Chapter Text
Three cycles. It had been three cycles since Artificer had to depart from their partner, Hunter. She knew this was going to happen, to have to bring Hunter to The Depths for her to ascend, before the rot overtook her.
It wasn't easy for Hunter, knowing she would never be able to meet Artificer in the void when it was her time, but for Artificer? She laid next to one of the large lake deposits of the void sea, almost lifeless. She hadn't eaten for three cycles, hadn't slept for three cycles, she didn't even know how long she'd been down there. She just waited, waiting for the cycles to come to a stop where she wouldn't come back anymore. She couldn't deal with losing another loved one, so she laid on the cold floor of the caves that surround the vast, yellow tinted sea, thinking about everything she did.
Gourmand had planned on taking some of her colony down to the void sea today to carry some of it in hand-weaved baskets to experiment with it. Gourmand was well known in her colony for being a hard-working but very caring leader, going further in her crafts than any slugcat colony had ever been, teaching their younger generation these practices to carry on their legacy in the future. They all walked in a single-file line, except for a little black slugcat. This little slugcat walked next to Gourmand, a tight grip of a spear in their hand, and their piercing-white eyes watching for any possible dangers ahead of them.
Gourmand and her selected colony had reached a deposit of void sea where they could easily get to the mysterious fluid to pick some up with their baskets, without being close enough to risk anything bad happening. After all, nobody fully knows how this fluid works, which was why Gourmand was so interested in taking some to a certain iterator to figure out some interesting crafts and experiments with it.
The black slugcat suddenly put their spear like a barrier to stop Gourmand from going any further and looks at her. This slugcat never developed the vocal cords to speak, but Gourmand still treated them like any apprentice she'd trained in the past and was very proud of them for how far they've gotten. "What is it, Nightcat?" Gourmand asks, tilting her head slightly. Nightcat points their spear at the seemingly lifeless corpse of a dark red slugcat. The gourmands pupils fix into a look of worry, and she tries to run to help this slugcat. Suddenly, the rocky ground beneath her crumbles and sends her falling, aiming straight for the void sea. Nightcat runs after her, with extremely smooth agility for such a young slugcat. They're able to run past Gourmand and stabs their spear into the ground right before the small deposit of the void sea. Although the ground is pretty flat around this area, Gourmand was exceptionally good at sliding at fast rates, making it unable for her to stop before the void sea. She rams into the spear, a little hurt but better than her falling in. Nightcat rushes over to her, helping her up and checking her over. "Nightcat, I'm fine! We need to check on this slugcat. They look severely injured." Nightcat rolls their eyes as Gourmand continues to rush over to the dark red slugcat, getting closer until her and Nightcat were a few feet away from her.