Fishie’s consciousness came back to them in a flash, a rough voice filling her ears and the surrounding area engulfing her vision. Or what she assumed was the area. All she could see was nothing. A vast expanding void with no top or bottom. She looked down to see if her feet were touching the floor and was met with nothing. Not just no floor, but no feet, no legs, no torso. Nothing.
Panic started to set in. She didn’t understand what was going on. What happened to her? Where did her body go? Where was she?
“Whoa whoa, calm down there.” She heard that voice again. She looked around, desperately trying to find the source, but was met, again, by nothing.
“Oh, right. One second.”
Suddenly, a form started to shape in front of her. Her brain could hardly keep up with the way it morphed itself into something… something familiar. The creature shook themselves out like a dog that just came out of the shower, it’s fur fluffing out a bit before settling against the rest of their body.
“Ah, that’s better.” The hog creature sighed, stretching their arms out with a loud cracking sound coming from their back.
“Babayop?” The hog scratched their chin.
“I mean, technically yes. Depending on the place, I could be El Ceruto, Butamono, Schweinetier, The Hog. Love The Hog, nice and simple, really gets the point across.” Fishie just stared blankly at the hog as they rambled, overwhelmed by the situation at hand.
“Ack. Anyway, just call me Deemgo.”
“Okay. Deemgo. Uh, can I know what’s going on?”
“Welp. You died.” Deemgo stated matter-of-factly.
“O-Oh.” She stuttered. She should have probably guessed that. The last thing could remember was the pyre and it didn’t really make sense for her to have escaped it. If she still had limbs, she’d probably be feeling the burns from the flames or the ache in her lungs from inhaling all that smoke.
“You don’t seem that shocked about it.” Fishie scoffed.
“Did you see what happened? Did you see anything leading up to it? It was only a matter of time until they finally ended me. I…” She stopped suddenly, the gravity of her death starting to settle in.
“I didn’t… I tried, you know? I didn’t want much, I was fine with just keeping to myself and living out my days with my friends in my cave.” She hoped they’d be okay, they were all animals so she assumed they’d be able to find their own food, but the thought of not seeing them again made her non-existent heart ache.
“And, you know, seeing Perlah everyone in a while. I was okay with that. I know Perlah wanted more for me. But it was stupid think I was ever gonna do anything but suffer. Stupid to think I was ever gonna get that wish.”
“And that wish would be?” The hog tilted their head, curious.
“Why do you care? Not like you did much as my “God.”” She hoped Deemgo could hear the air quotes around god.
“Okay, first, gross. Don’t call me God. You think a god comes with a set of these?” She pointed to the horns on her head.
“I don’t know, how many gods do you think I’ve met?” Deemgo shrugged.
“Fair enough. Still, back to the point. Say I could do some wish granting. What would you want?”
Fishie didn’t answer for a moment, thinking back on Perlah’s final words to her. It was same message that her parents left behind before her. But only now did she really know what they meant.
“I want to live.”
She could see Deemgo about to say something and quickly cut her off.
“And I don’t mean just be alive, I mean, like. I want to actually live a life, not just try to scrape by and hide in the cracks of people’s walls. I want to meet people, make friends, have fights, fall in love, you know? I don’t want to just survive. I want to live.”
Fishie felt out of breath somehow, suddenly getting embarrassed.
“Ah, sorry for trauma dumping.”
“I literally asked.” Despite this, Fishie still felt the urge to cover her face with her non-existent hands. Deemgo sighed.
“Listen, I can’t just ‘bring out back to life’ with how things ended for you. Your soul’s mine now. But I can probably set you up with something if you want to make a deal.”
