[DoA Inktober 2023] Written submissions: [DoA Inktober 2023] Graveyard #2

The water down here was cold. Event Horizon could feel every whisper of the ocean currents across their scales, down their membrane, water that probably had flowed all the way from the poles. They had changed their colours to something nearly as dark as the pitch blackness down here days ago, when they first decided to just… Let go. Of the surface, of the light above, of the freshwater and the company of their fellow Swamp Skimmers. They were born from one Abyssal parent anyway- the deep salty dark doesn’t terrify them like it did for most dragons. Down here, there was nothing.

Not exactly nothing though, since the deeper they went, they found more and more glowing creatures. Specks of light lit up the ocean, some unknown deep sea creature the source of them, while strange jellyfish shone rainbow whenever another glowing creature got too close. Swimming slowly through them and even lower, Horizon couldn’t help but start to mimic their colours. Just a little bit of lighter grey, swirl some whites, add a bit of yellow, and soon they were mesmerised by the hypnotic push-and-pull dance of the lights in the deep dark nothing, for who knows how long.

By the time Horizon regained their senses and the creatures started drifting away, they realised that they had hit the ocean floor as their flippers sunk into slit and sand. They couldn’t see anything down here, but a quick echolocation told them here was a crevice tucked within a few rock walls. And… It smells very, very salty. They decided to follow the salty scent to its source, considering there was almost nothing here anyway, maybe the salt would attract other creatures and they’d get a proper meal.

The source of that salty scent turned out to be a brine pool, lit in an eerie white glow by some bacteria that lived at the edge of the pool and thrived on the salts inside. Horizon’s never seen them, but they’ve heard of brine pools from visiting Abyssal visitors. Apparently they were deadly, could give you toxic shock within seconds, but Horizon watched with silent fascination at some sort of… Eel-like creature as it approached the pool. What value could the pool possibly have to the eel?

The eel dove straight into the misty swirls of the salt. Moments later, it emerged holding a small crustacean in its jaws. Moments shortly after that, the eel was between the jaws of Horizon.

A graveyard of white and bare bones of the succumbed creatures lied in a ring next to the pool. Everything that touches it dies.

Good, Event Horizon thought. Just like me. This can be where I live from now on.