"I think we might have a way around that!" Maelyn shared with a smile, "But I'm gonna need Dave to do the sweet talking."
"I would say thank you for noticing my skills with the ladies, "Dave told her, "But I have a feeling I'm not gonna like what I've gotta do the sweet talking for..."
"Well..." Maelyn drawled as she tried to think of the best way to sell Dave on the task, "I know of one person here who LOVES to do diving and has a wetsuit and air tank here on site! But... ummm... you'd probably have to take her out on at least one date to get her to agree to do the diving and then another couple of dates just to get her to use her waterproof camera to catch a video of the area around the bodies at the bottom of this pond. Especially if they're more than just skeletons!"
"That is gonna depend on who you're pimping me out to!" Dave objected, "One or two dates is one thing, but more than that is pushing it! Cause you know I don't like being tied down."
"That's not what that student from Russia you dated for a couple of months said." Allison told him laughing as she shared, "From what Manya told me you LIKED it when she would tie you up!"
"That was a ONE TIME thing!" Daughtry protested, "And it was the only way she would let me go all the way! Cause SHE was into that type of kinky stuff NOT ME!"
"Well either way, the only way I'm gonna be able to get Cassie to even let us USE that diving gear would be to promise at least one date with you!" Maelyn told him in a serious manner, "So do what you guys call manning up and take one for the team! And whatever other applicable phrases you guys use that I haven't heard!"
"Wait. You said I'd be having to date Cassie right?" Dave asked then replied, "Cause if it's her then I'd agree to a couple of dates with no problem! I've been trying to talk her into going on a date with me a couple of times and she always told me she had to fly off for something!"
"Ooh! Maelyn, can I follow them and watch this show?!" Allison excitedly asked, "Cause this would be the first time I think he's ever gone out with a girl that thought he was attractive but was able to keep her head on her shoulders and not go googoo gaga and readily agree to whatever he asked!"
"As much as I would enjoy watching the show too I'm gonna have to say no." Maelyn disappointedly told her, "cause Cassie is an excellent pilot who would be able to see you from a mile away! And, if she saw YOU nearby she would dump Dave and go straight for you cause Dave is the ONLY guy she has ever been attracted to and so she usually prefers to hang out with girls."
"So is she gay?" Allison asked, "Cause I know a couple of girls I could hook her up with that go that way sometimes!"
"No. She is unique." Maelyn informed her, "She's straight with a curiosity of the other side but she's never gone further than kissing cause she said feeling another girl's breasts never turned her on."
Brushing his shoulder like he was hot stuff Daughtry told her, "Well I'm glad to know I'm only gonna have to compete with other guys and I'm more than capable of winning against guys!"
"Whatever!" Maelyn laughed then went to the plane to ask Cassie about her diving gear and participating in the exploration of the pond. When she returned she told Dave, "Well Daughtry, you got off easy on this one! Cassie said she's getting bored in the plane with nothing to do physically so she's willing to do the diving in exchange for just one date now and one for each body she has to examine but said those you don't have to take her on until you can take her to a more romantic setting than the side of a volcano."
"I can agree to that!" Daughtry agreed, "And that way I can maybe get enough of an idea of what she likes so I can take her someplace she'll enjoy! That makes that second date SO much easier! Thanks!"
When Cassie arrived a few moments later with her gear they lead her to the stairs leading down to the pond and Allison asked, "Are you strong enough to hold about thirty pounds with one hand?"
"Why?" Cassie joked in a flirting manner, "You wanting me to hold them sexy melons up for you?"
"Nah. My boyfriend does that without me asking! Besides, the way you keep checking Mister Daughtry's butt out you'd prefer to hold HIS 'melons'!" Allison laughed as she replied, "I'm gonna need you to hold the block I'm gonna be breaking free so you can get down into this pond so you can put that wetsuit and tank to some use!"
When they then reached the water Allison told her, "Ok. This hole is in that corner and is about three feet under water. So you're gonna need your air tank going so you can get your arm under that block. When you get in position just hold your hand up and I'll take a breath, kneel beside it and do the one tap in the other corner to loosen that block. When I do, lift it up and hand it off to me or Dave and then do your thing!"
"How big of a hole are you giving me?" Cassie asked, "Cause with this tank on my back I'm gonna need about three foot!"
"Hmm..." Allison vocalized as she turned Cassie from side to side to get a visual measurement of how big of a hole she would need and she told her, "Looks closer to two and a half will work, but I'll do three to make sure you don't damage the suit. Just give me a minute to widen the hole before putting your air on and getting in position." She then took a deep breath and crouched down to scrape out the bigger block Cassie would need to be able to get through safely. After having to catch another deep breath for each new line she had to scrape and hitting the new corner near where the hole for Cassie's arm would be, Allison stood back up completely to take a couple of fresh breaths and told them, "Ok. Cassie, the hole for your arm is going to be inside the wider block so Mister Daughtry, she's gonna need you to hold her hand and help her stand up when I set the block free so you can help her take her arm out of that hole without getting pulled into the wider hole!"
Hearing Allison Cassie turned to Daughtry and teased, "You hear her?! Make sure you hold my hand tighter than you hold the hands of all those girls you sweet talk and dump after the first date! Cause I'll be able to get that block off before I get to the bottom, but I'll be coming back up swing that block at your head if you let me fall!"
"I'll make sure not to. Don't worry about that!" Daughtry told her as he laughed and teasingly added, "I know when to hold on to something worth keeping."
In return Cassie pointed her finger at him and glared before turning her air supple on and putting her arm through the hole. When she gave Allison a thumbs up she reached out and took hold of Dave's hand before Allison took a final deep breath and ducked under the water to hit the opposite corner. After hitting it and it not budging Allison grew frustrated and slammed her hand on the center of the block. As it then separated from the surrounding obsidian she then hurriedly stood up and put her arm under Cassie's other arm to give a little bit of support as Dave pulled her arm so she could stand up fully before turning towards him so he could then grab the block and hold it still so she could remove her arm. Cassie then looked up a couple of steps to Maelyn and tapped her ear before turning back to the hole and sitting on the edge with her feet dangling into it.
As Allison asked in confusion what Cassie meant, Maelyn told her, "She was letting me know she had her Bluetooth earpiece in so she could talk to us. She pulled her phone out and dialed Cassie's number.
When Cassie pulled her phone out from inside her wetsuit and answered the call before handing it to Allison to hold she told them as Maelyn put the call on speaker, "I don't know how far this Bluetooth will reach with me under all this rock so you might want to put my phone in one of those ziplock bags and hold it down by this hole if reception starts getting spotty. Other than that I'm ready to go!"
"Ok. You can go ahead and dive in and swim over toward the center where the bodies are But before you do that, please record me a video of the underside of this obsidian here and whenever you can because all these hollow sites have had a scaly pattern on the surfaces of the rocks and I wanna see if it holds true for this pond too!"
"Will do." Cassie told her and slipped into the hole. When she was completely underneath the obsidian she told them, "I'm not noticing any patterns over here but it looks like there might be something over there by the center. I've got the camera going now and will continue to record as I swim over!"
Maelyn thanked her as she pulled a ziplock bag out of her pocket and handed it to Allison for Cassie's phone. Looking at the hole she then asked, "Hey Cass! Can you turn you headlight on? Or the light on that camera? I'm thinking with more light we'll pick up more detail!"
The lights turned on a second later and Cassie exclaimed, "Durn! There must've been a lot of starving fish in this pond! There's a pile of them over here between where I think two of these bodies are!"
"Well it was documented as a fish pond so there would've been at least a couple dozen in this pond." Maelyn informed her then asked, "Can you see if the bodies are skeletons after all this time or if they're still somewhat intact? Cause those dead bodies might have provided them fish some food until they ran out of flesh and starved."
"Remind me never to take you out to dinner." Cassie joked, "Cause you know how to really make a girl lose her appetite!" As she got closer she informed them, "Looks like it might've been the fish feeding the bodies! Cause all the fish are skeletal except for their heads and all of the bodies are almost completely intact with just natural decay from the extended soak in the water!"
"Hmm. Interesting." Maelyn replied as she visualized what Cassie had told her, "Anything significant about the bodies? Any armor, special clothing, or jewelry and crowns or the like?"
"Only thing significant I can see it they all look to be in some type of guard uniform." Cassie told her then exclaimed, "Wait! I almost missed them because they're almost the same color as the water but beside each of them it looks like there's what looks like that super rare light blue obsidian and it looks like those pics of those other talismans you found at those other sites! You want me to grab one for ya?!"
"NO!" Maelyn insisted, "Leave them there for now! Let's wait until we can get ahold of those other talismans first! That way we can compare them all equally before old lazy butt uses some excuse to seize them claiming they're government property or something!"
"Will do!" Cassie told her then let her know, "And I'm filming the obsidian above these bodies and it's got a pattern to it! Looks like some of those scales you were talking about seeing at those other sites! There's even a bit of an uplift over them too! I think they were holding something like a shield over their heads until they melted or until these guys gave out of air!"
"Thank you Cass!" Maelyn told her, "You can come back out now! I think that's enough for today!" She then turned to Allison and Dave and asked, "Think you guys could work coming in from the side now? That way we've either got a nice walkway with a drainage ditch on the side or a full blown drain pipe so we can take these steps further down and get to hose bodies more easily."