Kaimana dove into the water in full scuba gear, his vision obscured by the tinted plastic as he swam deeper, further and further away from the boat, unable to see anything below himself other than the vast expanse of a rocky cliffside not that far from his body along with the entrance to the cave. He planned for a short dive today, just a couple hundred feet and no longer.

The cave he was diving into was a recently discovered one, supposedly filled with creatures people have yet to see. Thanks to some connections Kaimana had, he managed to get first access, so he had to make the most of it while it was still safe.

He mentally sighed, preparing himself as he swam further down. It was a subtle feeling, the sensation of the water swirling around him, applying pressure to his body as he swam. The subtleness slowly turned more and more evident the further he went down until it became almost painful. Kaimana stopped right in front of the cave entrance. The air he was breathing left a slightly metallic taste in his mouth and he couldn't help but glance at the oxygen tank gauge. Still full.. He thought to himself before deciding to finally enter the underwater cave.

He turned on his head lamp, the once pitch-black darkness now visible to his eyes. He could hear the faint sounds of marine life swimming about, the faint skittering of the crustaceans He wasn't able to see. It seems that this dive might be a bit longer than he planned for.

Kaimana let out a deep breath he didn’t know he was holding as he placed his hand by the entrance of the cave and took out his safety rope. He secured it to a piece of jagged rock that jutted out of the stone floors. Only after making sure it was secure enough did he start swimming into the cave, taking a few shaky breaths when he passed over a deep pit. He couldn’t see the bottom of it, and he only shuddered to think what could be down there, but he didn’t want to risk swimming down.

Deciding to move on, he continued moving, listening closely to the environment for anything that seemed unusual. Before he could move further, he jumped back, startled by the sudden appearance of a Spotted Goby that swam right in front of his face. He nearly knocked into the cave wall, almost piercing his oxygen tank. Kaimana quickly stabilized himself, taking a few shaky deep breaths as he calmed himself down.

He made sure that his safety line was still attached before he continued moving, still a bit jostled from the scare, turning a corner into a forked area. He paused for a moment but then decided to go down the right cavern, making sure to etch a small marking on the cavern to mark his way, just a precaution, he thought to himself.

He couldn’t see much in front of him, even with the head lamp, the darkness surrounding him almost devouring any type of light that reached it. His hands kept going forward, Kaimana's left hand on the cave wall to make sure he didn’t lose his balance nor sense of direction.

It’s happened before, when he found himself upside down because he couldn’t see where he was going. It was a disorientating experience when he realized it, and so he ended up always keeping at least one of his hands on a cave wall to make sure he was still upright. Even for other things, when he was above water, he usually had one hand on the wall, it became a habit to do that at some point. He checked his oxygen gauge again, it was less than when he started, but that was to be expected. At least it was still in the green.

He saw the small, somewhat cloudy, shape of a shrimp. What species, he didn’t know, it was too murky to see clearly. Kaimana watched it swim in a seemingly random direction before it was rudely interrupted by a large Sailfin Molly swallowing it whole. He shuddered a bit at how fast the shrimp’s life ended and realized how easy it was for the same fate to entrap himself.

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He shook his head to get rid of the negative thoughts. It's just the way of life here, I’ll be fine, I already prepared all I could for this trip. He calmed himself down and continued forward.

The creak of the safety rope warned him that he was nearing the end of the rope, so he turned around, ready to go back to the surface to note what he saw, but before he could even swim a single inch, an unknown mass of pure force crashed into his stomach, knocking him back along with his breath. Due to the sudden force, the rope strained even more, and he paled as he started to hear strands of the rope snapping under the pressure.

However, before he could balance himself and catch his breath, he was rammed into again by the large mass. This time, even though he was in strenuous amounts of pain, he tried to get a better look at the thing that had decided he was an enemy. It looked vaguely like an eel, but it had too big eyes, and too many teeth. Its dorsal fin was serrated, almost looking teared as it swam in wild abandon.

Kaimana heard the rope snap, and he started trembling as soon as he felt the rope go slack. He couldn’t stray far from here, or else he'll lose the safety rope, and he won’t be able to find his way out. His breathing became erratic as he panicked, waving his arms wildly as he struggled to regain his balance. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the eel creature, its jaw wide open as it swam towards his head.

The last thing he saw was its gaping mouth, rows upon rows of blood-stained teeth, glaring at him before he passed out from shock.

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He didn’t know how long it had been when he finally came back to consciousness. He glanced at his oxygen gauge, the scene causing him to pale. It was already less than half, the needle slowly dipping into the red zone. He had only grabbed one tank since he had only planned for a 25 minute dive, and he started to regret not grabbing another tank like he was taught to. He patted around himself, reaching for his head lamp that was flung a few feet away from him.

His body felt heavy, and he didn’t recognize where he was, the safety rope nowhere in sight. He was lost.

He lifted his head, fixing the crooked mask on his face as he half swam-half crawled along the cave floor, grabbing his head lamp and fixing it back on his head. He could feel trickles of water dripping down his forehead, and his eyes glanced up to see bite marks all over his mask.

That eel really did a number on my mask.. Looks like it pierced it slightly, it would’ve been bad if it pierced through completely, I would’ve been dead before I would realize it. He thought to himself, his hands grazing over the bite marks. They were deep marks, but not enough to breach completely, which he was thankful for.

That eel… It didn’t look natural, it looked like… like a monster.. He brought his hand away from his face, setting himself upright as he looked around at his new environment. This was a new cave, 4 tunnels leading to other paths that he could fit through and several other smaller tunnels that he couldn't. He looked up, and at the very top of the cave was something shiny.

Letting curiosity get the better of himself, he began moving upwards towards it. As he grew closer to the source of the shine, he vaguely noticed the light growing brighter. Eventually, Kaimana was right underneath it, the light almost blinding as he reached his hand up, grazing against something smooth inside the light.

He closed his hand over the smooth object, it felt like a marble of some sort. He pulled it out of the light, the light almost immediately going out afterwards.

He looked down at his hand in wonderment, the marble seemingly glittering under the dimmed light of his head lamp.

He turned it over in his hand, staring at it in wonderment before a loud screech jolted him out of his trance. Slipping the marble-like object into one of his many pockets, he swam towards the four tunnels.

He hesitated, not sure where to go, but another screech managed to push him forward into one of the tunnels, but not before making sure to leave a small marking, Just in case. He took a deep breath, then swam forward.