Chimper #1192
Yumeha remembers the crushing weight of the water, the final sharp pain as their eye met jagged rock, and then a profound, silent cold. They were exploring a flooded chamber beneath Waterfall City when the tunnel collapsed, a fool's death for a seasoned adventurer. But death, it turned out, was not the end. When they awoke, the rocks had shifted, and moonlight streamed in. Their skin was cold to the touch, and an eerie glow emanated from their empty eye socket. A strange warmth pulsed from their back, where embers now flickered without consuming their pack. They stitched a frog patch over the wound, a flimsy disguise for an impossible truth. They are still an explorer, but the maps they follow now lead to stranger places, searching not for gold, but for an answer to why they came back.