Hello again. So, I guess its hard to navigate when you don't know where you are?
Landmarks, or old cities. Large currents of air and water. The alignment of the stars.
Apparently there are all kinds of ways to figure out where you are relative to your destination.
None of which work if you jump into a river, fall asleep, and then get pulled into the bowels of a mountain as the river decides to go subterranean. We woke up drifting lazily in a huge lake in the eternal twilight beneath the world. Pale blind fish splashing dolorously and dimly glowing slime molds greeted us instead of the cheerfully chirping of birds and warming rays of the sun.
While we were falling into the river late last night I had reformed the Ivers Dream into a simple sphere, allowing us to bob downstream and letting the current take us wherever it so desired. Like deep underground.
Whoops...
"Hm, well. What's done is done. Who wants breakfast?" My feeble attempt to ward off calamity only drew it down on me all the faster.
Tickle torture isn't funny! I nearly died from suffocation since I was laughing too hard to breathe!
My hysterical shrieks of hilarity woke up something as it put my friends resentment to rest.
A great bulbous dome broke the still surface of the dark water. Hundreds of flailing feathery limbs propelled a huge fat white worm with a gaping toothy maw through the water and towards the bobbing Ivers Dream. It seemed to want to either ram us, or eat us whole.
I bet it didn't expect to impale itself on a spear of ice anchored to a shiny new iceberg, and then burst into flames.
Its flailing and squealing threw waves of water and sound throughout the cavern we found ourselves floating in. Dozens more giant corpse pale maw-worms rose to the surface and started thrashing the water. With some help from Lenas guidance and Julius' rocket skills we deftly navigated the freshly stormy waters. Onica clung to the deck of the ship and Fen zipped to the front of it. He fired bolts of lightning into the troubled waters. My hair rose as sparks arced between the crests of the waves, and maw-worms popped into so much red froth and unidentifiable bobbing bits.
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Skirting the twitching horde we headed for a dark hole in the wall that we hoped might lead us back under the sky.
It didn't.
Time passed, probably. It's hard to really tell time with no sun.
We traveled through the blackest of waters. Rejecting all light and filled with peculiar montrous varieties of fish and bugs. It was hard to tell, but I felt like we were only going deeper into the depths of the earth.
At one point we entered a low but wide cavern, and it started to rain. The susurrus of a gentle rainfall drifted comfortably into our ears and the light at the prow of the Ivers Dream was muted by the curtain of falling water.
Just within sight above us a dazziling array of stalactites jutted from the low ceiling. Water dripping constantly from their tips and their fanglike protrustions ringed in dim but dazzling swirls of multi-colored slimes and molds. Making it appear as if there was an aurora hanging just overhead in a drizzle.
Beautiful.
We drifted slowly and silently through this wonderous place. Enjoying the uniqueness of our environs.
There were a few hazards. Sometimes pockets of air would explode when our guiding torch hit them. Throwing us to the deck in a blast of fire and noise. Luckily enough, Fen managed to put up a weird air barrier around Onica and Lena, and Julius' and I are very hard to burn or explode. Still, after the first three Fen was assigned the important duty of keeping us from exploding anymore.
It stopped being fun after the second time.
Eventually we got hungry, so we ate. The fish around here may look creepy, but they taste very good.
We continued. Passing through lands unknown. The weight of the shadows began to grow on my mind. The semi-gloom cut only by our own fires and the dim glowing gunk on the wall. In a fit of hatred at the silent repressive darkness I sent streamers of fire circling around us, and my old friend the winged lady of fire appeared overhead.
Her wings opened wide and beat at distant winds. She burned as bright as I could manage. With my new form of tingles she lasted much longer than ever before this time. Lifting the darkness, and showing us the world around us.
Streams of shining metal wormed through the walls on the sides of the passage the river had cut through the stone around us. Golds and blacks and silvers streaking wildly like frozen ligtning through the cold gray stone. With the new light we traveled much faster. We had been holding back. The unknowable darkness before us subconciously slowing us with fear and trepidation.
Trepidation is like fear, but longer.
Finally we became tired.
And so now we prepare to sleep. I have anchored the Ivers Dream onto the wall above the water with deeply lodged barbed roots in the stone. We are suspended above the dark water, and any creepy crawlies that might feel adventurous, like the red coccoon of a monstrous butterfly...
I wonder if there are giant butterflies in the world? If there are, do they still live off of flowers? Are there giant flowers where they live, or do the butterflies eat something else?
Giant carnivorous butterflies.
*Shudder*
Nope. Nope. Nope.
If there are then I am burning them into ash and thats the end of it.
Do butterflies burn well?
So many questions!
Goodnight.