"Found you."
He could almost imagine sparkles around them as she carried him in her arms. Luckily, that was short-lived as he quickly jumped out, a smile creeping on his face.
"Took you long enough, though I would much rather you have found Cassie than me first."
Looking down, she let out a short sigh.
"Let's have this talk on land, and not on top of the bodies of bleeding nightmare creatures that will attract even more."
She was so extra at times. Brushing that thought away, he spoke.
"And how are we going to get to land? Wait, actually, how did you even get here?"
He could have sworn he saw a small smile appear on her face as she turned her back to him.
"Hop on, we don't got all day."
"I would rather be eaten by nightmare creatures."
---
Letting out small groans, she rolled around in the dirt. After falling down the cliff, she fell into a vast lake that carried her downstream. Luckily, when she had landed in the water, her body turned enough to where her front was peeking out of the water. Still, while grateful she didn't drown, her body was aching all over.
It didn't help that water was in her ears, robbing her once more of another sense. That part was especially dangerous, as she relied on her hearing more than anything else. Having her echo stand guard around her at the moment was the best she could do, and judging by how still everything was, it seemed there wasn't any secret fight going on at the moment.
Well, that is what she thought before tremors shook through the earth around her. Jumping up, she tried to quickly knock the water out of her ears to no avail due to the sheer amount.
The rumblings persisted, and then a voice other than her own popped up in her head.
[You have slain Eidolon Wretch]
[You have received a memory]
---
"DAMNATION DAMNATION DAMNA—"
"Will you shut up already?"
Flying through the air were Sunny and Nephis. Riding on her back, she shot a pressurized flame out of her hand. Still, despite all the harrowing things he had experienced, seen, and felt, for some reason, flying over the ocean was unimaginably terrifying.
It didn't help that Nephis was muttering curses under her breath now—whatever was happening couldn't be good.
"Sunny... do you know how to swim?"
A terrifying premonition took ahold of him.
"And why exactly are you asking that..."
"Well, you see... I'm about to run out of ess—"
Before she could finish her sentence, the flames had stopped, and they began to fall—straight into the dark ocean. Looking around frantically, he tried to think of anything they could use, but it truly looked like they were falling into the void with how dark and vast the empty ocean was... well, he supposed it wasn't empty.
"DAMNATION DAMNATION DAMNA—"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP, YOU MUTT!"
Grabbing onto him, she prepared for them to fall into the ocean, only to be met with a horrifying sight. Sunny took his hand and ripped out his own throat. Reaching out her hand, she noticed a change in his black eyes, turning black to pitch darkness—no, that wasn't it.
Soon enough, a fish-like creature appeared in his vision, reflecting in his clear eyes. Suddenly, his missing throat was replaced with scales and gills trailing around the sides and front of his neck. Throwing her up an OK sign, he dived down below her before grabbing onto her thighs, letting the water take them.
By the time her head came up, they were already swimming—or rather, Sunny was—while she was on his back, riding him while he was submerged underwater. Looking back, she saw shadows wrapped around his feet, helping him kick off.
Summoning the Dream Blade, she fended off nightmare creatures that approached them. It was quite embarrassing with their positions reversed.
"Damnation..."
---
Sinking the dagger memory she had received into an unknown creature, she let out a groan.
It's been around three days since they had landed in the dream realm.
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
All around her was death as her echo continued to kill the horde of weak nightmare creatures that were trying to attack her. Her hair was dirty, scratches ran over her entire body, and it seemed as if she had a permanent snarl etched on her face from the events of the past few days.
Still, falling over after tripping on a rock just reminded her of how debilitated she was. Letting out curses under her breath, she stood up, walking around in a circle until she found a corpse of a nightmare creature. Feeling its body, she determined it was bunny-like, with two long teeth and long ears paired with a fat body.
It was a bunny! Only if bunnies were eight feet tall, with teeth bigger than her arm and fur that felt like wood planks, of course.
Commanding her echo to dismantle it, she began to gather sticks. She hadn't eaten in three days either, simply due to the lack of anything edible. Finally, though, she could eat.
Setting up, hopefully at least, a pile of sticks, she took two and rubbed them together as fast as she could. Eventually, sparks did come and a fire started. Jumping back, she began to use the leftover sticks to skewer the meat her echo had taken off the bunny-like creature.
Sticking the meat near the fire, she overestimated her distance and burnt herself.
"DAM—"
Holding in her scream, she backed away. It seems that Sunny had been quite an influence.