfaced first, too, but the cold water had sent her into a temporary shock. Farren could mostly just remember that she had fallen, fought against the river, and crawled out of it and onto the bank.

All of this thinking was giving her a headache, so Farren dragged herself further up the sandy bank and onto the grass, collapsing in the soft green stuff. She let out a long, exhausted sigh and closed her honey brown eyes.

The sound of the rushing river behind her was lulling her off to sleep, and actually, if Farren's thoughts hadn't been urging her to stay awake, she might have fallen unconscious. The girl forced her eyes to open and very reluctantly, she moved into an upright position.

Farren turned to stare at the area surrounding her, still finding it difficult to take proper account of her new environment.

The river was behind her, that much she was sure of. In front of her was an endless stretch of thick green forest, the same one she, Iris, and Nova had just come from. To either side of her, the view was more or less the same: sand of the riverbank that clashed with more plush green grass and large stones.The only way to tell which direction Farren had come from was the direction the river water was running.

The brunette girl slowly got to her shaky feet. She saw no sign of Iris or Nova and this frightened her a little. She had no bearings here and without her friends, she was a little lost. Farren felt her wet hair and with a sigh, pulled them out of their ponytails. She retied them halfheartedly, the looped pigtails resting on her shoulders.

"Nova?" Farren called, wrapping her arms about herself and rubbing up her arms in an attempt to warm herself. "Iris?" She repeated the names of her friends louder and louder, hoping that by some off chance, they would call back to her. There was no reply to her calls, just silence.

Despite her urge to want to find her friends, Farren wanted to find her way back to a village. To her, it didn't matter what village, just as long as she could rest and know she wouldn't be lost. So without a moment to waste, Farren crossed her arms over her chest and toward the thick gathering of oak trees before her.

It wasn't too many miles away from Farren that Nova had washed up on the riverbank. She could feel the gritty sand on the right side of her face and wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction. As much as she wanted to sit up and wipe the stuff from her cheek, she didn't have the strength.

Nova was curled into the fetal position, calf brown eyes tightly closed. She honestly couldn't find a reason to get up right now. It wasn't because she didn't have hope, because she did, it was just that her limbs were so worn out from having to fight against the river that she could hardly bear to move them.

She was well aware of the fact that Iris was probably panicking, wherever she was, and that Farren was most likely in a state similar to her own. If she was even alive. This stray thought of negativity caused Nova to force her eyes to open. She set her face into a grimace and glared at the sand on her cheek.

The dark skinned girl let out a quiet groan that grew progressively louder as she moved upright until she was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest. Nova scowled at her wet boots and she angrily untied the the little bow, causing it to knot. This only frustrated Nova further and she finally kicked the boots off and opted for walking barefoot until she could find Iris and force her to unknot and then retie her shoes for her.

Or should she find Farren first? Nova grit her teeth as she got to her feet, the laces on her boots knotted together. She unlatched her tool belt just so that she could hang the shoes from it and started to walk. Her boots hindered her balance just a little, but other than that and her own exhaustion Nova was quite proud of her motivation to go onward.

"Is something wrong?"

A voice that came seemingly from out of nowhere, a thing that started to make itself become a bad habit, startled Nova in her fit of rage. She groaned again and turned on her heel, assuming whoever had called out to her was going to be behind her. She was wrong.

Nova looked around warily. She didn't see anyone. The brown eyed girl grabbed