First off, I’m not paranoid. I just want to make that clear upfront.

Alright, sure… I may have some deep-seated and unresolved emotional traumas, as well as a few incredibly minor trust issues. And, of course, I also live with this constant feeling like I’m being watched. But I don’t mean it in the way you might think! It’s more like I’ve… done this before? Almost as though I’m watching myself go through the motions. It doesn’t help that, in my dreams, my day just repeats on an endless loop, walking through the same events. Over and over. Every single night.

Okay, now that I hear it, I’m not making a great case for the paranoia.

And talking to you like this probably isn’t helping either.

But I assure you that my fear is anything but irrational.

Everything – man, beast, spirit, demi-god, actual-god… even some inanimate objects, actually – they’re all out to get me. That’s just experience.

Although, sometimes I might tempt fate. Like right now.

The partially submerged entrance to a cavern lingered before me, the dark hole yawning open like the mouth of a large beast – thick plumes of vapor wafting in and out with the eddies of the river like it was breathing. They only added to the ever-present fog that coiled around my legs and arms, as though drawing me forward.

Water sloshed underfoot and I slowed my movements, letting only a faint ripple break the surface as I slid down to my waist. My boots and pants had long been soaked by the lovely, scenic hike through the swampy marshes of the Outer Reaches and my tunic clung tight. The waters of Cocytus were frigid, goosebumps dotting my arms and disguising the crisscrossing layers of scars that covered my body – too many wounds for a mere twenty cycles. Yet I was accustomed to the chill.

This was it. My last chance to back out of a truly terrible plan. Skip out on crawling into this doom hole and getting eaten alive… or disemboweled. Or possibly even disemboweled and then eaten alive. There were just so many tantalizing alternatives.

My stomach let out a growl…

But what did I really have to lose? I was starving.

So, I was really dying either way. It was just a matter of how fast.

Swallowing hard, I pressed forward. If my plan had worked, there shouldn’t be any kraell left in the nest. I’d lured the adults away by dumping the cuttings from the village’s first catch of silverfish upriver. During their spawn cycle, they had to gather food for their brood. Yet I still couldn’t let my guard down.

The narrow tunnel eventually opened into a large enclosure, dirt mounded up in the center of a circular cavern and ringed by a waist-deep moat of water. And waiting atop that blessed hill was my goal. My salvation. Quite possibly the most exquisite sight I’d ever laid eyes on. Which was rather pathetic, since the cave was covered in mud and the soupy, rank sludge that the kraell expelled. Even now it floated along the top of the water like dark foam.

Yes, those were shit bubbles. I told you this was a terrible plan.

Not that any of that mattered at the moment.

There were eggs perched atop that mound. So many eggs. Neatly clustered and piled and their surface gleaming in the faint light trickling in from overhead – courtesy of holes dotting the cavern’s ceiling. Each one was bigger than my head.

I’d only be able to retrieve a couple, at most.

I was already moving forward, shoving a bundle of herbs up each nostril to block out the smell before splashing through the muck. What can I say? I like to be comfortable while I execute my awful plans. As I reached the base of the mound, I pulled the crude leather satchel from my back and yanked open the strings even as I eyed the top.

The largest eggs were up there. If I couldn’t carry many, they might as well keep me fed for a few days. So, I picked my way carefully among the piles of eggs as I climbed on hands and knees, careful not to jostle the nests and testing my footing to ensure I didn’t create a makeshift landslide. Eventually, I scaled the summit. I lifted one of the eggs gently, and held it up to the dim light, my stomach applauding my victory loudly.

An omelet? No… a scramble first. I didn’t need anything fancy.

Maybe with river leeks and a few of the spring onions from the floating gardens…

Surely, the forest callers wouldn’t notice if a few mysteriously went missing.

Growl. I was way past hungry. I couldn’t even remember how long it’d been since I’d had a proper meal. Days maybe? Almost a week?

One egg slipped into my bag… I grabbed another…

Growl.

“Just wait,” I muttered aloud, rubbing my poor stomach. “I’ll feed you, I promise.”

Groooowwwwllll.

I froze. Wait… that one didn’t sound like it’d come from me.

Crack.

Yeah, that definitely wasn’t my stomach.

I turned ever-so-slowly, holding my breath. A fracture split the length of the egg beside me, marring its perfectly smooth surface. However, that hadn’t been me? Had it? Had I bumped it on the way up? I’d definitely been distracted once I saw the eggs, but—

The crack abruptly widened, like something was wedging it open from the inside. Meanwhile, the other eggs were beginning to tremble and buck. Okay, that wasn’t a good sign either. Not a good sign at all. Was the kraell brood about to spawn? That might explain why the adults had reacted so desperately to my bait…

Crack. Groooowwwwll.

I turned again and froze—

An infant kraell had pulled itself from a shattered egg, coils of mucous still clinging to its scales. Two arms. Two legs. A fish-like head sporting gills along its neck that sucked at the air. Its over-sized white eyes roamed and swirled sightlessly, still not having adjusted to its vessel’ new life. It was no larger than its egg-shaped prison – certainly much smaller than me. However, appearances could be deceiving.

“Oh, so there was extra protein inside,” I muttered.

Okay, so another fun fact about me… I might occasionally use humor to deflect from uncomfortable situations. Or, as my teacher Fang had put it in such delicate and emotionally-sensitive terms when he found me shivering and half-naked in the marshes at five cycles:

“Crying kids get eaten first.”

So, I’d learned to laugh instead. Haha. Makes sense, right?

Actually, now that I think about it, it might just be trauma.

Lots and lots of trauma…

Shit and there I was distracting myself again.

Probably because a fight with a baby kraell wasn’t a great idea, especially not in a half-submerged cave and surrounded by slippery mud and delicate eggs. But there was no other choice. It was standing in the middle of the one narrow path out of here and I didn’t want to jostle any of these other eggs – not if they were this close to hatching.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

So, I slowly pulled the dagger from my waist.

Meanwhile, more of Fang’s “helpful” advice rang through my head.

The desperate Hunter strikes first.

And I was feeling pretty desperate, so…

Leaping forward, I stabbed at the tiny creature. However, whether by instinct or fate, the kraell infant sidestepped suddenly, throwing me off balance. I hit the dirt and slid, crushing another egg and toppling a few more, but somehow catching myself before I slid down the mound. The eggs began to roll though, bouncing and crashing against another mound… which, also began to topple…

The cave soon echoed with the sound of cracking shells slamming against the rocks and splashing into the waters below. I winced.

That was, uh… not the result I’d been hoping for.

The kraell baby’s head pivoted – blissfully unaware anything was amiss – its eyes swirling aimlessly but its gills heaving in a deep lungful of air as it searched for food to fill its stomach. The young were utterly blind at birth and essentially deaf. However, their sense of smell was still keen. Since I was covered in the mucus from the eggs and the adult’s soupy refuse, I should be safe—

The infant’s eyes swiveled and then focused on my face and I felt my heart lurch.

Damn it. What gave me—?

I looked down to see that fresh blood dotted my arm, courtesy of the sharp, hard edges of the eggs I’d shattered. I hadn’t even felt the scratches. What were a few more scars anyway? Looking back up, I saw the kraell open its mouth to reveal rows of sharp, pointy teeth – a hundred tiny needles. It was pretty horrifying.

The kraell let out a gurgling, high-pitched cry and charged. All 20lbs of scaled flesh.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered, scrambling backward…

Only to topple more eggs, which set off another avalanche.

The kraell infant struck one, stumbled...

I couldn’t let it get close. If it bit me, its poison would paralyze my limbs. Even as an infant and still without a spirit, I was no match for these creatures.

See? Not paranoid.

Just heavily outclassed by, well, everything.

Including these fish-faced, murder babies.

Frantic, I did something even more desperate. I grabbed an egg and hurled it at the infant kraell. At this point, what was one more, right? The first shot missed, the egg exploded apart and a limp, frail body crashed to the ground, twitching but failing to take its first breath. The second struck the creature dead on, slamming into the side of its head and sending it careening as the shell burst and its syrupy contents showered the mound.

Taking advantage of its moment of weakness, I charged forward. I wish I could say it was a heroic assault. However, it ended up a mad scramble on my hands and knees through a mixture of mud, mucous, shit, and broken shells, my dagger still clutched in hand. Oh, and did I mention the herbs still stuffed up my nose? It was the stuff of legends, I’m sure.

The kraell had begun to recover and turned as I grabbed it, clawing at me with its knife-like nails and leaving long burning streaks down my arm.

I clamped my hand around its throat and held firm, accepting the scratches in order to prevent its poison-stained teeth from sinking into my flesh. Then my dagger snapped forward and plunged into the creature’s chest. Bright blue blood sprayed.

Metal flashed. And again. And again. Until the kraell finally fell limp and I crouched over its corpse, adrenaline surging through my veins and my heart loudly announcing that I was still alive. That I’d triumphed! My arms shot into the air, a whoop of victory echoing through the cave, only to be cut short by a few other sounds—

Growl. Crack. Groooooowwl. Crack.

I froze. Turned slowly, dagger in one hand and dead kraell baby in the other.

Ahh, I might have momentarily forgotten where I was.

The other eggs had begun to hatch, helped along by yours truly, of course. Sure, there were a bunch of dead kraell babies floating in the water at the base of the mound. But there were also a lot more still alive. Not one or two. But dozens.

Slimy, scaled bodies were already hauling themselves from the remains of the eggs and taking their initial stumbling steps, gills flapping as they heaved in their first breath of fresh air. Others already gnawed on their dead brothers and sisters, hungrily devouring their own brood. There were so many. Too many.

Certainly, too many for this little food.

And speaking of food… I swallowed hard, remembering my mission.

My eyes darted to my bag. A lone egg was perched inside.

Then I was moving. Scrambling across the mound until my fingers found that tough leather band. I hauled the bag to me and pivoted, not making any attempt to hide my presence now. The infant kraell caught my scent and the brood sent up a gurgling, keening cry that echoed harshly off the cavern walls, even as I stumbled and half-fell down the mound.

I kicked at another creature as it charged on unsteady legs, sending it careening into the far wall where it let out a high-pitch welp. Another rushed from below but I snagged an unbroken egg and sent it rolling down the hill in a blur – toppling the kraell… along with a few more behind it who were trying to claw their way out of the water. That strategy was working pretty well, so I kept it up until I reached the base of the mound – kicking and hurling eggs as the kraell flailed blindly in my direction and their shrieks echoed off the walls.

Taking advantage of a sudden opening, I dove into the dark sludge, only fighting against the pull of the water now, my lungs burning in my haste. Moments later, I pulled myself free of the cave. Between being blind and unaccustomed to the layout of their new home, I’d bought myself a few seconds at least.

“Still on plan,” I muttered. More high-pitched screams came from the doom hole behind me, followed by splashing water. “Well, sort of…”

I’d at least had the presence of mind to drag the bodies of a couple infant kraell along behind me. Sure, it would lure the others to my location more quickly, but, with my wounds and a one-way exit from the cave, that was already a forgone conclusion.

As the rest of the brood swarmed through the tunnel, I quickly washed my bloody arms in the river, tossed a body at the mouth of the cave, and scrambled up onto the rocks.

It wasn’t a moment too soon.

The brood emerged. One or two at first and then a throng as they scrambled over each other. Their gills pulsed and their blind eyes soon locked on the location of that corpse – its blue blood staining the gray waters. They converged on the body and ripped it apart with savage fury, tearing the flesh from its bones with their claws and their too-sharp teeth making short work of its brittle bones.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

I looked on impassively. Another familiar sight.

This is exactly what I was talking about—

Getting eaten and disemboweled at the same time.

As the others piled on, the lone corpse soon proved insufficient to sate their hunger. They turned on each other then, clawing and biting and fighting for the scraps. The waters around the cave entrance turned a bright blue and the current washed it up against the rocks, painting the entire area in blood and entrails and death.

And above this macabre scene, thousands of spirits danced in the sky in a flowing white river of energy, following the path of Cocytus as its waters wound northward. The Flow – a celestial river of spirits that twinkled in a dazzling rainbow. It was enchanting.

That was the Five Rivers for you – equal parts beautiful and horrifying.

Life here was harsh, brutal… and often surprisingly short.

Huh, but the kraell babies were already starting to turn in my direction. I needed more bait. I slashed the other corpse’s stomach and flung it into the river – blood raining down across the brood as it flew overhead. A splash and the current soon swept it up. The kraell brood surged into the river’s depths, following the bait and slowly disappearing into the thick, spirit-filled mist that covered the river. So, that was one problem down—

The water suddenly rippled, a shadow passing under the brood. Then an explosion rocked the surface, shooting a massive plume of water into the air and briefly forcing apart the Flow. As the water settled, the baby kraell were, well, gone. All of them.

Like I said, surprisingly short.

“Uh, okay,” I muttered, scrabbling back up the rocks along the coast. I had no idea what had just eaten an entire brood of kraell babies, but I didn’t plan to find out.

A cry went up from downriver and I froze. That wasn’t the keening, high-pitched shriek of an infant, but a deep-throated roar. And that would be their parents…

I wasn’t safe yet. Not by a long shot.

The infant kraell were dangerous – even deadly. Especially for someone like me. What with my “condition” and all. But they were still manageable.

However, those little fish-faced, murder babies that managed to survive the perils of the Outer Reaches would eventually turn into hulking behemoths. Over a ton of rippling muscle and dense bone that forced them back down onto all fours and squished their limbs into thick columns. In a mere cycle or two, their tails would grow in and lengthen, their bodies adapting to allow them to easily navigate the waters of Cocytus itself and hunt the deep river. I didn’t stand a chance against them, especially this close to the water. Even the other villagers avoided the spawning caves.

So, what was I to do?

My eyes turned to the river and I felt an inexplicable pull, that flowing current of spirits whispering to me. Perhaps… perhaps it was finally time to draw on my extensive experience – hundreds of life and death struggles and a body tempered by pain and hardship. Time to summon every ounce of willpower I had left…

Yes… yes this was it! My moment. I could feel the Flow of fate take hold of me, as though the river itself had been guiding me to this time and place. This was my chance. My opportunity to summon a unique and dangerous power that I’d never known I’d held.

To break through my limits and—

Hahaha, shit… sorry. I just couldn’t keep that up.

I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t that kind of story.

Or, at least, not yet? Memories lingered at the edges of my consciousness. Like a nightmare that I couldn’t quite remember. All I got was a sense of death, longing, and an endless, rolling wave of shit hurtling straight toward me. Now, that last part sounded about right.

The kraell roared again, closer this time.

I sighed. No, the “truth” was much less glamorous. It usually was.

It was my “moment” to run like hell.