part 2!
TW: blood, discussion of death, rot
He tried to dive, once. Tried to follow a sinking carcass as it plunged into the darkness. But he was small. And the further he went, the more the ocean weighed on him, the more it pressed on him from every direction. The more he felt it crushing him, slowly, slowly, until his ears popped. Until clouds of blood, his blood, bloomed from where his ears bled, obscuring his vision. Until the water he pulled through his gills tasted duller and duller and he needed more and more but still he was getting dizzy. Until the weight of the water made it harder to move in any direction but down.

Until he felt a hand on his tail. Floyd, wordlessly gazing at him, imploring him to come back up. Blood was clouding by his ears too, mirroring Jade once again. Floyd’s wide eyes were unblinking and filled with fear, but despite it, he didn’t try to pull Jade back up. Didn’t scold, or demand, or plead, at least not out loud. Just had his hand there, on his tailfin.

That was enough to convince Jade to swim back up.

He didn’t dive again. He never did find out what happened, until he came on land.

There he was able to read from their bound sheafs of dead trees (this was what they called books, up here, a far cry from the carved and stained tablets of the ocean). Those said that dead in the ocean sank and sank until they fed all that they fell to, all the way to the seabed, even bones picked apart by worms.

How ironic that he learned of the depths all the way up here.

The explanation makes sense for the ocean. It’s very fish eat fish down there, even in the relative shallows of his home. Nothing stays dead for long.

But up here on land there is no such rush.

So that's a wrap! Any feedback is greatly appreciated, I want to know how to improve. I feel like in some places its a little hammy, like, overdramatic, but ehhh i can't really put my finger on it or place how to fix it (•̀⤙•́ ).