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Chapter 2: The Flooded District

Anya lived further down in the wards than Victor did, and even if the feeling of going downhill didn't give that away, the ever present puddles wetting his shins did. The blackening water decreased in clarity by the day, soaking in the dirt, grime and stains of those who lived there. Trash and discarded boards of wood now flowed through the pools of water, whacking Victor in the ankles as the tide pushed upwards and then retracted.

He had only been to Anya's hut once before, and unlike Victor's abode which could generously be called a house, her residence more literally fit the descriptor, a small wooden base compromised by the approaching tide and the top of the walls leading into a series of wooden tubes and hay roof, improvised by herself no doubt.

Probably given to her by those smugglers and peddlers. Busting open a smuggling operation and getting part of your house fixed up wasn't the worst solution she could've come up with. Could've set them on fire, Anya: The Newest Vigilante Justice that takes no prisoners.

As the door to Anya's abode came into view, Victor quickly reminisced about the first time he met the dragon. The official first encounter, as in getting to talk to her, was when Garreus told him to guide a newly established recruit to the train station and the dojo. That was a year and a half ago, and Anya's home wasn't too different from his own; the flooding hadn't reached her sect just yet. Garreus had only given him the vaguest description of what the recruit looked like, a white dragon that lived at so and so in the Lower Wards.

When she opened the door to him, he immediately recognized her as one of the regulars at the market, being someone who bought whatever fruit she could and sat in front of the buskers singing their songs of melancholy predictions or thankful reassurances that it'll all be OK. The wolf was enamored with her appearance, being different from the typical dragon he saw around the kingdom: none of them had whiskers or hair like she did. Dragons weren't all that common in the kingdom to begin with, being early migrants to the mountain before the Undoing.

Her red eyes seemed to pierce right through him upon opening the door, wondering why she'd been woken up before the sun rose. Even as he explained what he was there for, she appeared spiteful, wondering why Garreus felt the need for her to be escorted. Poor first impressions aside, the dragon lightened up to Victor as she became more awake, and seemed to even glow with enthusiasm the closer they got to the dojo and after the wolf answered all of her questions without any vagueness. As much as the fur enjoyed training to be a guard, he didn't speak in overwrought idealism or sugarcoat how much training was going to hurt for the first couple of months, and it almost seemed like Anya enjoyed the idea of gradual physical torment.

Victor knocked on the door of Anya's hut gently. Instead of hearing a voice, the wolf heard what sounded like something slithering towards the door. The door flew open to reveal Anya's tail waving hi to the wolf, before the dragon herself dipped her full frame from the place she was resting, hanging upside down like a bat with her feet. "Good morning, comrade." She whispered before detaching and dropping right side up, splashing into the foot of water that plagued her home. Taking her satchel hung up on the front door, the dragon smiled upon Victor, giddy with excitement. The smile was infectious and cute to him but he silently cursed at himself to stay focused and not let such thoughts interfere with their chances of success.

Returning her greeting, the two quietly splashed through the neighborhood, making it farther down into what many now call the Flooded District or the Dire Depths. Taking stock of their gear, Victor brought the bare minimum for what might be necessary: a shortsword, a dagger, some rations that won't spoil too quick and a lightbringer's torch: a magical slab of metal, wood and phosphorus grains that can emit a bright light in water. Anya brought a stockpile of her chewing pastes, some fruit, a mace, a shortsword, a makeshift map, a lightbringer's torch, an improvised metal bar, a second set of clothes, and a journal, all sealed within her bag with what Victor could only guess as another improvised paste.

The first barricade came into view as they descended further down the mountain, an array of metallic half walls with a handful of soldiers guarding every crack and section left unfinished. With the water rising to their kneecaps, the pair submerged themselves under water before the guards could see them approaching, opting to only use arm strokes to push themselves forwards. The water steadily got deeper, inch by inch, giving cover until they reached one of the closest houses to the barricades. As they breached the surface for air, Anya pulled out a contraption she didn't mention to Victor before, a cluster of poppy plants wrapped tightly with a black rope cord.

"You brought explosives?!" Victor exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"Noisemaker, wolfy. Noisemaker." Anya calmly replied. "If we're gonna get past the barricade, we need to use the houses to jump over it. And-"

"We can't risk the guards looking up." Victor relented before planting his feet on the ground, the water rising up to meet his chest.

Anya nodded her head and climbed aboard Victor's shoulders before jumping, grabbing the house's gutter and pulling herself up. She came back to lend a hand to pull Victor up but she couldn't reach down far enough. Thinking quickly, Victor saw the opposite house, merely two feet away from where they stood, had a loose window. Pushing the window until it released from its frame, Victor picked up the set of glass panes and gently pushed them underwater without an audible splash. Reaching up to the window, he pulls himself into the house before placing his feet on the windowsill, and then jumps from the hole, grabbing onto Anya's hand. The dragon grunted under the wolf's weight but managed to pull him up far enough to where he could reach the roof edges and make it on top.

The roof of the weary house gave the two an extensive view of the remainder of the district, the homes going forward would be completely submerged in the water sans the roofs. Down the middle of several roads were makeshift rafts guided by rope pulley systems, able to let the rafts drift down to where the flooding begins and brought back to the metal barricade with an iron crank. Fog became thicker and thicker as the distance increased, obscuring any possible end in sight.

Anya breathed deep before letting a small green flame escape her mouth, igniting the tip of her poppy plant concoction. She threw the ball far to the left, landing on another roof. A few seconds passed before the air was bombarded with the sound of popping kernels and squeaking pockets of air being released into the world. Curses and bemusement came out of the guard's mouths, with several asking each other who wanted to check it out, with most volunteering to do so, if only to relieve the sogginess in their trousers.

Peering over the other side of their roof, they saw the guard nearest was distracted by the chatter. Kneeling down, Victor cupped his hand to which Anya put one of her feet and let the burly wolf give her a good head start by launching her far enough across the barrier to reach the second closest roof. Victor readied himself into a running stance, taking as few noisy strides as possible before performing a long jump. He cleared the barricade but failed to land on a roof. His body splashed into the water, to which a few guards heard, even with the still exploding poppy plants.

Fuck. Keeping his head underneath the water, he swam to the other side of the house Anya was resting on. Breaching the surface, Anya joined him in the water in case they decided to look over their way, the slanted design of the roof at least being able to obscure their heads.

"So far, so good." She said with a smile.

"I guess. And this is the closest we'll get to those textbooks talking about beaches." Victor replied.

The dragon gave a small giggle and accidentally let slip a small flame. "Well if this works out, maybe it can be on the checklist of things to visit."

"Yeah?" Victor listened intently for the guards but none of them seemed willing to look through the waters for whatever caused a noise. "There anything in particular you want to see after this is over?"

The dragon let herself float upon the water on her back, closing her eyes to the open and dark sky. "Maybe see other mountains. The snow capped ones and slide down them like my favorite characters in...those old books I read as a kid. Sounds so fun." A smile creeped upon her face after she spoke, with its contagious effect infecting his face wholly.

"That does sound fun." Victor replied. "My mom used to say that most of my kind lived up in the snowy north, staying in tribes and took longer than some to move down to the Central Plains, even longer to get to the Southern Reach."

"You think that's where we are? Teachers never did give us a map."

"I think most of the people living today don't know exactly where we are." The wolf glumly replied. "It's not like the exiles ever came back exclaiming they found the tip of the South or discovered the supposed utopia axis of Central. But judging from the fact we see no snow here, we're definitely not North."

Anya gave a small chuckle. "Maybe I can find others like me and they can teach me how to fly." She rolled up her sleeves to reveal the tiny wings that adorned her forearms, appearing as decoration more than anything useful. "But what about you? Where do you wanna go?"

"I...don't know." He wasn't even sure what they were going to do after they found the artifact. Would it light a way through the Glasslands? Would they even be able to get away with whatever they do? Assuming they didn't get arrested by their own government.

"Well I'm sure you'll think of something." Anya replied, turning her head, her eyes meeting his. "And I'll do what I can to help you find it."

"...Thank you." He smiled, unable to do anything to dampen her enthusiasm with his worries.

"It's only fair." She submerged herself to come back up, a few inches away from Victor's face. "You've helped me with this, even if you didn't have to."

_You'd think I'd let you do this on your own. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let that happen. _A thought that rang through the wolf's head several times before he finally just said: "You'd do the same for me, friend."

A toothy smile, sharp canines glistening in the faint light greeted him before his companion simply nodded her head. "I would."

He smiled back, almost letting his teeth shine to her as well, lest he look goofy or intimidating doing it. "Alright, let's go. The sun will rise in a few hours."

Pulling themselves up on the roof of a house farther away from the barricade, the pair scouted out the grand distance, seeing the roofs becoming more and more drowned after each row.

"Think they have shark guards?" Anya joked. Victor just scoffed at her before giving her a joke slap to the back of the head. "Still sticking to the rooftops?"

"Yeah, plus we can't afford to be seen by any guards that might be coming back on the rafts, if there are any by the depths entrance. "

"Fair, plus who knows what sharp objects can be floating or drifting about under the water. Someone's cutlery cutting our legs by chance wouldn't be favorable."

Victor grunted in acknowledgment before jumping to the next roof and then another with Anya trailing closely behind, looking over her shoulder for any soldier boys. Neither of them saw any guards patrolling the flooded lanes, which didn't surprise Anya but made Victor suspicious that perhaps anyone who was guarding would be by the source of the flood. The fog soon overwhelmed their sight and enveloped their bodies after jumping across a dozen rooftops but they pressed on, trusting that every house would be the same distance apart. Another dozen roofs were traveled upon until a strange sight came into view.

At the bottom of the mountain, they expected to see the vast Glasslands before them but were instead greeted by an enormous lake, formed and contained by rock walls and even further veiled by the perpetual fog. The blanket of clouds was only broken in this area, to put into view a strange formation of stone in the center of the lake, misshapen by ridges and imitating the look of a volcano. The mouth of the formation guzzled out water at an inconsistent rate, sometimes weakly and other times relentlessly. The rock wall of the lake extended into the lower sections of their kingdom as well, containing the water enough to keep the district flooded but still letting plenty of the rapids pour out into the presumable wastelands.

Looking closely, the two saw that there was a set of structures placed into the lake, metal poles jutted into the ground with nailed down wood serving as platforms, no guards to be seen. _Observation perhaps, but no boats to get back. _

Anya pulled out her lightbringer and shook it, casting a light into the water below the mostly submerged house they were standing on. Dozens of decimated homes littered the lake floor, but no signs of bodies or creatures. "Let's go." Before Victor could agree, Anya jumped into the water and slithered through the mass in less than a minute. Victor gave chase and took several minutes just using the basic arm stroke and kicking. Pulling themselves up onto the platforms, Anya laid out her gear and melted away the paste seals with her breath. Victor looked back towards the rest of the mountain, the barricade and the less submerged housing being completely invisible to his eyes behind the curtain of fog.

Upon turning around, he found Anya taking off the dark top and long skirt she had begun their journey with. Before Victor could ask what she was doing, the dragon was down to her underwear, a set of black and white pieces of cloth that hid away her sacred spot and breasts. He found himself staring at the figure as she had her back turned to him, not caring about her own exposed body. It made the wolf even more tempted to hold her back from going any further just so that he could admire the form for even longer. She turned around however, her gaze breaking the spell her skin and shape had on Victor's mind. Instead of being utterly entranced, he was now silently longing.

"Take off your clothes." She simply said before holding out her own wet clothing and drying it off with her flame breath, trying carefully to not set the cloth ablaze.

"What are you doing?" He finally managed to blurt out, trying not to stare at any one area of her body.

"Clothing will just slow us and if this is a long journey, I'm gonna keep our current ones as dry as possible." She answered casually. "So hand them over and I'll put them in my bag with the sealing paste to keep them dry." A mischievous grin wanted to appear on her face but the dragon kept it suppressed.

Victor reluctantly started to undress, taking off the navy blue robe he adorned, leaving the only piece of clothing to be his underwear: a pitiful wrapping and stitching of old red cloth that did fine enough concealing his manhood when sheathed but would leave nothing to the imagination when aroused. The wolf kept himself sideways when handing over his garb, then turning away, feigning another look up the mountain.

Anya grinned upon the wolf's discomfort, deciding to add to it by wrapping an arm around one of his shoulders to slyly give him the chewing paste they needed, brushing up against his chin. The wolf snatched the blocks of paste out of her hand and quickly started chewing on both. Slithering away, Anya stepped to the mouth of the rock formation, some of her confidence and playfulness dissipating as she saw how deep the plunge would be. The rushing water was far from the base surface of the underground sea. When Victor came up beside her however, she put on a strong face and reached out for his hand. The pair's lustful shenanigans ceased upon the sight of the drop, but determination in each other rose up in its place. Looking to each other and nodding their heads, and with their gear on their backs, the pair dropped into the dark waters below.

The pair sank quicker than they could even imagine, ever fearful of the plunging depths they were so hurling towards at such a rapid rate. Still holding her hand, Victor kicked with his paws like he was planning to swim back up to the surface. The two stopped, the chill of the water forcing some of the wolf's fur into his eyes and giving goosebumps to the dragon's skin and scales.

Chewing onto the paste, the two felt cold air pushed into their cheeks with every crush of the block. After a few seconds, breathing in the water felt natural, so long as they didn't try breathing through their nose or opening their mouths.

For a moment longer, the water remained close to pitch black, shaming Victor's wolf heritage and their nocturnal efficiencies. Clarity came finally however, making it as easy to look to the depths as it would to just have one's eyes open in a freshly made bath.

Clarity did not comfort the wolf however, looking to his companion to check if she somehow got the bad or defective piece of paste. She looked confident however and motioned him to start swimming downwards, still holding his hand tightly with no intention of releasing. Victor still couldn't help but be apprehensive though, gazing upon the scenery now on full display. The ridge design that defined their entrance was all over the walls and distant floors, with multiple caverns and holes dotting the lower sections, hiding god knows what.

_Just a legend, just a legend. _The Gigalon came to his mind again, a beast he was warned about since childhood, a tale regularly told by the guards and authorities above. One of the many reasons they couldn't come down to try the artifact again. The reason changed from year to year, but Gigalon stayed around for a couple.

A colossal beast that stays within the murky depths below the mountain, but sometimes comes up to the Glasslands for air, a multi-limbed, multi-purpose destroyer. Bears a translucent and white skin on a body that is simultaneously flat through its webbed wings and bulbous though its enlarged, gill ridden gullet. Difficult to see unless having a light directly shown upon it. Jagged horns shined from the spine, with claws of yellow bone and teeth of twisted black adorning an expansive and disfigured maw, appearing stitched together and healed countless times improperly.

_Such a fool to give credence to excuses at best. _He cursed to himself, giving full force in his paddles to move the pair closer to the bottom. The many holes in the walls down below holding nothing but more folding formations of stone. No sign of coral, moss or life.

Towards the visible bottom, a spout similar to the one above came into view, with the two traversing through there as well, but with bated breaths as the room to maneuver was noticeably smaller. The wolf's fur grazed and embraced against the dragon's chest skin and stomach scales as they slid further. An apology almost escaped from Anya's lips as they progressed, before remembering that opening her mouth for anything would be bad. Part of her wished she could read his thoughts and see if he was holding himself together. A part of her did admire the show he was putting on though, knowing at least some worry was there, only guessing a fraction.

The new expanse of water came into view, even murkier than the last. Darkness was still apparent in many corners, even with the vision clearing paste. Separating their bodies from each other, the two descended into the farther body of water. The chamber wasn't nearly as large, housing a way forward almost immediately. As they approached, a feeling that started weakly, escalated before a reaction was made. The large hole in the floor brought forth its own current, grasping onto the two and pulling them down towards it.

Panicking and trying to swim away from that uncertain route, Victor let go of Anya's hand and pushed her upwards and away from the edges of the hole. As he tried to pick up speed as well, his legs tired and admitted defeat, pulling Victor into the undertow violently and swiftly.

Vanishing from her sight, the wolf's vision dimmed harshly as he was pulled voraciously by the structure in the ground, his body flying boundless inside of a narrow passage that traveled ever deeper into the ground. A makeshift barricade came into view of his tired and worn eyes, the rapids making it difficult to keep them open. Bracing his arms and tucking his knees, the reinforcement did little to stop his rushing body. Wood and nail flew with him, with more adding to the rush of objects as the wolf collided with two more before the passage finally gave way to another body of water. Cuts adorned his arms as he opened his eyes to see the flood over. Relief and brief excitement overcame him as he saw something the other rooms lacked, a surface to breach. Swimming up, he grabbed onto a stone landing that gave way to a lit cavern with an intricate door at the end.

"Anya!" He said to himself, realizing how she must be terrified of what could have happened to him. He shouted her name as loudly as he could, hoping to somehow echo up the passage that must have run for several miles.

The dragon breached the surface of the water mere seconds after his shouting began however. Before he could say a word though, the rage in her features silenced him as she grabbed him by the chest fur.

"What in the world do you think you're doing, pulling off a reckless stunt like that?!" She screamed in his face, tears separating from her eyes.

"What was I supposed to do? Leave it up to fate?!" He barked back. "I was trying to save you in case we got into something we couldn't handle."

"And for what?!" She looked up to him, teeth rattling and grinding between every pause. "I get away and leave you to possibly die?! I leave here with nothing and lose you in the process? That's not how it fucking works!" Her voice echoed, her fists were clenched and resting upon his chest, her face cast downwards as more tears fell to the ground. "You don't get to play the altruistic." Sobbing interrupted her words, an ugly sniffling noise filled the air. "And even if you were right, do you think I'd be able to live with that?"

Victor took a deep breath and tried to take a hold of her hands, but his friend, an expert at looking strong and straight, pulled them away and stepped back, cowering underneath his gaze. "We knew this was a possibility. And it's a two way street... I'd rather you guilt-ridden than dead. Your life is worth much more than mine ever could."

"Don't you dare start comparing value in our lives!" She snapped, the sharpest of her teeth peering over her lips. "You value to me, and I know I do to you. You're..." Her anger hid away as the wretched noises of sobbing came in full force. "...my friend. And I want you to stay around. You seemed like the one that always would."

She looked back upon him with a weak smile as he moved towards her and embraced her in his arms. He rubbed his paw across her back, her soft skin getting a rise out of the beast but was able to keep his mind off it. She settled her claws upon the fur on his back, pushing and nestling them underneath the matted fur. This was the first time they had embraced in such a manner. Anything before was a meager handshake or half hearted pat on the back.

"I'll always stay if I can." He quietly replied. She looked up to him, still deep in embrace and smiled fully, before hugging him tighter.

The two separated, nodding to each other before looking down the passage, noting a green sphere with orange mechanisms and white letter adornment. The folding stone smoothed and even appeared delicately crafted, serving as snakes of rock leading to the door in an array of three.

Mentioning the barricades to Anya, Victor and her scanned the ground and ceiling for anything that could be hiding a trap.

"If they don't want us coming here, that means we're definitely on the right track." She replied with enthusiasm, thankfully not going into a full sprint towards the stone oddity.

While no traps hindered their trek, Victor noticed a set of supplies next to the mechanisms: a satchel filled with drawings and rambles about what it called a door. Victor looked back to the elaborate rock interface, disappointed and disheartened to see no traditional door knob or handle.

Anya touched the jade surface with her hand before immediately jerking it back, a look of confusion plastering her face. "It's warm....it pulses."

"What do you mean?" After the words left his mouth, the grooved orange mechanisms digging into the door turned in place, revealing a carving within the center of each. The bust of a dragon's head adorned the metallic tubes, though they did not resemble Anya or any other kind of dragon Victor had ever seen. The shape of the head was unmistakable however, with the unusual addition of horns and curved tusks. A colored dust slowly flew towards Anya's frame, capturing her in a cloud.

Right before his eyes, Anya's body faded in clarity and transparency. He reached out to grab her but his hands phased right through her body, clutching nothing but empty air. His friend looked to him, confused and terrified, tears showing in her red eyes once again. Immediately afterwards, she faded to nothing, leaving behind the meager clothing that once grasped her body.

The wolf howled and screamed for his companion's name, beating his fists against the contraptions on the walls, beating his knuckles against the groove, drawing blood almost immediately.

Anya felt a rush of heat overcome her frame as she appeared on the other side of the door. The room before her was a circular temple, hosting a tree composed of dark glass, bearing a thousand sharp edges and a glossy and reflective sheen able to provide its own light in what should be a pitch black room. Hanging from the several branches were strands that led into a suspended egg, bearing an orange eye that cast light at Anya's feet. A projection appeared before her eyes, showing of a hare, a wolf and an oryx approaching a darkened object. After they touched the tree that seemed in a fuller state, energy pulsed outwards, turning the adventurers to ash and shaking the very walls around it.

_The tree was changed after they tampered with it. _Anya thought to herself. She looked behind her to see the same mechanisms that greeted her before. Pressing her head against the stone wall, she tried to listen for anything but nothing came.

The eye of the tree still looked on towards her, with one of the branches curling its ends like fingers, beckoning her over. The dragon tentatively followed this command, standing beneath the dark mass, preparing for whatever it might do to attack her. Instead, the tree lowered the egg-bound eye to her hands.

Victor still pounded against the stone until the pain overwhelmed his will and drained his energy completely, holding himself against the wall and sliding down slowly until he submitted himself to the fetal position. His screams of her name were reduced to whimpers and whispers as he laid on the cold ground, not feeling the warmth she described, and missing the warmth she provided.

The caves rumbled violently and before Victor could start pounding again or running away, a flood of light overwhelmed his eyes and body.

The cold was even more present than before.

Snow stuck between the fibers of his fur, and he could see the sky once more.

Anya was nowhere to be seen.