Waterfall
The best thing about being so close to a waterfall is the noise drowns out the incessant chattering of an annoying cohort. Hikers were encouraged vehemently by numerous, unambiguous signs indicating that one wishing to remain in good health should not stray from the trodden path, but that was just a way for the village elder to cover his ass in case someone got hurt. Anyone with sufficient athleticism and balance would have no trouble up there. In other words, the elder's rules didn't apply to me.
Suddenly my life flashed before my eyes when I grabbed a rock that wasn't firmly embedded in the cliff. Luckily it was short enough not to distract me; my other hand still had a solid grasp and managed to hold on tightly. Twisting in the air hurt my wrist, but I was able to orient myself again and continue my ascent with very few thoughts of turning back.
"Gus!" my annoying cohort shouted at me. She was standing back on the hiking path, which put her about six meters behind me and twelve meters down. I was disappointed I didn't get farther away than that after twenty minutes of climbing. In my defense, it was a very steep cliff and there were signs suggesting mere mortals would not be able to prevail in this arduous task safely.
"You're sewing Joseph's skills!"
At least, that's what I heard. She might have said "You're going to get yourself killed" or something that makes more sense. The waterfall was loud. I couldn't be sure.
"Buzz off," I muttered knowing full-well I was talking to a rock. This close to the rushing water, she couldn't have heard me even if she were right next to me.
Just as well. The climb was more exciting without her bringing down my buzz. Only a few more meters and I'd be at the top. Not supposed to be up here? Hah! I laugh in the face of danger. Besides, if she thought that was dangerous, she was in for a real show.
I crawled on my stomach over the edge when I reached the peak. Admittedly, the climb was a bit harder than I expected and I may have broken more than one fingernail on the rocks, but I made it, and at least there was water for me to dunk my face and wipe away all the sweat I built up. But the second I stuck my head in the water and felt the sensation of having my head pulled off by water moving at about a thousand pounds of force, I yanked my head back out and agreed not to try that again.
I sat next to the water's surface for a moment to catch my breath and enjoy the forbidden view. Fauna were abundant here; at least, I think that's the word for trees. The valley had sheer cliffs on either side, giving the water an extraordinary contrast with the rock walls. The only colors I could name from this view were blue, brown, and green, but there were so many more variations of the colors than I can possibly describe. The sky and the water alone created such contrast in blues that I almost wished I studied my crayon box more closely.
There was maybe a hundred meters between where I sat and an opposite cliff that had a frontal view of the waterfall. I probably would have enjoyed the view of the waterfall from over there. What I saw from my perch was the water drop straight down and create no less than three rainbows as it collided with the rampaging rapids three hundred feet below. There sure were a lot of rocks down there…
"Gus!"
Brooke's annoying protests only egged me on. I stood up to make sure she could see me. I couldn't make out the details of her face from here, but I bet she was pissed. Actually what I was doing rarely mattered: That was still the likely expression on her face. She did still have my backpack on the ground beside her, though. I was surprised she hadn't thrown it in the water already just to spite me. I would have.
"Check this out!" I screamed, competing with the roar of the water. I grabbed the seams of my pants and gave one good rip. In a single motion, my tear-away pants gave way to bright, multi-colored swim trunks with a blast of yellow and orange that probably made me visible from outer space.
I don't know if she heard my words, but Brooke sure heard my swimsuit. She brought her hand to her forehead and looked away like she was embarrassed of my awesome fashion sense. Either that or the colors hurt her eyes when added to the sun's rays. Either explanation is totally believable.
I imagined her saying, "You have got to be kidding me." She had a tendency to say that whenever I was nearby.
The water was heavy, and apparently my legs weren't much stronger than my neck. As soon as I put one foot in, the water yanked it away and I was lucky to spin around and fall right back where I stood, nerves wracked and unwilling to let me feel anything except intense cold.
"That was close!" I hollered down to Brooke.
I'm pretty sure she was cursing at me. And she was stamping the ground, which meant she was definitely pissed at me. What else is new?
The cliff was deep, but it wasn't the drop that bothered me; it was the rocks. They popped out of the water like earthen spears that had been dulled by erosion over time. I'd have to aim it just right if I hoped to make this dive without removing the V from that word.
"Only the man who confronts death can truly know life." That was a little mantra I used to rev myself up. It also reminded me that what I was about to do was totally awesome even though my brain was starting to think it might also be totally dangerous.
"Here goes."
I found a shallow portion of the stream a few decimeters away from the edge and put my foot down cautiously. The water really pounded me, but I was able to maintain my footing without slipping thanks to my strong calves and a decent understanding of leverage.
So I took another step. Again the water pushed hard, but I found the sweet spot. It was slow going and I probably owed a lot of it to luck, but I made my way to the middle of the stream. Now it was time to turn toward the waterfall.
On my first step forward, my foot slipped forward, my back leg buckled, and the water swept me up. That was not according to plan. I might have screamed from fear if I didn't end up with a mouthful of river water choking back my cries. I surfaced one time long enough to choke up the water, but then I was right back underwater for less than two seconds. I knocked my head against a rock and felt myself go completely numb for a moment. I lost the ability to fight the stream as the water carried me over the edge.
I always wondered what it would be like to fly. I never imagined trying it with hundreds of pounds of water shoving me straight down. It felt like having a wet blanket wrapped around me so that I couldn't move—the worst parachute in the world. I'd fallen from trees before, but this was so much worse. I had hoped to be past the waterfall when I dove and therefore not moving with the added speed of the water pushing me. The worst part was that when I vomited, the vomit stayed on me; the upside was the water wiped my face clean as I fell.
Lady Luck will forever hold the key to my heart. I slipped underneath the waterfall before I slammed into the lake's surface feet-first. I've had my feet so sunburned that I couldn't put on socks without feeling a world of pain, but that pain didn't compare to hitting the water at a thousand kilometers per hour.
Okay, so maybe odds are that I was going a little slower since I survived. I still had to swim upward for a full minute without finding air. My lungs burned even more than my feet, mostly because I couldn't feel anything below my knees. And my head throbbed worse than my lungs. And my feet were all but numb. It was really hard to figure out what hurt the most right then.
Just when I thought I might never reach the surface, I finally broke through and reveled in the best-tasting air I ever inhaled. The air and I virtually made out. I've never been so much in love.
The water didn't fight me so much here. It was actually pretty steady on the underside of the waterfall. I clawed my way onto the little patch of land at the base of the cliff. Land felt really good, too. I clung to the sediment and kissed it, just happy to be alive and out of the water. Then I tried so hard to spit the sediment off my tongue that I almost threw up again.
I lay there panting for a moment. Looks like Brooke was wrong: The fall didn't kill me.
When I caught my breath, I rolled onto my back and looked up at the water falling past me. It was an interesting sight—like a shower curtain that was almost see-through but too distorted to really show anything except colors on the other side. This little alcove was clearly made by the falling water. I say "clearly" because huge droplets continually jumped up from the lake and pelted me in the face like baseballs. I eagerly rolled back over and not-so-gracefully pulled myself to my knees.
That's when I noticed a light whistle in the breeze. The air rushed from the water behind me, but instead of bouncing off the cliff base, it continued onward. I lifted my head slowly and gazed upon a man-sized tunnel formed in the rocks. It wasn't perfectly shaped, but it was too perfect to be natural.
"Where am I?"
The tunnel had a lot of draw to it. I really wanted to go spelunking all of a sudden, once my feet would let me stand again. But the creature standing in front of the tunnel grabbed my attention and held it.
Standing five feet high in the shape of a man with a propensity for rounded cutlery and with way too much mustache wax, the creature was noticeably humanoid but with marked differences. The first I noticed, gazing from toe to head, was its three-toed, clawed feet. Its body was brown and gold, and it didn't wear pants. The most prominent difference from a person was its rather fox-like head—thin, pointy ears and a sharp snout.
It was a pokémon.
"What are you doing here?"
Suddenly something else burst out of the tunnel. It was something huge and fast, and even when I pressed my face into the ground, I still thought the whatever was going to pull me into the waterfall again as it shoved by overhead.
Somehow, I managed to catch a brief glimpse at what blew past. It looked like another pokémon. It moved too quickly for me to get more than just a glance when it erupted from the tunnel, but I did see a hefty, blue fish tail sweep through the air and splash down hard into the water beneath the waterfall. It was a strong swimmer, too, because the waterfall didn't even slow it down.
I turned back to look at the humanoid pokémon just as a human man walked out of the tunnel. He wore black pants tucked into his black boots with a matching shirt that didn't have sleeves. His left shoulder was protected by a single, silver spaulder and both hands had leather gloves with the fingertips cut off. He wrapped a crimson scarf around his neck and face, hiding his mouth from my view. His eyes were a piercing shade of blue, and he spiked his blond hair like a freshly mown lawn.
The man glanced at me as he emerged from the cave but he said nothing. Even with his eyes on me, he simply walked straight toward the humanoid pokémon, touched it with his palm, and both of them disappeared quite suddenly.
"Whoa," I uttered.
That was the coolest thing I ever saw!