Fern felt much more comfortable in her own clothes again. He breasts didn’t protrude in an outrageous manner and although her panties were huge she was thankful for them and how much of her backside they covered underneath her pants.
Wandering about the deck she gazed upon Captain Rostin and Pine in deep conversation. Elm was with Hemlock confined to the gazebo that was now almost finished. The other girls were wandering the deck and she’d had the pleasure of talking with Alicia for a while. Alicia had joked about her clothing and asked her to stand like a tree but Fern hadn’t minded it had all been in good humour.
Captain Rostin was taking his new role very seriously and although he gave Fern a smile, it was more of a cursory glance than the friendly ones she’d received from him before. She felt a little put out by it but her spirits lifted when she realized that Simone received no attention from him at all. He gazed past her as if she were an invisible spectre and Fern took pleasure in the distress and anger that it caused Simone. After all she well deserved it.
The anchor had been pulled a while ago and the ship was slowly moving along following the landscape that she viewed with wanting. How she would love to curl her toes up in the grass again. Arrangements had been made between Pine and Captain Rostin and she knew that their goal was to find Oak and Blackthorn, not get ready for a picnic. She was sorry that the land was so close and they couldn’t take advantage of it.
A course had been set and they were heading to it. She felt disgruntled at not being part of it but then she noted, neither were Hemlock and Elm. She gave a small laugh at their appearance under the gazebo. They looked like they’d been sent to a birdcage as a prison. She was still going over her own inane thoughts when she heard a cry from one of the crew. She quickly turned to see who it was. It was Gisburn, the big oaf that had brought her on board. He was pointing and yelling, she swivelled to look where his finger outstretched.
Her heart fell at the sight of humungous wall; its span looked to be hundreds of feet in height. It arose cold and bleak out of the water, frightening as it occluded the mystery that was on the other side. Her shock doubled when she realized that adjacent to it was another enormous caisson that hung high up in the air, hovering like a trapeze artist in a circus. Its massive hydraulic system stretched out below the caisson, diving down to the water below. She had read about the caissons and how they worked by gravity, one moving down to take the other one up. The mouth to the caisson they were approaching was already lowered, its jaw dropped below the surface of the water.
Surely they wouldn’t work anymore, she hoped. After so long they couldn’t possibly… Please, she prayed don’t let them work. A small rowboat was being launched from the ship with two excited boys in it. Her eyes followed them as they gradually pulled away dipping their oars gleefully in the water as if they were going on a pleasant little trip.
The Captain gave last minute orders to those around him and she watched them scatter to prepare for what he expected of them. The ship slowly made its way to the giant wall before it, seeking entrance to the caisson and sleeping gate below. It seemed like a lifetime for the small boat to reach its destination. She saw the two boys clamber out and disappear into the lone building that stood there, a relic that had survived the Devastation, another anomaly to wonder at.
For what seemed to be an eternity nothing happened. The ship was now facing the monstrous wall, its height even more overwhelming to their tiny figures now they were closer to it. Her eyes were wide trying to take in the expanse and height of it. Her heart flipped again and again as she stared at the overwhelming sight before her.
As she stood looking at the wall ahead she felt movement and swiftly turned to see that the massive gate had lifted and closed behind them. In quiet surprise she pushed her trembling back against the railing. With large eyes she stared at the gate that had so silently risen and locked them in like a patient predator carefully trapping its prey. Slowly the giant caisson creaked into motion, gradually lifting them, making a churning noise like the pit of her stomach was. The caisson had them, all they could face now was the colossal concrete wall as they travelled upward, engulfed in the hydraulic lift’s cloying compartment.
Whilst they moved she closed her eyes and thought of Elanclose; the trees, streams and leafy foliage, trying to obliterate the gray that was overwhelming her senses. She heard further creaking beside them and looked to see the descending caisson pass them. She stared at it in surprise until it vanished making its way down to the depths they had left behind.
Everything that was happening both startled and enthralled her. The ship was moving up; again and again she creaked higher in the cell that held them captive, their entrapment unrecognized by everyone except Fern. Higher and higher they rose, rising up to be with the clouds and the beckoning blue sky. Gazing across the lake she thought she could see everything. The day was clear and with it her spirits soared up to it. She could see the lake rippling gently, expanding her fingers of waves for miles.
In the distance far away she saw land and her heart swelled with sorrow. It was land that held Elanclose, the forest she loved. She had a sad thought that it would perhaps be her last view of it; her last view of the place that contained the Woodlander camp and the clan she loved.
She was brought out of her reverie by being jolted and staggered a little as the caisson stopped. Turning she saw the great gate ahead open. Her eyes stared at the sight as a wave of incoming water swept toward them whilst the jaw opened to release them into the channel ahead. The wave became calm; no longer separate but now one expanse of water. The lowering jaw had vanished into the depths of the water below.
The ship slowly moved ahead, seeming to rumble from her stagnation in the isolation tank that had held her. Gingerly she inched her way out of the compartment that had briefly entrapped her. Their travel slowed to a halt and Fern wondered if the Captain had changed his mind. A vision at the corner of her eye told her what was really going on, they were waiting for the crew of two to drop their small boat into the water far away at the other side of the adjacent closed gate.
Watching them as they inched their way back to the patiently waiting ship she willed them to be quicker. She wasn’t sure why, she was uncomfortable and felt the need to be moving. Eventually they pulled alongside and chains were thrown down to hook onto their boat, wheels turned as they were pulled back up onto the ship.
Huffing and puffing the two animatedly told the Captain of the building they were in. Talked of how amazing it was and how it had functioned to perfection. Fern stared at them as they passed her still excitedly chatting to each other about the brilliance of engineering.
When the ship began to slowly move again, Fern leaned over the railing once more, and gazed at the view ahead. Concrete walls enclosed them on both sides. Her eyes slid along them as they continued ahead for miles and miles, their distance immeasurable, seeming to go on forever and ever. To her it was infinity, a time continuum that she was now trapped in to repeat its sickening familiarity again and again. This was the Aqueous Passage. With a weighty heart she knew they were about to embark on the second phase of their journey.