Tear remembered hearing someone once say something along the lines of "Heroes never really get over their fears, since courage is just the ability to push past fear; any hero claiming to be completely fearless is either lying or fresh off the boat from Maple Island."
She didn't remember this right now, of course. The whole "falling off a waterfall into a bottomless pit of nothingness" was a bit more urgent than a nice truism that, in retrospect, was probably something from a motivational poster instead. Plummeting to your doom has a small tendency to make some people's minds go completely blank in sheer terror.
"TEAR! KID! HEY! KID!"
Some of the lucky people have their minds inhabited by ancient Nova deities.
"TEEEEEAAAAAR!" Eskalade cried. "USE YOUR…HOOK! THING! TEEEEEAAAAAR!"
Some of the rusted-up gears turned in Tear's head until she finally remembered that she had a grappling hook. Still screaming, Tear twisted herself around, summoning her Soul Shooter as she did so. Aiming at a small ledge above her, she felt the energy condense at the tip of her weapon, and she fired.
The hook shot straight up and crashed into the ledge. Tear expertly twisted around the chain and slowed her descent, grinding to a halt just as she felt the energy chain start to grow too long to maintain.
Tear cracked one eye open. She had stopped falling, for now. That was good. Not falling was good.
"Kid…" Eskalade panted, or whatever the equivalent of panting was for ghost dragons. "…thank the gods, kid."
Tear slowed her breathing back to normal. Battle experience took over and started to analyze the situation.
'Alright Tear,' she thought, 'you're hanging by a magical chain off a cliff. What can you do?'
What was nearby? Some floating ledges, and the cliff face behind the waterfall. Also, darkness.
Use nearby things to her advantage? The floating ledges were too far apart vertically to be of any use, and the literal tons of cascading water made climbing the cliff impossible for her.
Which way does she want to go? Up led to the camp site and her friends, but it was impossible to reach. Left and right seemed to stretch on infinitely into dark fog. But there was also…
Tear glanced at the abyss beneath her. It looked so close, like she could reach out with her foot and touch some sort of invisible floor, but she knew better.
There was, supposedly, a path to the bottom of the falls. If she could make it down, she could wait for her friends there.
There was water beneath her. That could break her fall if she timed her flash jumps properly. Assuming the bottom wasn't some sort of invisible floor, of course.
Tear took a deep breath.
"Esky! I'm dismissing the chain!"
"WHAT?!"
"And if we survive this fall I'm telling Kyle about the tail-sucking incident!"
"I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THAT MEANS SO PLEASE DON'T JUMP INTO THE-"
"ThreetwooneGO!"
Normally Tear would have found an ancient Nova deity screaming like a little girl to be hilarious, but today she shoved her smugness aside for a moment and focused on the wind as it picked up. Her stomach started to float and she grit her teeth as the darkness came closer and closer, until Tear was left surrounded by absolutely nothing.
The roar of the water and the roar of the wind became indistinguishable from silence. For a brief moment, Tear thought that she had died; that her grappling hook had missed its mark and she had become a girl-shaped pancake.
And that's when she saw the sun.
The sky turned so blue so fast that Tear had to rub her eyes and blink away her night vision.
The sky was blue, the water beneath her was blue. A short distance ahead of her lay, of all things, a lush, green island speckled with color here and there.
"Wha-wha…whaaaaaat?!" She exclaimed, forgetting her landing strategy for a moment. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHH! HOW DID I GET SO HIGH UP?!"
It was a stupid question, but the blue sky, river, and island had kind of thrown her off her game.
When her brain had finally processed the information, Tear immediately twisted herself upright. Delivering a powerful kick to the air beneath her, she heard the familiar, magical "pop" of her flash jump. The roar of the wind died down slightly, and she could hear Eskalade screaming like a little girl again.
She was contemplating when to make her second kick when a grey blur shot out from beneath her. Startled, Tear let out a squeak of surprise and flailed about in mid-air, just in time to collide with the blur.
"OOF!" She felt the wind get knocked out of her as she collided with something large, solid, and…kind of slimey?
"Wha…I…" Tear scrambled upright as she felt herself moving forward instead of down. "I'm…alive?!"
She squished her fingers together slightly and glanced down.
"Wait…am I riding a f-flying fish?!"
A fish with wings. A literal flying fish. A person who hadn't just fallen 30 stories probably would have been questioning the biology of such a creature.
"You know what," Tear said aloud, "it doesn't even matter. Mr. Fish, you're my best friend right now!"
Mr. Fish, being a fish, said nothing, and continued flying along at top speed, as flying fishes do whenever a strange big-headed monkey creature lands on top of them.
Tear frowned. "Um…Mr. Fish? Where are we going?"
Mr. Fish zipped along the river, trees blurring in the background. Tear could see various, colorful rocks jutting up out of the water, and in the background was a gigantic mountain, the top of which looked uncannily like a large whale. Eskalade had gone completely silent for the time being, and Tear briefly wondered if a spirit was capable of passing out from fear.
Mr. Fish made a sharp right which caused Tear to let out a squeak. The pair barreled down a small inlet, at the end of which Tear could see a gigantic, yellow boulder.
"Mr. Fish?!"
Mr. Fish skimmed the water briefly before making a sharp 180-degree turn. Tear yelped as she was thrown off her new friend and landed on a small strip of land, eventually rolling to a halt.
Tear sputtered and spat out a blade of grass.
"Mr. Fish!" Tear called. But it was of no use, as Mr. Fish simply dove back into the river and began swimming in the opposite direction.
Tear groaned and clutched her head.
"W-where am I?" She wondered aloud. "And why did he suddenly dump me here? I thought Mr. Fish was here to help me…"
"HUNGRY!" Boomed an extremely loud voice behind the Nova girl. Tear jumped in shock and looked every which way to find the source.
"MUTO IS HUNGRY!" The voice boomed again. Tear stood up as she turned around and took in the sight.
What she had thought to be a yellow boulder actually had a face. A very angry face, with a jaw as large as a boat. The golem opened its mouth to speak again.
"MUTO IS HUNGRY!" It repeated.
"Wha-! I-I…" Tear was flustered for a second. "A-are you…you're hungry?"
"YOU HAVE FOOD?! GIVE TO MUTO!"
Tear panicked slightly and patted her sides. Her hands came across her bag and she remembered her leftover sandwich from last night. Hastily, Tear fished half of it out, and frowned. She didn't have any spare food except the sandwich, since Xenon, being considered the most trustworthy of the group, had been given all the edibles, and a pint-sized sandwich was going to be nowhere close to satisfying for a creature of that size, let alone half of one. And if it wasn't satisfied with the sandwich…what if it decided on a nice Tear-casserole instead?
"TASTIES!" The creature boomed.
In a panic, Tear quickly and nervously held out the half to the creature. It opened its mouth and Tear, who had at this point was too afraid to be afraid of being eaten, tossed the half in. The creature's mouth closed, and its expression changed.
"YUMMY!" It boomed, slightly quieter this time. "GIVE MORE!"
Tear blinked, then frowned.
"H-hey, wait a second!" She shouted, quietly. "T-this is my sandwich! I don't have any more so I can't give you any!"
The creature glared at Tear. For a brief moment, Tear thought it was going to eat her instead. She was quickly interrupted when the creature started sniffling, and finally burst into tears.
"WAAHH! MORE TASTY!" It cried.
"Wha-! Buh-! Huh-?" Tear managed. "S-sorry, but–"
"MORE TASTY!" It boomed, sounding angrier this time.
"Eep!" Tear got out.
"Have no fear, your hero is here!" Came a new, unfamiliar voice from behind.
Before Tear could turn around to face whatever crazy thing had arrived now, there was a sharp "crack!", and the girl was out like a light.