Black Water

Ori's breath was shallow, his heartbeat nervously fast. Looking up to where the surface of the lake should have been, glowing softly in the moonlight, there was nothing. Pure darkness was all he could see now, the only source of any light anymore was himself. He illuminated only a small area of the water in front of him, too short a distance to see anything before it was far too late to do anything about it. He widened his eyes to try to remedy the obvious problem that there would be something eventually, but there was nothing to be done. His eyes were useless in the darkness, leaving him with his internal monologue. "This was a bad idea…," he mumbled to himself. Although being able to breathe while under the water was a big improvement over yesterday's exploration attempt, he still felt helpless and vulnerable.

As he dove deeper, it began to become difficult to tell up from down. Only the subtle tingling in his belly and the weight of his organs inside him could tell him which direction was the one that led further into the unknown darkness. While sight remained useless, he could feel the water getting colder and colder as he got closer to the bottom, pulling him as if a magnet lingered there. For the meantime, though, nothing but the inky abyss awaited him. It almost felt as if he were making no progress as he swam deeper, without any visible indicators to prove him otherwise. The tingling sense became stronger the deeper he sank, however, ensuring that he was going somewhere. Whether there was an end to the journey was yet to be seen, though.

Suddenly, the water around him became unnaturally thicker, as though he swam in oil. The pressure exerted on his skin threatened to crush his internals, but he soon noticed that it wasn't the water changing around him, but a presence nearby applying the squeezing. It was the strangest feeling, a nerve deep within the recesses of his mind detected something, and even though he couldn't see anything, he knew there was an evil aura nearby. A very deadly aura.

Giving up on sight, he closed his eyes to focus on the energy pulling him along. He tried to take a distance of how far he was from the source, but it seemed that no matter which direction he swam in, the feeling only became stronger. He almost involuntarily followed the small fluctuations in the path the sense provided, completely losing his orientation as it twisted and turned towards the source, be it danger or something else.

The stronger the feeling got, the more his mind began to play with all his thoughts, be them related to his situation or not. At first it was only minor questions, but now the nearly unbearable tingling in his belly shot around like a lightning bolt that couldn't decide on a place to land. What awaited him at the bottom? Why couldn't he avoid its presence even when he traveled in a different direction? What would it do with him once he got there?

Meanwhile, his stomach seemed to be having its own thoughts, independent of his input. Not only could he feel how it digested the fruits he had eaten recently, but more importantly the fervent screaming for him to cease with his foolish curiosity and swim for the surface immediately.

No matter. It wasn't like he could stop now, his curiosity pulling on him with a strong suction and bringing him ever further down into the abyss.

Finally, his vision was able to catch a silhouette of something in front of him. Excited at first, he quickly decided against that feeling as his heart skipped a beat.

Before him was the ugly, unpleasant appearance of an enormous, hungry plant with a gigantic mouth. It was as if the abyss itself had culminated into a physical form, a living creature ready to claim its prey.

And he was the victim.

His concerns from earlier were correct. By the time he had confirmed that the plant was indeed in front of him, he was already doomed. His screams tore the eerie silence apart as the plant caught him in a forceful grab and ensnared his limbs. They got louder as the plant opened its horrible maw, equipped with its facsimiles of teeth and began to move him toward it.

He tried everything, struggling long and hard to move anything useful, even trying to bite the plant and tear away, but it was clearly a futile effort.

There was only one option left. "I must try it!" he shouted to himself, psyching himself up for the attempt. He closed his eyes and focused on a certain picture he had visualized earlier. A long, thin blade, with a mono-molecular edge. The blade materialized in his paws and cut through the plant's tissue easily, as if he were cutting butter. With a shout, he swirled his sword around him and ripped himself free of the plant's grasp, it's dark-green tangles dying as they sank to the lake's floor.

Yet the plant was anything but defeated.

He quickly realized that his opening move was only the beginning of a tough battle for survival, a fight to the death. His first real fight he'd ever been in, and it was with the monstrosity before him. Even though he didn't feel ready for such an experience, he simply didn't have a choice. He would have to fend for his life.

His heart beat a thousand times a minute and his breath was shallow both from fear and disgust. He kept the tip of his weapon pointed at the enemy, grasping the hilt as tightly as he could.

While the plant didn't have eyes per say, it was able to sense the danger coming from its intended prey. Possibly it would be too tough to be worthwhile? Maybe it would be a good idea to look for something else? But there weren't any other options. No other still living options, at least. The only option was the tasty, squishy spirit and its soft glow. The plant shut its mouth and prepared its long green tentacles for a strike. The little creature wasn't a mere victim anymore, he became a real opponent that the plant had to defeat in order to survive.

"That's right!" Ori yelled. "I… won't… be… your… dinner!" he said, stuttering second half of his message. It was only normal to be scared of anything that wanted to tear him into tiny pieces for eating, after all. Oddly enough, the traumatic experience actually served to calm his earlier questions. He didn't focus on the irrelevant "past" or "future" anymore. All that remained was the present, and he zeroed in on it. Here and now, that was all that mattered. This fight wouldn't end in a draw.

The moment before action was always the worst, the tension balanced and yet imminently crumbling, the last few threads supporting far more than they could, snapping one by one. Time stood still as Ori held his position, bravely holding the sword in his paws.

Whoosh! The deadly tentacles of the plant zoomed at him at tremendous speeds. It had made its decision, locking in their fates. The little spirit was prepared for that move, and he swam aside as quickly as he could, swinging his blade through the area he once was with all the force he could muster through the dense water. When the green tentacles arrived at their destination moments later, they found themselves cut off from their source and sank into the black, lifeless and dead.

Silence arose again. The spirit tried his best to stay calm and made sure to watch every movement his enemy made for any sign of an attack. As far from the plant as he was, the only option he had was counterattack, inefficient as it may be. He still had to figure out a way of rendering the plant harmless, how to strike back himself. Fortunately, his teacher Kiri had taught him much, including the technique of remaining calm even in the face of death.

There wasn't much he could do, however. He was the only light source down this far, and he couldn't make out anything that might reveal his opponent's plans. The hit he had scored from before was merely a product of incredible luck.

Suddenly, Ori could feel a strong limb grasp around his chest, complete with a slippery, sharp texture. It was so tight that he could feel the individual nerves shooting bolts of pain through his system. The sensation caused him to release a brief squeak before regaining his focus. It was obvious now that he wasn't going to win this fight by attacking the plant from the outside, and he thought about just letting it believe it won. Just letting it get its huge mouth over him, and escaping afterwards. Maybe he could actually fight fairly from inside the hunter's maw, where things would be close enough that he couldn't miss? Of course, that plan was dangerous. What if the plant closed its jaw faster than he could avoid the fangs, and they locked him in? What if he dove too deep, and was devoured as he fell into whatever lay beyond its growling throat? There weren't any other options he could think of, however. He was already at the mercy of the plant.

Finally catching its victim, the plant pulled its trap back to its mouth. Ori had to be fast, if he took too long then there was no telling what would happen. He swirled his blue blade around in a skillful movement and broke free, placing him directly in front of the mouth of the plant.

Before the plant could react to the spirit's trick, Ori stuck his weapon right into the walls of its mouth, cutting deeply through the plant's "flesh." He cut so deeply that the plant began to writhe strangely in pain and allowed Ori to distance himself from the dangerously sharp teeth. The enemy had spent every one of its strong tentacles in its attempts at catching him earlier, and had no means of grabbing him now. Yet the fight was far from over, it would not be discouraged from finally catching its prey at whatever cost. It had to be possible somehow!

The little spirit hovered motionlessly above the plant, completely concentrated on the plant's actions. "What are you going to do next?" he thought. A second later, he had a sudden idea. His enemy wasn't able to reach out for him anymore, and escape should be easy!

Or so he thought.

While the plant may not have had limbs with which to strike, that certainly was not enough to immobilize it. It began to float upward towards him, and forced Ori to swim to maintain his safe distance. He carefully watched the plant from every angle he could, looking for what it could possibly hope to be doing. Then, along with a gulp in disgust and fear, he saw. The plant had created tentacle-like legs and began to walk… or potentially hover, it wasn't like he could tell… along what looked to be the bottom of the lake bed. It didn't move quickly, and he thought he was safe for the time being, but to his surprise, the lumbering pace wasn't even close to its top speed. It shot right at him like a furious octopus and he barely managed to dodge the attack at the last second, taking the opportunity to run his sword down its side. He wasn't prepared though, and the attack didn't have nearly the effect he hoped it would.

Treating inertia like a game, the plant turned around almost instantly and zoomed at him even faster than it had before. Ori didn't have any time to react, much less put any plan into action. In shock, he held his breath as he tried to figure out what had just happened. All he had seen was how the blackness of the underwater world had vanished to reveal the dark green color of the plant's insides.

He was lucky he could see at all, any other creature would have been rendered blind far before they ever reached this point. The bluish light he brought everywhere scratched at the sharp contours of the teeth surrounding him, poking out of almost every corner he could see. Trapped, that's what he was. He could feel his calmness drifting away as panic climbed his spine and his body began to shake in fear. Not one to give up easily, he placed the edge of his right paw over his chest and counted his heartbeats, following the fast rhythm while also imagining a slower version in his head, causing his actual heartbeat to slow along with it, a technique he'd learned from Kiri near the beginning of his training. He still remembered what his master had said as he'd taught both him and his sister that. "No matter what happens, stay calm. Only a calm mind will lead to to success in danger, follow other emotions and you will be lead astray." Those words seemed clear at the time, but what did they really mean? Staying calm seemed impossible in the situation he was in! To make the situation even worse, he noticed a slow movement ripple along the green walls that contained him. They were closing!

The deadly and very sharp teeth tightened around him from every direction. If he wasn't panicking before, he definitely was now. He swung his blade around frantically several times into the walls with all the force he could bring, but his attempts were fruitless. Unlike before, where he had stabbed deeply with a clean stroke and caused real damage, the plant seemed as if it were thickly armored on the inside all of a sudden. A strange turn, but not one he had time to question. He swore the earlier injury had occurred at exactly the same spot he had swung at just now. He had to come up with a new plan fast, or let the spiky green walls seal his fate.

An idea came to mind. He closed his eyes and imagined a large spear, long and sharp to protect him, dangerous and robust to make sure it could keep doing so. As he finished with the visualization, something emerged from his paws. His freshly designed weapon stretched majestically as its blue light glowed bright. To his dismay, the spear stopped far too short to be the one from his mind. It hardly reached his own body height. "Not long enough!" he thought, and he focused his light harder to extend it further, but then he remembered Kiri's warning. He couldn't enhance his light to be any longer than it already was with normal efforts, and even if he somehow found a way to do so, the act would certainly kill him.

Out of light and out of ideas, Ori prepared for the worst. The wall of terror moved closer, its deadly teeth ready to crush their victim like an iron maiden. He couldn't control his heartbeat any longer. His vision became blurry and shock spread throughout his body, manifesting itself as an unbearably painful stinging sensation. Was this really the end? He could feel the first tooth tickle his right ear with its peak. Shortly after, another reached his left leg, and the space left began to become too small for him as even more stinging pain shot through his nerves. There wasn't anything left to do, and he closed his eyes as tears flowed freely from them. Time slowed as he was ready to live through his final moments in the greatest pain he would ever feel. It slowed too much for his liking, actually. He didn't want to suffer any longer. All he wanted now was quick death, though it seemed like it would be much worse. His prayer wasn't answered, and the process slowed even further. More irritated at the reluctance of the universe to give him even one grievance in the worst moments of his life than anything, he opened his eyes to see one of the greatest sights he had ever seen, letting out an astounded gasp as he recognized what it was.

The walls arrived at both ends of his spear…and stopped! No further could they move, the strength of the spear ensured that. Taking a deep breath, his pool of indescribable fear was flooded with a tidal wave of relief. The world had gifted him extra time to plan his escape.

Meanwhile, the plant was confused. Never before had it not been able to chew through its victim. Not many creatures were still fighting for survival by the point its latest one was, and it swam around frantically, unsure of what to do. Losing focus on its crushing maw, it opened ever so slightly. It was the luckiest thing Ori had ever had happen to him.

The walls of the plant separated further as the mouth opened, and the previous heavy tension on the spear was released. Acting fast, Ori stuck the spear forcefully into the tiny slit between him and freedom. With one push, he easily broke free.

Irritated, the plant sensed its once certain victim break free from its mouth. Again, it charged at its prey, but Ori was familiar with that kind of attack. All he needed to do was move a bit upwards, and it couldn't catch him. One perfectly executed plan later, he was given the opportunity to land his most destructive hit yet.

Taking advantage of the situation, he quickly swirled about his axis and plunged the tip of his spear right into the origin of the plant's tentacles with a shout. Focusing his energy, he felt the plant cease to be a living being right in front of him as its nerve core was severed from the rest of its body. It immediately stopped moving and became nothing more than a dead object, sinking down into the black abyss like the rest of the debris in the lake.

He made it. The plant was no more, and he was still alive. Panting under the water was an interesting experience, but he was more than happy to be able to breathe. He could feel the adrenaline shooting around his body begin to drain, set free in shivers as he relaxed after the harrowing ordeal.

Unfortunately, the peace didn't last long. Just as he began to wonder exactly what to do next, he felt the water around him begin to fall. A soft suction was pulling the distorted water into an unknown hole that led even further down. It wasn't long before he realized that the suction meant danger!

Ori pushed with his legs with all the strength he had remaining, but it was of no use. To his dismay, all his kicking seemed to do was barely slow his decent towards the pit. Pure desperation unlocked deeper reserves of strength, pushing harder, whimpering as it still wasn't enough. All his struggles, and he was still to meet whatever lay in the pit below. His mind came up with twisted idea of what he might find down there. Was the pit an eternal black abyss from which he would fall forever, unable to escape? Was there an even bigger predator below, sucking its victims in for a typical meal? Would he even know?

Whatever it was, the vortex was dying to enlighten him with the answer soon enough. Despite his efforts, it was only a matter of seconds before he was sucked down into the unknown, quieting his screams of terror. As the water got tighter around his body, he closed his eyes and was forced into a deep, unconscious slumber.