Naren didn't know what to expect. It was the first time he fell through the ocean. Or did he fall through the sky? It was so vast, that Naren wasn't even sure if he dreamed it all up. Honestly, that would probably be the best explanation right now. Though, he doubted it could be resolved with such a rudimentary answer.
The cold hit him first — It was overbearing, to the point of stinging. It wrapped around his face, arms, body, pressing in with weight on all sides. His eyes fluttered open to a view of nothing. He wanted to breath, but he couldn't. There was no air, just something cold, wet, and dense.
His chest tightened immediately, a small sense of panic overtaking his every emotion. Panic flooded in before logic did. This was different from when he sank in water. He could at least move freely, at least understand where he was. This time, nothing was as easy.
Instinct took over, Naren began to thrash, the cold dense material barely giving way. His arms pushed and thrashed. Clearing a little room, though nothing could still be made out. The worst part though, was the muffled sound.
To Naren who's always lived in a loud world, it was now drastically quieter than he would like. Each and every creak he heard felt like it was wrapped under thousands of layers of blankets.
His heartbeat pounded in his skull — fast, frantic, deafening. He could feel it in his teeth. His vision started to blur at the edges, darkness creeping in whether his eyes were opened or not. He couldn't even tell that much.
The cold stopped feeling cold. It felt... like nothing. Nothing was there anymore. His limbs losing all feeling, refusing to respond the way Naren wanted them to. He twitched his arm again, this time he hit something. Something fleshy. He felt around — a hand. Vera's.
'This doesn't help.'
He had to think. There had to be some way to get out of this, whatever it was. Naren concentrated, feeling around him, figuring out what was around him. Then suddenly, he felt small rumbling around him. Slight vibrations moving whatever material was around him around.
It got louder. And louder. AND LOUDER.
An immense pressure broke through the ground under him, leaving Naren only enough time to grab Vera's hand. Propelling him and her up rapidly. Under him a damp warm feeling of something slimy gathered. Then a couple seconds later, Naren finally broke through the surface all the noise attacking him at once. Except, he kept going up. Higher and higher.
Before long, the sun was beaming down on him reaching through the thick layer of fog surrounding them. Around him a vast wide field of white glimmering in the dull sunlight. Even though he wasn't as cold as before, Naren was still freezing. Shivering in place, he moved to glance down, but his body was heavy. He used considereable effort to even do just that.
Though when he did, he regreted it. Right under Naren was a mouth, that kept shooting up fast. Rows of teeth surrounding him in a circle, each at least two meters tall. As his gaze wandered deeper into the beast's mouth, he could see no end to the rows.
'Just my luck.'
Naren let out a long yawn. Even that was hard. In fact, breathing itself was beginning form sweat beads all over his forehead. He was labored and heaving. Even with his previous injuries, this was abnormal.
He scanned the area around. Millions of tiny dull glints littering the field of white, reflecting the sun rays that barely made it through the fog. If only Vera wasn't with him. He thought about leaving her for a second. And honestly, he really wanted and might've even done it. But the thought of what the girl from his dream said stuck with him.
"You found a good friend."
She said that, but Naren wasn't sure what to do with it. He never thought of Vera as a friend, but couldn't sort that out right now. So instead, he filed it somewhere he could ignore and looked back down at the rows of teeth.
The ground below him must've been soft. He was able to sink right through it and then jutt out of it just as easily. But if he jumped down there, would he be stuck like before? If that were the case he would rather just take his chances with whatever creature he was standing on.
His ascension got slower, the beast's mouth would evidently close soon. There had to be something else. Something around to break their fall and not backfire on them.
Then Naren thought for a second. An idea that he normally wouldn't consider. He thought back to the ship, to the castle. Soren had grabbed him once and dragged him down into the reflections against his will.
'Can I bring Vera?'
He decided to give it a shot. Partially to dispel the rumor of being her friend and partially because he was curious himself. If this doesn't work so what, he will definitely survive. Whether Vera does wasn't his responsibility. Which in itself was very contradictory, he could've just sunk into a reflection like normal and saved himself.
Naren tightened his grip on the unconsious girl and lurked forward to the edge of the shaky mouth. The jaws of which began moving. Naren tried jumping off, but his body wouldn't listen. It was heavy. Too heavy. He clicked his tongue, yawning slightly. The difficuly and rough yawn already making him tired.
Naren dug his feet into the tongue of the beast under him. Using all of his strength, he pushed up consumed by the air, knocking the beast itself back a little. He was falling through the air just as before.
'I've been falling a lot recently.'
He could see the creature now. Its body stretched endlessly into the snow, a massive tube of slick, translucent flesh that pulsed with every movement. Naren could see through the skin in patches — veins thick as tree trunks threading beneath the surface, something dark and viscous pumping through them in rhythmic waves.
Its flesh rippled as it moved, hundreds of ridges contracting and expanding in the waves. Osciliating through it's body like a heartbeat, acting like a piston pushing through the ground. Beneath those ridges, buldges pressed against the inside of the skin. Some twitching slightly, thing's it's eaten that hadn't digested fully yet.
Naren gagged slightly, just slightly.
'Gross.'
He shifted his gaze to the ground beneath them. Feeling the reflections this time. Millions called back to him, spoke to him like sweet whispers. Now how does he go about this.
He thought back to Thera and to castle. In Thera, the shadow surrounded him, swallowing him hole. Not really something he could do at the moment with his reflections. But the latter, that might've been possible. Soren had already been in the shadow, grabbing him and pulling him down.
If half of Naren's body was also in a reflection, would he be able to pull in something else? His clothes always came with him, along with any objects he had in his hand like the lit stick on Thera. There must've been some logic to it.
Naren held Vera up. His muscles ached. Something that would have been as easy as breathing before was now causing him to tense up. Well, even breathing was difficult now. When did he get so weak? His veins protruded as his muscles fired. Stiffening and contracting as much as possible to hold Vera above his head.
Making contact with the ground Naren fell right through. Not into the ground however, but through it. His body slowly disappeared, like entering a pool of water, slight rippled forming on the white sheets around him. First his legs fell, then his body, then his arms, then Vera.
About a hundred meters away, a boy laid sprawled out shivering on a sheet of white as he tightened a crimson scarf around his neck. Right next to him, was a little girl only just then beginning to wake up.
Vera rubbed her eyes, shivering from the sudden onslaught of the cold.
"Naren?"
In front of both, dozens of them. Maybe even hundreds.
Massive worm-like shapes erupted from the snow in slow, deliberate waves. Their translucent bodies glistened in the sunlight, segmented flesh rippling as they rose and fell like grotesque pistons punching through the surface.