[i]Oh great, just great. Water.[/i]

Saria gazed towards the ocean, its vast expanse of blue reaching across, and perhaps even beyond the horizon. To most, their eyes would catch the dazzling reflections of sunlight upon water, and the beautiful horizon, glowing yellow-orange. For Saria, however, she looked past all that. She instead wondered what was under the water, what things may lurk beneath the seemingly peaceful ripples. 

She wasted no more time sightseeing. She climbed into the creaking, rickety rowboat, which she swore was going to sink if she made too sudden a move. Of course, she could just stay at the shoreline, but she had the feeling that, whatever resided within that strange shape in the distance, it was infinitely more patient than she was. 

She began to row, the boat separating from the shoreline. The boat groaned with every push from the oars. As she went farther and farther away from the shoreline, the ocean seemed to surround her, choke her with its infinite will. She looked around, and saw how small she was compared to the water, and whatever lurked beneath. 

She looked over the rowboat, making sure to keep her balance as to not tip the whole thing over, and peered into the sea, though she couldn’t see more than only about several feet deep. This relieved her for a while, but as she prepared to re-center the boat and continue rowing, she caught something in her periphery, swimming quickly under the water. She immediately turned her head back around, searching the water for whatever she had just seen. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find who, or what caused the strange swimming silhouette. She continued rowing, her mind on edge.

The ocean was always something that troubled her. Humans were made to fight on land, not the sea. She was a good swimmer, but her armor would weigh her down quite a bit, reducing her ability to stay afloat. Also, there was the trouble of fighting while trying not to drown, and with the added risk of her helmet filling with water… she didn’t want to think about it.

She continued rowing for what seemed like an hour, and the strange shape didn’t see any closer. Occasionally, it seemed to oscillate or reinvent its shape before her very eyes. She wasn’t tired at the slightest, but she began to have some troubling thoughts.

[i]Was this all a trick? Are they trying to make me row until I’m tired, then finish me off when I am weak? Maybe the enemy lies under the water, thrashing about? It might be right beneath me at this moment![/i] 

Saria yelled, drawing her sword and wildly swinging downwards, towards the water. To her surprise, what she hit wasn’t water, or any creature, but her blade was caught on stone. She looked up, and her heart began to thump like the drums of war. 

[i]No, there’s no way. It can't be…[/i] 

Saria had, just a few moments ago, remembered seeing the strange lump in the sea, how it seemed so far away and never came closer. Now, however, it was right there in front of her, cyclopean architecture crossed over with a sort of gibbous gloom over the entire city, seeming to be the one place in the entire world that the sun had never touched. Saria wasted no more time, and jumped off of the boat, and into the relative safety of the city.

The ground in which she aimed to land at looked nearly flat, but when she landed, she felt herself slip, and lose balance, sliding backwards. She grabbed onto some handholds, preventing herself from slipping into the water. Whatever this place was, it was deceptive to the core. Once she brought herself up and reached “level” ground, she took the time to check her surroundings. 

The city was… strange. That was one way of putting it. Others would say “demented”, “unholy”, “demonic”, and other words which carried a religious undertone. Saria couldn’t blame them. If this place wasn’t unholy, or a place of magic and demon worship, then the truth must be unfathomably worse. 

To say the least, Saria gained a headache trying to decipher her surroundings. She assumed that her target lay in the massive, open, cavern of a door which lead to stygian nothingness, or so it seemed. The problem was trying to get there without being impaled by some unnoticed spike or tripping over an unseen ridge, falling into more uneven geometry which most likely was lethal; this place didn’t seem to be made for the likes of humans such as herself, after all.

Despite this, however, she pushed on, her stride getting more used to the uneven terrain, despite stumbling over certain architectural anomalies every now and then. Her mind was beginning to clear, to push away the initial panic she had received when she was rowing. Now, she had a direction to go. Now, she had a goal. 

Saria now stood in front of the massive, subterranean doorway, which was strangely engraved with undecipherable scrawls and scribbles. There were murals, carvings of what seemed to be creatures not recognizable from any human knowledge. The largest mural, however, was the one at the very top, which depicted a squid-like monster that seemed to dominate above all others. 

[i]This is what you asked for, Saria. Don’t turn back now.[/i] 

Even as this self-assuring thought flew through her head, she couldn’t free herself from an uneasy feeling that hovered over her like a cloud. She didn’t exactly like the idea of being killed by some strange creature within a strange city. 

She took a deep breath, and began to walk forwards, into the eldritch abyss. Somewhere deep within, she heard a distant, alien-like roar.