- - - - - > I know the quality came out REALLY bad, so just imagine it looks good > Credit to @Dawnfyre for the design, enjoy my ridiculously long backstory > Press space for zoom-in, I named him Koi ;) > BACKSTORY When I was small, I had a dream. A dream like no other. A dream where the world swirled, and instead of drowning, I drifted with it. But of course, I eventually awoke and all of my memories of the world drifted away, just like the tide. Just like the river that wound itself around my town. But this time, the dream was real. I woke up in a dark place. I felt groggy, my senses were dulled and I couldn't see straight. I must've been asleep for a long time. I lay there for a moment before I regained my senses. Moss coated the walls around me, or at least what I thought was moss. I reached out only to find that I was not on land, but deep underwater. And another thing, some odd sort of vine wrapped itself around my entire body. It constricted most of my movement. The pressure was almost unbearable. Yet... I could still breathe as if I was still back in my own den. With Eo. The thought of her gave me a brief rush of adrenaline, and I reached for the walls, trying to claw myself out like an angry beast. The pressure worsened, but I kept going. I moved one inch. Then another. But it wasn't enough. It felt as if a hundred pounds of hail were pelting my back every time I moved. I was going nowhere. I had a feeling I would lay here for the rest of time, or maybe... someone would find me. Slowly the feeling of hopelessness crashed over me and I let my front legs naturally drift back to their spot on the floor. I slipped back into a deep slumber, the thick vines settling over me once again. I expected to wake up in my bed of leaf, with Eo, and dad, and the rest of the town. We would spend the day laughing and running through the trees chasing prey. And late at night our entire town would gather around the bonfire and sing into the night. But that's hardly what happened. Instead, I was greeted with a similar site as before. The underwater world was dark, but I could now move freely. And my eyesight had seemed to improve drastically since last time. No longer did I get teary-eyed whenever I moved too much. I looked around before noticing an odd black rock with vines connected to it. I realized that must've been where I came from... but how in the world did I get out? I swam around before realizing that something new had appeared on my body. A tail! A tail for god's sake! It spun around me in a mad flurry and danced whenever I moved. I had a ridiculous amount of control over it, yet I could also leave it limp and move freely. I was briefly reminded of the world I used to live in when I found an old sunken ship. But I continued through the water, enchanted by the new swirling world around me. A small part of me still believed that this was a dream, it had to be. But the fish and the coral and well, just everything was too perfect to be in a dream world. I finally stopped when I grew tired of twirling, and the reality dawned on me. I needed to find my family. So I swam towards the light faster and faster - for what felt like hours. I finally broke the surface and felt a massive wave crash over me as I emerged. The waters around me were infinite and blue. They didn't seem to end. I looked around me but I saw nothing. No river. No cats. But still, I kept swimming onwards. I knew Eo would love my tail. I knew my dad would probably laugh at me. All in good fun, of course. I wondered if I could still walk even with one. But soon hopes gave way to exhaustion. Even my new body couldn't handle swimming for hours on end. I sank back into the ocean like a rock and landed on the nearest piece of shore. a soft coral reef floor met me, built on soaring underwater cliffs. Tall kale wrapped halfway around the island a had settled on. I stared across the gorge at a magnificent multi-layered cliff. But what really caught my eyes were the trees, bending and soaring far higher than even the kale. They let off a low iridescent glow and looked just like the trees surrounding my town... if those trees were dark purple. And glowed. But what was the most interesting were the small globes floating around the tree in a halo shape, connected thinly with strings to the branches. I swam over to get a closer look and felt the feeling of exhaustion instantly wash away. Some otherworldly instincts told me to touch one of the globes. And in my delirious state, I had no reason not to oblige. So I hesitantly reached out a single paw, dotted with browns and tans, swirling just like the currents around me. And I touched it. Nothing happened at first. And all of a sudden everything turned white. I stood in an empty void of white and once again felt as if I were on land. But if there was no ground. I was floating in an airy abyss and my mind was calm and clear. And then I felt the sea glass necklace I wore around my neck.
I had completely forgotten about it in all the chaos. The one Eo had gifted me the day we married. It was strung with feathers and seashells, and smelled of home. But when my thoughts drifted to Eo the abyss shifted, and soon I was back in my home town. I was a spectator from afar, but I could tell this was not a vision of the past or the future. Rather what was really going on while I was missing. I saw the whole town wandering into the thick woods late at night searching for me. "Koi!" they called my name. Over and over. I saw Eo crying. Dad watching her sympathetically. They were searching for me. I tried to call back and comfort them, but I was met with no response. The globe was merely a way to view. Not to be. And so I angrily pulled myself out of the globe and back into the neverending ocean. The coral was no longer enchanting, only mocking me. The solitary echoes bore down on me and suddenly all the exhaustion and, now hunger, crashed down on me. I lay in the coral and fell into an unrestful sleep. The cycle repeated over and over. I hunted fish, I ate, I swam, for land, for Eo, for dad, for my home, for anything. But it only seemed to expand the further I went. I was going in circles. Looping endlessly. I hadn't seen another cat since my arrival. And I was on the brink of giving up. ... I had decided my final spot would be under a grove of the globe trees. They were rare, but not incredibly so. Some superstitious part of me believed the memory of my family would follow me if I laid under the trees. I wonder if I were to starve myself. Or maybe suffocate. Anything to get me out of here. And just as I reached for death someone appeared. "Koi?" A soft voice drifted over the empty valley, amplified underwater, and echoing back multiple times. It sounded feminine. I looked up to find a cat quite similar to me, a light tan tabby with speckled brown spots and green markings. Something about the way she moved made me instantly trust her. As if I had known her for years. "Y-yes." I stuttered out. I hadn't spoken in a long time. the words felt foreign. "Yes, I am K-koi." She instantly broke into a smile and wrapped her arms around me. Confused, but rather desperate, I hugged back. "How do you know my name?" I managed to say. "Oh son... "she shook her head sadly. She too had a tail. "Did this... happen to you as well?" I asked. She simply nodded and looked off into the distance. "So all those years ago. When you disappeared. This is where you went." I mumbled. She didn't respond this time. She only grabbed my paw and guided me deeper underwater. "I'm lucky I found you. You looked on the verge of passing out." she laughed. "I suppose. Where are we going?," The air felt lighter now. Even the depths of the ocean were less lonely. "I'm going to show you the reason you came here." Mom whispered. And so we descended, deeper into the swirling blue, and the cliffs dipped with us, more and more showing signs of life the deeper we went. Soon we got to a part of the ocean that was the color of onyx, pitch black and infinite. But the plants glowed even more brightly than the globe trees. Thousands of glowing urchins and fish swam by. Innumerable colorful blobs surrounded us. "What do we do next?" I asked curiously. Mom only smiled. "Jump." I stopped for a moment. "Jump? But we're underwater." "Jump." She repeated. And so she leapt into the darkness, leaving her tail limp and spreading her arms wide, and the next then I knew, she had vanished. I nervously stood at the edge of the cliff, not quite sure what to do. Until once again, an otherworldly instinct pulled me closer, and before I even had time to process the darkness and glowing fish were gone. I stood in the middle of a bustling underwater metropolis. The buildings were golden and blue and reached far higher than I could see. Coral gardens poked out of every corner and sea roads wound themself around the entire place, chaotic yet still organized. I had never seen anything like it. "Wow." is all I could manage. We stood there for a moment, barely enough to process it all, before once again she grabbed my arm and pulled me in the opposite direction. I continued in awe as we soared past the city. I had never seen anything outside my own town. To think there were places like this in the world... We landed on an island built out of the odd globed trees that looked rather sad in comparison to it's surroundings. "What... is this?" I mumbled. "It doesn't look all that impressive, I know, but this is the most important part of the town." She reached out and placed my hand on one of the globes. Just like before we were transported to a white expanse, except this time it was the both of us. "We use these trees to do more than watch. If you know how, you can influence what you see. We live deep underwater to protect those who cannot help themselves." And I ran out of space there's my backstory-- that got really long lol
