Alssonus waited until Boellah latched onto him, and then he kicked off from the stalagmite. "Hang on, girl." he said.
The darkness and chaos enclosed them once again, as they rushed down the narrow gorge.
The crashing and violence of the water proved nearly too much for Alssonus, and arms with which he bear-hugged Boellah were soon lacerated and bruised. His eye was swollen from a bash of a rock wall.
The light steadily increased, and the chaos became another sensation of open air, this time accompanied by the heart-stopping sight of soaring over a large tarn.
I titanic splash heralded their landing in the lake, as steam boiled out of the riven mountainside. The red glow came to edge of the crevice, but no further. There it hardened and sealed the gap, shutting off the flow of the waterfall.
As Alssonus sank into unconsciousness, he saw the rest, swimming towards the shore.
------------------------->
Sometime later, Alssonus awoke to see the friendly faces of Boellah and an unknown man.
"Where....?" he mumbled, lifting himself up. He lay upon the grassy marge of the lake, with the mighty walls of the Khossus Mountains surrounding it. No trees were nearby, but down the beach, overlooking the tarn, was a wooden stockade, trails of smoke drifting upward from it. Two red banners flapped above the fort, one with the Imperial Eagle of Arcturus, and another proudly proclaiming the name "Loch Caollerr".
"Peace, friend. You're out of the mountain!" said the man, offering a hand.
