The Downfall of Echiverri - Chapter 1

Aurora was chucked through a portal. On the opposite side, she crashes to a ground of rough, black sand. Head spinning considerably, she felt the ache of the new scratches added to her palms. She dared not look at that bloodied mess, but rather tipped her head up and around to assess her surroundings. It’s another cave, and beside her is this berberoka who has been slinging her through endless portals, throwing her from one cave to another. To run. To escape, and yet their pursuers always seem to follow them.

Still bewildered, she asks the berberoka, “What are those creatures? It was nothing I have seen before,” forgetting that this subspecies of merfolk don't really communicate with her kind. Especially when he's sweating and catching his breath just like she is. Clearly, procuring multiple portals is tiring him out. 

“Dalaketnons”, the berberoka rasped. ‘Oh, he can talk, that's a rather fast debunking of what's taught at school,’ she mused to herself.

“We have to move again, they can track the transfer of portals, we have to swim”, said the berberoka as it started to drag her deeper to the cave, and the moment her skin touches the water, she shivered.

“Are we going to swim through that?!”, the water looks black, it's very still, and cold. “This doesn’t look like safe waters, we were told in the academy, Cave Water 101, to never swim in still waters, there might be something lurking below.” Aurora struggles by the grip of the companion she has right now, but reluctantly follows. It’s not like she has a choice. It’s this guy who has been flinging her like a ragdoll from portal to portal, running to escape, or be with those tall, white, pointy-eared, dangerously handsome dalaketnons who are going after them. Unfortunately, with the intent to kill.

“There is, there’s a lair of gaki below”. Aurora 's eyes bulged, remembering the one time she read about gaki, how territorial they are, and how they shriek when disturbed, or when aggressed it’s said that they can start an underwater earthquake. “But they’re asleep", his grips tightening and looks at her, "we just have to be careful.”

“Right”, 'as if that offers any assurance!', "don't wanna wake them up, because I absolutely don't want to become crab fodder." 

Careful. That’s what they’ve been doing for the past hour, heck hours. She couldn’t track it anymore. Her head is still spinning and she thinks it’s still afternoon, but it may be later than that. They haven’t really been outside ever since they started running for their lives. Oh, how the world turns, just this morning they were celebrating the High Lady’s pregnancy. The whole town was in a festival!

There were a lot of envoys bearing gifts for the coming birth of an Echiverri Princess, her cousin. She had plans for her, for them. They were going to be partners, she was gonna team up with her to beat Talako’s ass in fishing, her other cousin, the entitled, boastful, Echiverri Prince. But that dream is no longer. Aurora scanned her clothes, stained to it are the red marks of blood, not of hers, but of the High Lady Mayari giving birth prematurely, and of the Princess dying in her hands.

Then she sensed it, the sudden thickness in air, like a suffocating fog. It's the same mana that's been giving her nausea. It’s the tell-tale sign that the white tall guys have followed them again.
“Okay sleeping giant crabs," she braced herself as the numbing feeling spread the more she goes under the waters. "It’s either that or we'll get caught by the white thingies because I can feel them coming.” 

“You can feel them?” the berberoka asked, suprised but trusting her instincts, he yanked her arms.

“Yes, yes, yes!", she panickedly replied, "So whatever you meant to do, let’s just do it, because I don’t want to die.” 'Not yet,' she thought, 'not in this dark humid cave'. Talako is still out there. He was not at the banquet when the attack happened. He was out fishing, he might still be alive. 'I might still have family left.'

Both the berberoka and Aurora dived in the water, just hoping that the gakis remain deep in slumber. The berberokas, being a creature of the sea, are fast swimmers. Unable to see clearly, Aurora was still able to sense as her companion expanded his fins, feeling its slimy texture envelope her, tucking her securely as he propelled them to move faster.

The dalaketnons eventually came to the cave and tried to follow them but hesitated when they saw the place the two entered. Looking down into the water, there's a downward cone with thousands of gaki, unmoving, but poised to attack with their claws out. The dalaketnons are not sea creatures, they cannot afford to wake these sea monsters. Following the two escapees would mean certain death, not only for them but also for their companions. Waking up the vicious monsters would definitely bring unnecessary havoc to the land.

Aurora held tight as the berberoka led them deeper, still increasing his speed, entering through another portal deep in the spaces of the slumbering creatures. Although she did not like the prospect of going through another portal, coming out to who knows where, she braced herself for the impending headache.