Alix fell into the cool mist. Though her eyes remained in place. She could still see the ghost of the mystic in her mind.
"That bastard shoved me."
The wind whirred past her ears as she descended into whatever hell the mystic had prepared for her. Her body broke through the mist. Or was it a cloud?
Now that she was on the outside, she'd been falling through a cloud? How did she end up in the sky?
"Not this aga-"
*Splash!*
She crashed into a body of water, preventing her from finishing her thought. Her eyes opened and burned as she scanned the area.
Like mist, the water was murky and hard to see through. 'Another one of Amalgamate's mysticisms.' Alix thought, 'This is incredibly annoying.'
A low hum pulled Alix out of her mind. She twisted her body, looking for the source. It sounded like a monster of some sort?
The fogginess of the water worked well to inhibit Alix's vision. She couldn't tell the difference between her own hands and the water!
The only things that stood out were a pair of bright pink lights in the distance.
'Wait…' Alix paused, locking onto the lights. They felt like eyes watching her. She swam to the side a bit.
The lights followed.
She swam a little lower, and they dropped to stay in line with her. When she stopped, they stopped.
'Those things are definitely tracking me.'
"Watch out!" A voice shouted. Before she could react, something shoved her. At first, she was upset. Then the lights revealed themselves as a monster, the eyes of a monster.
Its enormous jaws snapped shut right in the space that she once floated.
Alix's eyes widened with the realization that she'd almost been monster food. 'That was close. Who just-"
Alix's eyes froze. The small pink creature beside her smirked.
"What's wrong, Lexi? Did ya forget what I looked like?" Mo asked.
'Mo…" She reached out and touched the fish. His scales felt exactly like she remembered. It felt like it'd so long since she could last touch him.
His scales calmed her mind. The simplicity of the action reoriented her. She could think. She was calm.
For the first time in ages, she could see the pink threads extending from her to Mo.
'Mo, where have yo-"
'No time!" Mo swam into Alix's arms and formed a bubble of protection. Right on time, as the monster from before came back and slammed its tail into them both.
The bubble held for a moment, but only for a moment. It caved under the force of the attack and popped a second later.
"Shit!" Mo cursed. They went flying through the water at high speed. Alix tried to catch herself, but she was still exhausted and injured.
The unknown creature zoomed through the water, catching up to them in an instant. Its body rammed into them, sending Alix spinning.
She used what little bodily control she had left to slow down her spinning. Mo was no longer with her. That was the first thing she realized.
'Mo? Mo!" She frantically looked around. Her eyes quickly found Mo, but the monster found him first.
She saw the monster's jaws open, watched as saliva dripped from its teeth. It was ready to consume whatever stood in its path.
And Mo was in its path.
Alix's eyes widened. "NO!" Her voice rippled through the water, but it didn't stop the monster's jaws from snapping shut around Mo.
Alix had just witnessed her first mate's death. He'd only been a few meters away at best, but she had no chance to save him.
"It happened so fast…" she mumbled, still trying to wrap her mind around what had happened.
'I fell into an ocean, met Mo again, then within moments of meeting him I lost him.' Recounting the events only made them sound more unbelievable.
How could anything happen that fast?
"No…" she denied. "No, this is just a trick! Amalgamate is screwing with me! Mo isn't gone! He wouldn't have gone out so easily! I know he wouldn't, no damned brother of mine would die that easily!"
She screamed. To whom? Likely the mystic. They had to be watching this from their perch, looking down at her with that sickening shifting form and a shit-eating grin.
Alix refused to believe that any of this was real…
Then, almost as if it were mocking her, Mo's heartstring appeared. Right there from her chest, like usual. The small, ethereal string flowed despite there being no movement in this dark sea.
Her eyes shone with vindication. "See? I knew he couldn't be gone. You can't trick me with your stupi-" The girl's words caught in her throat.
This place was dark, not totally dark but dark enough that without the string's light Alix wouldn't be able to see anything. Which is why, when she followed the end of the string, the diminishing light stood out to her.
The light never lessened, only grew. And why did the string seem shorter? Was it Mo? No…he'd be visible in the light.
The string was coming back on its own.
"N-no. But he…" Alix reached for the string. Her eyes stung with betrayal and realization. "Y-you can't- I-I mean you couldn't have-"
She squeezed her hand so tightly that it whitened around the string. She was trying to stop it.
That string was her connection to Mo. She didn't want it back. The retraction didn't stop, so she squeezed her hand tighter, pleading with her soul to stop it.
There was no response.
The string continued its solemn return. A sea of darkness crept closer, and Alix could no longer come up with a plausible explanation for why this was happening.
None besides the obvious, at least.
The last piece of the string pulled into her chest, and the area around returned to its still, void-like state. Though an additional weight made this situation all the more drowning.
Alix floated, unmoving.
Her hands gripped her chest. There was no pain, just a sudden emptiness that felt familiar. And Alix hated this familiar feeling.
"That damned Amalgamate!" she blamed them! They took Mo and put her in this stupid test. It was because of them that Mo died!
"I swear, I'm gonna-"
*Rooaar!*
Alix felt a chill run down her spine. She'd forgotten that she wasn't alone.
Those pink lights were right in front of her and below them, several rows of sharp teeth that were ready to consume her!
She kicked her feet, but the water felt so much heavier than before. Like she was swimming through something much thicker.
'What is this? Why can't I swim away?' She panicked! Her feet kicked harder. She tried to swim faster, but she couldn't tell if she was getting away.
All she could do was kick and hope that she was moving fast enough to-
*Roooaar!*
Not quite fast enough.
Alix looked over her shoulder. She was just in time to see the jaws of the monster snap shut on her.
The surrounding water drained. Alix hit the ground with a wet slap. That proved it. She wasn't in the water anymore.
She was in the monster's mouth. She'd suffered the same fate as Mo.
Without the water, the darkness felt different. The pressure was gone, no longer bearing down on Alix.
Now the dark just felt empty. Just like Alix felt.
'It's just a test…' she reaffirmed. 'He can't be gone. That's not possible. It's another one of Amalgamate's tricks. I just have to get out of here, find Mo, and take all of my rage out on the mystic!'
Alix let out a soft breath. She forced her pain down. Why would she be hurt if Mo wasn't even gone?
But the emptiness didn't dissipate, so Alix ignored it. She needed to focus on the task at hand.
'How do I get out of this monster's mouth?'
Because of the lack of light, Alix relied on her other senses to search for an exit.
It was humid in here. And hot.
Like mid-spring in Pesinwok.
The sharp pain in her arms didn't stop her from feeling around for an exit. Her fingers flinched, they touched something sharp.
'Must be teeth.'
She took a deep breath. It smelled musty in this place. Like a room long forgotten. Her nose crinkled.
She didn't know what she was searching for specifically. Just a way out of this monster's mouth other than down its gullet.
'I really hope that I don't have to go down a monster's digestive tract for freedom.' She thought.
Though she recognized that as a weak hope.
'What am I expecting a door to just appear in a monster's mouth?' She scoffed.
The sound of a door handle being turned startled Alix. She turned toward the sound as the door swung open.
"There you are! Ms. Deminal, what are you doing in the storage closet?" A young woman stood in the doorway with a solemn expression.
"Don't you want to play with the other kids?"