The next morning, as the sun slowly began to rise, and while most of the people were still asleep, a few shadows quickly slipped out of the village, carefully avoiding the patrols. It was quite straightforward as the aforementioned patrols, for some reason, were not on their usual route. The shadows walked through the forest and reached the lakeside, at a point quite distant from the village, where three large silver horned lizards were waiting for them. As soon as they arrived, the shadows finally revealed themselves, revealing that they were obviously Carlos, Efren, Sarah, Martha, Lisah, Atelas and Dyana. "We are ready to go" said the latter one.
"Were there no outcomes?" Rhaegal asked.
"I made sure we didn't hit any obstacles" Efren replied. He was the only one who didn't have any equipment. "I have to go now, if I don't come back within twelve minutes I might meet a patrol. Even though I'm a member of the Council I can't be caught outside during curfew". He looked at his friends with a smile. "Please, be careful"
"Tsk! You bet, I don't want to risk dying of tumor a second time!" Carlos replied.
"Then it won't be so difficult, just don't put your hands inside an animal's mouth" Sarah teased him, making Lisah and Martha giggle and even Corgorin partly, but she tried to compose herself immediately. The other three women didn't seem to realize this. "You can rest assured, Efren. We will return to you in one piece"
Efren nodded satisfied. Even though he regretted not being able to participate in that adventure, he knew he could trust his friends. Sure, they weren't exactly perfect, but they were definitely reliable. He was sure they would have succeeded even without him. "Take care of them. Especially Carlos, the others know how to take care of themselves... more or less" he said to Rhaegal with a wink.
"Hey! Look, I'm an adult too!" Carlos exclaimed with mock indignation.
"Yes, for your body's age. About the brain's age… the jury is yet to deliver their verdict" Efren replied.
The dragon chuckled and winked back too. "You can stay calm. We don't leave anyone behind, remember?" he said. "We'll all come back and with all parts of the body in place"
Efren nodded satisfied, then turned around and, after a last and quick goodbye, ran towards the forest and disappeared. He would be back in the village before anyone noticed his absence; no one would ever even suspect that he had left his home. In the following days he would then cover up the absence of his friends so that no one would ask questions about them either; with Haku's help, they would be able to hide the tracks very well.
Once Efren was gone, the group began preparing for the journey; the adventurers were already ready since they had worn waterproof clothes suitable for swimming in the lake, while instead Atelas and Dyana had limited themselves to wearing the least number of clothes possible to avoid weighing themselves down. Serengal approached them and opened his dimensional bag, and from it he took out a strange object. "As promised, we have prepared something for you to breathe underwater"
She handed out one each, and everyone looked a bit confused. "What is this stuff?" Atelas asked looking closely at the object; they looked like two sacks connected by a small tube with an opening in the middle. One of the bags was swollen and full of air, while the other was obviously empty.
"It's an indrik's stomach. Well... a stomach divided into many parts" Corgorin replied. "Stomach walls are very strong, so they can hold large amounts of air without being punctured by water pressure, so we used them to build this. We called it a 'respirator'. Basically in the big and full bag there is enough air for thirty minutes, so you can breathe underwater"
"You basically have to put your mouth here" Serengal said pointing to the opening on the tube. "Inside this tube there are valves operated by some runes that let only a little air pass at a time, allowing you to breathe. The air you exhale instead will be collected in the other bag, so you will not be poisoned by your own breath"
"Mh... it looks like an interesting object" Carlos said putting it on his head. It was a little uncomfortable, but if it let him breathe underwater, then he could handle it. "You said we have air for thirty minutes?"
"Yes… it should be. Don't worry about running out, we have more of these bags with us if the need arises" Rhaegal replied.
"Wait... 'it should be'!? Aren't you sure about it!?" Sarah exclaimed. "When someone uses that phrase, it almost always ends in a terrible way!"
"Don't worry, we're sure it will work out great" Rhaegal said. "Although we haven't tested it yet..."
"Okay, we're dead" Martha grumbled. "Why didn't you test it?"
"We didn't have the time! It doesn't matter, let's test it now!" Serengal said. "Let's get in the water and see what happens. If any of you have trouble breathing, we'll pick them up and drag them to the surface. We dragons aren't exactly made for water, but we're still good swimmers"
"Well, that's fine with me" Carlos said. "In short, we just have to dive into the water, right? It doesn't seem like a big problem to me"
"Really? Do you really want do it?" Sarah asked skeptical.
Carlos placed a hand theatrically on his chest. "Of course! I'd even do it right away..."
"Wish granted!" Corgorin exclaimed grabbing him with her tail and throwing him into the lake. The man flew five meters and then landed in the water with a splash. It remained below the surface of the lake for a few minutes, then he resurfaced. "It works!" he yelled at the others.
"Great. Problem solved" Rhaegal murmured. "Let's see… there are six of you and there are three of us, so stick to us in groups of two. Hang on by the neck or the tail or the spines on the back. Not the legs so we can swim smoothly. It wouldn't be a bad idea even bind yourself to us, because you will also have to face the current that we will generate by swimming..."
"Wait a minute! What does that mean?" Lisah intervened, and Sarah and Martha were also somewhat surprised. "You... come like this? Won't you use an avatar?"
"Uh… no, not this time" Rhaegal replied. "We've decided we're going to go down there like this..."
"Why? You shouldn't do that!" Sarah said cutting him off. "Well... we don't know what's down there! It could be dangerous..."
"It could be dangerous for you too" Serengal pointed out. "Yet you are going there"
"Yes, but we don't have a choice" Martha said. "I mean... we can't use avatars. If we could, we certainly wouldn't endanger our lives like that! You, on the other hand, have a choice. You shouldn't deliberately put yours at risk..."
"Uh? Are you worried about us now?" Corgorin teased her. Both Martha and Sarah and Lisah flushed red with embarrassment, and probably anger as well, though it was hard to tell if it was addressed to the dragon or to themselves from losing control for a moment.
Rhaegal thought that women really were hard to understand beings. If he hadn't been sure it was impossible he would have thought that by now sulking had become some kind of competition… beacuse it was impossible, wasn't it? Oh, good, now he was even starting to doubt his conception of what could exist and what couldn't. "In any case, we chose this way. It's true, we could use an avatar, but it's not fair that you risk your life while we don't. If we have to do this, then we will all do it"
Their friends were silent for a moment, then Sarah murmured: "Well, that… that's very kind from you". It was one of the very first times since they'd been arguing that Sarah had addressed them in that kind way. Rhaegal smiled optimistic: perhaps he had been right, an adventure all together was just what they needed to mend things.
When Carlos was finally able to return to the shore (apparently he was a really bad swimmer) it was decided it was time to leave. The three dragons submerged slightly in the water and the six people who would accompany them clung to them, two each. The dragons' bodies were large enough for both to find enough footholds. The ideal would have been to cling to the tail, where the force of the water would have been hindered by the dragon's body and therefore it would have been easier for them to cling to it, but in the end they had preferred to hold on to the neck or the horns, since in this way the dragon would have immediately realized if one of them had let go and could have gone to retrieve it. Sarah, Carlos, Martha, Lisah, Dyana and Atelas then placed wax plugs in their ears to prevent the pressure from bursting their eardrums. "Do you want some?" the tigerman asked offering it to the dragons.
The dragons shook their heads and pointed to a spot under their horns; there were some holes there which were clearly the ears. In a single instant, these holes decreased in size until they were almost completely closed. "We dragons can block the openings of our ears to protect the eardrums. We take no risks" Serengal replied.
"And the respirator? Don't you use it?" Dyana asked as she finished putting on hers.
"We dragons can hold our breath much longer than you can. Thirty minutes is no problem" Corgorin said. "Now, do you want to continue asking questions or do you prefer to leave?"
"Yes, stop wasting time. Are you all ready?" Rhaegal asked; at the assent of the others, he exclaimed: "Then let's go!" and he plunged into the deep waters, followed by Corgorin and Serengal.
To be able to gain access to the underground caves, they first had to locate the cavity where the water came from. The dragons didn't know where it was, but they could find it easily. Thanks to their sense of touch they could easily perceive the movement of the water on their bodies and in a short time they were able to distinguish what they were looking for: a slight but constant current coming from a specific point of the lake, very different from the irregular one generated by the movements of the fish. Without wasting time, they headed towards the point they had identified, moving quite quickly. Every now and then some large fish approached curiously, but as soon as they saw that the things that were swimming were not only huge but also seemed very well defended, they gave up and moved away. Only one of them tried to attack once, but was repulsed by a blow from Corgorin's tail that almost broke its jaw; after that event the fish avoided trying to approach again.
The dragons continued for four a kilometer on the bottom of the lake; they kept a constant eye on their friends, but they seemed to be holding up the pressure and current quite well. Finally they reached what they were looking for: a huge cavity in the rock from which a current emerged that went in all directions. That was where the lake water came from. It was large enough for the dragons to enter, so they swam in. The force of the water kept pushing them out, but luckily it was weak enough for them to fight it. The tunnel descended for several tens of meters, maybe even hundreds, and then it finally began to curve more and more, and other smaller conduits opened to its sides bringing new water. Eventually the ceiling was suddenly modified: the rocks that made it up were replaced by the crystalline surface of the water through which waves could be glimpsed. The three dragons didn't hesitate and swam upwards, and as soon as their heads came out of the water they took a long breath of air.
"We succeeded" Rhaegal murmured as he looked around. They had gone even deeper than last time, and now they were inside a cavern even bigger than the previous one.