Adventurer
EXP: 32,526, Level: 7
Level completed: 70%,
EXP required for next Level: 2,474
One breath. That was all he had.
Jake expanded his narrow chest to the maximum as he inhaled, drawing air until his lungs pushed uncomfortably against his ribcage. He bent his knees, and launched himself off the edge of the cliff.
Warm salty air whizzed by on his descent, the choppy ocean waves rising swiftly to meet him. In the moment before impact he glimpsed other pearl divers on the beach, heard their voices calling good fortune out to him. And then he burst through the surface, almost like punching a portal through to another dimension.
The half elf allowed his momentum to carry him down to the stony ocean floor, where small clams and oysters hid in and around the crags and crevasses. He kicked along the bottom, searching for likely candidates, but none caught his eye. He could feel the salt water flowing into the empty socket where his left eye hand once been; he had left the sifan patch behind on the beach.
Jake's breath felt good in his lungs, and his legs felt strong, so he grabbed a stone the size of his head off the bottom and swam out over the deep.
The weight of the rock cradled in his arms drove him downward, past the drop off, into the dark waters which only the bravest divers visited. There different species of giant clams and oysters lived, those that grew up to a foot or more in width. Jake needed the biggest, most beautiful pearl Serenti had to offer, and he figured he was unlikely to find it in the oft-scoured shallows.
The pressure mounted and the water cooled all around him. He could taste the salt in the back of his throat, and feel his dirty blond hair standing on end as he sank. He could barely see his feet beneath him as they struck bottom, so thick was the shadowy gloom. He dropped the rock and propelled himself around with his hands as the air in his lungs grew thin. As his brain began to call out for oxygen, he spotted one - a large, sleekly ribbed clam at least a foot in diameter. Jake seized it, cradled it in his arms, and then pushed off the bottom and swam for all he was worth.
His head broke the surface in a spray of droplets, amid the sound of his own gasping and cheers from the other divers. He held the clam triumphantly overhead as he kicked back to shore, enjoying the air and the sunlight and the adulation. He was glad he had taken a vacation in Serenti. He'd needed some time away from Scara Brae, time away from trying to court the princess Isabelle. Of course, he still spent most of his days thinking about her, and of late diving for pearls in her interest. He wanted to give her something beautiful, something unique, something natural... and she loved the sea. A gift from its depths would surely buoy him up in her eyes.
He staggered out of the water and climbed the stony beach up to where he'd left his belongings. A group of local youths gathered around, offering knives and sticks to help open the clam, and discover what might lay inside.