Chapter Text
One of the greatest wonders of the continental Alternian landscape is the Cherubid River. Running along the same serpentine path for untold millennia, it cuts a sheer gorge nearly two miles deep and six hundred and twelve miles long from its source in the mountains to the sea. Were it not for the several series of rapids violent enough to make even the most rad of trolls turn away from popping sick tricks in their kayaks, yo, it would likely be a vein of transportation (or, as is more likely on Alternia, invasion) from the ocean to the fertile inland hills and forests. As it is, though, the river is completely inaccessible to brave and foolish alike. Were a particularly skilled climber to take it into their head to test the peril of the gorge, they would find it impossible to fight off the monstrously fanged featherbeasts that glide on the updrafts between the cliffs, and even if they managed to battle down the two miles to the scrubby, misshapen blue trees that cling to slick boulders near the foot of the cliffs, there would be no way for them to long evade the beasts that dwell in the ever-shaded depths of this ancient river.
And yet, on this slightly chilly night, something candy-corn and grey stirred amongst the mottled boulders. This something was tall and sinewy and moved with the slick, silent flow of a predator. If one were, against better judgement, to get closer to this something, one would decide that to call it a “something” would be rude indeed. One would see that this something would be more accurately termed a “someone”- a someone with a toothy smile, black hair pulled back into a fat, glossy braid, and a spear taller than herself strapped to her back. A someone called Feferi Piexes.
This Feferi, on this particular night, moved quickly over sharp scree and mossy boulders. Sometimes she bounced on the balls of her feet, somehow finding purchase in wet moss with her toes and turning a pirouette before gliding to the next foothold. Sometimes she moved on all fours, with one limb or another constantly feeling out a safe purchase amongst the sliding gravel. But no matter what, no touch of her hand or sweep of her toes made a sound in the echochamber of the gorge.
The water she slunk beside appeared lazy and thick, disguising fierce undercurrents that shot to the rapids a several miles downstream. As she approached the border between rock and river, Feferi’s ochre and onyx eyes flicked about, noting the nearly imperceptible incongruencies in the swirling current. Seeing something that satisfied her, she stopped. Her grin stretched and her eyes glittered. Hell YES, she thought, jackpot. Feferi pulled the spear from the rope holding it across her back and tugged loose the rawhide band binding the tail of her braid. Her hair sprung out from its twist and shrouded her body all the way to the dull charcoal sarong at her hips like a thick black veil.
This tall troll girl in a drab skirt stood on the fine line of gravel where the current washed the rocks too clean for moss to cling. Her spear was clenched in both hands. Her feet were planted firmly, but her arms vibrated like a tuning fork; whether from fear or excitement, she could never tell.
This was always the trickiest part; slipping from one world to the next. If she broached the border between air and water with too much disturbance, the monsters writhing in the deepness of the icy water would know her for a landdweller and rip her apart before she got twenty feet deep. She knew they would lay still in wait from a riverbeast, hiding and waiting for it to stray too close to get away. But if they felt a troll in their territory... well. Trolls were, on the whole, too clumsy in the water to get away as quickly as a fish and much too easy of a catch for any sensible predator to waste their patience on. If she wanted to get close enough for a kill, she would have to be indistinguishable from a creature of the water. She breathed in and out three times, slowly, deliberately. Her spear stilled and its slender point glinted pink in the moonlight. On the fourth breath, she traced an opening in the surface of the water with her toes. On the fifth, she let the water wrap around her chest. On the sixth, she pulled her crescent horns down into the blackness. And the floor of the gorge was empty once more.
The world below the surface of the water was muffled in some ways and sharp as crystal in others. Light was mostly useless down here, especially in the deep hollows, sheltered from where the current ran fiercest. Feferi always had a feeling that even if she could get a light down that deep, she wouldn’t see much anyways. The water down there tasted thick and cold and... somehow dark. If you knew how to listen, though, you could hear the flutter of a fin and the gurgle of the current. If you knew how to feel, you could read the buffets of the river with your nerves. You could sense your depth by tasting the chill and feel life by the haze of warmth it left behind. And Feferi knew how to read it all- with her tongue, her toes, her ears. It was better than seeing. She loved the water, the way it hid things so fiercely and told you everything at the same time. Picking apart the water’s secrets was a game she knew how to play; it was the game she was the absolute best at!
As she pushed against submerged rocks towards the deepest pits of the river, she wiggled her head back and forth a few times, clearing the last bubbles of air from her aural canals. Time for some FUN!
Down, down, and down she kicked into the pit in the riverbed. Her hair, floating around her like a cloud, made her seem like a much bigger bite than she really was. As she fought her way past the ripping current above the pit, she felt something stir, twitching out tentacles in the water. Doubtless, the beast could sense her in the same way she sensed it. Dozens of writhing arms pulled back and rearranged themselves in a neat orbit around its head, then settled and stilled. Like most deep monsters, it hadn’t yet met anything it couldn’t eat. And it had certainly never met a creature dumb enough to do anything but swim away as fast as it fucking could.
It had also never met Feferi Piexes.
She curled her body up, feet planted on a submerged rock facing the beast, and adjusted her grip on her spear. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.
Then she struck.
Her legs pumped out like pistons, rocketing her towards where she knew the beast’s blind eye would be. Sharp and fine, her speartip popped through the thick cornea and straight into its brain. Air spurted from lips with the impact.
The water exploded, alive with the thrashing of a wounded monster. Feferi planted her feet on the beast’s skull and wrenched her weapon free. All she had to do now was swim to the surface and wait for it to bleed out, then retrieve its lifeless meat as usual. It wouldn’t take long.
This time, though, the monster had other plans.
Perhaps it was older and fiercer than the horrors Feferi usually found. Maybe it was just angrier. But whether old or angry, one of its tentacles managed to pinpoint the source of its pain and wrapped around her waist. Bubbles burst from her mouth as she was pulled toward its clacking maw.
Desperately, Feferi planted her feet on opposite edges of its sharp beak and jabbed down with her weapon.
Two stabs in one head was too damn much for any monster to deal with. It snapped its mouth shut over her spear and threw her with the energy of despair against the walls of its pit. Dizzy, Feferi scrambled through the bloody water with burning lungs and graceless limbs.
She burst through the surface of the water and clambered onto the rocky shore, gasping down more air than her body could process. Her head swam as she clambered over the sharp gravel. Smatterings of rusty red blood dribbled from the wounds where her feet had pressed against the edges of the monster’s mouth.
As she waited to catch her breath before retrieving the soon-to-be calamari, she shakily tore off strips of her sarong to bandage her soles. Hunting horrorterrors sure was a tough job! Actually, it was less a job than it was a dumbass daredevil hobby. Feferi was pretty sure she was the only one crazy enough (and tough enough) to do it.