Farmhand

The lake's water matched the deep blue of the sky overhead and, on this windless day, reflected the towering cumulus clouds smattered across it.  Ahmdal wasn't looking out towards the horizon though; she was staring into the crystalline depths past the bladders and rippling bladeweed and preparing for her dive.  It was hardly fair to make the only daughter in the family do the diving work, but she had been blessed with a tremendous pair of lungs and that made her well-suited for the work.  In a way she sometimes enjoyed it, being so important to the family, but today was not one of those times.

She turned around to look at where her brothers were manning the winch for the diving bell.  Forik, the younger, waved and called, "It's down!"

The mat of roots and vines bobbed gently on the small waves and slight current flowing from the river mouth.  Ahmdal let her knees bend and her body sway with the shifts; she had lived most of her life on one or another of these farms and was sure-footed on far rougher water than this.  The only things that grew this close to the edge of the farm besides the tree were thick, fleshy reeds.  She was standing in a clearing that had been harvested a few weeks earlier to build another lodge and so came up only to her ankles.  Readjusting her eyepatch and closing her bright eye, she took a quick, shuffling step towards the edge and leaped into a dive.

She exploded into the water, emerging from the burst of bubbles from the shattered surface.  Fish nibbling at the tree's buoyant bladders scattered in an instant.  The first meter or so of descent was fine, but she quickly slid through the thermocline and reflexively exhaled a stream of breath at the sharp temperature drop.  The air trickled towards the surface shining like silver as she kicked hard for the lake bottom.

Although the water was clear, light was still weakened as Ahmdal dove deeper.  She could still make out the tree's great root tapering into the darkness below.  It was mostly obscured by an encrustation of parasites and its own fractal growth, countless tiny filtering fingers stretched out to snatch and strain every possible nutrient from the river silt.  Another ten meters down, she could see the glowing ring of the diving bell and she swam for it, aided by the rocks tied to her waist.

It sat on the rocky bottom and she had to lift it to maneuver inside.  She took a deep draught of air and shuddered at the cold.  She only had a few minutes before the frigid depths took her, but that was all she needed.  Having filled her lungs again, she slipped out of the bell and glided over to the base of the root.  The few glowcrabs gnawing at its base scattered at her approach, the glyphs on their carapaces gleaming like captured stars.  Ahmdal's bright eye hadn't had long to adjust to the dark, but she flipped up her eyepatch letting her dark eye see.

Today there were only a few egg sacs to scrape off the anchor root.  She looked forward to the day when the tree was mature enough to maintain itself, but it was only a few years old and there were years more to go before the bark here was thick enough to withstand the infestations.  For now, she pried several of the masses off and stashed them the satchel on her bandoleer.  After a return for another breath from the diving bell, she finished removing the rest that she could see.  Her hands were clumsy with chill and she had some difficulty with the last two.  On her way back for one more stop at the bell before ascending, she was hit with a wave of bass that kicked her in the chest.

Ahmdal weighed her options carefully: she could risk swimming to the surface without a lungful of air or she could swim to the diving bell and risk an encounter with the hunter.  A school of panicked fish flashed by her swimming in the direction of the bell.  Another rumble followed by a series of high clicks washed over her.  That settled it in her mind;  the fish must be fleeing.   She powered towards the diving bell, pausing only long enough to exhale and inhale once.  Out of the corner of her dark eye, she could see what looked like a gigantic claw waving in the darkness.  It snapped shut so fast she couldn't see it move and another deep boom hit her.

Disoriented and slightly stunned by the blast, she cut the rocks from around her waist and fled towards the surface.  Even through the survival instinct, curiosity burned hot enough to make her look back.  She could only make out a few glowing splashes of bony armor and the pair of claws, the rest was shrouded in the dark.  Having seen more than enough, she sped on and back into the light.  Not many divers saw adult glowcrabs and lived to tell others; they were top tier predators and content to prey on any creature slower than themselves.

She broke the surface and threw herself onto the raft farm.  Panting and shivering, she closed her eyes and soaked in the warmth of the sunlight.  The reeds weren't exactly soft or forgiving, so she sat up wincing a bit as one scraped her back.  Looking out towards the river's mouth, the farms were so close together as to almost choke out boat traffic.  A merchant's shop floated past and the children playing on its roof paused to wave.  Smiling with teeth clattering from the adrenaline and cold, Ahmdal waved back enthusiastically before starting her kilometer-long walk back to the treehouse at the farm's heart.  There were eggs to cook for dinner after all.