Over the next few days, the sprite learned a few things about her new situation.
Firstly, while most of her body was feeling better, her wing had definitely been bruised and she shouldn't be flying anywhere, not that she could fly anywhere very straight, anyway.
Additionally, the creature she'd sought refuge on was a Surface Stalker. It didn't speak, and behaved more like an animal than its monstrous look would suggest. It really didn't care about her presence, and she halfway wondered if it had anything to do with how the water ignored her as long as she didn't try to engage with it either.
The Surface Stalker seemed to be genuinely feared by the inhabitants of this sea, which she couldn't blame them for considering their ferocity. It kept her safe by ignoring her, and she couldn't be more relieved to be given time to rest and recover, even if she hadn't exactly found a way out of this place. If only she was big and strong like it so she could protect herself better.
Thirdly, speaking of location, she found out she'd been banished to the Silver-Echo Sea. Hell. Great. No wonder this place was so awful.
She'd also been fortunate in being able to scavenge items and food off the leftovers of the creature. Much to her dismay, she'd been forced to try and eat the salty carrion in an attempt to keep hydrated and nourished, even if it caused her to empty her stomach’s contents more than once. She'd gotten better at finding salvageable pieces at least. The object retrieval had been much more effective, improving her weaponry and arsenal with tools made from what she found.
She even managed to collect some iebba stones. She wasn't too familiar with them, other than knowing them to be currency down here. That wasn't to mention that she didn't even know how they were valued. Some were opal, lots were lead, and they were crafted of varying quality. She might be able to trade with them, if only she could carry them around more effectively. While not heavy due to being seemingly hollow, each stone was nearly a quarter of her size. Perhaps she could make her traders come to her, if she could get far enough away from the Surface Stalker. It'd been her only protection, though. And there was no way she was going back underwater. This place was endlessly deep and she couldn't hold her breath for a long enough period of time to get anywhere meaningful.
She despised her current state, reduced to a benign parasite of this much larger creature just to survive. Effectively stuck on this thing or forced to take a major risk, she felt helpless as she watched her charge and the other creatures around her do as they pleased.
The sprite’s choice was taken from her when a storm kicked up. It had rained before - a miserable experience already as it caused the sea to try and swallow her together with the falling droplets - but this was definitely a storm. The sea creature was unaffected, too big to care about the raging winds that threatened to carry the small fairy away from everything she'd worked so hard for. She'd already lost some of that, too.
She cursed the world that was too big for her.
Eventually she lost her grip on the creature, relentlessly flung into the air.
The sprite had always put an effort to stay close to the creature's back even when she wasn't on it. She avoided its head like it was death, because it probably was.
The wind wasn't giving her much of a choice though, even if she was working her wings the best she could to stay away from it. Better to make an injury worse than to get swallowed, not that it ultimately made a difference. She slammed against the side of the head, and she could see its eye moving to look at her.
There was a pleading look on her face, until jaws parted and she was pulled in by its tongue.
She had to think quickly, gulping as much air as she could while reaching for her knives. Stabbing them into its tongue to avoid getting swallowed was a mistake. A deafening cry of pain resonated in the mouth cavity that shook her to her bones, while the muscle slammed her into the roof to dislodge her. She couldn't let herself slip though. As soon as she reached the stomach she was done for. Instead she tried again, jamming her blades into its neck as she was forced down, its pained cries only having briefly stopped before resuming. Not only that, but it seemed to be aggressively swinging its head and neck to continue confusing her.
The sprite had no idea where she was able to skid to a stop, but she knew she couldn't waste a second. Going back up was dangerous and left her at the risk of being crushed by either the throat or tongue muscles. Going down would just kill her too, she stood no chance of getting out from there. The only way out had to be through. As such, she started cutting.
The tossing and turning was nauseating, and the fairy was pretty sure she lost her meager meal at some point, but she was too focused to pay it any mind. What she was forced to pay mind to though, was the gushing of water, attempting to dislodge her. Her head was starting to spin from the decreasing air within and increasing pressure outside, and she forced herself to keep going, cutting through different types of tissue until she eventually felt no more resistance, followed by more water starting to push in. She was almost there!
She gave it all one last push, broadening the cut until she could squeeze herself through, the water the creature had been swallowing vastly decreasing the pressure of the incoming water, before desperately swimming up to the surface. The water didn't want to release her at first, but she forced it to part with a desperate swipe of her blade. As soon as she was in the sky, she was coughing, then gasping.
Her gaze moved to the creature, which was spasming as it floated in the water. It was bleeding out, probably gone into shock.
The sprite took a deep breath, before letting out a relieved laugh. The drizzle barely even bothered her. She descended onto its back, wanting to retrieve what was left of her things she'd kept. It was… something, and the less she could keep the Sea from having the better. Those were her things. Then, it was time to plan her next move.
The sprite’s next move turned out to be waiting, at least for now. She had to clean and rest. She had to take care of her wing before it became irreparably damaged. She expected probably a day or two before the corpse would be found, at which point she could either hitch a ride or bargain with who or whatever found her.
As she cleaned up the best she could, she couldn't help but look at her reflection. Her clothes were tattered and various colours of rust or red, depending on how fresh the blood had been, even the cloak she'd recently cut for herself out of some sod’s leftover rags. At least most of it wasn't her own blood. The red lighting was not doing her any favors either. Much of her body was red or purple, even swollen. Her nose wouldn't stop bleeding even though she stopped being aware of it. Iron had been all she could taste since getting out of that thing. Well, and also salt. Her hair had lost all cohesion, and trying to gently brush it with her fingers caused lots of it to just abandon her skull rather than untie. She cursed under her breath, choosing to leave her hair be before she started actually balding from the stress.
What would become of her here? Some part of her knew she was going to die one way or another in this place. Some areas she might've stood a chance at surviving. If she'd been truly lucky she'd have landed in Twilit Eden. Maybe she could have found one of the oases in the Deadstone Wastes and lived out her days staying out of Verethragna’s reach. She could've made herself useful enough to get by in the Gilded Peaks.
She wasn't giving up. She wasn't going to just accept death without a fight. Not after everything she already endured. She deserved better than that.
But damn, was she a painful realist in how pathetic her odds actually were.
Scarcely a few hours after finishing up her cleaning and organising her things, the water moved on its own to grab the entire corpse and her with it.
She hated this place.