I smiled. What a happy moment this was—I had family, and it felt so precious.
It was at that moment the rod twitched.
“Ooh! Something there!” Marie leapt up and pulled on the rod. She kept pulling it back until, with careful timing, she brought the line fully up to the surface. Something had appeared at the end of her line.
“It’s an Etten trout! I did it!”
All sunshine and roses, Marie celebrated with her typical enthusiasm. We unhooked the trout and dropped it in the bucket.
“Is that a common fish?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s a freshwater fish you can find anywhere.”
“Anywhere, huh?”
In that case, the orbs of light probably didn’t come from that. I doubted that this phenomenon was happening everywhere. If that was the case, Mom and Dad would’ve known about it, whether they’d seen it or not.
And yet, they couldn’t see it. Marie said that they didn’t understand what she was talking about when she explained the light to them. That meant the orbs of light were probably specific to this lake. If so, then it was unlikely that the Etten trout were their source.
Unfortunately, we didn’t catch any other fish before sundown. At that point, we packed away the fishing rod to avoid disturbing the lake and waited. Around sunset, the orbs of light once again began to rise out of the lake and into the sky. Apparently, this happened every day. Or it happened multiple days, at least. There might be conditions like the weather, or the seasons, that prevented it from occurring every day.
I looked at the buckets. Nothing was happening.
“They’re not glowing,” Marie said.
“We even tried to make the same conditions as the lake.” I sighed.
In conclusion, the source was a different fish besides Etten trout. That, or either some other substance or life form inside the lake. I mulled this over.
“Do you know if there are other fish or animals living in the lake?” I asked Marie.
“There’s a bunch, but they’re hard to catch. I have no idea how many different ones there are.”
That made sense. It would’ve been nearly impossible to identify every species in a lake.
Well, that left only one thing to do. I stripped back down to my underwear again and approached the lake.
“Shion! That’s dangerous!”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Probably.”
“But what if it’s not fine? Ugh! I’m going with you!” Marie disrobed again before I could protest, down to her camisole and drawers. I guess it could’ve been worse.
“You shouldn’t take off your cl—”
“Shion, that’s enough. I’m going with you!” Her eyes glinted with force. I knew I couldn’t dissuade her. She was determined. All I could do was sigh and accept.
“Fine. We go together.”
“Why didn’t you just say so from the start?” Marie pouted.
We grasped each other’s hands tightly. The handholding had taken some getting used to, but it felt normal now. We slowly entered the lake, a little bit at a time. It was strange walking through the orbs of light. I began doubting I was living in reality. At the same time, I started to feel happier and happier. I didn’t know what exactly these orbs of light meant, but never had I been so close to my long-held dream.
“Don’t!” Marie yelled.
I had already touched one of the glowing orbs before she could stop me. “It’s warm,” I said. “And a little ticklish.”
“It—it’s not hot? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It kinda felt nice.”
Reassured, Marie oh-so-tentatively touched one of the orbs. Her face relaxed. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s so warm. Like a bath.”
Once we touched the orbs, they faded away. What exactly were they?
When we reached their main light source, I plunged my face underwater. I still couldn’t tell where they were coming from. The water was pretty clean, but I couldn’t see through it. On the surface, you could see ripples and bubbles on the surface, but nothing underneath. I kept gazing in the direction of where the light came from, but the source kept changing.
Oh, I thought. That’s it.
Marie and I thrust our heads above the water at the same time. I spat out water.
“It’s no good, huh?”
“I can’t see anything at all!”
“Yeah,” I said. “But I did realize one thing. I’m pretty sure it’s some creature swimming down there. It is giving off the orbs of light. It’s not a plant, but something that moves around.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“The light source keeps changing,” I said. “Still, I don’t know what kind of life form it is.”
“If only we could see more clearly.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know how to do that. I think we’ve done our best for today. It’s a good start.”
We went back to the shore and dried off.
“Thanks, Marie,” I said. “You were a big help.”
“Don’t thank me. Seriously, stop doing that! We’re family, so you shouldn’t have to thank me in the first place.”
“Really? But I want to. I’m grateful for you. We’re family, so shouldn’t that mean I can say how I really feel?”
I looked at Marie. She broke our eye contact, but I knew she was glad. I mean, from her profile I could see that she was grinning.
“Yeah, fair enough. If you really say so. But we should get going home now,” she said. “What should we do about the buckets?”
“Let’s bring the fish home,” I said. “That way we can keep an eye on it.” At this point, I assumed the plants were unrelated.
“Okay. Let’s put everything else back and go home.”
We emptied two of the three buckets and walked back home with the fish. It was a small haul for an afternoon, but I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. In fact, I could hardly contain my excited jitters.
That was fun. It was the most fun I’ve had since coming to this world. It wasn’t only because magic was now possible. It was also because Marie had been walking by my side. I swore to myself to make the most of this life and my time.