The bustling street was the main place where people hung out. Devina keep bumping into me, blaming my mass pulled her in due to gravity.
So we continued down the main street. People dressed after the weather, although there wasn't any weather down here. It is just very cold.
The lanterns above us provided some light but the main light source came from above. I couldn't see it properly, but it is something big in the ceiling of the cave.
As we neared the end of the crowd, Devina pulled me close and changed directions. We turned into a left corner. We observed 4 kids playing football.
They used broken baskets as goals and kicked a limp soccer ball which had its color stripped.
They ran around and I noticed they weren't wearing any shoes. Thinking back, I was fortunate enough to have shoes, but these kids didn't even have shoes.
Devina changed back into her child form and took off her clothes. She proceeded to approach the group and ask if she could also play. The group played together now, as Devina is the striker.
The kid passes the ball to her and she approaches the goal… a girl stands in her way, protecting the goal. Devina flicks the ball up behind and does a backflip, kicking the ball into the basket.
"WOAAH, awesome!!! How did you do that?"
All the children surrounded Devina asking her to teach them the techniques. Devina summoned her blue hole and took out a brand new soccer ball.
"Lemme teach you… with a real ball."
Devina showed the children all the techniques she had. All of them sat there in awe as she performed the tricks in front of them.
Passing the ball to the children, Devina asks them to try it out.
They try the tricks Devina demonstrated earlier but they all fail.
"Don't worry, you will learn someday."
The kids ask for her name and she answers with Vina. They then all started to introduce themselves.
The biggest of all of them Big Henry, the bragging one, Lennard. The enthusiastic and happy one Gurp, and the last one to tell their name, Carla — the shy one.
After they all introduced themselves, I looked at Devina, tilting my head to the right. She understood what I meant.
Devina then excused herself, telling them that she needed to go home. The kids enthusiastically run up to her and tell her to come back another day which Devina agrees.
As we were walking away, Carla runs around the corner and yells with a small high pitched voice.
"Thank you for the ball!"
Devina smiled as we continued to our destination.
I asked why this underground place exists. Seeing the children here made me wonder. Why would children want to live in this dump? What exactly is keeping them from leaving this place?
Pondering about these questions, I tried to inquire and answer my questions by asking Devina.
She explained that this underground place was created due to water. Once upon a time, there was an old man, he and his 5 beasts dug a hole near the coast of Nautilus. The reason for this was unknown. But soon, they left, leaving a massive dug-out hole in the ground. This had consequences, the hole started to fill with the ocean's water. The water made the ground loosen up and with time, the hole grew and grew. To this day, the hole is still growing. This leads us to today, the hole that they initially dug is now the opening to the underground world.
A giant cascade of water should be right around the corner. As we hiked up the trail. I could hear the sound of continuous crashing. Each step made the sound of crashing louder.
We eventually made it to the top and lo and behold. A majestic waterfall. Looking down, there are rocks and a lake down there, the water circled the underground city like a little ring.
"The water is directly from the ocean so the fish you see down there are saltwater fish. But on the other side of the city is another waterfall but it is connected to a lake instead of an ocean. On the left hemisphere is salt water and on the right hemisphere is fresh water."
"Devina, why do the people live here though?"
She explained that there was once a war between two regimes in Nautilus. One side hailed Hectima their savior, but the other side didn't agree.
So became the segregation of the country. Hectima religion and the non-religious group. Hectima people believed that the world was saved by the savior, but the other side thought of him just as a man.
"There was a conflict due to this, the Hectima religion declared the non-religious people as heretics and denounced them."
This led to a fight in which the non religious people had to flee from Nautilus, their leader at the time found the waterfall. Claiming the underground as his new territory, the non-religious people lived under the city of Nautilus.
The people of the underground still believe that animosity between the two regimes is still active and does not want to leave. But in actuality, Nautilus is now a free-of-religion state.
"But why don't they know it has become a free state?"
Elaborating even further, she told me that all the underground leader has always declined invitation and negotiations from Nautilus. Not allowing visitors or anyone to leave.
Only on special occasions is one permitted to enter and leave. For example trading and buying products or when someone gets exiled.
"The undergrounders believe that Nautilus and the outside world are dangerous?"
"Basically yeppers."
"So who is the current leader?"
Devina's cheek lit up in yellow. Her flower of dexterity sprouted, she sat down on the floor and her roots extended into the floor. The grey and brown rocks cracked as the yellow roots manifested into the solid ground.
The roots started to glow as Devina sat there waiting.
"Alrighty."
She stood up and all the roots went back inside her.
"The current leader of underground Nautilus is a woman called Zyo."
The flower on her cheek disappeared.
As I processed all the information, Devina took my hand and started running. She told me that she saw something we needed to check out. As we neared one of the old buildings, I heard grunting.
A man's voice could be heard around the corner.
"Let me go!"