"Sitting!" Tal called back to Maea, his voice sounding slightly strangled. Indeed, as the Ancients made a far more graceful entrance down into the rough, narrow cave he was brushing the last of the silt from his trousers and looking more than a little green around the gills. "Nothin' hurt but my pride," he muttered, but there was a flash of gratitude across his be-Goggled face at her concern. The gloom was oppressive and without the fire the women both controlled the cave would be dark, its entrance covered by thick leaves. The orchid was nowhere in sight but the weight of the hill seemed to settle down on them, pushing the air from their lungs and promising imminent collapse at any moment.
Or maybe that was just Tal. What water was for Maea, caves were for the courier, and he was a twitchy, jittery mess as they pushed deeper and down a gentle incline into the dark. He didn't even argue if one of them wanted to take the lead, though he'd look slightly shame-faced as he fell back to the middle of their little line.
They didn't get very far. After only a few minutes of walking and squeezing through low, narrow walls of stone the cave widened into a dripping tear-shaped cavern a couple dozen feet across with a few inches of still water on the floor. It seemed like a dead end at first; Tal was too jumpy to focus, hands flexed tight into fists and jerking at every stray drop of water or whisper of distant echoes from the jungle. Maea missed it as well, perhaps distracted by Tal or by her own sense of growing dread. But Thalassa, alert for ambush, noticed the shadow in the side of the cavern as it danced in her firelight. Investigating it would reveal another passage, this one smaller but only a few feet long.
And beyond it...
Her fire orb couldn't light it entirely, but it hardly needed to. A faint purple glow, gentle and malicious, filled the underground lake where a large colony of Void Lotuses grew in protective darkness. As she watched, one of the faintly glowing flowers drifted away from its fellows, caught in an invisible current, and a few moments later it bobbed underwater and was whisked away. Perhaps to pop up in a cenote elsewhere in the Suvahasi where it would spread more of its taint.
"Well... shit," Tal breathed, looking out over the nightmarish garden as icy fingers closed around his heart and throat. "Any ideas?"
Congratulations!
Thalassa has found: Underground Lake Full of Void Lotuses! Achievement Unlocked!
...You should probably do something about that so they don't keep spreading.
Or maybe that was just Tal. What water was for Maea, caves were for the courier, and he was a twitchy, jittery mess as they pushed deeper and down a gentle incline into the dark. He didn't even argue if one of them wanted to take the lead, though he'd look slightly shame-faced as he fell back to the middle of their little line.
They didn't get very far. After only a few minutes of walking and squeezing through low, narrow walls of stone the cave widened into a dripping tear-shaped cavern a couple dozen feet across with a few inches of still water on the floor. It seemed like a dead end at first; Tal was too jumpy to focus, hands flexed tight into fists and jerking at every stray drop of water or whisper of distant echoes from the jungle. Maea missed it as well, perhaps distracted by Tal or by her own sense of growing dread. But Thalassa, alert for ambush, noticed the shadow in the side of the cavern as it danced in her firelight. Investigating it would reveal another passage, this one smaller but only a few feet long.
And beyond it...
Her fire orb couldn't light it entirely, but it hardly needed to. A faint purple glow, gentle and malicious, filled the underground lake where a large colony of Void Lotuses grew in protective darkness. As she watched, one of the faintly glowing flowers drifted away from its fellows, caught in an invisible current, and a few moments later it bobbed underwater and was whisked away. Perhaps to pop up in a cenote elsewhere in the Suvahasi where it would spread more of its taint.
"Well... shit," Tal breathed, looking out over the nightmarish garden as icy fingers closed around his heart and throat. "Any ideas?"
Congratulations!
Thalassa has found: Underground Lake Full of Void Lotuses! Achievement Unlocked!
...You should probably do something about that so they don't keep spreading.
