Beyond The Burning Skies

[Ryn]

Ryn frowns a little but doesn't say anything else on the matter.

"I wasn't looking in the water." she says instead, looking around, then ducking her head underwater to try and see what Katarina is talking about.

[Narrator]

It takes Ryn a minute to see it -- the water flowing towards a spot in the middle, at the bottom of the river. If she thought about it a little harder, that might roughly correspond with the direction she found all the various pieces of detritus in the marsh, though that could be a coincidence, or more general 'out from sea'. Still. Rivers generally flow one way, and it's not a miniature, almost impossible-to-detect whirlpool in the center.

[Ryn]

"You're right." she says after rising her head above the surface and flicking her hair back and out of her face. "The water is moving strange-wise down below. I found more strange things to the south where the high-tide floods in."

And then she dips beneath the water again, this time angling herself down and pulling herself deeper with heavy, measured strokes.

[Narrator]

The turbulence got stronger as Ryn approached -- much stronger. It didn't appear that strong from far away -- perhaps their proximity was having something to do with it? Or perhaps it was some kind of illusion?

One way or another, the pull towards the center of the whirlpool increased as she -- and shortly behind her, Katarina -- got closer.

[Ryn]

Ryn has never met a danger she did not recklessly stroll into. Something here is not right, if objects are coming from this whirlpool, why is it pulling at the water? She pushes through the current until her hands touch the muddy river-bed. She lets herself get pulled in by the water, hand and feet braced against the ground and digging into it to anchor herself. For a moment she looks back up towards Katarina and she feels the current surge, the glasses jittering against her nose and threatening to be pulled free of her face. Without thinking she reaches up with one hand to keep them firm against her face rather than risk Katarina seeing her eyes and in that moment her other hand slips free of the mud. Within the blink of an eye the current pulls her in and by the time she's turned herself around to try and fight against it's pull she's sucked into the swirling, muddy waters.

[Katarina Kane]

"Ryn!" Katarina called, diving under the water and kicking forward. She was gaining, swimming faster than she realistically should have been able to do, quickly eating up the distance...but ever-so-slightly too slow...

[Ryn]

The muddy inside of the whirlpool blooms with a dark cloud and Katarina feels something grab her hand like Ryn has managed to reach out with her hand, but after a moment she can tell it's an odd stretch of dark and fraying fabric. It's strangely soft but instead of being a tether to pull Ryn free of the vortex it ends up pulling Katarina in with her...