Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pain rippled through Childe as he tried to come to consciousness. His body ached and burned, both from his foul legacy and the All Devouring Narwhals attacks. Primordial seawater had seeped into his wounds and while he wasn’t Fontainian and thus not at risk of becoming sea water sludge, his wounds still stung. Almost like he poured firewater directly into them. And he has had to do that before. He felt himself being to drift away from consciousness from the pain. His head swam as he tried to breach the surface of his mind and reenter the waking world. His lungs began to burn from lack of oxygen, only further muddying the dark waters of his mind. 

Desperate to breathe again, Childe tried to take a deep breath only to immediately feel water clogging and filling up his lungs. Through pure instinct did he turn onto his side and hack up some of that archon-damned water. He peeled his eyes open as he heaved and shuddered his way through breathing again. His lungs protested at the movement as his newly reshaped and broken ribs pushed against them the wrong way. As he regained his senses he watched the dark area he was in slowly begin to clear and make sense. 

He was in a cave, illuminated by some kind of glowing moss. Great, he could be anywhere in Teyvat or even the Abyss. He quickly dismissed the latter however as the lack of abyssal energy from the area around him became clear. In fact, the only abyssal energy he could feel was from himself. Usually he could always feel the abyss scratching to get into his mind but for now it was silent. Slowly, he pushed himself up, his head protesting the movement. But Childe was anything if not stubborn, constantly pushing his body to its limits. Like being in his foul legacy form for…who knows how long. It felt like years but it could have been only a few days or months in the real world. You could never trust the passage of time in places like the abyss or the pseudo abyss-primordial seawater place. He glanced at the sparkling puddle of the water that teasingly glittered up at him. If he could, he would beat the shit out of it, but he couldn’t because it was water. Most water you couldn’t kill. He supposed that when he got out of this place if he was still angry by the existence of water then he couldn’t destroy some hydro eidolons. But maybe after a small break from fighting. Especially after his last fight. 

Fighting the whale was not fun in the long run. Sure he enjoyed fighting and at first greatly enjoyed the challenge, but after a while it became boring and it had hit him that he would probably die to it. So he went all out and let foul legacy run rampant, far more than he had ever dared since he had left the abyss, even when his body began to feel like it was actively ripping apart. Childe was quite shocked that he lasted as long as he had. The last thing he remembered was hitting the All Devouring Narwhal with a large blast of electro from his delusion before it exploded and he got sent hurtling backwards and was knocked out. 

MY DELUSION! 

 He quickly, much to the displeasure of his body, reached for where his delusion normally was. It was gone. No surprise, he had felt the thing disintegrate as the rest of its power exploded. He could only hope it did a good chunk of damage to the monster. So now he was without his delusion, vision, and only had foul legacy to rely on. Considering that he could barely move, it didn’t look good. 

Childe sighed and tried to push his hair out of his eyes. His forehead erupted with pain and he hissed, pulling his hand away from his head. Now focusing on his hand in the dim lighting he felt his heart drop. Turns out being in his foul legacy had done more damage than he thought. His nails now looked closer to claws and were the near black of his armor in that form. From there it went from that to the dark purple galaxy of the abyss until it faded into his upper forearm which thankfully appeared to be the same as his arm from before. It was quite similar to his master's arms and legs. Taking a deep breath, Childe carefully touched his forehead and shuddered as he felt two horns sprouting from his forehead, the same place that the horns of his foul legacy mask were. However they felt much smaller and were more like nubs then the large twirling horns. 

He tried not to freak out and instead reason with himself. It wasn’t that bad, all he had to do was commission a headpiece or new mask that would make the horns look like they were fake and as for the claws he could just take a note from Arlenchinos outfit and make them appear to be gloves. He needed a new outfit anyway if the tattered, barely held together state of his current outfit meant anything. Yes, that could work. He would just have to be careful with them around his family. His family.

Childe felt his heart get heavy and his eyes water at the thought of his family. Did they think he was dead? Gone for good now? He didn’t want to imagine how Tuecer, Anthon, and Tonia would react to hearing about his death. Tonia knew what his actual job was and would understand but the other two were so young. Would their parents lie to them still or finally tell the truth? He didn’t know what was worse. 

“No, don’t think like that. I’m sure the Tsaritsa is acting like I’m still in jail and managing this. I’ll just get out of here and get back to Snezhnaya. That’s a good plan, get back and damage control from there.” The harbinger slowly stood up on shaking legs and stumbled over to the tunnel leading away from the small cave he woke up in. 

He braced himself against the rock wall as he began his walk. The stones were sharp and dug into his side as he dragged himself along its length. It didn’t bother his hands, seemingly toughened with their transformation. The walls began to curve and weave randomly as Childe lost track of time in the depths of the earth. The glowing moss had long since disappeared but he found he didn’t need it. His eyes had gotten better at seeing in the dark as well. Hopefully they didn’t look any different from their previous dead look. 

He attempted to shut down his spiraling thoughts to focus on getting out of the underground maze he was in. For all he knew he could be in one of those cave systems that never reach the surface. Childe could somewhat remember Zhongli had talked about how caves such as that were dangerous since no one knew they were there and if someone fell down into them they would surely perish. 

“There was once a large issue due to those caves back before the chasm was as excavated as it is today. Workers or an overly ambitious adventurer would leave out for the hills and never return. Their bodies would be found occasionally stuck in tiny fissures or broken from falling from a great height. You should always be careful around caves Childe, I would hate for such a misfortune to befall onto you.” Zhongli had told him with that intense look he got when saying something he saw as terribly important. All those sayings had been cemented into Childe’s mushy brain without a single thought. 

Childe had of course reassured the man and played it off as him being a mother hen, which the older man adepti  Archon had huffed at him for saying. Breaking eye contact much to the ginger’s disappointment. He had however brushed off the warning until a week later, after finishing up a debt collection, nearly fell down one such hole. Childe didn’t like falling down places and that paired with his dear friend’s warning left him a little more careful around the mountains and mines. He also brought along some extra rations just in case. 

But now, he was stuck in a cave system, trying to crawl up a steep hill made of loose rocks. Of course he didn’t fall down into it and of course he didn’t have a flare or any proper caving equipment because he wasn’t anywhere near caves in the first place, but he still felt like Morax was secretly laughing at him for taking cave safety more seriously or planning ahead to be in a cave.. 

“I was fighting a giant fucking whale in the abyss seawater bullshit land, I didn’t know I would have to bring along some rope and a headlamp. Stupid cat-fishing old ass lizard. When I get out of here I’m gonna take you out to eat and then have you pay the bill! Let’s see you get embarrassed you- you” he finally grabbed the rock he had been reaching for and pulled himself up onto a small ledge “stupid dragon!” 

He collapsed with an angry huff as he stared into the darkness above him. It seemed to him like the rock wall went on forever and perhaps this was a punishment from Celestial for being a heretical, abyssal monster who aligned himself with the god who sought to bring them down. It began to seem more and more likely every second he spent down in this cave system. 

“…this is shit…can I go back to eternally fighting the whale now?” Nothing answered but his own echoing words and the faint drop of water. 

His eyes shot open. Water. Archons he was thirsty. He would gladly kill an entire legion of that damned whale to get some water. He quickly sat up and tried to pinpoint the sound. It seemed to come somewhere above him so he was going in the right direction. Childe patted himself on the back before attempting to climb towards the glorious sound. He began his ascent by seeking out a few easy to reach ledges and began to pull himself up. 

Another good thing about his new claws was that he felt more secure climbing the rocks. He could cling to the little ledges easier and also dig them into the rock if no ledges were in sight. I. Short they were quickly becoming an asset. 

After what seemed to him like a few more hours ( it was only about fifteen minutes) he finally reached the top and let out a happy whoop at his accomplishment. He quickly looked around the newly revealed area, taking in the shear drop off he just climbed up. His head, still swimming from everything that had happened, began to swim even more. Little stars popped into his vision as he rapidly scooted from the edge. He did not want to pass out and fall down that cliff. Even with his new…additions, he doubted he would survive. 

Childe looked away from the ledge and tried to figure out where the sound of the water came from. This cave was full of stalagmites and stalactites, creating a hanging garden of stone. Some of them had connected into large pillars, holding the ceiling up as mineral deposits make it appear that the columns are melting somewhat.. Along one side of the cave he could make out a huge amount of stalagmites reaching up into the gaping darkness above them, no ceiling to be found. A group of Stalactites reached down floating above the ground, waiting like icicles on the roof, sharp and ready to take an eye out. He found his eyes being drawn up to a small drop of water about to drop nearby. It glinted teasingly to him before it fell. It twinkled as it splashed against the air, becoming one with it. 

Childe paused. Air didn’t react that way with water. Water however did. He slowly pulled himself towards where the drop fell and he quickly found the edge of the underground lake. It sat underneath the stalactites without any stalagmites forming underneath. It made sense now that he thought about it. He listened to quite a few lectures from Zhon- Morax about rocks and their formations. Stalagmites and stalactites were often found together due to the dripping water carrying deposits that would form the formations. Or something like that. He wasn’t a geologist, geo vision holder, or the Celestia-damned Archon of Geo. Pushing aside his wandering thoughts, he focused on the small lake. From what he could see, the water was so clean and clear, he didn’t even know it was there. He carefully scooped some of the water and took a sip. 

The fresh cool emanating from it immediately revitalized him and he gave up on propriety and manners, beginning to shovel it into his mouth. Childe hadn’t had anything to drink since he had been lured by the abyss and whales' siren song. And that seemed like it was years ago. The cold water had a strong mineral taste but it was some of the best water he had ever had. 

The water was also soothing to his soul. He had grown up around water and had a hydro vision for a reason. The hydro vision he no longer had, which had basically rejected him. Yay, fun memories. Childe sat back on his feet sighing. No longer having his vision or his delusion left him much weaker. Still dangerous but much weaker. No longer being able to create weapons out of his elements, outside of his foul legacy transformation, would now require him to always carry a weapon around. 

Now Childe didn’t need a weapon but it would make things much much easier in the long run for him. He always carried a small knife in his boot but a quick check had shown that it was gone. A large tear in the side had caused it to fall out at some time. It could have been before his fight with the All Devouring Narwhal, while he was stuck in a trance traveling towards it, during the fight, or in this Archon-forsaken cave  while he stumbled through with an aching body, spinning head, and no fucking clue what was going on or where he was. 

A small involuntary chuckle slipped through his lips as he realized how lost he felt. It was like he had been stuck back into the abyss at fourteen. But at least there he had his vision and Skirk, even if she hadn’t been the most attentive master. The chuckles turned into giggles that devolved into deranged laughter. His ribs screamed along with his laughter as they were forced to expand and contract rapidly. He collapsed onto his side with giggles. 

“Oh thats-hehe- that kinda hurts…he.” He whispered to himself in the dark. His hand limply laid in the water moving back and forth, watching the tiny ripple disappear in nothing. His eyes began to droop as the pain and mental exhaustion caught up with him. He slowly pulled his legs up to his chest and fell into a dreamless sleep next to the underground lake. 

———————————————

Childes eyes immediately shot open at the faint sound of a pebble scraping against the ground. Now hearing a rock fall in a cave didn’t seem very strange, hearing one scrape against the ground nearby was. The sound of something dragging and moving a rock. He continued breathing softly and slowly, feigning sleep as he stared into the dark. He gave a quick prayer to the Tsaritsa for letting him turn over in his sleep, away from the water and toward the unexplored darkness. Toward the sound in the deep dark depths. 

Slowly, a long leg came into his view. It was long and spindly like a spider but with the articulation of a crab. A nightmare spider-crab if the size of just one was as long as his entire leg and as thick as his forearm. Soon a few more legs showed up and the idea of the creature being a spider or a crab disappeared. It was a giant centipede. Its body was as long as a small boat with a hard looking shell on top. Each part of the shell overlapped the other creating an armored appearance that was also most likely practical. The plates faded to a softer looking underbelly, similarly to a turtle. Despite its size it moved silently through the stone cavern as it crept up on its chosen prey. It reminded Childe of some of the creature’s from the Abyss, large, silent and deadly. The creature had two tiny eyes that were nearly enveloped by the creature's top shell. Creatures in the dark usually had larger eyes if they used sight to hunt so this one probably used smell or sound to hunt. Either that or it used a sort of elemental resonance to feel for living things through the stone. 

Hoping that it didn’t use elemental resonance, Childe pushed himself up into a sitting position. The centipede froze for a minute as it and Childe sat in a silent staring contest. It began its movement again, all hundred-some legs moving in quiet uncanny synchrony.  Carefully he raised his hands into a defensive position. While he didn't have a weapon, his nails had become claws and that creature had a softer looking underside. And if worse came to worse, he could probably peel the armor along the back off. 

The centipede’s front pincers opened and closed a few times, only a few feet from Childe’s face. A foamy liquid dripped out from in between them, making tiny plop plop plop noises as the spittle landed on the rough rock underneath. Another pebble was caught underneath the creature’s legs and Childe lept into action. 

He slid in between two of the legs and slashed upwards towards the seemingly soft belly. His nails dug in with a surprisingly little amount of force and hot blood sprang out from the beast. It let loose an angry clicking noise as the legs began to thrash around him and attempt to impale him. He rolled out of the way from one and grabbed another, twisting it in an attempt to rip it from the body. The centipede screamed again and tried to fling him off the leg. Childe hung onto it and gave it another twist. The limb popped a few times before the bottom half of it slid away from the joint above it, similarly to cracked open crab legs. It began to thrash even more, one of its legs cutting into Childe’s side. 

He jumped back with a grunt as his own blood was added to the growing mix of fluid on the once drab stones. The ground gained a layer of blood above its lifeless stones. Childe smiled as his hands and legs dragged through the puddles.

The centipede lowered itself closer to the ground, unwilling to give an opening to be attacked, its pincers snapping to where Childe just was as he moved around the beast. He was lucky that this creature obviously relied upon sneak attacks and not brute force to catch its prey. Not seeing an easy way to get back under the creature, he quickly jumped over a few legs and onto the back of it near the head. It started chittering faster and high as it swayed in an attempt to get him off its back. The issue was that its limbs didn’t seem to reach its back, an issue that worked perfectly to Childe’s favor. 

His smile broke into a grin as he attempted to break apart its back armor. The large plates were thick and most creatures wouldn’t attempt to attack from the top because of it, but Childe was no ordinary creature. He had fought things with much tougher hide and armor before, this was just a warmup to him. He jammed his claws underneath one of ridges and began to pull up, his nails shredding the softer connective tissue underneath. The centipede began to slam itself against the stalagmites and stalactites in an attempt to get its assailant off its back. 

Childe barely hung on as his back was smacked against a stalagmite, his still aching bones and muscles protesting the rough treatment. He gritted his teeth as he forced his arms to pry off the top of the creature. They shook with exertion from the earlier transformation and climb but they remained true to him. Just as he felt the plate about to give, the creature flipped itself upside down, slamming the ginger's head into the ground. 

His eyesight turned pitch black before small stars began to swim across the fading view around him. It was as if he was looking through muddy water, trying to find a fish that was darting between the stones. Light sparkling off both the surface of the water and the fishes scales.  He let go of the creature and tried to reorient himself. Through the jumble of his vision and thoughts, Childe saw the giant creature push itself upright again before letting out more of its archon damned noise. 

Spittle and fluid now flowed freely from its pincers as the angry beast snapped at the young heretic. Its legs made little splashing noises as it scurried through the mixed blood and spit to kill him. In that moment Childe’s muscle memory took over and he made a grab to summon a hydro blade into his hand. A small distorted voice in his head scream at him that it was suicidal and that he would just end up dying to the monsters wrath, but that voice was drowned out by his own bloodlust. 

How dare this weak beast think it was strong enough to kill him. How dare it try to kill him with his back turned. He would rip it apart and devour its unworthy flesh to serve as a bitter reminder to all who attempt to do so again. His instincts took over and he suddenly dropped and slid along the ground, blood getting rubbed into his skin along with loose rocks and gravel as he blindly slashed upwards with a knife that wasn’t there. 

But then, blood began to rain down onto his face and he closed his eyes, slashing and stabbing above him at the centipede. It cried out in agony as its legs smacked and scratched at the bloodthirsty monster beneath it. It gave one last attempt to squash the offender, the prey it had sought out and found in its world of darkness, only for it to become the prey instead. It released one final panic and pain filled chitter before it died. 

Childe let his arms slump to his side as the creature fell next to him and gave its death shake. He quickly grabbed what remained of his shirt and wiped it over his face to clear it of blood before looking at what was in his right hand. In it sat a small blade of hydro. Another manic grin stretched across his face along with a giggle. 

He let it dissolve before summoning it back again. He could summon hydro without a vision! He began to laugh loudly as he pushed himself up. With an exaggerated whirl, he summoned his twin blades to his side and spun them around a bit. His arms protested the movement but the adrenaline from his kill and this discovery let the pain fade into the background of his consciousness. 

As he slowly began to calm down from his laughing and his discovery, he began to try and figure out how this could be. Childe gave his surroundings a look for a hydro vision shining out from the gloom, a sight he had seen once before as he fell. But the familiar glow of blue was not there. All that was there was a bloody mess of a centipede whose blood had begun to mix with the lake, turning the once crystal clear waters into a cloud of red. As he stared at the changing lake, the rocks at the bottom vanishing from his limited sight, he tried to figure out how this was possible. How was he able to use the hydro element when even before fighting the whale he had struggles. After taking a deep breath, he came to the conclusion that the source of his new/reawakened powers were not from a vision. . 

No vision meant that the Primordial sea probably fucked up more than just his appearance, it gave him the ability to use hydro without a vision. Trying to use his probably broken brain and what little science he understood, from listening to a few of Dottore’s rants about elemental energy and blah blah abyss bullshit, he concluded (wow big word) that perhaps since the Primordial sea was hydro affiliated, he also became hydro affiliated. That or because he used to have a hydro vision it just connected or something. Childe didn’t know and frankly he didn’t care. Not needing a vision to use hydro would be a boon to him. If becoming less of a human means getting stronger then so be it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a growling from his stomach. It wasn’t a surprise considering that his last meal was technically a pretty weak pea soup from the Fortress of Meropede. And that meal had felt like a lifetime ago for Childe, perhaps it was one. His fingers twitched as he stared at the lump of dead flesh next to him. He didn’t have the choice to be picky in the Abyss and he didn’t have the choice here. Slowly he slid over to the mangled side of the creature. The entire bottom front half of the creature was torn into a mush from his newly rediscovered hydro blades. The armor plate on the head that he had failed to peel off had blood oozing around it and was hanging on at an unnatural angle. 

Carefully, Childe pulled the creature towards him as he resummoned his blade and took off the armored piece. Underneath was bloody flesh that had the same look and texture of fat, not particularly appetizing. In fact it reminded him of the maggots and worms he would dig up and use for fishing. He took a sharp inhale to steel himself, getting hit with the strong scent of blood and iron. He began to slice off pieces of the centipede to eat. It was soft and not the best flavor or texture. It was strangely bloody and the noise it made in his teeth almost made him shiver in disgust. He forced himself to eat a few more chunks before he couldn’t handle eating anymore. He got up on shaking legs and wobbled over towards a place further down the shore. He didn’t fancy drinking centipede blood after a meal of centipede meat. 

After drinking his fill and cleaning his mouth of the taste of centipede, he looked around himself. Childe knew he had to keep going and get out of the caves. Looking around himself there were a few options, some looked very dangerous and others seemed to go down instead of up. Childe closed his eyes and tried to rack his brain for any more cave safety tips that Zhongli gave him. The only thing that came to him was remembering conversations about the Chasm and some incidents around it. Perhaps he had mentioned it but Childe had tuned it out in favor of paying attention to more important things that surrounded his meetings with the funeral consultant…like bringing Osial back and causing chaos…yep. That was definitely all that was on his mind at the time. Definitely just getting information out of those meetings one-hundred percent. 

“Shut up and just work with me for once!” He yelled at himself as he shook his head, once more forgetting about his head injuries. He hissed as he head once again swam with the stars of the Abyss as he stumbled over towards one of the larger stalagmites. He pressed his head to the cool surface in search of some relief. When he opened his eyes a small, mostly hidden, tunnel lay before him. It angled upwards and was wide enough for him to comfortably walk through. He would have probably walked right past it if he hadn’t decided to be stupid just then. “Thank the Tsaritsa.” He mumbled. Before he could start walking towards his chosen exit, his cut on his leg decided to make itself known with a stabbing pain as soon as he put weight on it. 

Quietly hissing he sat down and tore off the surrounding material around it. The wound was luckily not very deep and was no longer bleeding excessively. It was strange how little it was bleeding. Childe poked at the wound a little and on the edges he could already see some faint scabbing already happening. He sucked in a sharp breath before tearing his destroyed jacket into strips of fabric and wrapping it around the quickly healing wound. While he did heal slightly faster than a normal human it was never this fast. Carefully, CHilde stood back up and walked over to the tunnel. He paused when he reached the entrance and looked back at where the body of the centipede was. He couldn’t make out the body anymore but the smell of blood was still strong.  

The idea of going back to find some way to carry the bug meat with him popped up but he discarred it due to the horrific texture and the fact that he had no way to preserve it. The caverns might just be cold enough to maybe keep it okay for longer, but hauling around bug meat could be a giant blinking light for more of those creatures to find him. He also didn’t need to carry any water with him since if it got to a drastic point he could simply summon hydro out of the air to drink. Not the best when it came to taste but it beat dying of dehydration. 

Childe slowly began climbing along the passway as it twisted and turned, the amount of hanging rocks began to slow down until the tunnel became much smoother and easier to maneuver about without accidentally stabbing himself on a rock. He came up to one drastic turn and had to pull himself up a small ledge. As he crawled to the top, he froze. 

He froze as the smell of water hit him, salty water. Reinvigorated, Childe scrambled to stand up as he blindly followed the smell through the twists and turns. Eventually he took a sharp left and was met with a tiny pinprick of white somewhere above his head. He felt a smile spread over his face as he nearly broke out into a run to get closer to the promised hope of freedom. A part of him yelled at himself for hoping and that it would just turn out to be more glowing moss or another centipede. Luckily, as if Celestia had finally decided to smile down on him for once, the light got larger and larger until Childe was climbing up another rock wall trying to get closer to the new sound of waves splashing and sea birds chirping. He would get out of that forsaken cave and collapse in the sea before finding some food that was warm and not centipede. 

Finally, his hand hit the sunlight. He paused for a second at the sight, taken aback by the change in color. Sure he knew that it had changed color but seeing it in sunlight made him pause for a moment. It didn’t look like the hand he had grown up knowing, the hand riddled with scars and burns. Ones from learning to fish with his father and cook with his mother, ones from the creatures of the Abyss and from the Fatui, all of those that used to be on his hands were gone. He wondered if his body was the same or if he would be allowed to keep those memories. His hand flinched backwards into the shadow of the cave unintentionally. Childe sighed before forcing himself to move out of the cave and into the sunlight. He pulled himself over the jagged entrance and collapsed outside of the cave. He ended up misjudging his weight and practically flung himself out to tumble down a small hill. His injured leg hit a rock during his tumble causing him to let out a pained hiss. Groaning quietly he opened his eyes only to have to close them again. The bright sun blinded him from seeing his surroundings. 

He turned over onto his side and covered his face with an arm, trying to block out the rays as his eyes acclimated to the light. After a few minutes, the man slowly removed his arms from his face and sat up. The sun shone down on his face as he squinted in its harsh beautiful light. Childe felt like a plant as he sat there absorbing the rays. The wind ruffled his hair and the scent of the outside surrounded him. Eventually he was able to open his eyes fully and could now take in everything around him. 

His hands were still near black at his fingers before it began the starry abyss pattern his master had. A quick look at his legs through his scuffed up and torn pants showed that his legs were the same. He quickly checked on his wound and it had now fully scabbed over and seemed to be already closing up. He decided to leave it unwrapped since if it continued at the rate it was healing then it would probably close up completely in a few hours. Childe scooted over to the sea that sat just a few feet away. He looked into the clean blue water at his changed reflection. 

His forehead did in fact have two small red horns that came out before his hairline and curved backwards a bit. He also had a diamond shape in the middle of his forehead. It was the same color as his abyss colored arms and when he moved his head he could swear the pattern of the stars in it changed.  As he reached to poke at the spot, his hand brushed aside some of his hair revealing his ears which now had a small point to it. He felt like he was losing his mind.

“Could be uglier.” He chuckled, stretching his sore limbs over his head. Sure he cared enough about his appearance to look nice and didn’t appreciate suddenly looking different, but it wouldn’t be a life changing setback for him. He would get through this like everything. He looked at the mountains around him and the sea that lay in front of himself. The unfamiliar peaks seemed to pierce the sky in the distance. Very unfamiliar. Childe unconsciously cocked his head to the side as he tried to see if there were any mountains in his memories from Fontaine that looked like that. There were none, and anyway those mountains were very far away, far away and still giant looking. Quickly Childe looked up at the sun to see if he could determine his position on it. The sun sat directly over his head and didn’t indicate which way was which. He couldn’t even tell what could be north or south. 

Giving a frustrated huff, he pushed himself up and walked around in a circle as he took in the mountain he had just crawled out of. Calling it a mountain was perhaps a bit grand, it was more like a sharp jut of rock from the water around it. The trees around him looked similar to some Fontainian species but they just didn’t look quite right. 

“What is going on here? What’s with everything not looking right?” Childe climbed up the hill to perhaps get some height and see beyond. As soon as he got over the hill he felt something in his mind snap into place. 

He was on an island in the middle of a sea, a sea that looked like the sea that surrounded Fontaine, floating slightly above the rest of the world. But that didn’t make sense since the waters of Fontaine were fresh water not salt water. He looked around just to be sure but it sure did look like he was on the water plate of the world. The mountains looked almost correct but definitely not correct. The area that could be the Beryl region was completely wrong, Childe was currently in what could be the Morte region but again it wasn’t right. The giant tower was gone and the mountains were also wrong. But if he was in the Morte region, near the border next to Liyue, then those giant mountains…

Childe looked behind him once more at those imposing beasts in the distance as his mind was suddenly flooded with memories of his father telling stories of how thousands of years ago the entirety of Teyvat had mountains taller than Dragon Spine and more dangerous but they had been leveled by the Archon war. By gods fighting in battles that destroyed and rebuilt the land a thousand times over.

  “There’s no fucking way.” Childe gave a burst of laughter spinning around, taking in the ancient landscape as it hit him that the fucking whale had hit him so fucking hard he went back in time. As he chuckled and spun around with his arms outstretched. He staggered in place a few times before immediately collapsing on top of the rocky hill. The pain of multiple head injuries and too much information finally overloaded him. As it turned out, his increased healing did not stop a whole bunch of concussions from finally kicking his ass. He felt himself get consumed by the deep recesses of his mind as he drifted off into the calming darkness, far wavy from the bright and chaotic world he was now in.