“Let’s do it,” I agreed.
We all got down on our knees and cupped some water in our hands. The water did look clean besides the purple tint. How bad could it be?
I looked down the river to my left and then to my right. “Are we ready?”
“Ready,” Talia said.
“Ready,” Julie agreed.
The rest of the women nodded their heads. “Ok. On the count of three. One, two, three…” I drank the cool refreshing river water and sighed.
For a long moment all that could be heard over the sounds of the nearby birds and insects was the slurping of water.
“Mmmm, that hit the spot,” Hai commented before dipping her hand in again to drink more.
I did the same, as did the rest of the women. The water was more than refreshing, it was rejuvenating. The exhaustion I had been feeling melted away and I was left feeling like I’d just woken up from a power nap.
I took one more drink and leaned back to lay on the soft pink grass.
“I don’t know what’s in that water, but I’m feeling much better than before,” Kayla commented.
“Same,” Hai agreed.
“It’s giving… stimulant water,” Ashley joked.
“Right,” I agreed. I felt good–really good.
I looked over at Julie who was laying in the grass next to me with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.
“What about you? Are you feeling refreshed?” I asked my new friend.
She nodded her head and opened her eyes. Her purple eyes…
“Oh my god, your eyes!” Julie shouted.
“Myeyes?Youreyes!” I pointed at her purple eyes.
“They’re purple! Your brown eyes are now purple!” She was panting now. I wanted to reiterate that her eyes were also purple but I thought that might send her over the edge.
I looked around at the other women whose eyes had all turned purple.
“What the fuck!” The usually confident Taylor exclaimed as she looked at her reflection in a shaded part of the river.
“What is going on?” Sarah started crying.
“I’m sure it’s fine. Maybe the water gave us super powers like the Hulk or Captain Marvel.” Talia patted Sarah, who was now crying, on the shoulder.
“Who are the Hulk and Captain Marvel?” Sarah asked and only cried harder.
“I think you’re onto something,” Anusha commented. “We’re all feeling better than we did before, much better than we should from just drinking some water, right?”
“Right,” I agreed with a questioning tone. Where was she going with this?
“Maybe the purple moss isn’t just moss, maybe it has some regenerative properties to it. Haven’t you noticed that all the plants have a purple tint and how they all seem bigger than the plants on Earth? Maybe there’s something in the water here that makes them that way.”
“So you’re saying that maybe instead of getting sick from the water, maybe it’s given us extra strength?” Kayla asked.
“Maybe?” Anusha shrugged her shoulders.
