The archiveofourown version of this comes with a sketch. I'm not going to post a mutilated link here when it'd be less effort for anyone interested to just find it over there than to repair the link from here.
Maka found herself standing on solid, damp rock, smelling fresh water. As far as she could see was more jet black and jagged stone, like the whole landscape was made of obsidian. Some of the spikes were high enough to block her view, while other sections were low enough that there were black puddles of water in the depressions.
She wasn't only lower, she was all the way down at water level. This place was wonderful. The color scheme wasn't too bad either. She twisted her bag around so it was hidden under her belly then made her way down. She was only a bit lighter than her surroundings, so she'd have an easier time avoiding any weird animals down here, at least if they used sight. The rock felt pleasantly warm against the underside of her tail, but it was still cooler than she was. She was pretty sure apes couldn't see with heat, though. And smell wouldn't be accurate enough to really worry about.
The sky was blocked by white...clouds... She shuddered and dropped flat, umming fearfully and digging her claws into the grooves in the stone. She'd been up above the clouds. That was, that was, she didn't even know how high up that was. She'd thought they were low clouds, fog or something, not whatever terrible number was the actual distance to those in the sky.
She wasn't there now. She was down here, safe and at water level with nice solid stone. You couldn't fall at water level, and she didn't have to ever go back there again. Maybe she could get Spot to bring her things down here, or she could make copies of everything. She could do whatever Knight business there was and win the game without needing her house.
Maka scuttled over to a pool of water. It was clear, invisible against the rock in the dim light from the clouds, but it was far deeper than she'd expected, going down at least ten feet. Nothing seemed to be growing in it, and it smelled more like water from a tap than something out in the open. She dipped her mouth in cautiously and tasted, and it was just...water. Nothing else, no hint of life. Not even the tang of minerals. Weird. She got back onto her hind legs and looked around. There must be someone alive around.
She found a wide trench that could have been a river if everything wasn't so still, and slid into the cool water. She swam down, slipping between unworn juts of stone and found nothing but more obsidian at the bottom.
Maka surfaced and continued until she found more of the apes. It was easy, all three had white spots that made them stand out at a distance on the endless black rock. One had hooves and the other two paws. She'd seen both types in her house, as well as ones with faces like Spot's, but she hadn't been able to get this close with Spot zapping them into grist. As far as she understood, they were modified in similar ways to combining punch cards, taking on the qualities of what had been in the kernel. Apparently that covered hooves but not quadrupedalism.
These ones stuck to the higher areas, although the hoofed one didn't seem able to handle the steeper slopes and was a bit below the other two. She lifted her head out of the water. Maybe they'd be less aggressive out here.
The closer ape, with hooves, hissed and rushed down toward her, gnashing its teeth. A few seconds later one of the pawed apes noticed, then the last one as well. They didn't seem to be paying any attention to each other. Even simple animals would usually notice what another one was doing, and all apes she knew were relatively smart. And what would the point of all the noise they made if it wasn't meant to attract their attention? It just warned her one had noticed she was there. Maybe it was meant to intimidate her? She moved her tail lazily. She was confident she could outswim them if it came to that.
The ones with hooves put down a foot in a pool of water and recoiled, flailing its arms around to keep its balance. It carefully edged around the area, only to come to the edge of the larger pond she was in and repeat the process. Then it just stared and hissed at her from the water's edge.
All three ended up there, side by side and grinding their teeth together. They couldn't swim or even tell where the water was without stumbling over it, Maka thought. The game hadn't done anything to make them suited to this place.
"You really don't talk?" Maka asked. "You don't even have a concept of talking?" They kept hissing and snarling over her.
She submerged. They quieted immediately, as if they thought she was actually gone. Don't even have object permanence, Maka thought, popping out again. She lunged for the left one, closing her jaws around its middle and then jerking back into the water before the other two could react. The ape popped into build grist, which then popped out of existence at her touch. The other two were still standing there, as if they hadn't noticed her attacking one of them. She grabbed the next one.
What a weird place, though. If it was made by the game... Spot had seemed a bit confused on if the game had made it or just brought her to somewhere that already existed. Maybe the planet here was incomplete and she was supposed to transform it as well with some similar alchemy? There must be more to it than just making wireless headphones and weird shoes, and Spot said there was something more to do down here than ape watching. She probably should have asked more, but she'd been preoccupied with getting somewhere safe before she fell.
She reached the end of her current pool and climbed back onto the stone.
"Hey. Kid."
Maka jumped to her feet. There was someone there! Much bigger than one of the apes, about her size, and dressed in clothes - a shirt and pants made with a white and brown spotted pattern that looked a lot like her cow's. It resembled the apes a bit, four-limbed and bipedal, tailless and black, though it seemed to have something like shell for skin.
"Hello my name is Maka!" she blurted out, running over. "I'm so happy to meet you! Do the smaller apes talk I tried to talk to them but I couldn't get a response they're not your young or anything are they? What's your name? Do you -"
It stabbed her. Maka shot back into the water. A few seconds later she felt the water vibrate with something thrashing around, and turned to see the black thing flailing around as it sank
She twisted and swam back. It still had a knife clutched in one hand and she wasn't sure of the claws on the other, so she grabbed it by the back of its shirt and pulled it back into the rock.
"I'm sorry if I offended you," she told it.
It gasped a few times, then dragged itself the rest of the way out of the water and stood up. "Thanks," it said after a moment.
"I'd like it if you didn't stab me again," Maka said.
She got a grudging, "Fine."
The creature was not related to the apes. He introduced himself as Jack, an agent of the kingdom of Derse, which was also a planet, but not this planet, although this planet was part of their kingdom.
"You have space travel?" Maka said, awed.
He gave her a stare. "Whadya mean?"
"You can travel between planets!"
"An... that's a big deal to you?" he said slowly. "You're pretty easily impressed, aren't you kid."
"It's so far," Maka said.
"This is the same bullshit as your whining about how your house is up high isn't it. Kid, you are the most pathetic destined hero I've ever met. How do you expect to get anything done if you can't even handle going to another planet. What do you think all those Gates are for?"
"I'm supposed to do that?" she squealed. "You mean I'll get to go to your planet?"
"Well, I was talking 'bout the Lands and Skaia. But now that you mention it..." He grinned at her, his mouth full of friendly sharp teeth. "Do you know anything about queens?"
Maka: Describe yourself.
Maka is of AVERAGE HEIGHT AND BUILD. Her tail is a bit longer than usual and makes up OVER HALF HER SIZE. She knows a great deal about ANIMALS. She has LOVELY DARK EYES.
She has had a SHELTERED BUT ISOLATED upbringing. She lived AT THE COOLER EDGE OF THEIR LANDS, near MOUNTAINS, therefore she DRESSES EXTREMELY LIGHTLY so her SUN-ABSORBING SCALES can help keep her warm. The lack of PEOPLE probably contributed to her BLEEDING HEART NONSENSE about SOME ANIMALS having LANGUAGE even when they are not technically ABLE TO TALK. She feels strongly about THIS AND OTHER SUBJECTS and regularly gets into ARGUMENTS with her friends.
She has unusually keen senses, including a RUDIMENTARY HEAT SENSE which is BASICALLY NONFUNCTIONAL in most of her species.
She is twelve years old.
Also, she is a six foot long crocodile.
