Quote:
The Caves (5) : To any explorers visiting the new Reservoir, they may find that just a bit away from the sandy water are a set of caves. Some of these connect back to the lake, but others rapidly plunge into darkness. It wouldn't be hard to get lost in here, but thankfully there are some very odd lights to help guide you out. If you turn off your light down some of these dark paths, you may find yourself surrounded by glowing pastel lights. A closer inspection reveals that you seem to be looking at some sort of glowing caterpillars. An internet search will reveal that Destiny City scientists have been researching the strange, unnamed creatures, but the articles are very limited. If you take them out of the cave they seem to shrivel up almost immediately. They’re neat, but clearly meant to be stay in their natural habitat.
For all that he’s lived in Destiny City since he was born, there were some things that just hadn’t ever been really touched by Lucis. Of course, he’s heard of the caves and the things within, but he was always the kind who, while he enjoyed being outside, he tended to stay where he could see the sun – which was definitely not the caves. He didn’t particularly care for darkness, but he wasn’t afraid of it, either, it simply…was.
But there always came a time when you just needed to see things for yourself – and thus, Lucis was in the caves, clad properly in jeans, boot, and t-shirt with a backpack, his phone fully charged in his pocket, and a flashlight in hand, slowly, carefully moving within to see just what was out there. There were supposed to be glowing bugs of some sort, but from what he’d heard and read, they were further in – so further in he went, walking slowly, carefully. Even if they were relatively close to the beach, and relatively close to the city, there were bound to be wild animals around as well. Almost certainly there wouldn’t be any bears because they just…weren’t something that typically lived in the area, but other things almost certainly.
Thus, boots, jeans, and supplies. Just in case.
He didn’t anticipate that there would be many, if any snakes, or anything else that would be the naturally aggressive sort, but…he’s never been. There are uniquely colored insects, and there are animals who prey on insects. And on top of that, there were animals who preyed on those animals, and anything cornered could be much more dangerous than thought, thus…
He could hear strange, high pitched sounds, causing him to lower the light so it pointed towards the ground rather than up. There were likely bats around, after all, and might as well try to be nice to them as long as they were nice to him, right? But…the sounds grew louder, more frequent, bringing him to a stop.
Lucis…wasn’t scared. Of course not. But he was cautious, and even if animals themselves were dangerous…they could carry things that were. So, he stopped, turning off his flashlight because…well, he was here to see the pretty colors, after all! And he certainly got them, bright and vivid and more than he’d actually anticipated.
But the squeaks got louder, more numerous closer, closer--
–until he had to turn his flashlight back on and let out a startled yelp.
Bats, he’d anticipated. But when he turned the light on, that wasn’t what he saw. No, instead there were eyes from the ground level, little furry bodies moving closer, running over the insects as if they were nothing (which, honestly, in comparison they were), not looking like they were pressed too close but that was more than he had anticipated.
No one had warned him there were rat colonies within the caves! He certainly wasn’t running from them in terror – oh no, never – but he was definitely putting a lot of distance between them and himself as he turned right around and left.
Rats.
