It could've been hours. Days. Far long that I should've died there of some natural cause and be left in the graveyard of my home.

Who knows how long it was. Laying on the seabed, tears sinking into wet sand, motionless and soundless, my body remained, with the fish circling around the area, and occasionally coming back, grazing against my chest to make sure I hadn't died yet. Nothing but our silence. Nothing. The sand picked up as a rock fell from the water, a few feet away from my head. Everything remained as a ceaseless, timeless nothing.

Nothing. Ceaseless nothing. And then, something. Out from the distance, peeked a figure covered in the robes of the reaper. The hood looked like it was torn to shreds a century ago, but was only patched up to be wearable again in the past year. This thing remained out of sight except for the sillohute, looking to a distance away from me, and then looking at my pitiful shell of a self on the sands. The cookie began to approach, slowly, and as it came closer, I forced my body, still unable to remove myself from death's cradle, to seize away from it.

It could've been Death searching for the final traces of Sugarteara to wipe away, but rather, a youthful, yet hushed mouth spoke from underneath the hood, extending one lanky hand outwards and below.

"Get up."

A command that I, after another scuttle away, and as if held up by puppet strings, followed. My body stood unevenly -- once again, not used to the lack of a limb it had suffered once before.

"The Enchantress has asked for you. Proven yourself well to her (ehehe..)? ...Well, just show me the way to the surface, and I will lead you the rest of the way."

A weak nod, and my stumbling, still in shock body forced itself to the right side. It was the first time in forever that I was shorter than a grown cookie, and my weak, banging head collasped onto this cookie's shoulder, before being shoved off of it.

My mouth forced an apology for it, before beginning to walk forwards. Without the lights of the city, I would not know where to go from here, but I could always go on gut feelings from an empty stomach.