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Fools Fall was bitter cold when Nis stepped into it. Both she and Meric hesitated after every step, gasping as they fought to control themselves so as not to make more noise than was necessary. The night was still young and they were hoping to make it all the way to Patience before dawn.

As they reached the point in the river where they would have to start swimming, Nis braced herself.

“Make sure you keep swimming in the right direction,” Nis said. “The current can make you turn downstream.”

“Right,” Meric replied. “Ready?”

Nis nodded and the two of them kicked off from the riverbed and began to swim. Just as Nis had anticipated, the current made swimming in a straight line almost impossible. With every other stroke of her arms, Nis looked up to where the stars vanished behind the treetops on the far side of the river to make sure she was still facing in the right direction.

“How’s it going?” Nis asked as she neared the midpoint in the river.

No response.

“Meric?” Nis asked a bit louder this time.

“Nis!” Meric’s voice was desperate. “Nis, help!”

She looked around but between the dark and the splashing water Nis couldn’t make out where Meric was at.

“Keep talking to me,” Nis said, hoping to use Meric’s voice to find her.

“I can’t keep swimming, Nis,” Meric’s voice was growing more distant and Nis began to swim further downstream.

“I’m coming, don’t worry,” Nis called to her. “Just focus on keeping your head above water and keep talking so I can find you.”

“Okay,” Meric replied but then fell silent.

Nis wasn’t sure if Meric had gone under or if she was just too frightened to keep talking. Either way, Nis kept sweeping her gaze over the river, looking for any sign of Meric.

“Tell me about your favorite past life,” Nis said to prod Meric into speaking again.

“I don’t know,” came the reply and Nis finally spotted Meric as the moonlight glinted off her wet hair.

Meric was not only a good ways away from Nis but she was also moving fast. A river the size of Fools Fall would often have a few different currents and by the look of things, Meric had caught the fastest one of the bunch. Nis had to swim hard to even keep pace with Meric, zigzagging across the river until she felt the push of the current that Meric was in.

“Do you have a favorite place to go swimming?” Nis asked, still trying to get Meric to keep talking.

“I’ve only dreamed about swimming,” Meric replied, “but it was always so easy. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Nis’ experience with basket weaving had been similar, albeit less life threatening, and had learned that certain skills didn’t translate as readily from her past lives into her present life.

“Don’t worry,” Nis told her although she knew there was probably ample reason to worry. “I’m almost to you.”

Meric’s head began to bob more erratically, dipping below the water’s surface a couple of times. Each time Meric became submerged her arms would flail outward as she began to panic.

“Nis?” Meric managed to splutter.

“I’m almost there!”

“Nis, I think I can hear a waterfall.”

Nis, who had been so focused on catching up to Meric suddenly became aware of the increasing roar from somewhere ahead of them.

“You’ve got to swim!” Nis called out to Meric. “Swim to me and I’ll help you across, okay?”

Meric was splashing so violently by this time that Nis wasn’t sure if Meric had heard her instructions or not but didn’t have any more breath to waste as she pushed herself as hard as she could; she had just noticed a turn in the river not far ahead of where they were. The waterfall would be just after that bend but how far exactly, Nis couldn’t tell.

Meric slipped beneath the water completely right as Nis reached her. The water churned as Meric thrashed about and Nis struggled to dodge in and grab an arm or something so she could pull Meric back to the surface. Nis didn’t dare get too close, however, for fear of Meric getting a hold on Nis and dragging both of them down.

Meric’s thrashings grew less intense as the river carried them around the bend and Nis finally got a firm grip on Meric’s wrist. She pulled Meric up and spun her about so that Nis was behind Meric. As she breached the surface, Meric’s struggling redoubled but now that Nis was behind her, she was able to wrap her arms around Meric’s waist and keep her afloat while staying out of Meric’s flailing grasp.

“Calm down!” Nis tried to keep her voice strong and commanding without becoming a shout. She could keep Meric’s head above the water but swimming was completely out of the question. “I need to you calm down so we can get to the other side!”

Meric wasn’t listening and her struggling was beginning to push Nis down into the water, threatening to drown them both. Remembering how certain of her past lives had dealt with panicking people, Nis spun Meric around and slapped her as hard as she could across the face.

“STOP!” Nis shouted.

Meric froze.

“Now swim,” Nis ordered and then pointed, “that way.”

Meric nodded and together they began to swim. Nis made sure to stay by Meric’s side this time. The roar of the waterfall was growing louder and the water began to grow choppy and swift. Meric was by no means over her fear and she was still struggling to keep her head above the water.

“I can’t,” Meric whined. “Just leave me.”

Before Nis could respond, Meric sank beneath the surface. However, just as fast as she’d sunk, Meric popped back up again. In fact, she rose a couple feet higher so that the water only came up to her ribs.

“I can stand here!” Meric announced.

Nis tried to stand as well and was pleasantly surprised when her feet met solid ground.

“Don’t just stand there,” Nis told her, “Let’s get going!”

Almost laughing, Meric stumbled onward until they both fell down onto the shore, exhausted but relieved.

“We should keep moving,” Nis prompted once she’d caught her breath and Meric nodded. “Do you think the trackers heard us with all that shouting?”

Meric only shrugged. She still looked a bit dazed and confused so Nis decided not to bother her with any other questions for the time being. Together they waded out into the shallows and began walking back upstream. It was impossible for Nis to tell how far they had floated down Fools Fall. All that she knew was that the boulder field they had crossed to reach the river was no longer in sight. At least she knew what to look for.

Missing a night of sleep wasn’t terribly common for Nis, growing up, but it did happen from time to time if a crop needed to get harvested right away or something like that. What she hadn’t ever needed to do was stay up for so many night in so short a period of time. There was a faint buzzing in the back of her head and her eyeballs felt sore. A numbness that didn’t seem to be related to the cold water tingled along her fingertips and toes.

“There’s the bolder field we came across,” Nis pointed out with relief after they’d been walking for what felt like hours but was probably much shorter. “Now we go a few more miles and we can start going towards Patience.”

Meric, who hadn’t said a thing ever since they’d crossed Fools Fall, finally broke her silence.

“I’m sorry, Nis,” she said weakly. “I thought I could really help you. Thought I knew so much but…

She trailed off and Nis gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder.

“I know how you feel,” Nis said. “I felt the same way when I first left. I though all my knowledge from my past lives would make this so easy.”

“I couldn’t even swim across the river,” Meric groaned.

“No, but you’ve had some great insights,” Nis pointed out. “I would probably have just kept on going in a straight line and gotten myself captured.”

Meric sniffed.

“Listen,” Nis said, softening her tone even further, “We both just need to be careful about relying too much on our past lives. Just because some of them were great at certain things doesn’t mean we’ll be just as good.”

“Yeah,” Meric muttered. “It’s just…I don’t know if I can still do this. What if I freak out again? I almost killed us back there.”

“Like I said, we’ll just have to be careful.”

Meric didn’t respond but her posture indicated that she at least didn’t feel so bad. If she could, Nis would have sent Meric back to the trackers. Unfortunately, she was mostly certain that Meric’s temporary absence wouldn’t go unnoticed. For better or worse, Nis had a traveling companion now. She was glad for the company, though, and since they were both so familiar with the archives they’d at least have that to talk about. Now they just had to keep ahead of the trackers long enough for them to give up the pursuit.