Oshin is heading home.
Not where she grew up, or where she was born, or even where her mother had been born. She’s heading to the very birthplace of her kind, and the thought thrills her.
She follows the currents, tasting the way the salt seems to weaken in the water the closer she gets to a river. She figures once she hits the mouth she’ll get a better idea of where to go. If not, at least she’ll have that as a landmark. Or, seamark, rather.
On her way further into the relatively small arm of the sea that reaches inland, she sees various spectacles: a broken, wide, flat-bottomed boat, large enough to house many schools; a sprawling plain of urchins and nothing but urchins, dark and spiky on the sea floor; something large that startles at her presence and quickly vanishes into the murk.
She is now well and truly in the Sound, but sees no sign of anyone looking even faintly human. She will have to press on, into even more unfamiliar territory.
She spends some time poking at the place the shy creature disappeared, hoping to coax it out so she could get a good look at it, but gives up in favour of the larger curiousity, the place that was her goal.
It's significantly harder, pushing against the current, enough so that she wonders if waiting for the tide would've been smarter. She's strong enough to keep pushing upward, gritting her teeth against the forward current.
Eventually she reaches a place far enough along that the current is less strong, and she can take a moment to catch her strength, and snatch at a nearby fish for food.
The fish tastes a little weird, but is no harder to catch and eat despite the unfamiliar environment. She can see a few more shipwrecks from here, almost all of the same kind of enormous boat as the first.
The current shifts directions for a moment, and she can taste something foul in the water, toxic and unforgiving, before it changes again.
There are still no humans or merpeople around, but there are a few signs of something sapient: a few large rocks are carved with worn symbols, probably meant as either signposts or waypoints.
Oshin scrunches her face up, reacting to the taste, but it's gone quickly enough that she almost believes that she imagined it.
She definitely didn't imagine those markings in the rocks, though.
She swims up closer, getting a better look at one, running her fingers across it curiously. It seems to point further up the river, not that she's any kind of expert. She chooses to follow them anyway, it's not like she wasn't going to go further up.
As she leaves the broader basin of the sound, the water changes. It seems more sterile, somehow, warm and cloying. The almost claustrophobic confines of the river bed and banks don't do anything to help that impression.
There's nothing readily remarkable about the river, though, aside from its differences from the sea. Some rocks, some plants, tiny fish. If she perseveres, she'll find the river ends abruptly in a rock face, with water thundering down from above.
She does start to panic, mildly, at the close press of the banks. She's far more used to the wide expanse of her home.
But her determination to press on fights through the panic.
Once she hits the rock face, she swims back a little, to poke her head out to look at the falling water. It's...astonishing! She's never seen such an incredible thing! There is nothing as beautiful as the endless, rushing water under the sea.
Beautiful it might be, but there's not a lot of variety. Mostly rocks, moss, and falling water. There are trees to either side of the river, blackened sickly things spearing up into the sky, but no apparent wildlife.
After a few more moments admiring the display, she dives back underneath to head in a different direction. Are there anymore rock etchings to guide her?
A few, but they're all vague and don't seem to mean anything obvious. Her best bet is probably to just go against the ebbing tide and see if there are any other clues.
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