King was in pain, his body trembled slightly in fear, he couldn't see anything out of his left eye, and worst of all he was running away. “Away!” A sudden pulse of anger nulled his fear, but the memory of the prey returned, causing the fear to seize him again. King felt ashamed.
Prey shouldn’t fight back! Prey was made to be eaten by him. He was King. But the prey did fight back, and it won. King didn’t have a name, but had one at the same time. It was a feeling that burns in his chest since he was guppy — Greed, Importance, Pride, A Ruler — but those feelings were smothered by the sole acknowledgment that the prey won, and King lost.
He had lost. He was no longer king. He was treated like prey. “prey. Prey. PREY!” Rage crashed like waves crashed into King.
He was about to turn around to show the prey he was not prey, but stopped dead. His rage was extinguished. He felt the same aura that forced him to slumber bare down on him. He felt little, less than prey, that he was nothing of importance, and that he would die if he moved any further towards the prey.
The aura grew thicker, and thicker, till King felt physically crushed. His body went slightly limp and tense at the same time. Blood began to trickle out from his left eye socket, mixing with the water around him.
“Death. Death. Death! No death! King will live!” King mentally screamed, shaking himself out of his terror induced stupor.
He turned around and began pumping his tail, his only desire was to get away from that aura. But it wasn't that easy, he felt the aura become stronger, and he began to feel a force reverberate throughout the water.
Guessing its source King looked up for a second. He saw a blurry image of water falling from the sky and striking the water of his new home with more force he could ever dream of making with his jaw.
He felt a feeling he did not quite understand rising from the ocean of fear filling him, “Want.” He desired that power, he wanted to become it, and far more.
King forced his head back down and began swimming again, not noticing he stopped before to admire the power of the falling water.
As he swam he felt the force reverberating through the water increase with intensity, which only fueled the flame of desire in his chest. His fear was still there, but overshadowed by the desire of strength.
King felt a slight tingle in his chest. It was the same feeling he felt when he didn't surface the water to breathe. “Breathe? Haven’t taken a breath in a long time?” King thought as he ran through his recent memories, each one coming in a burst of images, “King hasn’t, only time King took breath was when King was hunting prey above water. . . Strange?” King felt a bit weariness from his new found ability of being able to stay under longer.
“Did aura change King, while King was sleeping? Can’t be. Can it?” King felt worried about the possibility of his self being changed, he didn't want to stop being King.
He looked up for a second time, and saw the water being pushed apart by the falling water. “King will stay under. King can last longer without breathing.” King decided for himself, not wanting to be anywhere near the falling water, and he subconsciously swam down slightly.
Minutes passed as King swam. The tingling in his chest grew more noticeable to the point he couldn’t ignore it, and had to forcefully stop himself from going up. He needed to breathe soon, and the fallening water was letting up any time soon too.
He scanned the surroundings for an entrance. He was trying to find one of the special spots he would see underwater from time to time, a spot filled with sky instead of water. King focused a lot more on the minor land masses made from roots and stone because of the higher chance they held to hold sky pockets.
He swam in a straight line, his head swiveling to find a sky pocket. The tingling in his chest became a slight burning. King was getting worried, and began contemplating if he could survive a few blows from the fallening water if he surfaced to take a breath.
“No. King couldn't. King is not strong enough.” King glanced up, and felt desire for the falling water's power.
His stomach growled, alerting him to his forgotten hunger. “Hunger.” King mourned his empty stomach, and began searching for prey too.
Time passed, and the mild burning in King chest turned into an inferno. King also had not found the edge of his home's water, only small land masses of roots and stone. He also hasn’t found any sky pockets.
King felt a bit frantic now from the burning in his chest, and began to search faster, only making the burning grow hotter. His tail pumped, and his surrounds fuzzed, then boop. He felt a pain in his snout. King’s vision focused forward, and he noticed he slammed into a land mass of roots and stone for the second time today.
He was about to turn away and swim around it, till he noticed a slight difference. He was in a pocket of the land mass, and more roots surrounded this part too. King looked up, and saw the same distortion he saw when he looked at the sky underwater.
“Sky pocket.” King had realized he was looking for them wrong. He was only looking for the ones that could be seen without finding them, and not the hidden ones, like those hairy things that live in homes of the brown things, that are kinda like roots but not at the same time.
King swam up, remembering seeing the hairy things making a wall out of the brown not-roots and wet dirt. He had an alligator smile as he remembered eating one, which caused his hunger to make itself known again.
King broke the surface of the water, taking in a relieving breath through his nostrils, the burning in his chest dissipating. He scanned the area and noted nothing of danger. He only saw a smooth slab of stone that he leisurely swam toward. It was also the only dry land in the sky pocket.
He heaved himself up on the piece of stone, and felt the fear and stress drained out of him. He relaxed, and felt sleepy. He shook his head, “Not sleepy,” his head drooped again, “not- s-sleep-y-y.” He slumped and fell asleep.
His chest rose and fell as he breathed. King will rise later, and hunt that prey. But for as of now he was dreaming of eating the hairy things
