Qeya River it’s just a silly phase i’m going through

fortune does not come twice; misfortune does not come alone — 

你会唱歌吗? she listened to the soft songs of the dragon's wives, whispers of fortune told from beneath the ice. ying traced her reflection on the clear ice and heard the women's voices grow louder, much to her surprise. where were they hiding? their words lured her further from land, until she had walked so close to the basin's center that only ice remained. and when she looked up, there was the mountain, home to yìnglóng.

there were cracks between slabs of ice. ying knelt down to investigate and saw the fleeting shape of a siren. surprised, she jumped back. 这是游戏吗? she whispered, knowing that the dragon wives would hear. ying leapt onto the next slab, noting how different it felt to fly with a belly full of life. she enjoyed the sensation, and understood it to mean that her children were without harm.

she followed after the siren for another moment, before diving head-first into the water. and there was no light, but darkness, and the siren had disappeared. ying's paws frantically beat at the bottom of an ice cap, clawing desperately for any sign of freedom. the river's current grew stronger, pushing her further downstream, toward the fighting ring. she could hear ice colliding with deafening crashes, shattering against one another and the base of the mountain.

ying fought against the water but knew that she was losing strength. her vision began to blur as the beating continued, one of her paws smashed while reaching into the open. eventually, she fell unconscious, where she would remain until help arrived.

"ying!", came his call as he trailed after her scent, head tilting out of curiosity as he discovered it lead out to a stretch of ice. what was she up to? he called out again, but there was no response. his nose was near useless atop the ice, and the wind wasn't much help either. he tried to call out once more, this time with a howl, but silence and a gust of wind were his only response.

with only two directions for her to possibly go, upstream or downstream, astaroth played a game of eenie meenie miney mo to determine which path to take. fortunately for both of them, fate was on their side. his paws carried him downstream with honeyed eyes on the lookout for any sign of his elusive friend. it took him a minute, for her pelt blended in well with the background, but when he caught sight of her his heart dropped. "YING!"

motionless atop an ice slab lay the body of his friend. she had been lucky, for the patch of ice she'd fallen unconscious on had become jammed in a makeshift dam along with others. what to do, what to do?! it wasn't easy trying figure out a way to save her when at any moment the dam could collapse and go crashing down the current.

desperate, he shouted out a pleading "wake up!", to try and rouse the unconscious mother. no use. ah, heck with it. without giving it much thought, he sent up a distressed call for help before leaping onto the nearest slab stuck within the mess of ice caps. as carefully as he could manage, the inky ghoul tiptoed his way to the side of the motionless seafarer before he began poke and prod at her in any way he could. "please wake up."

somewhere in dreamland, found in rhapsody; devoid of any concern for the life left behind. distant shouts echoed through her subconscious but she was too unaware to answer. her breathing had slowed until almost undetectable, her chest still and without motion, but notably swollen. the only indication of life was the frantic darting of her shut eyes, as though begging to be roused.

ying could hear the shifting of ice, albeit faint as she began the gradual shift back to reality. still, she was limp, and completely helpless.

no amount of cries were able to wake her from her slumber. he gave a desperate tug at her ear in one last attempt to pull her from unconsciousness before he began frantically glancing around for any sign of help. no one had come. any sort of confidence he'd mustered up fled from his body the moment he realized nobody was around to help them.

a pleading whine slipped from his lips as he aimed to gently, yet firmly grab a hold of her scruff and begin pulling her towards the shore. inch by inch he made progress, though the eerie sounds of ice shifting beneath them did not make it easy for him to keep his composure.

the pressure from astaroth's grip pulling the skin back against her throat helped some of the liquid to make its way upward. river water slowly began pooling inside of her mouth, trailing out onto the ice as they made their way inland. ying coughed — a quiet, sheepish thing — then returned to silence. 

and moments later, another cough; the sound was strained against bruised muscle as some unholy mixture of water and mucous dripped from nostril and mouth. ying could breathe again, large, wheezing breaths.

the fact that she hadn't been breathing at all had been completely lost to him. he'd been so focus on trying to figure out a way to wake her up, that the shallow rise and fall of her chest (along with her other injuries) had gone completely unnoticed. so, when the first signs of life began to show themselves in the form of shaky, wet coughs, a new hope suddenly filled his golden eyes.

he wanted to stop his tugging and go back to trying to rouse her, but they were so close to the shore's edge that he just kept on pulling. eventually, after a few minutes passed, he had managed to get her head propped up on the shoreline while the rest of her body yet lay atop ice. exhausted and out of breath, the inky ghoul turned to face the form of his pale friend. only then did he notice her swollen abdomen and crushed paw. he felt his chest tighten at the sight as a mix of emotion came flooding in. anger, frustration, agitation, despair, though above all the rest was the overwhelming feeling of helplessness that weighed him down like chains locked around his ankles.

someone else was there. she could hear them breathing and moving, the sound muffled as though she were still underwater. she could remember being swept away by the current, but how? and why? had this stranger something to do with it?

low moans crept from her throat as she fought her way back to earth. energy spent trying to move her hindlegs was in vain; they were stuck against the ice, too cold for blood to properly flow. she opened one eye to a thin slit and glanced around before shifting her focus to standing upright, shock having fully taken hold.

and then hopelessness turned to hope. she was breathing, she was moving, she was awake. "ying!", came his joyful cry as he dashed forward to place several thankful kisses atop her forehead. "you're ok, i've got you", he reassured as he moved to offer her a shoulder to lean on.

to go from an emotional low to an emotional high was quite the wicked rollercoaster, one that left him nauseous and with a headache at the end of everything. but it didn't matter, for his focus and concern was dedicated entirely to ying and making sure she'd be alright.

ying— yínglòng. she had a name, something which she hadn't known moments before. the dark knight swept forward and then he was touching her and- ying snapped in his direction, hoping to keep him away while she worked to reestablish her footing.

her eyes darted frantically around the scene, her mind racing to make some sense of what was happening. she collapsed once more, this time fully aware. moments later, ying managed to push herself back up onto her front legs, heaving clean the remainder of her stomach.

she snapped, which was unexpected, and ended up cutting him clean across the side of his face just below the eye. dazed, astaroth backpedaled a pace or two as he watched her collapse once more. the cut began to sting as the breeze blew by, though his only reaction were a few lifeless blinks. had he done something wrong?

he could only watch as she heaved up the remainder of what was left in her stomach, a twist to his face revealing his confusion. his lips parted but no words came, and so he simply stood there, hurt, confused and all the more concerned.

her temples throbbed from the sudden rush of blood. she could hear her veins pumping loudly in either ear; the adrenaline was reaching its climax. she pulled the remainder of her body from the ice with no lack of effort. the earth was no warmer than the water had been, but it provided a feeling of security which she very much needed.

from the corner of her eye, ying could see the man still watching. he was bleeding; had she done that? the stranger was familiar, but not familiar enough to warrant trust. she turned her head to face him and instinctively tucked her tail beneath folded thigh, her ears folding back as she sent a rumbling plea for solitude.

whoever was before him now was not the ying he knew. she wouldn't have snapped at him. or maybe she would have. he didn't know, he just knew it felt like he'd gotten sucker punched in the heart.

his brow furrowed, his lips quivered, and then the tears fell. he was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted and it all come flooding out in one fell swoop. after everything he'd gone through to save her, and this was the way she thanked him?! he bit his bottom lip to the point that it bled too, and then without so much as a word, he turned to make his leave.

screw this.

the stranger turned to leave, abandoning ying as she had asked. without any obvious immediate threats, her body buckled beneath her pain, surging in at once. too great for a scream, she opened her mouth wide and released a strained whimper.

she slipped back out of consciousness, falling against the earth with a pathetic thump.