At the border of the Golden country a creature looked out to the infinite ocean. The golden country faced opposite of the mokoi badlands, so this infinite ocean was the only thing between the creature and the edge of the world.

The creature had the appearance of a gargantuan elderly woman. Her spine twisted and curled forward to the point that she had to support herself with a large cane that had a large furry sphere at its end. The long black fur of the sphere danced and flowed in the wind like sentient tendrils.

The creature’s flesh seemed to melt and droop off her haggard body. Her eternally moist skin was riddled and patched with thick mossy clumps. Her clothes were comprised of a thick dark bark which had long slimy green vines that draped down her body like a wet murky robe. The creature had an impossibly large toothless mouth and her nose pointed straight out to a sharp needle point. Where one would expect the soft eyes of an elderly woman to be, there was instead a large clump of moss with a single small swamp lily blooming from it.

The creature looked out to the massive beachfront before her. She thought that perhaps there may be a hole at the edge of the world since the shoreline seemed to have receded quite a lot. This ominously large beach was littered with thousands of beached sea creatures lifelessly resting on the cold sand. Sea life of all manner from small fish to gargantuan whales were all splayed across the immensely wide beach in varying states of decomposition.

At a distance so far from the original shoreline that only someone with eye’s as keen as the creatures could see there was the rolling ocean. The large waves of the great oceanic expanses crashed and receded against some invisible barrier unable to reach the sea life it so desperately desired to water. The creature jumped down from the small perch she was sitting on and walked across the beach towards the ocean.

The creature had been searching for a long time, she was running out of ideas of where it could be. That tiny flying lady assured the creature that she never stole it away. Some of the forest spirits did mention feeling its presence at one point but they would always say that it had long since left their territory. The creature had scoured and searched all of Trammel multiple times over but could never find it. It was approaching the critical point now, if she couldn’t find it soon and bring it back, then the one who she dedicated herself to would not survive. She was desperate and out of ideas and so she came here.

“Umm, excuse me?” Her voice creaked and croaked while she spoke with a humble and respectful tone. When she spoke, she didn’t seem to do so in any particular language but instead she spoke with the very nature of communication itself.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if anyone has seen a particular fruit?” The elderly creature asked out to the beach, though she only had the deceased sea life as accompaniment, so she received no response.

“Um, it’s a little small and it has a cute little spiral birthmark on it. It’s a very kind fruit that always says please and thank you and…” The elderly creature stopped its gushing praise of the lost fruit and looked around the lifeless beach. “I’m sorry if I look a little scary to some of you but I mean no harm.”

She waited for a response but just like the rest of her responses they were nothing but howling wind and distant waves. “Oh! how rude of me, I should introduce myself first. You all can call me Granny Ayah.”

Granny Ayah paused again to wait patiently for a non-existent reply. She nervously fiddled with her furry cane and curled her toes bunching up a pile of sand below her feet. “You see I’m quite worried about the fruit… I just want to bring it back home. Everyone there misses the fruit dearly.” Granny Ayah looked down to her cold bare feet.

“We have a lot of birthdays to catch up on.” The wind brushed against her long raggedy green hair blowing it all over her face. “I guess I’ll have a lot of baking to look forward to. That’s my duty as a granny don’t you think?”

As she spoke a few strands of hair got into her mouth. She gingerly dragged her wrinkly hands over her face to clear the hair out of the way.

A soft squeaky voice shyly cut through the howling wind. “… am I invited?”

Granny Ayah shot up in obvious excitation and exclaimed. “Of course, of course! Our little fruit loves making new friends, especially with your kind. The more the merrier!”

A huge grin transformed Granny’s face. She continued to speak out to the beach with renewed vigor. “I just need to find the little fruit first. You must have been all over the world, have you seen the fruit?”

“I don’t know the fruit.”

Granny Ayah’s smile slowly shrunk away along with her shoulders. “Oh.”

“But I know someone who might.”

She quickly regained her energy. “Can you take me to this someone?”

“…Okay.”

In front of Granny Ayah there was the lifeless body of a small finger sized fish. The fish began to move and squirm, or rather a copy of the fish did. This copy of the fish had no color and was entirely transparent as it wiggled out of its own host corpse. The ethereal fish swam through the empty air to be level with Granny Ayah’s face.

The ghostly fish seemed concerned of leaving its body. It nervously waved left to right before gathering its courage and speaking to Granny Ayah. “I have to take you somewhere special first.”

“You can sit right here as you guide me.” Granny Ayah raised her cane to the ghostly fish and presented the large furry sphere. When the ghostly fish started swimming towards the sphere the furry tendrils immediately responded as they curved towards the fish and blanketed it while welcoming it to the comfortable abode of the furry sphere. The black fur that contacted the fish shifted to the same ethereal appearance which then waved down the cane and up Granny Ayah’s arms and covering her body.

The pile of sand under Granny’s feet became moist and turned to mud, soon after her feet felt a cold wave wash over them. Granny Ayah looked down to her feet and saw a faint water line swiftly rise. The water felt partially present but at the same time as if it was not quite there. As the ethereal water line grew and grew it would carry out the ghostly copies of all the submerged beached sea creatures which would then happily swim around the empty air.

Granny Ayah found herself at the bottom of a great ocean, not an ocean of water, but an ocean of the soul. The spirits of those who have and will swam and danced above her head. The lonesome death that bore down on her before had completely disappeared being quite literally overshadowed by the excited clamor of a hidden world full of life.

The ethereal water level had grown so high in the sky that it reminded Granny Ayah of the mountains back home. Enthralled by the wonderful sight, Granny found herself mouth agape as she took in the ghostly aquarium. “So, this is where everyone was hiding.”

“It can get pretty boring staying with our body all the time so most of us visit the soul sea eventually. I can take you to see the someone who might know where your friend is.”

Granny Ayah obediently followed the directions of her little fishy friend while trying to absorb as much of the splendor of the soul sea as she possibly could. The endless history of life and death was peacefully swimming over her head.

“Ooh a visitor.”

“She’s pretty.”

“I like your soul Miss.”

Many a curious soul would stop stop by to say hi and chat. Granny Ayah and her guide walked deeper into the beach slowly making their way to the edge of the world. But Ayah’s mind wasn’t thinking of that, her attention was overhead. The plethora of colors and shapes, creature’s endangered and extinct, some never even seen before, they came in all sizes and designs.

The scale of the entire experience was difficult to put into words; she was walking on the ocean floor as the real ocean was not present, but the ethereal water acted as if nothing had happened. It was the entire height of a mountain dense with activity.

A gargantuan soul approached Granny Ayah and her little fish friend, an existence many hundred times the size of either of them “What brings Miss over to the soul sea?” the large whale asked. Her little fish friend was quick to answer.

“She’s looking for a lost friend.”

“Oh well his lordship should know then.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking, I was taking her to him now.”

“Good luck Miss, hope you find your friend.”

Granny Ayah thanked the kind whale for their concern and continued on after waving the whale goodbye. In an attempt to make small talk Granny Ayah asked the little fish.

“So, who is this lordship?”

“He’s not actually a lord or anything, everyone just worships and calls his lordship his lordship since he knows everything. I think he called it omnisciscince or something.”

“To garner the praise of so many spirits he must really be something.”

“Oh yes, yes. If anyone would know where your friend is, it will be his lordship.”

It took quite a long time to walk the width of the beach and at times it felt like with every step forward she took the beach grew two steps further away. The little fish turned to Granny Ayah and spoke.

“From here on out make sure to follow my exact steps. If you walk even a teeny bit different from where I say or do then it might be impossible for us to find each other again.”

Granny Ayah thought the fish was being a little dramatic, but she played along giving it an affirmative nod. The two kept making their way deeper and deeper into the barren beach all the way to the point where the final throes of some larger waves could manage to splash some droplets of water through that indistinguishable barrier and onto Granny Ayah’s exposed toes. The real ocean was here, complete with real water forming an impossibly tall wall that as Granny Ayah craned her neck simply blended into the sky as she could not tell when one ended and the other started.

Through that watery wall Granny Ayah could see it, the other side of the edge of the world. A place that no being would ever dare trespass; Granny Ayah could only hope that included her fruit.

“We’re here.” The fish had stopped in front of a small stone well. The well had a small wooden roof which had a rope that drooped down from it to a bucket which rested on the loose stone walls of the well. The bucket contained a strange mixture of real and ethereal water as if it was unsure of which world the bucket was meant to provide for. The little fish jumped out of Granny’s furry cane and into the well’s bucket before speaking out to her. “His lordship will be at the bottom of the well.”

Granny Ayah walked up to the out of place well and peered down its deep rocky shaft. The Well seemed to have no end as the stone brick wall eventually turned to a natural cave extending into a pit of darkness. She looked over to her fish friend with a hint of concern but decided to put faith in him.

It was immediately clear that there was no way that Granny Ayah would fit in the bucket but under the insistence of the little fish she put her first foot in the bucket. At a distance it looked like even her foot would hardly fit but as her foot got closer it almost appeared like it shrunk to fit in the bucket. Granny Ayah still struggled to fit her entire body into the small bucket but eventually managed to squeeze herself in with her folded knees rubbing against her ears. She then began feeding the rope some length to descend the bucket deeper into the well.

The bucket kept descending further and further down, the first thing to disappear was any smell of the outside world, the scent of rotting corpses or rushing saltwater had all but gone. Then any sound of the outside world left, the howling wind, crashing waves, chatting spirits, they all seemed to be part of a far away land now. Eventually even light couldn’t make its way to the cramped shaft. Minutes turned to hours and Granny Ayah found her skin getting more wrinkled then it already was from sitting in the bucket’s strange liquid for so long.

After a few more hours of descent she eventually started to see a source of light emanating from deep below. Her arms were tired and weak from constantly and slowly feeding the rope out but she gained a renewed determination at the sight of light. As her descent accelerated, she eventually came to hear the methodical drip of droplets striking a shallow puddle. She descended even further down, and her nose was finally assaulted with the stagnant stench of fish. Then she finally came to an opening.

The base of the bucket could just hardly graze the surface of a shallow pond, Its connecting rope having been fully extended. The cave walls glowed from phosphorescent gems and plant life giving the place a subdued blue aura which illuminated a single rock that protruded from the small pond. On top of this little rock a fat toad perched proudly. Granny Ayah looked around the small cave before finally pointing to the toad and asking her fish friend. “Is that his lordship?”

The little fish gasped in horror before speedily stuttering. “I’m so sorry your lordship, she is a guest and is still ignorant of some things. It is truly an honor to meet you.”

Granny Ayah having noticed her mistake made a pained attempt at formally bowing in the cramped bucket. “I apologize your lordship; I did not know exactly who or what I was going to meet so I did not recognize you right away. I humbly ask for your forgiveness.”

The toad made no gesture of acknowledgement or empathy as it replied. “Ribbit”

The little fish’s eyes widened in absolute bliss while happily wagging his tail. “Oh, you are so generous and merciful your lordship, thank you.”

Granny Ayah shot a confused glance to her fish friend but then looked back to his lordship and asked. “I have come here to seek your lordship’s guidance. I am looking for a friend, and I heard that you would know where they were.”

Granny Ayah stared pleadingly to his lordship trying to contain all her expectations and hopes. His lordship took a moment of deep thought and analysis and then bloated out his vocal sac and spoke. “Ribbit”

“I apologize your lordship, but I do not understand the language that you speak, would it be possible for you to translate please?”

Granny Ayah couldn’t quite believe or comprehend her own words or actions. Perhaps she was just feebly grasping at straws to justify the time and effort of this trip. She waited patiently for his lordship to respond.

His lordship remained quiet for an entire minute as it sat stood on its little rock without making a single movement. Granny Ayah as well spent this entire minute silently watching his lordships every action. Eventually after a minute the silence was broken. “Yes, I can see your friend, ribbit.”

Granny Ayah’s face exploded into an elated smile. She excitedly attempted to scooch forward in the bucket to get closer to his lordship as she asked. “Really! Where are they!?”

“They are in the bucket with you, ribbit.”

The little fish did not waste a second to respond to his lordship. “Wow, you are so wise your lordship. Thank you for your great guidance!”

Granny Ayah threw a puzzled expression to the bucket but inside she could only see the little fish. “Do you mean this fish spirit your lordship? Well yes, it certainly is my friend, but this is not the friend that I was searching for.”

Granny Ayah paused while she waited for his lordship to respond. She waited patiently for an excruciatingly long time with only the occasional dripping sound of water to fill the air. After a few minutes his lordship stretched out his vocal sack and responded. “…oh, …ribbit.”

“Your lordship, do you know where the friend that I am looking for is?”

“Of course, I know everything there is to know of the world.”

“May you tell me where my friend is?”

His lordship did not immediately respond; however, he did blink for the first time in their meeting. His lordship sat on the little rock and truly took in Granny Ayah’s question to heart searching deep within himself for how he could be of help. His lordship turned around on the spot scanning the contents of the entire cave. Finally, he had fully turned returning to his original position and his lordship gave granny Ayah his answer. “Your friend is not here, ribbit.”

“Of course they aren’t! I thought you knew everything there was to know in the world?”

“I do know all there is to know of the world. I have just looked around it. I could not find our friend, I’m sorry to say but they must have passed on. It is time for you to move on. Ribbit.”

“I know they aren’t in the well. Where are they outside the well?”

“Outside the well? What’s that?... Ribbit.”

Granny Ayah was stunned silent, she could not believe what was unfolding before her. The little fish swam over to her to share their condolences. “I’m so sorry Granny, I had no idea that your friend had passed away. I will be here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”

Responding uncharacteristically quick, his lordship spoke up. “She cannot cry on your shoulder for you do not have one little fish.”

“Ooh, you’re right your lordship. How very wise.”

The sweet old Granny Ayah could not contain it anymore and burst into a fit of shouts. “No! his lordship is not wise! He hasn’t told anyone here anything they don’t know! He knows nothing about the larger world, and this was all just a great big waste of time. I have rope burn from coming down here! His lordship can’t even consistently keep up his gimmick of croaking at the end of every sentence, and you little fish! His lordship is just a frog in a well, but what is your excuse, why did you tell me that he would have all my answers!? What do the two of you have to say for yourselves!?”

His lordship and the little fish both recoiled at the sudden outburst from Granny Ayah, and after a few seconds of her echoing shouts the cave returned to an eerie silence. His lordship was the first to respond. “… ribbit?”

“Too late frog boy.”

Granny Ayah turned back to the little fish with a pointed finger awaiting its excuse. “He said he knew everything.”

“That obviously wasn’t true.”

“I didn’t know that… I’m a fish.”

Granny Ayah gave in to defeat. All of her energy and rage faded away just as quickly as it had roused up. What happened was not the fault of these two simple creatures. Granny Ayah spoke with a calm and soft voice. “I am sorry for shouting at the two of you, I was just in a hurry to find my friend.”

“I’m also sorry Granny Ayah, I just wanted to help but I didn’t know how.”

The little fish swam over to Granny Ayah’s cheek and rubbed against it in a fish’s terrible attempt at a hug.

The frog awkwardly interjected into the this tender moment with a question. “So, umm. In my infinite wisdom I heard that there was going to be a birthday with baked goods. Will I be invited?”

“…”

“… ribbit.”

Granny Ayah looked over to the toad with a scornful glare, even the little fish still pressed against her cheek glared him down. Granny Ayah gave a curt but resolute answer. “No.”

Suddenly the loud sound of a bell chimed in the cave constantly echoing back and forth within the small room. The toad felt its rock was being disturbed by something and so it hopped into the small pond and swam over to the bucket to crawl in.

On the small rock there was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrinking and growing, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Granny Ayah holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Mother