Yang's POV:
I am old. I mean, REALLY old. I'm talking ancient. Even if you asked me for a number, I wouldn't be able to give you one, that's how old I am, though that might be because of my species. You see, like how human babies take time to acquire higher order thinking, nearly all living creatures can acquire sapience with enough time, though it can vary greatly depending on the species and individuals. For example, a human needs only a couple of years, but a dog might need twice it's own lifespan. So, I couldn't say how old I really am. I have no memory of my parents, nor anything about my species outside of what my baser instincts would tell me. I can tell you one thing though. Amongst all the flesh and blood entities on this planet of ours, none are older than me and my sister Yin.
My earliest memory was of panic and chaos. It was during the final battle of the age of the Fay. The battle of the spirit kings was shaking the world to its core. The land, sky and seas, were all being tossed about in a great upheaval as natural disasters became common place.
At the time, I was in my own school of fish, being pushed back and forth as I collided with others of my kind being tossed back and forth by the turbulent currents. I don't recall how long it lasted, but eventually I ended up separated from my kin and washed away by the ocean currents. I was a barely sapient fish, lost in an endless abyss, knowing nothing, not even who or what I was, only that I was powerless to stop the force pushing and pulling me farther and farther into open waters. Every time the current twisted or turned, it felt like my body was being crushed or torn apart. Honestly, it was a miracle I survived. Every now and then, I would see other creatures floating in the currents, almost always a mangled mess of what used to be a living creature. Not that I can complain about the free meal, but thinking back on it now, I'm certain that some of the creatures I saw weren't even fish.
Anyways, I don't know how long I was adrift. It could have been days, weeks, months, heck, maybe even years, but at some point or another, my body began to change. My once thick, gray scales became pale, more flexible, almost rubber-like. Able to endure the twists and turns of the ever-raging waters with little difficulty. Though I could now endure the currents pressure, I was not strong enough to outright resist them, but I could maneuver inside it, and later even jump from one current to another. At first, it took all that I had to just change lanes inside the path I was in, but as I continued to navigate the water flow, I became more proficient at it. Every turn made with minimum effort, every current and branch explored and mapped. Before, I had lived off whatever dead fish or plant I had been lucky enough to float me bye, but now that I could maneuver the currents, food was much easier to acquire, especially down in the deep, where most food was the most abundant.
Of course, that is not to say there were no dangers in those turbulent seas. Though the corpses of the ancient world littered the waters by the dozens in those days, it was not as if I was the only or the biggest creature to adapt to these new tides. Sharks the size of buildings, whales the size of islands, venomous serpents and poisonous jellyfish that stretched on for miles. Honestly, the only thing standing between me and something that might want me as its snack was my dexterous use of the waterflow. Of course, this eventually changed.
As time went on and I continued to eat my fill, my body grew bigger, longer, stronger. My eyes died black from my pupil expanding to adapt to the dark abyss. My fins that never stopped growing, now grown long, trailing behind me like flowing silk, and without a single tear as a result of my skillful handling of these waters. I was thriving, and my surroundings began to notice. I could swallow the sharks once snapped at my fins in a single gulp. The serpents that used to chase me through the currents now fled at the sight of me as their fangs are too short to pierce my scales. The jellyfish threatening to trap me in their tendrils would now be trapped in my fins. When I realized I could use my beast core to create my own currents, even those large island whales would scramble to move out of my way should they see me coming or else.
I was the freest fish in the sea, for I had conquered the ocean. The world's first mythical beast. Or so I thought.
'YAHOO!!!'
*SPLASH*
Jumping out of the water like a dolphin, using her strong black fins to swim against the raging currents like they were not even there, diving into the deep and illuminating the dark with her glowing white eyes, and ramming through anything and anyone that dared stand in her way with her thick black scales.
*BOOM*
*Bleurgh*
'Hm? Wait? You're still alive? Cool!'
Well, until she tried headbutting her way through my gut. This is how I met my sister by the way. She was apparently trying to see how high she could jump out of the water by charging from the bottom of the ocean to the top, only to indent her fish-face into my rubber-like body, and probably punching my organs in the process.
Safe to say, I wasn't very happy about that.
'Whoa! Cool!'
*Shatter*
'Nice try! You're speedy, but I'm a tuffy!'
*Boing*
'Huh!'
We ended up fighting as we tried to devour in accordance with nature's law of "Eat or be eaten", but it was ultimately useless. Just like me, my sister had mutated her body to adapt to the chaotic environment left in the wake of the battling spirits. However, path's we had taken to get to the top of our food chain were vastly different, yet equally effective, resulting in a stalemate. My sister's strong share muscle allowed her to swim through any currents I conjured up to push her back, and her hardened scales shattered every set of teeth I tried to bite her with. Meanwhile, thanks to my ability to create water currants, I could easily outmaneuver her, while the few times she did get in close to bite me, my rubber-like body was too stretchy and tough for her to properly sink in her teeth. Neither of us had a way to harm the other due to the traits we possessed.
After who knows how long of going back and forth, we ended up exhausted, floating next to each other atop the sea while gazing at the chaotic sky, covered in clouds of elemental energy exuding from the still ongoing battles of the spirit kings.
'*Huff**Puff*Hahahaha! That was fun! I can't remember the last time I felt this tired! Hey, let's do that again! Oh! Do you think you can tell me how to do that water thing! I wanna be like "Swoosh" through the water like you! You must get so much airtime with that! Hey, wait, you've been quiet this entire time? Does that mean you don't know how to talk in with your thoughts? I can teach you! Hey, let's be besties forever! ...'
It's honestly kind of frightening how little Yin has changed over the eons.
Anyways, ever since that night, she stuck to me like glue and refused to leave me alone. I basically spent the entire draconic age trying to get rid of her obnoxious trout, before eventually giving up.
As the sapient lifeforms started colonizing the world, me and Yin ended up crowned as the kings of our own sea and eventually became worshipped by a number of creatures in our territory as some kinds of gods, resulting in another mutation, as we became the world's first divine beasts and we gained the power of mist travel amongst other things. Yin and Yang, the sibling fish representing good and evil, balance, and gender or something. I honestly could not care less about all that. The only reason why I even bothered with any of those people was because the ritualistic sacrifices and the offering of my self-proclaimed subordinates meant I didn't need to hunt for my own food. Best of all, I could also specify the kind of meal I wanted.
Life was good for a while. Even when that boy *Roar* fell and the divine age came bye, it was of little concern to us. As we were amongst the first divine entities alongside the ancient great gods, very few divine entities dared to provoke us on account of the advantage that comes with seniority. And besides, the gods seemed a little too preoccupied with the dragons to bother with us.
This would go on forever. Is what I hoped, but…
*Bleurgh**Thud*
We never should have gone to shore that night.
*Scream*
There was this tribe of humans on some deserted island near the magic continent that would offer us some of their delicious young. Me and Yin would go there once a year to treat ourselves, however those bastards had managed to piss off that monster by kidnapping and offering up its disciple as one of their offerings.
"Spit em out before I gut you like the fish you are!" The little mummy said, glaring at me from atop my sea-monsters, piled up as high as our underwater palace, a colossal blue eye that made it look like a gnat by comparison, emerging at her back.
I could feel my body being held down by an invisible force so strong it felt as though it was trying to make me cough up my organs, and for the first time in a long time, I remembered what it was like to be a small fish in an endless abyss.
Luckily, I had held off on eating that elf upon noticing "Fate's" urgings, or it might not have ended with a mere slave contract. Knowing what I know now about that creature, had I actually eaten that child, then only hell would await me. That being said, …
"This is such a pain! She dragged me half-way around the world and fir what? To be a ferryman? This is such bullshit!"
"I really am sorry for the inconvenience? We really appreciate your aid!" Said the guy carrying that brat, Fate's, sword on his back.