Since the fight in Cetus, Lamia had been busy, swimming through the water tunnels to every cave she could access. She already had small dens set up underwater in most of these caves, which was where she deposited bits of Mother, to be properly planted later. Now she was approaching her last stop, which was where she would find a suitable place above water that would serve as another hive.

At one point along the river, far away from the golems and a good distance from the Spire, Lamia stopped. The water was moving a little slower here so she swam to the surface and popped her head above water, clutching close Mother's fungus. She looked around, curious, to see if she could find a place nearby that would serve as a good hiding place. She wasn't foolish enough to try and plant Mother somewhere out in the open.

...but Polaris was a little thin on proper hiding places. She tried to shift the water around her, to lift her from the river so she could explore more freely, but it was no good, the magic didn't take hold. Not for the first time, Lamia grew frustrated with her inability to walk above ground. This would be so much easier if she had legs like everyone else. And normal lungs.

She let out a small moaning chime as she tried, once again, to shift the water around her. She figured that, if she could just pick up the water to go around with her, she could essentially just. Go anywhere. And it started to work. The waves around her began to shift and she moved herself up, the water around following as she broke the surface. The instant she did, however, she felt herself losing control of the magicka and the water around her burst away, throwing her onto shore. She screeched as she went, dropping bits of Mother back into the river, and slamming painfully onto the rock.

Immediately, she flopped onto her stomach and dragged herself forward. She had no water reserves. She couldn't breathe! She dragged herself painfully and furiously across the floor, black spots beginning to appear in her vision. Just as she was on the verge of passing out, she threw herself forward and dove into the river.

Immediately, she sucked in a deep breath and panted, heart beating out of control. That was really really close.

She looked down. Mother's fungus was being swept up by the current, but she easily managed to swim around and pluck most of it away. Some of it was lost but...Lamia figured that it would be fine - perhaps it would grow on its own and create new hives elsewhere.

With Mother back in her arms, Lamia swam further downstream, popping her head out when the current grew slow again. Wait...she focused her eyes on something rather distant. It looked like a cluster of rocks. Far away from the river, sure, but Lamia had gone farther then that in the Olympics. She could get there.

She looked down at the clusters of Mother in her arms and felt a surge of warmth and love. She would protect these and she would protect Mother.

She breathed in as much as she could and began to store water in her body. It wasn't much - she would need more if she was going to drag herself all the way out there.

Lamia locked in more fluid against her gills, stronger then before. She felt more confident, now, about how much she had. She could get there. It would hurt - stone was harder to drag across then Cetus's marsh, but she could do it.

She deposited Mother onto the ground before hauling herself from the river. Once she was properly on land, she transferred the fungus onto her tail, curving her fins to that they didn't fall out, stuffed some of it in her mouth, and began to drag herself across the floor.

It was hard and painful, just as Lamia predicted, and by the time she got back to the cave, she was almost out of water. But as she pushed her way through a crack in the rocks, she rejoiced at seeing a small pool in the corner. She quickly pulled herself forward, realizing with a jolt that it was a lot deeper then she thought. Setting Mother down on the stone, she dipped down. A tunnel? Well, then it probably went all the way to the river, then.

What was the point of all of this?

It didn't matter. This was good. A protected spot that connected to the river. She clustered Mother's fungus together and pushed it against the wall, so she could grow. "Here, Mother," she chimed. "A new place to grow a hive. I will go catch you a fish."
She turned and dove into the little pool and disappeared into the tunnel. It was a tight fit and she couldn't go very quickly, but, eventually, just as she suspsected, it brought her to the river. She turned back to look at it, trying to memorize the opening, before deciding that it would be better to mark it somehow. She swam to the bottom of the river and picked up a loose stone, setting it on the edge of the tunnel. Inconspicuously of course, but enough so that she would know where it was.

There were a lot of fish to pick from, swimming past her, although most were smart enough to steer clear. She turned her head to watch as the fish swam around her, until she eventually picked out which one she would hunt. It was swimming against the current with a few others of its kind, fairly large, and just upstream.

She held herself in the water for a moment and then slowly began to swim forward, making as little a current as she could. Once she was in range, she fanned out her tail and whipped it hard, pushing forward with her arms and her whole body, putting on a burst of feet that shot her forward. The fish darted away, but she lunged forward and sunk her fangs into the one she'd had her eye on.

With a quick snap, she broke its spine and it stopped writing. Holding it in the same position, to not release too much blood into the water, she turned and swam back through the tunnel, emerging in the cave where Mother's fungus was waiting.

"Mother, I brought you a fish. Do you need more right now?"

Lamia waited for a moment, concerned when Mother didn't begin to spread. The confusion confused her as well and she hesitated. The dread, however, shook her. "Mother?! What's wrong?" But then it was too late - Mother was hardening, dying, and breaking. "MOTHER," she screeched audibly, reaching for the fungus, as if she could protect it, but the stone was crumbling already and the link was too distant to understand anything at all.

She needed to leave. She was terrified, lost without Mother's voice in her head. She gathered up the broken shards into her mouth and left the fish there, diving back into the hole and out towards the river.

She went along with the current, preparing to fall into Pisces's lagoon where, perhaps, she could create a proper hive. Where Mother wouldn't die.

*exit