I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Memories

Swimming casually over the top of the army of crabs, Ergen was pleasantly surprised to find that he had a symbiotic relationship with the creatures. They were so numerous that many of the ocean's inhabitants came to feed on them, which ended up with most would-be predators being killed and eaten by Ergen. Once he was finished eating, the remains would slowly drift down into the army of crabs where they would eat whatever was left of the body. This process would repeat again and again for many hours, making Ergen wonder just why he was beginning to feel hungry all of the time. With that thought on his mind, fought off the crab's predators and gave the crabs his leftovers. And in return, the crabs would lead Ergen on their path through the ocean while drawing in monsters for him to eat, though there were a few unfortunate times when the monsters were to large for him to defeat and a massive amount of crabs were eaten.

Everything was almost pitch black now as either Ergen was to deep in the ocean for the sun's light to travel or the sun had fallen and it was nighttime, though he guessed that it was the latter thanks to his feeling of being exhausted. He'd been travelling and fighting for what felt like a long time now, and he wanted to find an area where he could rest and recover. The only problem had been that there was simply to place that he could hide himself so that he could sleep. He'd passed the end of the coral a while ago, and now there was nothing but dark-grey sand for as far as his eyes could see into the dark waters. Thankfully, his eyes seemed to have been made for this type of environment though, as he could almost see as clearly in the water as he could have while on dry land.

With his movements beginning to feel sluggish, Ergen continued to follow the army of crabs until they eventually reached something that seemed like it could be considered 'safe'. Seeing as he didn't know all of the dangers that the ocean held, Ergen wasn't foolish enough to think that he would be completely protected even if he hid inside of a giant abandoned shell or something. Though, with how weary he was, he figured that one of the many small caves inside of the giant ravine that they were entering would have have to work. It was better than being out in the open at least, and he needed to rest.

Swimming over towards one of the caves on the upper ledges of the ravine, Ergen quickly made sure that the space was vacant and that the cave didn't go very far into the rock before squeezing himself inside. It was a tight fit, but it suited his purposes greatly as he didn't think that he would feel secure in the vast openness of the ocean otherwise. And after he squirmed around inside so that he could make sure that his head was pointing towards the entrance, Ergen closed his eyes, only to be disturbed by something that he hadn't expected to hear at all.

"Ergen..." A woman's voice called out as if beckoning him from a distance, though as he opened his eyes, Ergen found that he was no longer inside of the cave that he'd fallen asleep in. Instead, he now seemed to be in some type of void with nothing but darkness around him as if he was in the middle of a lake of oil. However, he had a feeling of weightlessness while at the same time feeling as if he were floating, so he knew that it couldn't have been oil as he guessed that the liquid would feel the same as water. And as Ergen thought about his surroundings, he suddenly started to panic as he thought that he'd possibly died.

He'd thought for sure that the cave he'd rested in would protect him, but had it actually been the mouth of a monster and he'd climbed into it's throat? He'd thought that it'd looked like part of the rock, but not that he thought about it, he should have been more careful as he thought that the creature that had eaten him had most likely simply camouflaged itself with the same color as the rock.

"Ergen." The woman's voice said more sternly, seemingly in an attempt to attract his attention, and it worked as Ergen turned his body now so that he could the source of the voice that had called out to him. However, when he'd turned, he hadn't expected to find a human woman floating in the oil just as he was. Her light-grey skin seemed to be illuminated against the darkness of the world surrounding them, and hair seemed to stand out as well, which was odd given that it was the same color as the world that they found themselves in.