“Alastair? Alastair!” Callum’s voice echoed off the cave walls, fading away, transfiguring into something like deep laughter, a malicious cackle, before dying in the dark heart of the mountain.

            Callum drew his knife; blade at the ready and torch in hand, he pressed deeper into the darkness.

            Twice he slipped and nearly fell, only just recovering himself. A roar began to build, the sound of torrential waters pounding around him. Callum grimaced, feet already soaked from the cave’s stream, but kept going. His senses, sharpened by the darkness and stillness of the cavern, told him that there was another human presence here, and not far away. His heart hammered, loud enough it seemed, to echo against the stone.

            The passageway squeezed tightly around him, narrowing until he was wriggling more than walking. He was crawling through the cracks until, with one final struggle, he pushed through the passageway, buttons scraping off as he stumbled into a wide, open chamber.

            The cave stretched away, far beyond the reach of his torch. The waterfall’s sound was deafening here, thundering into deep water. Callum stepped forward, feet splashing, and saw the waterfall at last.

            What had sounded like a huge cataract was only a foot high. The water foamed over a shallow shelf of stone, the cave’s acoustics making it sound like a vast fall, but Callum had no eyes for the waterfall. For there, curled up on a stone island in the middle of the pool, lay Alastair.

            The boy lay asleep or unconscious, dark curls tumbling down, face thin and strained even while unconscious. He stirred, murmuring, and Callum nearly collapsed in relief. “Alastair,” he called, but the boy didn’t stir.

            Callum started forward, wading into the pool only to freeze as dim forms emerged from the depths. They curled around him, fish-like and serpentine. The elementals of Water bared their fangs at him, scales flashing in their own weird, eldritch light. On the stone island, Earth elementals gathered around the boy, teeth sharp and wet as they snarled at Callum.

            He retreated, splashing back out of the pool onto the narrow shore. For a moment he regarded the scene: shallow waterfall, sleeping boy, vicious elementals. Then he let out a barking, humorless laugh.