Chapter 13

“Dakota?” Sorbo says, as he stands there with his arm around her shoulders.

“Hmm,” she answers, mesmerized by the beauty and power of the giant lake.

Sorbo takes his left hand and points almost directly west. “See that big shadow on the horizon there?”

“Uh huh!”

“That’s the Andromeda Mountains.”

“That’s where our home is?”

“Yep!”

“We’re almost home.”

“Yep,” says Sorbo, bending over to kiss her hair.

“Hmm, it’ll be nice to have a home again.”

Sorbo stands there not sure how it will be to have a home again and whether or not his ghosts will let him have a normal life. And then he laughs and says to himself, “Huh! A normal life, right!” Then he looks down at Dakota again with his arm still wrapped across her shoulders and she is standing there on the shore looking at the lake wistfully wanting terribly to go swimming, but Sorbo says, “Now is not the time, we have a task to complete.”

She looks up at him with a crooked smile and big eyes and after she closes her mouth that had fallen open, and once and again after she gets over her amazement that he can tell what she was thinking, she says, “Hey! How did you know what I was thinking?”

Sorbo gives her a wink and kisses her hair. “Come on! We should get some rest before we figure a way to find the wand.” As they are walking back over to Hugs and Katarina, Sorbo asks Katarina, “Any idea how to get to the treasure?”

Just as she is about to say no, there is a bright flash. Sorbo and Katarina bow to the Goddess of Light Andromeda and Dakota smiles divinely. Without further prompting Andromeda says, “There is a city at the bottom of the lake. It is there where Humphrey has his treasure and where the Wand of Creation lies.”

“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any cities in your lands?”

“Human cities, yes, that is true, but this city is not human, it is inhabited by merpeople.”

“Mermaids!” says Dakota, all excited.

“Yes and their men.”

“Any hints on how to reach it because this is a very big, therefore I assume a very deep, lake.”

“It is also a magical lake.”

“How does that help us?” asks Sorbo. With a smile and a flash Andromeda is gone. “Well, that wasn’t very helpful. Any ideas, Katarina?” She shakes her head with the platinum blonde hair and crystal blue eyes no. He then looks to Dakota, who is also magic. “How about you, young lady?” She shakes her head no, but she is in near Heaven because somebody has actually asked her eight-year-old heart and mind for her opinion in an important matter.

Dakota has always been a strong person, but it is at this moment that she starts leaping forward to the great leader she is going to be one day.

Then all of a sudden the sphere of light Dakota had created earlier shows back up. It starts trying to communicate with Dakota by way of pops, sizzles, and jingles as it vibrates. “Yes?” Dakotas asks.

It starts flying around in circles and then dips up and down until it gets frustrated nobody can understand it. It starts making a humming noise that almost sounds like there are words hidden within it. Finally it gives up and flies over to the lake. As the sun is almost completely down now it lights the sandy beach up and then it goes about twenty feet out into the lake hovering there. It starts flashing brighter and brighter. When Dakota doesn’t come to it, it sighs and disappears into the lake with a sizzle.

“Well that was odd. Just how long is that thing supposed to last, Dakota?” Dakota shrugs her petite shoulders and looks to Katarina.

“It should have gone away by now.”

“Very weird,” says Dakota.

“Anyway,” Sorbo says, pulling his eyes away from the lake where the floating sphere of light went in. “I think we should make our camp a little further back just inside the tree line just in case this Humphry lake monster doesn’t like having company.”

“Humphry is not evil or mean, sir knight, he just likes his shinny objects and does not like to give them up.”

“Hmm. Well, we’ll figure a way.”

“Yep,” agrees Dakota, nodding her head emphatically.

“Hungry, darling girl?”

“Yes I am,” states Dakota.

After they make camp just outside of the trees on the sandy beach they eat dinner and then sit there a while longer watching first the white moon of radiance rise that reflects brilliantly off of the giant lake, and then an hour later the red moon rises and gives the lake an eerie glow and when it mixes with the white radiance of Hope it glitters red and white as if the stars themselves are dancing on the Great Lake of Disbelief.

Dakota once again falls asleep in Sorbo’s arms, and as the season progresses the nights are getting colder.

They awake with a pair of beady little eyes watching them from out of the lake. They yawn and stretch themselves awake and when Sorbo is bending over into the lake to refresh his face for the coming day he notices the eyes, ears and the top of a head looking at him.

Sorbo cocks his head to the right and so does the creature. Sorbo says to Dakota as she is walking over to the lake, “I think we have a visitor.”

Dakota comes over and puts her hand out to it and says, “Good morning.” Then she turns to Sorbo. “What is it?”

“I don’t know!” Just then it comes waddling out of the lake and for all intensive purposes it is a cat with a fish tail on it. “Oh, it is a catfish.” And that it is too. It is a regular looking calico cat with fur, legs and whiskers, but it has a long fish-like tail.

“Hello,” says Dakota, reaching over to pet it. The cat shakes and gets her all wet. “Ugh! Stupid cat!” And then she turns around to walk off, but the cat gets between her legs and starts rubbing up against her and purring. At first Dakota looks at it with slatted eyes, but then she says, “Oh, look isn’t he adorable.” Sorbo smiles and walks back to the camp to get breakfast ready.

As Sorbo gets breakfast ready he keeps one eye on Dakota, always. He starts trying to formulate a plan. He knows the best campaigns are successful because they did a lot of reconnaissance before hand. As soon as he gets Dakota fed he will swim out a little ways and look under the water to see if he can see anything.

“Come on, Dakota, we have a long day ahead of us.”

“Coming,” she says, running up the beach being chased by her new friend.

As Dakota is feeding her new friend some jerked meat Sorbo tells her, “I’m going to swim out little ways and look under the water to see if I can see anything.”

“I want to go.”

“I’m just going to go out for a second and I will come right back in.” Sorbo can see the sad look in Dakota’s eyes so he gives in before his heart breaks. “Alright! Alright.” He says with an over-exaggerated sigh. Dakota giggles.

“Should we take our clothes off?”

Sorbo thinks about it for a second before answering. “I think for now just taking our boots off will do.” Dakota nods her head as she starts taking the boots off she had just put on moments ago before she walked over to the lake.

As they are standing in the water with their bare feet Sorbo reaches over and takes Dakota’s left hand as they start walking out towards the deep. When they have to start swimming Sorbo releases her hand, but says, “You stay very close. In fact I want you right next to me all the time.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Sorbo stops and looks at her. “I’m sorry, I was just...”

But before she can go on Sorbo says, “Don’t be sorry, it felt kind of good.”

As they are floating there with smiles on their faces, Sorbo takes a deep breath and holds it and Dakota follows suit. They dive under the water and Sorbo has Dakota swimming a foot further in front of him so he can see her at all times. As they are swimming downward they think they can see sparkles coming from the deep. They stop there and try to get a better look, but soon their lungs start to burn so they have to resurface, but when they come up out of the water they do not come up out into the surface of the lake, they come up into a round room made of white marble that has steps surrounding them so they can walk out of the water and into the room.

Sorbo pushes Dakota towards the steps and once they are on them they sit down to catch their breath. They aren’t there more than two minutes when a lovely young woman with orange hair and no clothes on comes walking out of one of the many halls that lead out from the circular room. She doesn’t even see them. She walks up to the water pool inlet and dives in. Just before she hits the water her bottom half turns back into that of a mermaid. She comes back up from the water with a very satisfied sigh and then she notices them for the first time.

“Oh, hello!”

“Hi,” says Dakota, smiling.

“Hello, my name is Sorbo and this is Dakota.”

“Wow, we don’t get very many visitors down here.”

It is Dakota that continues first. “Andromeda has sent us to retrieve something from Humphrey.”

“Oh, and what would that be, precious one.”