At first, Gustav's plan to dig below the ocean sounded insane, mostly because they didn't yet know which way to dig through. When they gave it a little thought, however, it wasn't a horrendously bad idea.
They didn't know where the 'sunken ship' was, but indefinitely, that was the main barricade they had to work around.
"At least this way, we won't get wet." He thought, while further plotting.
There were greater advantages if they stayed out of the waters. They'd avoid thousands of dangerous species, for example, the same fish kind that would feast on anything that moved.
Back in his arctic island, Gustav had been well aware of a few massive, predatory fish. Red-finned Orcas were one of them, and many similar species harassed the colder waters as well!
Only two or so mammoths won a fight against Red-finned Orcas, they were scary. He didn't want to imagine what monstrous fish roamed these warmer waters!
"Yeah, definitely not going swimming. I can't hold my breath that long, so why bother?" Gustav thought.
He was right, of course, as the spaceship may be hundreds of meters below the water's surface. Even if he could miraculously hold his breath for half an hour like some retarded fish, the intense water pressure down there would simply crush him!
It was confirmed, the best option was to dig. He didn't wait around either!
After he visited Arila this morning, he sought out the demonic moles afterwards, and started explaining the plan.
He couldn't draw any blueprints, to describe which way he wanted the new tunnels to be dug. Such a skill was beyond him, so he just took a stick and started drawing on the mud.
"Ocean here, where there's big water..." Gustav first said, and drew a large dot.
The dot signified the ocean shores, about two kilometers away from the village. He didn't want to risk building such a thing near this settlement, for various reasons.
Primarily, it wasn't so difficult to simply walk towards the shores. With that considered, it would be stupid to start things here near the houses.
Anyway, once the demons nodded along, he continued. "Dig tunnel under the ocean, and if the tunnel starts breaking apart, then go even deeper."
That needed a few over-dramatic hand gestures to explain, which were somewhat unnecessary. The six others grew irritated by such simple speech, so they decided to speed things up.
"Father, we speak two languages. Don't baby-talk to us." One of them complained.
"Fair enough," Gustav smirked, and then further explained. "I want you to dig two-hundred meters away from the shores, dig a straight-ish line first. You shouldn't accidentally drown yourselves either, of course."
Since they still seemed irritated, he took the conversation a bit more seriously, and added. "After that, you're to dig both left and right for another hundred meters. Simple, and hopefully we'll have enough air down there too."
"Air, we don't know. Tunnels will be strong, we use rock." A mole said.
He didn't understand that well, but assumed that the tunnels wouldn't collapse as easily, if the moles somehow utilized the quantities of stone. It wasn't ideal to be crushed to death, even though that would be a pretty cool gravesite in comparison.
Anyway, the plan's basics have been set. It was a couple hours after the break of dawn by now, so they had some time to work things through.
The ocean was just half an hour away, so they could simply walk there. Gustav was under the impression that this planned tunnel could take a long while to construct, so it was better to start as early as possible.
"Let's hope this doesn't get my kids killed, they'd die for nothing." He thought, as they started walking.
Furthermore, he thought. "If this tunnel doesn't lead us anywhere near the sunken ship, then we'd be risking everything for nothing..."
The concerns were reasonable. He was attached to these demons, so it would be a gruesome heartache if they died off for something stupid.
Anyway, they made it to the ocean in no time. About forty meters away from where the waves splashed and sparkled, he asked them to start digging a hole.
"That should be wide enough, remember, I'm a pretty tall guy." He joked, after the moles clawed a few meters deep already.
He preferred if the tunnel was about eight feet wide, because a three-hundred meter journey underground, didn't sound so comfortable.
He was well experienced with tunnels now, and knew what type of headaches to expect. It was important to be very cautious!
...
"Done already?" Gustav asked.
He expected some fast results, but their return time was phenomenal. They got back under an hour, which in hindsight would be impossible!
"Done. We found air too, in a big cave." A demon crawler answered.
That was better than expected, it was ideal, even though they hadn't made any progress towards the ship yet. They wouldn't be able to make it far, if they suffocate so this cave was helpful, regardless of where it was located.
Anyway, Gustav tapped into an irrelevant fear in the meantime, and asked. "There weren't any blood roots there, right? No Terrugas in the cave?"
"No, it's a good cave. No glowy rocks there." The moles collectively explained.
That was a relief, but such an answer revealed an aspect which he hadn't thought about much before.
Almost immediately, he pointed it out. "So you can see pretty well ha, even in the dark? What about the ocean, can you see a sunken ship from here?"
They didn't answer right away, which was a bit frustrating. It took quite some effort to accept how chatty they were recently, and now, they suddenly shared a stroke of silence!
Little did Gustav know, they were observing the perimeter and tried to make sense of things. This was especially apparent, after they rushed near the waters and slid across the sand, while they frantically glared at the ocean.
"Too low," One of them said, and then rushed back to the mammoth.
The demon clawed his way up Gustav's clothes, and iddled around his shoulder afterwards.
Almost instantly, it said. "I see three big dots, maybe is big rock, maybe ship. Can't see that far, water too dark."