Biohuman

The lava bubbled and sizzled as Lily flew downwards. Her screams echoed throughout the ravine, waking whatever was done there with them. Keng's quick assessment of what was going on was snapped by Lily's scream. She was moving faster and faster towards the lava as the water pushed her downwards.

Water hit lava and steam rose. It burned Lily's body as she desperately clawed for someone to help her. She prayed to the gods, to Rox'su and to Tear'a to help her. She had much to live for and didn't want it to end with a horrible death.

BOOM!

Lily came to a complete stop.

'Is this what death feels like?' Lily wondered. Her eyes were shut and her heart was so loud. 'Did I burn so fast, I became a spirit? Am I dead?!?' Her nerves made it hard for her to want to open her eyes. If she was dead, at least the gods heard her cries and made it a swift and painless death.

Jing. Jing. Jing.

'Those noises…' Lily's eyes began to peek open. The night sky appeared in front of her. She saw millions of stars around her and she further thought she died. 'Is this what death is? It isn't anything like the stories Dad told me.'  The stars seemed to talk to her, Lily unable to understand them.

​ "Li— Lil— Lily…!" A distant voice called out.

"Lily, wake up…!" A male and female voice called to her in unison. Lily gasped as she shot up. Her chest felt like it was going to burst into a million pieces as her back stung like crazy. She laid somewhere high up, away from the glowing light. A humanoid figure squatted in front of her, head tilted. She began to panic, moving backwards as the humanoid figure reached for her.

"Lily!" Keng shouted. His ruby and sapphire eyes quickly caught her attention, calming her. She found it hard to breath and felt a tightness in her chest. What was happening to her? Keng moved forward, crouching next to her as he checked her. He could see she was having a hard time breathing.

"Did the toxic fumes get to you already?" Keng asked. He lifted his hand and a familiar silver light surrounded her. She could feel the energy seeping inside of her. It reminded her of peace and home. Her eyes filled with tears as sobs came out. She buried herself into Keng, who almost lost his balance as result to this.

"H-hey!" Keng let out as he brushed her head. She gripped his leather straps and cried into his armor. He remembered how naked he was, growing embarrassed as he tried to hide his parts from her. "It'll b-be okay." Keng turned her head away. He let out an embarrassed sigh as he continued to heal her as she cried.

It took awhile, but he eventually got her to calm down. Everything had happened so fast and neither of them had time to really process it all. Keng knew Lily was exhausted, so they stayed there for awhile. When she gathered herself enough, Keng excused himself and pulled on his clothes. He had forgotten in the heat of everything, his lower half was completely naked due to transforming.

He beat himself over it. Embarrassed he had done such a thing without realizing it. 'Were the Merfolk being kind to me? Were they not saying anything to not embarass me? I… I… I showed everything!' Keng's body shook as he hopped on his feet, spinning and slapping himself. A starry barrier had been placed to prevent both of them from smelling anymore toxic fumes. The waters were rushing out and quickly being turned to steam and Keng didn't think that was a good thing to feel everywhere.

Keng returned to Lily, who held her knees close to her chest. She was resting her head on her knees as Keng came to her. She didn't look at him and seemed to be spaced out. She looked exhausted and unbeknownst to him, she was thinking of home. She was homesick. He sat next to her, giving some space but still sat next to her. He didn't look at her for awhile, still embarrassed about the naked situation.

'Did she see everything?' Keng wondered. He began to imagine all of the fights he was in after he shifted from a Merman back to his regular form. His face grew red in embarrassment. 'Ah god! WHY?!?' Leader Calis's kiss popped in his head and he grew even more embarassed. He fell over, rolling around and groaning in embarrassment. This caught Lily's attention, who seemed to lighten up and smiled at him.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked. Keng's face grew hot as he kept his back to her.

'What do I do? Do I…' His brain racked for an answer. He didn't have any experiences he could pull from. Lee Seng was fairly tame and whatever he did, even though he thought of himself as a bad boy (which… He really wasn't), wasn't necessarily helping Keng in this particular moment.

"Are you okay? Wh-what's wrong?" Lily asked. She clearly didn't even process anything that happened the last thirty minutes.

"Uhh…" Keng drew this out for awhile until he figured out an answer. "I uh… I'm fine. Are you okay?" He turned around and looked at Lily. His cheeks slightly red, but manageable. Lily nodded, making a small noise of agreement at his question. "Good… Go-good…" Keng nodded.

"What do we do now?" Lily asked. "This place really does want to kill me and everyone around me…" Her expression grew dark and Keng's embarrassment faded in an instant. Lily's eyes looked down at her knees. "I… I don't think… I don't think I should've came. The gods were wrong to choose me… Why did they have to choose me? Double Blessed? Why did Rox'su and Tear'a have to pick me? Was it because I'm a Savior like you? I'm not useful at all. I can't play an instrument down here because the pressure would destroy my instruments. I can't sing under constant pressure from being down here by myself and I can't be useful to any of the Merfolk."

Lily cried as she said all of these things. She may have smiled and said she was fine to everyone, but she truly felt like this the whole time. Keng could hear the sad music play off of her. Keng began to open his mouth to say something when she continued.

"For a long time I thought I was just different. A low hybrid whom the Fox Spirits don't even like. They still don't like me and most of them treat me differently. When I was told by the Priest and in my dreams to venture out into the Cursed Forest, I never thought I'd get any of this.

"Tear'a and Rox'su chose me, but for what? What am I useful for? I'm barely a teenager with any training like my brothers. They all are more experienced than I. Why couldn't Philip be chosen? Why me? Why did I have to meet Commander Chimer that day? Meet you? Your friend? Lee Seng?

"Why did my life have to get so complicated? Why can't I become friends with the other girls and boys my age? Play with them, skip class sometimes, get into trouble? Why do I have to follow a chosen moment in my life because the gods deemed it?" Lily asked. The sad melody turned darker. Keng could feel the wisps of doubt setting into her entire being.

[Notice—]

'I know.' Keng interrupted the AI. 'What do I have to do to get rid of it?'

[…]

'Tell me, AI.'

[*sigh* To expel it, you must replace the seeds of doubt with something else.]

Keng watched the dark energy slowly overtake Lily. It grew into a large hovering shape. It reminded Keng of something on Earth… Something Lee Seng needed to deal with before it was too late. Keng lifted himself up and scooted towards Lily. He crossed his legs together and leaned forward, looking at Lily intently. She knew what he was going to do and began to tell him to "not say a word," but he simply looked at her.

'He really isn't going to say anything?' Lily thought. 'He's just… going to…' Was this really what Lily wanted? Yes and no. Keng simply stared at her for awhile, letting the noises of the ravine settle around them. They were lost from their companions and a bit lost within themselves.

"Do you know why Commander Chimera, Lee Seng and I like you?" Keng asked. It was such a left field question. Lily looked at him with a smudge of curiosity but quickly smashed the fire out. Curiosity only got her into more trouble. Keng waited for her to ask why or even answer 'I don't want to talk about it.' He intentionally left that opening for her. If she chose it, he would act, but if she didn't… He would simply have to fight the darkness growing behind her.