Hello again. It was Lena that started it.

This morning, as the sun was cresting the mountains and turning the lake into a mirror. We were sitting around a fire, munching on leftovers from the dragon feast last night. Lena was dangling her feet into the water, Kicking it about and making icy fairies fight to the death over a drifting leaf she had placed a pearl on.

As the tiny terrors tore each other apart Lena was gazing at the mountains reflected on the still waters and asked a question that started an adventure. "Where did the dragon come from anyway?"

Where did the dragon come from we wondered. This lake was not particularily deep, and the water was exceptionally clear. So how did a flashy blue dragon sneak up on us? Surely we would have seen it coming?

So it was decided to explore the bottom of the lake. We all piled into the Mirage since Lena is the only one who can really manuever underwater. She formed it into a bubble. Somehow even making the sides transparent.

I wonder if I can do that?

She carried us down to the bottom of the lake. Curious fish darted in and out of long weeds around us as we drifted about the sandy lake bed. Interesting rock formations rose from the depths and beautiful flowers bloomed and drifted along the currents. It is a whole other world underwater. One I have never really seen.

Playful pixies of ice danced around the bubble. I think they were Lenas. Not sure though, she seemed just as entranced by their ethereal beauty as the rest of us were. Fen kept up a running commentary the whole time. "Oh, we are going underwater now? Goodness, I hope this construct holds. It takes forever to dry my fabric. Oh, looklooklook! A fishy! Did you seen the fishy!" He pressed himself to the side of the bubble. His brim bending backwards as he tried to be as close as possible to the wonders outside.

"Ah, did you see that fishy! It has little purple dots and a silver tummy! Oh, oh, oh, look at the flowers! I didn't even know there were fowers underwater! I wonder how they pollinate without insects or wind? This is all just simply fascinating!" He seemed to be working up to a crescendo of excitement. I don't know if he ever peaked though. "Look at the size of that boulder! I wonder if it rolled all the way here from the peak of a nearby mountain. Imagine, sitting on a mountaintop for untold eons only to fall into a lake and just sit here unseen for who knows how long. Nobody has seen this boulder possibly ever, and now we are the first! Can we keep it? It seems like a very nice boulder!"

He wanted to keep every single interesting fish, plant, boulder, and even patch of sand. I managed to talk him down into just taking a perfectly round and smooth stone the size of my head. It is icy blue and translucent. Almost appearing to be a perfect orb of ice until you touch it. I has a surprising warmth for something that has sat at the bottom of a lake for who knows how long. Fen likes to rest on it. I guess even hats need a bed.

Onica was taking the journey down to the depths seemingly in stride, but judging from her lashing tail, dilated pupils, and twitching ears she was uneasy about being surrounded by water. She seemed fine when she was fighting a dragon underwater yesterday though. I asked her if she was ok.

She laughed oddly with a twitching eye. "Ahah-ahahah! Yes! Why wouldn't I be ok! I am just surrounded by thousands of pounds of water, and people who keep having unbelievable things happen to them! That's no reason to panic! It's not like a random dragon just popped out of this lake last night! There is no way there will be horrifying monsters waiting for us down here! Or cursed treasure or something! I don't know, I am still new here! Stop looking at me like that! I am not panicking!" By the end there she was whisper-shouting and spitting into my ear. Onica is weird. She says one thing, then does another. Just say as you do and do as you say, please. Because you are confusing me.

Lena and Julius were thankfully quiet. Lena was gazing out the bubbles sides and guiding us about the lake. Sitting on a little blue bench and kicking her heels happily as she hummed a little bit of nonsense tune to herself. Julius was settled happily on her lap nibbling on an orange root and getting petted. 

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

When the pixies showed up Lena focused on them more and the bubble drifted along their wake. Seriously though. I thought they were creations of Lenas but looking back that seems more suspect. Because they led us through a swathe of obscuring green plants we would have passed by, and to our destination. A hole.

A black space cut into the rock at the very bottom of the lake. A yawning abyss of lurking shadows and luring whispers.

Of course we went inside. I thought I heard Onica whimper, but that may have been my imagination.

We drifted through blackness for what felt like forever. In the dark, time and space became distant and foreign concepts of another world. Unwelcome in these lands. We unconciously huddled together. Seeking warmth and companionship against the cold and unyielding dark. The occasional bump and thump were the only sign we were still moving. Either me or Julius or even Fen with his lightning could have lifted this heavy gloom. But the depths felt more sacred and overwhelming than malevolent and terrifying.

At least they did to me. Regardless, no one disturbed the perfect darkness, and no one said a word. Silence was our newest companion, and an unfamiliar one it proved to be.

Finally, glimmers of light pierced the veil of shadows. We slowly emerged from darkness into a shadowed cavern. We drifted to a slim sandy beach and the Mirage dissolved, we filed onto the sand. As far as we knew this might as well be a whole new world.

A small plop of water on water broke the silence, and suddenly I could breathe again.

Stifled laughter, shy smiles, and awkward laughter spread hrough our party as we all sighed in unison. Seems the trip had been profound and exhausting for all of us.

We spent a moment just breathing before we headed down one of the sand bottomed tunnels.

This brings me back. So long ago, when I first woke up. Tunnels similar to these were all I knew of the world. How much wider has it become! How much richer, and more vibrant! I may not have been around for very long. But the world has grown so very much, and so too have I. No longer alone. No longer naked or cold or filthy. Well, maybe a little filthy. Much better though. 

I have come so far!

We walked those tunnels for what could have been hours. Small luminecent plants and algaes providing just enough light to really make the shadows menacing. And well they should be, for monsters lurked within them. Lizards and small dragons mostly. Nothing on the scale of the one we ate for dinner. We make short work of them. Mostly Onica and Fen though. They always react the fastest and with the most violence.

Razor sharp blades ripped apart our would be predator as Onica worked out her anxieties on them. Flashes and booms announced Fens contributions to the carnage as the poor critters were sent spasming and crispy into the afterlife. The rest of us managed to get a few as well. I for one was willing to let Onica and Fen work through their emotions with some good cathartic violence. Lena and Julius seemed to agree and so we hung back for the most part.

Slowly the rough sided and round tunnels changed. Becoming more square and finished. Looking like worked stone. Not polished but definitely cut by something. The lizards stop showing up about the same time the floors and walls become carved with symbols. Pipes of a goldish sheened material run in and out of the walls. Carrying unknown fluid unknown places. Small round men made of the same metal as the pipes show up. They attack us and get turned into scrap.

Onica asked for a staff since her blades would just chip and break on our metallic aggressors. So I gave her a staff as tall as she was. Blurring red wood sent the poor little enemies crashing into the walls and smashed them into pieces. Fen hung back now too. Seems like Onica had been more pent up than I had thought. She should really let it out more.

As we go deeper into the worked tunnels they become wider. The pipes thicker and more numerous, and the metal men larger and possibly more dangerous. I don't know. We reduce them to scrap and slag before they get the chance to try anything funny or dangerous. Onica was smiling now. A brutal grimace contorting her face as she smashed in the heads of the metal men as if they had a personal grudge between with her. She would occasionally glance at me before shaking herhead and continuing to smash away with a small shake of her head and a mutter.

Finally, footsore and weary, we reach a square hall with three doors leading away from the hallway we entered from. Nobody has really been talkative since we got here. We ate more dragon leftovers. I made a lot of food from it.

Now we are settling in for the night in a corner between doors. Onica has decided we need to set a watch for enemies over the night. I am taking first watch, and am to wake Onica in four hours.

How will I know when four hours is?

I will just stay up until the others wake up. If anything attacks I will destroy it as quietly as possible.

Now I must get to watching. These halls won't watch themselves.

I sure hope they won't at least. Considering how freaky this place feels I will not exclude it from the realm of the possible though.

Goodnight.