Ikari

The fishers of Waterfall City have a saying: “A forgotten name is a lost river.” For Ikari of the Frog Fellowship, this was gospel, and their rival, Kawa, was the only other soul who treated it as such. They raced across realms to reclaim lost histories, but their greatest contest was the ancient tongue spoken only by the swamp sentinel, Giri. Ikari wandered for months, following whispered rumors, and arrived with nothing but questions; the sentinel remained silent. Weeks later, Kawa appeared, holding a rare, mud-stained lily they’d identified from a scroll. Giri finally spoke, but not just to Kawa. The sentinel addressed them both, recognizing the same desperate hunger to remember. The race isn't over, but they are no longer trying to outrun each other—they are trying to outrun silence itself.