Today, after I was done working on my current project for the day, I decided to go into the depths of the cave system under my forest with Tiddol. I figured it would be fun, and neither of us had been to the bottom before.

Naturally, we started at the entrance to the glass caverns. Those are always a popular place to hang out. We saw a lot of small groups of people, hanging out with friends and family, going on dates, eating dinner, and whatever else you might do at a hangout spot. It was fun to watch, but that wasn't why we were here.

And so we went down deeper, and things got darker. It wasn't really an issue as both of us have methods to both create light and see in the dark, but it still made things feel a bit eerie. This honestly only made the entire experience better as it contrasted with the sense of wonder you enjoy from impressive works of art.

And there was a lot of art. My personal favorite from this area is a full-sized castle, complete with stone soldiers and functional gates. All of it carved out of stone, magically reinforced stone, yes, but still stone.

It feels like those stone soldiers could come to life, their surface has more detail than my first attempt at creating Ents. I'm half tempted to do it.

Further down we came across a glowing lake that made a pleasant humming sound. There were very few people this far down, but there was a sign describing this particular lake. Apparently, it formed like this naturally, the glow is caused by a moss not dissimilar to Glovine that lives inside of the waters while no one is quite sure what caused the humming. It was probably built by an Origin, but to most people that qualifies as being naturally occurring.

Also, the water is super poisonous, at least one person died trying to drink it. So swimming out into it is ill-advised, to say the least.

We ended up stopping to eat dinner by that lake. It was nothing fancy, just something that the two of us prepared beforehand and some fruits that I created. It was a quiet meal, not that we weren't talking but rather the inside of my head was very quiet. It wasn't cut off from the surface entirely, but it was distant. All of the noise that I had grown used to was reduced to a distant whisper. It was an odd sensation, leaving me caught halfway between relief and paranoia. I was worried that something would happen on the surface, but at the same time I appreciated the chance to listen to little other than my own thoughts.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

And so we went farther down and came across many more pieces of art. There was a small town built, in a similar style to the stone castle, completely out of raw iron ore, really high-quality stuff too according to Tiddol. It was a farming town with everything you would expect from crops to an inn to a secret cabal of mages living underneath the mayor's house. That last one was a surprise to find.

Tiddol gushed about a large and incredibly intricate clockwork device that was carved from a single mass of stone. She went on about how difficult it must have been to build something like this and how skilled the person who made it must be. And all that for a device that apparently does nothing, well not exactly nothing. It kind of slowly spins in a circle at a very precise and even rate, which is supposedly rather hard to pull off. To me it just looked unfinished, it feels like something is supposed to go on the outside of this device, but there is nothing there.

And we marched on, deeper still. We came across a set of stairs, a really ornate set of stairs. Each step had a story carved into it, one step depicted a mother grieving over a stillborn child, another depicted an adventurer climbing a cliff. And as you get deeper you realize that all of these small scenes connect with each other, that the grieving mother kills a lot of people, and that the adventurer slowly descends into madness during his quest. It doesn't end well for anyone, except that one guy that got put on toilet cleaning duty near the beginning. He was fine.

I've been listening to one of the greatest storytellers in the world since before I was born, but I had never seen anything quite like this. It's different, stunning. I never would have thought that a stairwell could tell such a compelling story entirely without words. I would love to meet the people or person behind this, and the other ones I've mentioned too.

At the bottom of the stairs was a door, and on the other side of the door was a small cave with living supplies strewn about. I would guess maybe ten people were living there, some of the people making these pieces of art if I were to hazard a guess. None of them were there, though I did see a tunnel leading off from the room. It had a sign in front of it asking to not be disturbed, and I did hear what sounded like metal hitting stone over and over again coming from inside. we honored their wishes and left without disturbing anything. I want to see what they make next.

When we finally got to the surface it was late at night and the moons were high in the sky. Three of them tonight, something that happens very infrequently. From there we just sat and enjoyed the sight of the three moons framed by the black sky.

It took a lot longer than I was expecting. But it was fun and surprisingly empty. I've never felt so quiet before, I was practically whispering the whole time despite there being no one and nothing that could overhear anywhere nearby. I don't imagine that many people know just how far this extends, but I don't want to spoil the atmosphere by telling people about it.

I could have just teleported to the bottom to see what was there, but that wouldn't have been any fun.

Anyway, Good Night Diary.