Celia woke up with a silent scream. Eyes wide as she looked down at the clouds below her through a water-y filter. Her every instinct was panic. Legs kicking, arms flailing, body moving on autopilot. Her every effort an exercise in trying to free herself from the skybound prison she found herself in.
Up until she remembered she was hundreds of feet up in the air, and that escape maybe wasn’t such a good idea at the moment. She was kinda still attached to being alive. So, reluctantly, she slowed. Taking a few deep breaths as she did so, reorienting herself on the fact that she was still alive, and that right now her focus should be on keeping herself that way.
What that meant when she was currently suspended an unknown - and terrifying she might add - amount of feet in the air, she had no idea. But panic wasn’t it. She knew that at the very least. And to that end she started distracting herself with the sort of pointless questions that only bored people came up with.
Like, how could she even breathe right now? Which she immediately realized was actually a pretty good question. Right alongside: how come she wasn’t drowning?
A roar split through the sky before she could even try to think of an explanation. Sound waves moving through the water and rattling her like a physical blow. One that hit her from both the front and back, leaving her somewhat disoriented. Which is when she saw it.
Floating through the sky like an angry cloud was a length of scale, bone, and too many fangs. Red eyes staring through the wet barrier that separated them and right at her.
Celia didn’t need any instinct to tell her that the fifty foot long eel mixed with a dragon was dangerous.
She did need those instincts to tell her to dodge however. Throwing her body to one side with all her might right as the gigantic beast flew in close and tried to take a bite out of her. A bite that only barely missed her, and made Celia feel just a little bit of sympathy for all those bugs she ate. More importantly, the huge bubble that had kidnapped her was a tiny bit smaller than it was a second ago. Slower too, as if the hit in mass it just took was directly proportionate to how fast it could fly.
Which didn’t make a lick of sense, but she wasn’t gonna argue that now. She was too busy staring at the mini leviathan approach for a second time, it’s mouth opened wide and a worrying amount of fangs pointed her way.
A sight that instantly made her regret every decision she ever made that led up to this.
"Shoulda just been on time." She grumbled, already throwing herself out of its path.
And once again only barely succeeding. The almost literal jaw of death missing her by only a scant few feet. And her orb of water - yes her's now - shrinking once again. It’s diminishing size very directly how much space she would have to dodge next time around. Which, at the moment was still more than enough for when the giant came around next.
And the next time after that.
But it wasn’t long till Celia had comparatively little room to get out of the way, and her bubble was nothing more than a sitting duck. There was almost literally nothing she could do when the eel of a thing came next. Except for close her eyes, really. That or try and fight it anyway.
Celia leaned towards the latter. Shoulder tentacle sluggishly lashing through the air towards her would be death right as it approached. The alien limb just barely making contact with a tooth before she was eaten. Causing the leviathan eel to feel back in pain. Mouth scooping her up as she was torn out of the water and sending her tumbling downward into its throat.
She almost appreciated the total darkness it submerged her into. Eyes adjusting to the total lack of light within seconds. Followed immediately after by her striking out with her claws. Latching onto whatever she could reach in an attempt to keep herself from becoming fish food.
But the leviathan was not a creature so easily kept from its meal. And with a mighty shake, Celia was dislodged from its throat and fell deeper.
She did not go quietly.
With claw, tooth, and tentacle, she tore at the world around her. Drew blood from the walls, and carved into the oversized fish's insides. She kicked and struck and ripped at anything that looked even remotely vulnerable. Becoming a living stomach ache that she swore would be the end of the eel even if she didn’t live after it.
Sinking deeper and deeper into a frenzied rage as she struck. Becoming nothing more than a wild animal determined to make sure her foe bled just as much as she did. And she was succeeding.
All too soon the cavern of the eels body was flowing with red. A river of blood that she stood in, a thorn in every inch of its flesh and aiming to burrow her way deep.
Which, unsurprisingly, earned a response from the eel in the form of white tentacles. They rose up out of every inch of its insides and struck without mercy. Lashing at her from every angle, their strikes coming from above, below, and at her sides. Battering her and throwing her aside. Some even went to choke her.
Slimy tendrils wrapping around her throat. The pressure a crushing thing. Vision going blurry, the dark slowly becoming too dark as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Grunting and straining with all her might to free herself.
She almost gave up then.
… Something flew past her vision. A screaming bright orange that tore through the eel from the outside and went straight through it. Emerging back out into the world beyond its gut and leaving a trail of fire in its wake.
Celia felt the vice grip around her neck loosen. Falling to the ground as it fully let go, each and everyone of the tentacles around her shifting focus to try and put out the spreading fire. And if Celia were a less spiteful person, she would’ve used that as a chance to escape. Instead she saw red. A rage so deep taking her that with a bestially shout, she threw herself back at her original task of making sure the eel died. She was going to kill it, and then she was going to eat it even if it killed her.
So, with hardly an ounce of proper thought she threw herself at the nearest ingrown limb. Hacking at it with her claws and teeth grown out of her arm as it smacked at the nearby fire. It’s blows for some reason causing the flame to grow weaker.
Celia might’ve been curious about that if she wasn’t so angry. She might’ve even tried to figure out why punching an inferno with seemingly very flammable tentacles would ever be a good idea.
Instead she barely cut the thick limb down and moved onto the next. And by the time she cut that one down, the eel had remembered her. Sending a detachment of five tentacles to subdue her and finish the job. And unfortunately for her, that was more than enough to do so. One of them running under her legs and knocking her off her feet. While two more grabbed her arms, and pinned her to the ground. Face submerging in a pool of blood.
A second spear of orange light passed overhead. This time a whisper of word trailing behind it.
"t out!"
More chaos followed. The tentacles falling into even greater disarray as a second flame began to spread. Leaving Celia alone for a second time. A gaping wound on either side of her that she would probably be able to escape through.
Her rage had subsided at that point as well. A clear head breaching up out of the surface. Clear enough to realize that wherever these burning spears were coming from, they were clearly thrown with the intent to protect her. Or at least prevent her from dying a pointless rage fueled death. And as far as she was concerned that meant she was free to do as much damage as recklessly as she wanted to. So long as she didn’t end up burning to death in the process.
"Ok. Free meal here I come." She breathed, already looking for something that looked vulnerable.
Only for a third spear to fly right past her head and straight to the front of the eel. The sound of an explosion preceding all of the eel’s tentacles going slack, and for gravity’s grip on her to start feeling questionable loose.
She realized the eel, now a corpse, was falling.