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Here’s one of my favorite parts from today:

And then his hands stung as if striking something, and he and Xavier screamed in unison. Water flew up around them, dashing the mist, and Jay felt himself sinking into water. Then he was completely submerged.

He bobbed up to the surface, still gripping Xavier’s torso. Xavier had let go of the ends of the cape and was flailing his arms and kicking. He landed a kick in Jays stomach, making him lose his grasp, and then another kick hit him in the eye. He was thrown away from Xavier, who bobbed back up to the surface beside him kicking and choking. They were both being pulled quickly downstream the time. Jay sunk and flailed with his arms, but he couldn’t even tell if they were under water too. He hit something hard, which he thought was a rock. Or maybe it was Xavier. He flung his face above the surface, gasping for a breath of air, and getting pummeled by falling water from above. The curtain roared all around him, and the river raged just as loud. It hurt his ears, and faintly, he thought he could hear someone screaming. Maybe it was himself. Then he was thrown under the surface again, and it was quiet. The sound was still there, but it was faint and muted. It reminded Jay of how sometimes while he slept, he could what people were really saying in the background of his dream, but it was faint and distant, and he never concentrated on it. That was what it was like now, only more so. Jay felt strangely peaceful, even though he was whipping at top speed down a river at the bottom of a waterfall, all of which was engulfed in mist.

Jay had his eyes open underwater, and he could see rocks shooting towards him, which he struggled to avoid. Suddenly he heard a long, drawn out sound from all around him.

“Jjjjjjaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!” It shouted and echoed through the water.

Jay tried to answer Xavier, but when he opened his mouth, he instinctively breathed in. He had been underwater for too long, sucking salty water. He choked and gasped on the water and found that he was sinking even deeper. Jay had heard about drowning, and now he understood that this was what it was like. Somehow, even though he knew he was about to die, he felt a weird sense of peace. Then he felt himself being pulled upward but two strong arms, and then Xavier swum under him and pushed him up to the surface. Jay gasped at the air, and suddenly there was no peace or calm anymore, but the roaring of the Curtain and the river all around him. But he was alive.

And another (same chapter, just further on):

More tears poured from his eyes, mixing with the saltwater all around him.

“Oh, Vromidon,” he cried, and as he cried, he sped down the river. As he sped down the river, through the dark mist, it seemed that all was dark. They had failed their week-long journey to the top, and he had separated from his best friend. Why had Vromidon left him? Could Vromidon have betrayed him to the men who had chased him? Everything felt so dark on the river shrouded in mist. What Jay didn’t realize was that beyond the mist the sun was shining.