“No, no, no no no, I tried so hard, why, please no, don’t die.” I beg no one in particular.

I can tell Ag or Lao are standing above me, as I feel a teardrop land upon my brow somewhat unexpectedly.

“Please, please tell me what I can do, who’s hurt, I’ll do anything, anything in my power, please, someone say something, who’s okay? What’s going on? I can’t see anything, please tell me!” I beg tearfully.

“It’s Luni now, she’s leaving us.” Comes a stoic response from Laomati. I hear Lil sob harder at the explanation, I know Lil was bonding with Luni on the trip to the Shellcracker home.

“I refuse.” I state with defiance, trying to lace my voice with determination.

“What?” I can veritably feel the confusion and disbelief in the text voice that replies.

Gritting my teeth, trying not to sound my frustration at the speaker, Lao, “No, it won’t happen, with your permission, I’m going to do something, or try to do something.”

Her sadness strikes in waves through her response, “Child there’s nothing you can do, but I won’t stop you from trying, whatever you need do to grieve.”

“No more, no one else has to grieve today.” I mentally reach for the sound of the tinkling, and I feel the polygons escaping Luni’s form, and I try to claim them, seemingly to no effect at first, but then my energy regenerates enough and I get just enough to catch a single triangle from Luni. I beg the world, the system that runs the world, the laws behind the world, for enough energy, please, just this once, enough energy to save her. I feel a partially forced limit break, and I feel my energy debt expand far far deeper than normally able. It’s like feeling someone reach into your innards and begin clawing out your guts but as if you had an endless supply of excruciatingly instantly regenerating organs, so they just keep reaching in and clawing out more, endlessly ripping essence away from you, an almost unimaginable pain. I focus and claim as many of the escaped polygons as possible, and Luni’s main body, it breaks my heart that she qualifies to be claimed into my inventory, I try to piece the polygons back together, but I wasn’t fast enough, I’m not a god of life, there are bits missing, and I have an incomplete Luni in my inventory as the last bit of my internal essence is stripped, ripped away.

I fall flat on the ground, unmoving, unblinking, unbreathing. I might have overdone it. I can feel myself truly dying from this attempt, I can feel parts of myself trying to sacrifice themselves to give Luni another chance. I even feel Lil’s analysis as they’re shrieking in terror at my unmoving form. That terror gives way to anger, and defiance. Lil leaps at me and begins to tear into my side. Lil begins to spit little gouts of flame, the rest of the Shellcrackers look aghast, somehow I know all this, oh, I’m out of my own body again. Looking closer, Lil isn’t attacking me, it looks like they’re trying to enter me, or become one with me. There appear to be some polygons, triangles, trying to escape my side. I guess I am a part of this world after all. Its laws are my laws, and I was just broken for a while, not quite normal, when I awoke on… Day… One. Hm, I can’t even tell how long I froze up for, oh wait, where’s Lil? Lil must have gotten so upset that they had to leave, I don’t blame them. It was so arrogant of me to think I could do anything to stop someone’s death.

I notice my inventory capacity display is messed up in my mind’s eye, though I suppose that could be an effect of the dying process. Giving one last glance to my inventory, wondering if I can at least give the fish to the Shellcrackers before I disappear, I’m shocked and horrified to find Lil in my inventory, bleeding polygons.

I want to cry out and scream no, to kick Lil out of my inventory but I have no control, no ability to invoke any effort. Enough of Lil is stripped away in front of my very eyes, and those polygons drift their way to Luni, though some appear to bleed away into my inventory space, lost forever. I even see a beating crystalline heart as Lil exposes more of their core. A small portion of this heart goes to Luni, and yet another portion floats away into my inventory. I suppose the spare polygons and heart piece could be going to me in some vague sense.

Suddenly I begin to perceive sound again, mostly a terrible ringing in my ears, I didn’t even notice it was gone until it returned. That’s one aspect of my life I could have gone without, and I suppose I will find one terrible silver lining as a smidgeon of solace when it’s gone. Yet my mind’s eye numbers hint at recovery. Not just for myself, but for Luni, and Lil!

Wait, what’s Te doing? Ow! She leaned down and slapped me! Ow! She keeps slapping me! Stop, please stop, how can I tell you that we’re recovering? Lao pulls Te off of my body while she’s swiping furiously at the air, seemingly crying hysterically. Oh, oh heavens I look like a corpse, an utterly toasted, crispy corpse, oh my goodness that’s. Oh wow, if I were conscious I’d probably vomit at the sight of myself. If I could see myself. I couldn’t see myself with Te in the way, but no wonder she’s so mad. Wow, that’s, it’s just so hard to see someone so hurt. Maybe we could just cover that up? As I think that, some of the cushion disappears into my inventory, reconfigures into my leaf-leather armor clothing. Next, the clothing appears upon my body, which fills me with an excruciating sensation as it touches my crispy raw flesh. I didn’t expect that to work, or to feel it. I try to float around for a better view of myself, and who we’ve lost. I realize I can just check my mind’s eye. I can’t see information for Atamai, Oli, or Penina, and can’t find them anywhere in my out of body experience. Eugh, I think I’m going to be sick if I wake up, just the thought of having lost them. Oli was such a lovable goof, and Penina was a demure young lady with wonder in her eyes and that shell was always in her hands. Actually, looking now, all of the Otterfolk have -1 as their maximum inventory capacity. I guess that’s why they think of mine and Lil’s inventories as magic, and why Penina wouldn’t let the shell out of her tiny webbed-pawed-hands.

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I think this out of body experience is reaching its limits. Actually I think it’s about to be an inner body experience, or maybe intra body experience, because I start to feel Lil, and Luni. Not like the sensation of touch, but like I feel their sensations as they float in the void of my inventory. We’re all in terrible pain, our bodies broken beyond what this world normally allows to remain. Not the most pleasant way to find out you have an even stronger bond than you thought you did. Or well, not the most pleasant way to find out that you’ve developed a three way bond with two people you care about. I have a feeling it has something to do with Lil. I remember hearing stories about dragons being able to give away pieces of their hearts, forever linking those who’d been gifted the heart part. Lilagni really, absolutely, truly is a dragon, and personifies its noblest characteristics it seems.

My clothing appearing on my body must have spooked the family, the Shellcracker clan, one and all, I think. I’m not certain but I think they were about to bury me or leave me somewhere, but I’m fairly certain I faintly feel the excruciating sensation of being borne across someone’s arms as they carry my crispy body along. Oddly enough, while most of my body hair was singed away, my face and head were kept away from the flames, so my shock of red hair looks like an ironic reminder of my recent playing with fire. At least, from what I remember of the out of body experience.

I wonder if I can give them some of the food. Hm, yep, simply by wondering, I’m pretty sure I just sent several plates of sashimi from my inventory out onto my chest while I’m being carried. That was probably pretty dumb, but hopefully it literally gives them the strength to carry on.

Oh, now I understand why the sand was so pristine, while still so far from the beach. I also realize why the palm trees were so much more sparse than trees anywhere else. That wasn’t the first massive tidal wave. I mean, I knew this earlier, about it not being the first wave, but I couldn’t have imagined the scale til I experienced it. I really truly hope the family stops and eats before making it too deep into the swamp. I’m not sure how fast they can travel on land. Oh, oh they’re going to have several days before I can do anything. I’m pretty sure I just destroyed a ton of the progress I’ve made since I woke up, on… Day… One. Oh, turns out it’s pretty hard to have a traumatic panic attack when you’re barely alive, in some sort of mental three way limbo. Silver lining? I guess?

Oh crap, each time I think about trying to summon stuff from my inventory to help out my Shellcracker family, I just realized that I’m going further into negative energy. Also apparently I’m stuck in the limit break in a bad way, it’s keeping me from being able to recover at all, and I think it’s limiting Lil and Luni as well. Oh, oh this is going to get silly. I think I have to use a limit break finisher to stop this. Alright, here goes ridiculous post negative energy expenditures. I imagine claiming the trees around me as my hand brushes across several, whilst I’m being carried, further surrendering yet more energy debt. I’m fairly certain trees disappearing from right next to you is likely startling whoever is carrying me, but this next bit will probably be more startling. I actually claim cylindrical logs from the trees sort of like bullets from the chamber of a revolver, since the ancient arbor would be far too large to claim instantly as a whole.

Let’s engage a crafting limit break climax. I erect a massive edifice in my mind’s eye out of radiant copies of all the logs and vines and sap, using up as many of the base wood and other material as possible or necessary, something akin to a cubic raft with the front face open, facing away from the shoreline. I craft it completely laden down with shelves packed with sashimi platters, hoping that if another wave hits, or the same one catches up with us, that my Shellcracker family will think to stay aboard, and possibly ride the wave to safety. With that, my energy debt plunges into ridiculously abysmal levels even further, and I finally, truly lose consciousness.

Several days must have passed, I feel my muscles ache, stirring me into that semi-conscious state of being able to browse my mind’s eye, having recovered slightly. However, not moving for days on end is causing its own problems. I’m hoping that Lil and Luni are recovering as well, but they seem to not be making progress while trapped in stasis in my inventory, it seems like whatever force of will allowed Lil to enter my inventory and split their heart ran out of juice after that, and now they’re stuck. I hope that Lil’s action was safe, and saved Luni as well, but the only way to find out is to expel them from my inventory, and let our family take care of them while we all recover. So, I gently nudge them from my inventory, trying not to use any energy to do so, letting them fall from my hand, wherever it may lie.

My wrists, my forearms, my ankles, neck, everything aches, and the sheer raw pain of my flesh has barely diminished, so I try to welcome the bliss of unconsciousness again, and am grateful when it welcomes me with open arms, stealing away my consciousness into sleep once more.