Chapter Text
Cold, pink syrup pressed against Pomni's body like thick honey. Pomni flailed her arms desperately, trying to swim up to the surface of the lake before she could inhale the water, or goo or slime or whatever it was. She pathetically kicked her legs. Shit, shit, shit! She was going to die. Tight pressure built up through her chest and mouth, desperate for air. She had to swim up. A dim and matted light poked through the surface of thick, pink waves above her when she opened her eyes.
"Agh," she gurgled under the water, at the immediate sting in both her eyes like hot sauce. If she wasn't already under some sort of water, she would have had tears running down her permanently painted face.
Sweet liquid entered her mouth from the brief noise. Was that what Caine thought water tasted like? He must have known water wasn't pink, or thick or goopy. Wait, she couldn't even drown in the Digital Circus; otherwise, that would be dying. The lake would have just been some annoying obstacle for their end goal. Their end goal... which was... she couldn't quite remember. Probably something elaborate... like a shoe.
The lake turned into a calming, dark night and small faces started smiling all around her in the water. Pomni couldn't help but laugh. They were so cute! With their little noses and their large eyes. Warm cotton seemed to tingle all over her limbs like fuzzy cats. She missed her cat. Pomni closed her eyes, thinking of how it jumped when her old roommate scared it. It had the cutest pink lips and grey fur. It sat on her lap for long stretches of the afternoon and only when she had to do work on her computer.
The stream seemed to carry her down softly, enveloping her in a calm swish of water. Something tight grabbed her ankle, pulling her with the stream's flow. Rude. She could have flowed herself. Pomni tried kicking the thing off her wobbly leg, but it kept holding on. Fine, it could borrow her for a little bit but ONLY if it gave her back. Thin air hit her ankle then slid up the rest of her legs until her eyes were assaulted by brightness. Pomni dangled from the thing borrowing her, above the pink lake.
"Here you go!" said Kinger, sliding her through the air and onto the shore, face-up. A white hand shook above Pomni, drying itself from the pink coat of liquid. A couple more drops landed on her face.
"Ugh! Don't shake that stuff around us," said Zooble. "Caine said the lake was poison or something."
Poison? No that couldn't be right. Pomni giggled to herself, snorting a little bit like a pig. Holy sh-t she was PomPig!
Ragatha's stringy red hair stuck out around her concerned face, hovering above Pomni. "Pomni, you okay? That would have been a bit of a shock."
"No b----, it was a- a.. ummm lake," said Pomni. "You forgot your waters."
Ragatha's smile wobbled slightly. She looked behind Pomni, then back at her, her know knitting like a worried mother. Jax's head peeped down at her, blocking that god-awful, bright sun. "Jax! You threw her in stupid sauce!"
"Whaaat?" he said in sarcastic surprise. "No, this is regular Pomni! Look, now we know not to give its water to the villagers. And you were gonna feed them that stuff."
"You know I wasn't as soon as it started turning pink!"
"At least it wasn't Gangle this time," Zooble muttered under her breath.
"Oh, don't worry, it'll be Gangle's turn soon," Jax laughed.
Turn? For the game?
"Huh?" asked Pomni. Did she have a turn?
"What?" asked Kinger.
Did Kinger mean something? "What?"
"Huh?"
"They're gonna go on like this for hours," Gangle whined.
"Can you stand up Pomni?" asked Ragatha.
Who the f__k did Ragatha think she was? The Queen? Pomni could stand up if they would just move away. Her legs just needed to not be jelly for a couple of seconds.