Ice Age: Unwanted Melting of Fate [Sequel to The Misfit Herd]

Chapter 3. New Allies, Two Different Words Merge

I was sure I was dead, I had to be! There was no way I survived that distance of flying or even the impact. Yet my lungs still drew air, proving I somehow managed to escape fate once more.

However, I noticed the rippling of water was nearby, making my ear flicker as I focused on the sound. It seemed to be all around me. Was I in the ocean? No that can't be. The water's gentle, calm... like it hasn't been disturbed in years.

"Ah, so you're finally awake." A deep soothing voice belong to a male who seemed to be no older than myself and Diego filled the air, and judging by the direction, whoever it belonged to was standing above me. It took me a moment to realize I was lying on my side, and I went to open my eyes only to realize the world was still black. My heart started racing and I closed and reopened my eyes again and again but no light came back, I couldn't see anything.

"W-Why... why can't I see anything??!" My voice pitched in fear as I felt my chest start to heave in and out.

"You hurt your eyes pretty badly on the way down, wherever you fell." The deep voice spoke in a gentle tone almost sympathetic, "you ended up scratching them on a lone branch that was sticking out from the ground above."

My heart stopped. "I'm... I'm blind...?"

"We won't know till the medicine is cleaned off."

"M-Medicine...?" The steps the male took made me count, four moved at different moments and speeds but they were soft yet had something that made a light scratch upon the ground. He was a four-legged animal, with fur all over. The scratch sounded like what a clawed animal would have if they didn't get a chance to dull them down a bit. "W-Who are you?"

"My name? Oh it's Andreas."

"Andreas...? Wait, where am I? I know for a fact I'm not on the ground above."

"How so?" His tone shifted with curiousness as he started to mess with something that sounded like bottles? or some kind of fragile material.

"It's warm here. I don't feel that dread the cold usually brings. It's peaceful here too-" Liquid being stirred made my ear flicker once more, trying to figure out what he was doing, "I know for a fact up above it was chaos."

Andreas let out a low chuckle of amusement yet something made it muffled- was he holding something in his mouth? "It's good to know your other senses are still working." 

As he said that, my nose then picked up a strong scent that seemed to be from mixes of rotten fruit that's been left out in sun for too long and old seaweed which made me scrunch my face up in disgust, "And I know that whatever you're brewing is not made from something sweet or fresh."

His chuckle was now a full-on laugh, "Good sense of smell. Nope, this thing is anything but nice-smelling but what else would you expect from Undertopia?"

"Undertopia? The heck kind of name is that? It sounds like a ripoff of Utopia."

"Well unlike all of you that live above-" Liquid sloshed around in what sounded like a bowl as something scratched against wooden surface, and the paw steps were getting closer to me. "This place is quite dangerous and chaotic. It's not like we get a break from predators trying to eat us on a 24/7 basis."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, "Us? There are more than just you?"

"At the moment no, my friend is off doing who knows what right now, probably trying to get himself killed yet again." As if to prove his point, I managed to pick up a distant faraway yell of triumph. This one had accent to his voice and by the way it was fluctuating in volume, I was sure he was moving around somewhere too far to be physically close.