Child of The Water

Bam. Bam. Bam.

A harsh pounding resounds from underneath a frozen lake's surface. The sound of someone's hand slamming as hard as it can against the ice that's taken hold of the lake. Underneath the icy sheet is Nerissa, a child of the Delphinin people who are water-faring people. The Delphinin people can exist in both salt and freshwater. Given this flexibility, they have made a home in many of Earth's water sources: oceans, swamps, rivers, lakes, etc. Nerissa had been asleep in the depths of Lake Superior. When she awoke, the surface was covered with a thick layer of ice reaching down, from her rough approximation, a foot and a half.

Nerissa continued to pound on the ice above, hoping something or someone would get curious and come by to free her. Those she had come to Lake Superior with were nowhere to be found, and anyone else she knew would be in any one of the other Great Lakes. Nerissa would go on pummeling the ice for another minute or two, but her exhaustion weighed on her. Her stomach growled. The sound traveled all around her and probably alerted any nearby food that she was there.

"Shilok to lenti," Nerissa remarked to no one in particular.

She'd have to continue her escape from Lake Superior after catching some food. The Delphinin swam away from the water's surface and down into its depths. It was daytime. The light barely shines through the thick layer of ice and illuminates some of the lakes underneath it. Fortunately, all the creatures of this lake need some level of light to go about their business, so Nerissa stops swimming down after about 200 feet and keeps at that level. The Delphinin glides elegantly through the water, spinning herself like a drill as she moves forward through the liquid embrace of Lake Superior, allowing her to get a 360 view of her surroundings.

She stops as she catches sight of an Asian carp chasing after a smaller fish. She gets herself in gear to chase after the carp, observing it as it passes in front and above her. Once it swims past her, she moves into action, becoming the new bigger fish in this scenario. The Asian carp, none the wiser to Nerissa as it chases its own food. Eventually, the small fish the carp was chasing makes a sudden, panicked move after sensing Nerissa's presence. The carp is disorientated for a second, but it is a second too long as it cannot escape Nerissa's webbed hands, which grab ahold of the fish and squeeze tightly.

Nerissa twists the carp in half in her hands and spills some of the fish's innards into the lake water before quickly going to devour the catch. She distends her jaw slightly, revealing three rows of sharpened, irregular-looking teeth. Nerissa eats the fish like there's no tomorrow. The crunch of its bones cracking loudly as her teeth pulverize the fish carcass. In no time flat, the sizable carp is gone with very little to show it was ever even here to begin with. Her hunger satiated for now; Nerissa started to swim up to try and find a way out from the ice.

A loud pombf followed by a splash. Nerissa turns around a hundred eighty degrees and sees a big circle of ice jutting down from the solid icy sheet. Excited to finally be free from underneath the frozen sheet that overtook Lake Superior, she swam towards the newly formed hole in the ice. Nerissa got close and saw the thick piece of ice, no longer connected to the rest of the sheet but floating freely and able to be moved. Once close enough, Nerissa grabbed hold of each end of the ice chunk and pulled it downward. The power swimming muscles of a Delphinin allotted her the strength to defy the ice's buoyancy and move it out of the way. Nerissa then placed the chunk of ice underneath her and used it to float herself up to the hole.

Nerissa broke through the water's surface. The air outside of the frozen-over lake was significantly colder than the water she had been trapped in. She grabbed the sides of the hole desperately, her hands giving her okay traction despite it being ice.

"Take my hand."

A gloved hand reaches down toward her. Nerissa had difficulty seeing who it was with the now bright and unblocked sun shining on her face.

"Kilih nok tulw'ny." Nerissa reaches up and grabs the hand.

The stranger pulls Nerissa clear from the ice hole and onto the surface of the frozen-over Lake Superior. Whoever pulled her up fell over with a womp after the Delphinin was entirely free of the water's grasp. Nerissa and the stranger laid there in comfortable silence for a moment. The underwater dweller spoke up.

“D’qlou afjul deswiklop?”

The stranger stood up. "Oh, I'm a friend. I worked together with some of the heroes to try and stop all of this from happening. End of the world's a little colder than you thought, huh?"

The scales above Nerissa's eyes furrowed a bit. She sat up, staring at the stranger.

"Rfolm'i?"

"Don't see much use for my real name. You can just call me Determination. It was the codename I used before."

Nerissa stands up. Compared to Determination, she stands about a foot taller. Delphinins can come in a variety of forms, but Nerissa classifies as a mermaid subtype. She's primarily humanoid. Her face, torso, abdomen, and hands are smooth, rubbery, and gray like a typical dolphin's skin. Every other bit of flesh is covered in rough red scales. She's got arms and legs similar to a human's, except they are webbed. She also has additional fins angled on either side of her lower back and a red, scaly tail that rests along the icy top of Lake Superior.

“Yhukol lit’an Nerissa. Jyrnjl fukolo deukolonom?”

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Nerissa. I tracked you down because I figured you were my best shot to get me where I needed to go."

Her dark eyes pierce down at Determination.

"You see, there's an underwater safehouse in the Atlantic ocean where I hope to meet up with some other heroes so we can salvage this situation. I remember you helped us in the past, so I hope I can ask for your help now."

Nerissa walks around in a small circle. Pondering.

"Elh'yin dyluolo phequlo, Determination?"

Determination rubs the back of his head. Clearly thrown off by Nerissa's question.

"It's going to take a long time to observe and rescue your people from all of the Great Lakes, Nerissa. Can we do that later when I meet up with more heroes? Maybe they can help? "

Nerissa puts a webbed hand on Determination's shoulder.

"No," she speaks clearly.

Determination absorbs that answer looking dismayed but then starts nodding his head and then his whole upper body.

"Well, not much I can do besides help you. You've got to be sure to help me in return, though!"

Nerissa nods.

Determination sighs. "Well, let's go. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Nerissa is already way ahead of Determination, heading toward the next lake. The man picks up his travel pack and hoofs it to meet up with his Delphinin ally.