The root skin fell before Vael vanished from view. 🌫️
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 74
THE CHOICE ACROSS THE SILT 🌿
Beyond the last known-safe root, the four swimmers climbed towards the first bend. Finley moved aside to study a pale ridge, keeping the marked strip covered.
The root above him lifted like wet bark in a strong wake.
“Hold,” Glint said.
It folded between Finley and the others. Silt burst through the gap and swallowed him.
TurboTAD kicked towards the cloud. His stroke churned it thicker.
Glint caught his harness. “You’re hiding the roots from him.”
TurboTAD stopped. The mistake struck cleanly: his fear had moved before his judgment.
“Come straight back,” he called.
“No,” Finley answered through the silt. “The lower root is moving.”
TurboTAD wanted to order again, louder. Finley was alone in water none of them knew. But a louder voice could not see through silt, and the choice of where to swim still belonged to Finley.
He forced his flippers to remain still. “What can you see?”
“An upper rib around the fallen skin. I’m taking it.”
Glint watched the drifting fibres. “The shedding has slowed.”
“Your choice,” TurboTAD said.
Finley appeared above them, following the upper rib. The marked strip remained tucked close.
“My chart would have chosen the lower gap,” he said.
Behind him, that gap folded shut with a soft thump.
No one explained what the moment meant. They climbed onto the upper rib while the fallen skin sealed the other way like a lid.