We had been following the cave systems for several days now. I couldn't believe how many weird and wonderful spirit beasts we had seen on our adventure through here so far. There was one that looked a little like a bat that was bigger than two adult humans.
It had flown in droves over the ceiling ahead of us with hundreds of its kin. We were all worried that we were going to be attacked but it seemed that there were heading towards some sort of exit to hunt so we all just looked on in awe as they passed.
There was also a worm that had chased us for over three hours that had no eyes and rows upon rows of massive sharp teeth. We had found out that Nathan was actually scared of worms and insects, he had spent the whole time gripped onto my arm like a vice as we ran through the darkness.
We had only escaped when we realised it was using the vibrations of out feet to sense where we were. Considering how massive the tunnel worm was we decided to avoid direct confrontation in case it collapsed the caves.
The last beast that we came across was a sort of sea snake. Nathan had used his control of water to capture it while Sora had used his wind blades to knock the serpents head off. In the end, we decided to try eating it after Loki said it probably would taste nice barbecued.
It tasted a lot like eel and went excellent with a sauce Loki mixed up. It was also the day that we decided that Loki would be our chef for the rest of this adventure as we all couldn't move for at least an hour due to how much we ate.
Thinking back on all the beasts we had seen so far was currently helping me ignore the pain of my swollen ankles and throbbing feet. The cave system itself had all looked more or less the same causing us to backtrack several times so far.
It was only when we had begun making the walls with a dagger that we had made any good amount of progress. Heyu was surprisingly in the best spirits of us all it was like none of this was happening for him and all he was focused on was Kibbles who was currently asleep in his arms.
They had struggled over the past few days but after telling Kibbles to treat Heyu like a personal servant he seemed to be less worried about scurrying away. I wished at this moment I had my own servant at this time.
Since Ki had been dressing me and looking after my day to day I wasn't used to having to do everything by myself anymore. I kept expecting Ki to just appear out of nowhere and offer me a nice hot breakfast and my clothing for the day.
A few months had passed but the emptiness that I felt still hadn't been filled. It was like I was missing my hands and feet now that Ren and Ki were no longer by my side. I still thought of them both frequently as I tried to imagine where Ren was now.
" Is that light up ahead?" Sora said suddenly snapping me out of my thoughts.
I looked over into the distance to see a pinprick of white just ahead of us.
" Draw your weapons," I said preparing for what lay ahead of us.
[ If it is some eery angler fish style spirit beast I want to have a weapon handy ]
I was honestly hoping it was light like Sora said but knowing my luck I did not want to chance it, especially with my friends lives on the line.
We stepped closer and closer to the white and it slowly grew larger and larger. I held my breath as I heard the unsheathing of several weapons.
What we had seen ahead of us was truly awe-inspiring.
The cave had truly opened up as Sora had said.
There was no sand in sight we had entered a sort of pseudo jungle. We could still see that the entire place was enclosed however there were stones that were sending off waves of light highlighting the entire area.
I couldn't believe my eyes. It looked like all of the plants in the area were had photophores which emitted bioluminescent light. We had stood there with our mouths open wide at what we saw ahead of us.
The trees were like nothing I had ever seen before the entirety of the plants were see through with bulbs on the end of them that occasionally flashed with blue light.
The mushrooms around us all had vivid colours they ranged from highlighter red to ocean blues. It looked like we had entered some sort of dance party. We all could help ourselves as we stopped and took in the view.
" Beautiful," I said unintentionally.
" Better then the caves" Sora replied as he smiled.
" Is it safe here?" Loki said a little less enthusiastically.
" Let me check," I said with some understanding.
Loki was his own person right now but he still had all of the thoughts and memories of a man who could be considered a god. Something like this was probably not as interesting to him as it was to the rest of us. I couldn't help but think of how sad and lonely it must be being here with me sometimes.
I closed my eyes and listened to the hums of the plants from this area. A usual forest melody was delicate and firm as it rung through my ears. The ones here were more like a melody that was sombre as if it could put you to sleep.
I willed one of the mushrooms near us to come to me. It stretched wide before landing at my side. After inspecting it and a few more plants in the area I concluded that although we were safe we had to avoid setting off any of the mushroom spores.
The spores contained some sort of paralysing agent. The trees, however, were perfectly harmless they also produced edible fruit.
I looked around at everyone who was waiting for me to come to my conclusions before I explain what I had found. I had even gone so far to take one of the bioluminescent fruit from a tree and take a bite to show that it was safe.
The fruit tasted a lot like a mixture between a strawberry and a kiwi fruit. After all the meat I had been eating the past few days the change of pace was absolutely delightful.
Everyone took turns taking some fruit from the tree and It wasn't long before we all decided that we would explore this new found underground jungle.
Loki had concluded that the rocks on the top of the cave produced a similar light to the sun so we had no worries when it came to getting enough sunshine to keep healthy.
Perhaps we were the first ones to find this place or maybe there were already people living here. At any rate, this new area was worth exploring.
" What are we going to call this place?" I said after cleaned the juice from the fruit from my fingers.
We all took turns thinking up names. Some were interesting but most ( Thanks to Sora) were down right absurd. It wasn't until Heyu came up with the name "Aurum" that we could all agree on what to call this new area.
Nathan had asked me to take out some parchment paper and some ink from my storage ring as he began to map out the areas that we had already visited since we had arrived in the Dredge Lands.
I had to admit that his memory was quite astounding. We all watched in awe as the final stokes for the first section of the Dredge Lands map had been created and Aurum was written in delicate ink across the right-hand side of the map.
" So we don't get lost" Nathan finally said.
" You are really good at drawing maps!!" Sora said excitedly as he patted Nathan on the back.
Nathan at that moment shone like a sun as he smiled brilliantly at Sora before thanking him. I couldn't help but think about how cute the pair looked as I nodded my head and agreed with Sora.
" Shall we go exploring now?" Heyu said as he carried Kibbles.
" Yuki lets go!" Kibbles said eagerly.
" mm Let's do this!" I said grinning.
We were marching into the great unknown. From a blazing hot desert to an underground forest that shone like the night sky. I couldn't help but eagerly await to see what was in store for us on this interesting adventure into the unknown.