I’ve never been one to… think, much. Actions make waves, actions have meaning, actions give life meaning, but actions can also cause crazy things to happen. I don’t really care for fear or things like that. What do I have to be scared of? I’m a good one, I’ve always been good. It’s why I remain so deep in the undertow current, around those who understand me so well. I’m not violent and I’m not stupid. They just don’t get it.
I can speak freely with them as if they are my own kin. Lord Squiggles and Sir Wiggly are the only ones that tell me I’m not dumb. They say that, although I’m weird, that my mind is right. They say I’m smart. They say that my desire for more combat is warranted; my desire to be in the water perfect. That’s why I chose to stay down there with them. Or at least, until I found myself in this situation.
Why I agreed? I don’t really know. A part of me wanted to stay with all of my friends under the water. Those that are most like me, who live for the sake of living. Yet, a part of me desperately wanted to be free, to explore, to venture out to something or somewhere that was unknown. When I told my friends they told me that I was being odd, that I should just stay with them and protect the water’s of our home. Yet then they told me that it was in my nature to seek adventure. That my desire to explore was as much a part of me as the sea itself. I didn’t really get it, but I also made a choice on that day. A choice to see this through, and to do what I can for the others.
“Wake up.” The voice attempted to wake her from the slumber she enjoyed.
“Wake up.” The voice bit at her eardrums again, yet she did not want to wake.
Everything felt so odd, as if the very air around herself were attempting to lull them into a deep slumber. Her ears twitched, hands clasping over them as of to protect them from something, but the force at which she had done so only managed to cause more harm than good. Perhaps it was due to her overexposure to time under the water, but it seemed that some actions required far less force than others. It was due to this too late realization that she had managed to slap herself on both sides of the face at once.
She rolled about on the ground, whining in a manner which sounded like a melody one might hear from a dolphin mimicking a whale, but only stopped once the ringing had done the same. It was during this time she might come to realize a key details regarding the surroundings which accompanied her… that being she didn’t know any of it at all. She attempted to rise to her feet, only to have her head collide with something above her and fall flat on her face when taking into consideration that her form was both large and lacking legs. It was easy enough to float about in a bubble, but since when had her defenses been disengaged? The air felt dry, warmth beaming down on her, she found herself with only a single option.
Aberrant, glowing eyes gazing down at her body as it surged and swirled. Like a whirlpool at her center absorbing her very being as it shrunk down steadily until what was once present was no more. Water seemingly drawn into that which now stood in its place. She couldn’t recall how long it had been since she looked like this, incapable of comprehending the thought of spending extended periods of time away from the water she called her home, but that came with its own series of problems. She was not weak nor small, thin yet with enough meat to pass as healthy. Skin as pale as sand resting at the sea’s edge, hair as white as the horizon clouds which touched the ocean, eyes as green as the algae resting at the deepest depths. Clothes… who needs them?
She attempted to stand to her feet, wobbling about as of that alone were a strenuous task, but standing tall once it had been accomplished. Then, with a single step forward, she found herself flat on the ground again with her face in the grass. Another whine, this time audible in a manner that was not made to sound like a distraught creature of the sea. She attempted to push herself back up to her feet, yet gave up halfway through, choosing to crawl across the ground instead. It was a slow process, each movement seemingly requiring more focus than the last, then the pushed herself up and once again took hold of her balance. Each step like a careful game of “not too fast and not too slow” as she walked in the most diabolically nonsensical of ways. It wasn’t until she had found herself at least moving forward, albeit slowly, that she felt confident enough to begin focusing on other things…
It was at that moment she had made the initial move to fall on all fours and sniff the ground. The smell certainly reminded her of Florita, but as her instincts cried out for her to act she did the first thing that came to mind and opened her maw. Razor sharp rows of teeth, much like that of which you would find in a shark’s maw, bit down onto the earth and filled her mouth with a fresh clump of grass. She only chewed it for several seconds before opening her mouth and allowing the now green paste to slide off of her tongue as her body lurched in protest. She knew there was water in it at the very least, she just didn’t expect it to taste so bad. However, her body still acting as it always had, she next crawled over to the nearest tree and repeated the process. Teeth sinking into the bark as if it were the softest of materials before munching on the material for several seconds. While it did not please her anymore than the grass had, she certainly did not dislike it more as it took nearly double the time for her to let the splinters of now moist paste fall from her mouth to the ground.
She eyed her surroundings as if preparing to search for the next attempt at a meal, but that was when she had finally spotted their companion who had already been awake.
How long have they been there? They must be a master of sneaks to sneak up on me like this! But I know them, they smell… familiar. Wait!
She steadily made her way over on wobbly legs before choosing to instead stick to all fours, stopping short of them before sniffing the air. If that weren’t weird enough, she next sniffed at their feet, then their legs, then as much of them as they possibly could before the most uncertain of smiles formed on her face. It wasn’t that she did not trust her companion, rather it was a smile that could not be trusted as far as you could throw it. The type of smile that told you outright that they had no plan, no idea what they were doing, and if you were so bold could go as far as to say that it was a smile that demanded you understand the lack of thought behind their very existence.
“Heh hahah, hi.” A proper start to any conversation, one could say. The type of thing that could only leave the mouth of someone oblivious to almost everything around them. “What are we doing?”
Of course she had made the decision to come here, it was imperative that she know it was her decision to come here, but she’d be damned if she knew exactly what they should be doing now that they actually had done whatever they were now doing. She remembered being present for the gatherings, slithering away when they were almost caught, the planning and planning… she could barely remember any of it… or none of it. All she knew is that she was there now and someone it looked as if she could trust was right there. A perfect coincidence as all things should be, the ramifications for if anyone else were nearby other than them being a means to her roaming off with a group of random individuals. Even so, it was clear that she would not be doing too much in such a strange place on her own.
“Do you have snacks? I’m hungry,” she spoke as her smile persisted.
It wasn’t that she was just purely oblivious or acting by haphazard nature alone. No, she knew that this person could be trusted. Relying on her instincts was solely dependent on the absolutely broken nature of her luck. It was less that she knew these others currently around her, but rather more that she trusted them before she knew why. The answer yet remained simple. Such is the unpredictably absurd nature of War, and a nature which will never change.
