Simple And Clean [Andrew's Awakening]

Way after the sun had set, a lonely boy wandered the empty fields of East Eden alone, humming a melancholic yet nostalgic tune to himself. His father was probably worried about him, but at this point he really didn't care; there was something welling up inside of him that made him ignore whatever consequence should arise from disobeying his father tonight. Besides, he was heading home anyway... with a few small detours. In part, the night out that night was beautiful, but he doubted that was all there was to it. What else there was, exactly, he couldn't tell.

Andrew was content with simply running around the fields for now, he had no particular destination in mind. At the moment, he was nearing the lodging he and his family called home, settled right in front of a small lake. There was always a lot of fish there; Andrew, like with many things, didn't know why, but out of all the types of animals out there, fish were definitely his favorite. The sense of freedom and lack of restrictions that was usually associated with birds was more linked to fish in Andrew's mind; he admired how gracefully they moved around the ocean, heading wherever the currents took them, and they always felt like they knew exactly where they belonged. They swam around in schools, after all, they all had a place they could call home, even if they weren't able to process the concept of one to begin with.


Andrew slowed down as he reached the lake in question. It was one of the bigger ones in East Eden, yet it was still small by lake standards; probably about the size of a plaza in terms of area, and some 15 to 20 meters deep at the deepest part. He was content to simply stare at the lake and its small inhabitants for now, so he sat down on the shore and waited to see if any of the smaller fishes approached the shore; fish tended to be friendly with him of all people, for some reason.

It had been a quite a while since Callie had set out on a little walk with Zavie through East Eden, they'd decided to go and get some fresh air together after their little meet up with learning about phones and stuff as a way to distress yet had ended up staying out a lot longer than they first expected to. Not only had they lost track of time, somehow they'd manage to lose their way... Which was... Really odd for the girl, she'd always been super good at keeping track of things! Even if she didn't know a place at all it was easy for her to retrace her steps just by following her own scent backwards. Yet something was odd about the air tonight and it was messing with her... She was a little worried in all honesty, last time she was out late and felt like this she ran into those other two who were being attack by some big meanie. And he was super tough too... Although the girl wouldn't let up her usual cheerful attitude just yet, she had Zavie with her after all! Even if something did go wrong she knew that together they'd be able to deal with anything!

The young vixen would give Zavie a warm smile to show she was still feeling confident even if thoroughly confused as to why she'd lost her way. Seriously, it was almost as if this place changed completely once the sun set! "We must be nearing Sunlake Palms, right? This was definitely the right way to go to head back. So it shouldn't be too much longer!" She'd say with an optimistic nod before coming out at a clearing with a huge... Lake in front of her? Callie would shiver lightly at the sight, she hated water... Especially cold water! And that lake must be freezing right now, not that she was in anyway thinking about testing that theory. "D-did we take another wrong turn?" The girl would question timidly, confused as to where this lake had come from... It definitely wasn't on the way back home that they usually took, how had they managed to get so-

Being cut out of her trail of thought, Callie would lightly tilt her head to one side and squint her eyes. Something had caught her attention, or, wait, it was a someone? I-is that Andrew? What was he doing out here alone this late at night? Maybe he was lost too! Oh that'd be horrible, being lost was bad enough as it is! But being lost on your own made it like a bajillion times worse!... W-was bajillion a number...? If not it should be. It sounds like a number, a real big one at that, like if you heard someone say they had a bajillion vc you'd think they were super rich! Or like if, u-uhm... A-anyway. After pointing out her discovery to Zavie, the girl would begin the trek around the outskirts of the lake to head towards the seated young boy, curious as to what he was doing out here on his own. Plus maybe she could ask him for directions if he knew this part of East Eden better than her?

The night was brisk and cold as the group happened to conveniently get near the shorefront of the lake or atleast around it. However, a the group that was near or atleast around the lake would begin to see a strange and unusual green fog take over the area... Almost like the type of sea fog that sailors would see, and begin to hear a strange groaning like noise. Andrew would be the closest to the lake and as a result hear it the loudest compared to the rest of the group. Something was clearly up over it, but just what would the boy do in response to this sudden phenomenon appearing before him?

The green fog seemed to be around the area where Andrew was specifically, nowhere else either but that particular area of the lake.

Andrew had always wondered what kind of fish he’d be if he were one of them. Maybe something like a koi pond fish, or maybe a sailfish? He was a pretty fast swimmer, hehehe~

Eventually, a few common fishies approached the shore and swam around without direction. Upon closer inspection it was a group of goldfish! Andrew had a pet goldfish just like these ones called Greg. He was really cute, but he always seemed a little bit lonely. Then, an idea struck Andrew. Maybe if he was careful and slow enough, he could grab one of these fishies and rush home to put it in his fish tank, then Greg could have a friend!

The redheaded child slowly crawled on the edge of the shore, not minding getting a little wet, and began to extend his hand over the surface of the portion of water where the small group of goldfish swam around. His hand broke the surface and began to inconspicuously extend directly above the smallest goldfish of the bunch, but before he could close his grasp and bring a friend home to his pet, a loud groaning sound broke the silence of the night and scared the fish and Andrew alike, prompting the animals to swim away and the child to lose the grasp his hand had on the wet sand underneath, causing him to fall face-first into the shallow water. Geez… he didn’t really mind getting wet, but this water wasn’t the cleanest to be swimming in…

As he stood up and looked around for the source of the noise, he noticed the thick green fog that had overtaken the lake. T-this was starting to get scary, maybe he should return home…

As Callie headed around the out skirts of the lake, she'd watch over for the figure she was pretty sure she recognized as she walked. Trying to make out more details of him the closer and closer she got to try to figure out for sure if it was indeed the person she thought it was. Regardless of if it was or not though, she really needed to ask someone where she was... T-this place was starting to give her the creeps and she was still baffled as to how she'd manage to lose her way in the first place...

The girl would shiver lightly as she saw the boy face plant into the water before scrambling to pick himself back up, ewww, that'd be so horrid! Water was so icky and just, eww... The young vixen was about to hurry her pace to make sure he was okay when something else caught her attention and made her stop in place. A strange green mist that was far too similar of that she saw the other night surrounding that horrible ghoul was forming over the lake and seemingly approaching the boy before a eerie groaning noise followed suit. "U-uh oh..."

"Cals... This looks kinda bad, take precaution if this is the same as before and you're planning on helping out again!" Terra would warn the girl before outfitting her with her masked appearance, changing her hair colour from blonde to white, her eyes from their ruby red to emerald green, her clothes from pink to greens and whites and replacing her usual hood that covered her head with a green hood and scarf that covered most of her face. "Nehehe, juuuusssst incase that isn't who you think it is! We don't know what's going on here for sure after all!"


"Mhm, thanks Terra!" The girl would say appreciatively with a light nod before turning round to look at Zavie, her positive smile being thrown his way. "Sounds like something fishy's going on, ya think we should go help out?" She'd ask, making sure Zavie was up for the task as well before venturing off towards the boy in question, gripping her duel daggers tightly in her hand in anticipation of an approaching battle.

As the party appeared to approach the lake. Something was off, that strange feeling in the air would only get more intense, as the fog would thicken around the lake shore. Andrew specifically would be able to make out mirages of strange green horse like figures manifesting out of the fog... Any that were near him at the time would also be able to make them out. They seemed small and in the distance, but it was clear they were approaching. Despite them not stepping across any form of land, the sound of hooves clicking with be heard.


Voices would Assail Andrew and whoever was near hims minds, they were eerie and death like. Wails nearly which penetrated into their mind constantly.

Come with us children...
Come....
Come to our lake children...

It was rather clear that these strange horse like creatures were attempting to get the group into the lake, Andrew would feel a strange sensation welling up within him. Like something that had been suppressed was trying to come out now, it threatened to consume and alter him utterly however unlike other forms of potential, what would the child do however when faced with such danger?

Suddenly, this little nocturnal outing wasn’t so fun anymore. A cacophony of strange voices – almost whisper-like in nature – infiltrated Andrew’s mind and thoughts. At the same time, his vision would be plagued by the horrible sight of three unsightly horse-like monsters. Were these… demons? The same ones that had forced his family to move to Endymion, and the same ones that his father kept warning him about despite never having run into one since their moving? The voices… they were telling him to follow the horses into the lake.

“…” Andrew was, for lack of a better term, at an utter loss for words. Not only was he too scared to say or even mutter anything, but was he… actually considering taking up these demons on their offer? He… well… in retrospect, did he really have any reason to distrust the demons? Sure they were ugly-looking, but… their voices were low, almost soft, even if a bit eerie. The fish weren’t swimming away from them anymore too, which meant that… they weren’t afraid of them. They… they couldn’t be that bad… right?

Andrew began to slowly walk along the low decline of the sand below the water, approaching the water spirits placed before him. He told himself inside his mind several times to snap out of it, but every time he himself was the one to put himself back in a trance-like state. His eyes were almost soulless, their pupils having dilated to the point that one could easily confuse them for those of a cartoon character. Eventually, he stood one step away from the horselike demons, his body almost completely submerged in water at this point, with only his head peeking out of the surface. A hand peeked out from beneath the surface, steadily approaching the demon, ready to mount it as it suggested. He could almost touch it…


Suddenly, a fourth voice appeared inside of Andrew's mind. Temporarily broken out of his trance, Andrew looked down at the water he was in, and on the surface greeted him a familiar yet new reflection. It was that of his own face, except he was grinning slyly and his eyes were... yellow? Before he could react, however, something dragged him down into the water by his heels, catching him off guard and prompting him to accidentally swallow a bit of water.


Water had gone down Andrew's mouth and eyes. He was choking out underwater, and couldn't even see what was assailing him. All he could do was feel, and what he felt was a pair of hands too similar to his own strangling him. He couldn't swim upwards for air or release, all he could do was struggle. Eventually, Andrew's life began to drain out of his body. He couldn't move his body as forcefully as he could a few seconds ago. It was clear to both the victim and the assailant that this was the end for Andrew.

His mysterious assailant figured it was time. The life in his body was about to completely run out, and as soon as it did, he'd have to enter his mind and take his place. That's what this was all about, after all. The moment Andrew stopped flailing and moving and showed no further signs of life, the assailant quickly moved a hand towards Andrew's head; but then, the unexpected happened. Andrew had, out of sheer curiosity and interest, read up and asked the teachers at his school who knew about the subject to teach him about multiple types of water life, including those that could potentially be dangerous to humans like him. Underwater animals had poor sight, and could only detect the health of their prey via the vibrations in the water and their general observable body movement, excluding details such as breathing or beating (in most cases). Ergo, before his strength ran out, Andrew had the idea to play dead, wait for whatever was trying to drown him to let go of his neck, punch it to disorientate it then swim away to safety. This is exactly what he'd done. So, which landed first. The punch or the grasp?

The answer is none. They both connected at the exact same time, and they were both very effective.

The next few seconds were an absolute blur for both the assailant and his victim, but once Andrew recovered consciousness and realized he was no longe being held down, he frantically swam upwards for air. Breaking the surface and gasping loudly, Andrew was too shell-shocked to swim back to shore quite yet, he was just focused on breathing. A deadly mistake, had he been facing regular water predators; but he wasn't.

Andrew tried to bring a hand up to wipe the water from his eyes, but there was something really off. No matter how hard he tried to move his fingers, they wouldn't react. In fact, he couldn't even feel them anymore. Now that he noticed, his entire body felt... disproportioned... somehow. He falt bigger, and also it just felt like he'd been completely deformed, yet at the same time it... didn't feel wrong, exactly...

Andrew looked down at the surface of the water, which was now a lot farther below him than he remembered. The reflection he saw nearly made him choke without the need of water.


W.... what the CRAP was he?! Not only had he transformed into something completely different, but upon screaming in utter disbelieg he'd noticed his voice had become a lot higher and smoother too! He almost sounded like a girl! He was the most confused he'd ever been in his entire life; somebody please explain this!

The Kelpies would react to the strange boy turning into some kind of sea creature, while he was no w acreature of the sea he certainly was not one of them, the fog around the group would begin to intensify further now. As the Kelpies would begin their ghastly assault.

Kelpie 1:

Kelpie 2:

Kelpie 3:

Andrew's mind was currently spinning in circles. This had to be a dream, right? There was no way this was anything but a dream. He slapped himself with his han- er... his flipper, but no matter how much he inflicted pain on himself to wake himself up, the world around him and himself remained the same. More specifically, those horse monsters that had tried to hypnotize him a minute earlier were still there, and they looked very angry.

There was a strange urge rising within him. He didn't know why, but he felt different; not only in body - of course - but also in mind, it was as if he wasn't quite the same person, yet at the same time exactly the same, and even then at the same time someone entirely new. All he knew for certain right now were two things:
1) He was so angry right now, that he could obliterate these horse demons where they stood.
2) He was so happy right now, that he could sing out of pure unbridled joy.

"W-what the..." Callie would get temporarily distracted by the strange moaning voices of the strangely formed horse like creatures that were beckoning for... Children to come to them? She girl would shake her head free from the strange thoughts that their voices were bringing to her mind that Terra was quickly trying to fend off and keep the girl thinking straight. She was relieved she had him with her for times like this, not only did her protect her physically and allow her to fight back against these horrible monsters, he also kept her mind in check and kept her thinking towards her goal. To protect those around her.


The girl would try to call out to Andrew as she noticed him begin walking his way into the water and towards the freaky horse things, but ended up coughing in surprise as her voice felt weird and distorted, almost as if it was being muffled by something that wasn't there.

"Sorry for the shock Cals, I thought it'd be better if you hid your voice away too so you couldn't be found out via that if any bad guys were listening!" Terra would explain apologetically as the girl would cough several times to get used to the strange feeling in her throat as she tried to speak further.

"Eheh... It's, gah, fine Terra. It's a good idea, just weird to get used to." She'd say with a weak smile before remembering why she was trying to shout out in the first place, yet she couldn't see him anymore... W-where did he go!? He wasn't dragged under or anything was he, s-she didn't know what to do... Yet before she even got a chance to come up with an answer herself as to what she should do, a huge, beautiful mermaid like creature burst out from the waters surface and after a brief look of confusion ended up attacking their enemies. "W-wh-what is that thing! I-is it another demon? Why is it attacking the other ones then... W-where did Andrew go!"

After trying to mull over the information himself, Terra would speak up. "Cals, go help fight off them horse looking things." He'd instruct her, feeling a strange vibe coming from the mermaid looking thing. He didn't want to fully trust it, but it seemed to be attacking their immediate enemy for now so maybe it wouldn't be a threat if they helped it out.

With a light nod, Callie would grip onto her daggers tighter and prepare herself to get straight into combat, let's just hope this new thing was friendly after all... And she really hoped that Andrew was okay...

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