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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.
Stretching her arms up over her head until she could feel her shoulders pop, Clementine eyed the cave entrance for a moment. Then, Deciding that she couldn’t put things off for much longer, she sighed and picked up one of the many flashlights kept on a small shelf nearby. She’d heard so much about the cave lights and weird little bugs inside. She wanted to see it at least once so she could say she did.
She just wished that she hadn’t watched a two hour long youtube video last night about people trapped in a cave until they died. It was the sort of thing that put a bit of a damper on any sense of fun.
But! She was here now and as far as she’d been able to tell, no one had ever gotten irretrievably lost here. Hell, she hadn’t even heard of any injuries, major or otherwise. Taking one more deep breath to steady her nerves, Clem slipped into the cave and picked a random path to explore. Almost immediately, she was rewarded by little glimmers of light. Leaning in close to the stone wall, she saw a coupe of the caterpillars and grinned. They were kind of cute in a weird way. For bugs. Following the path further, she swept the light around, admiring the scenery. She could understand how some people would become obsessed with exploring caves. It wasn’t a pastime for her, but she could understand. As her flashlight swept in an arc, she saw a glint on the sandy ground that didn't look like one of the caterpillars. Moving closer and crouching down, she shone the light directly on it and saw a cute little gold star charm that some previous explorer had no doubt dropped.
“Finder keepers, I guess,” she murmured as she picked it up and absently brushed bits of sand away. It was in pretty good shape, so she pocketed it without too much guilt. Besides, she was getting deeper into the system and wanted to focus more on the path ahead. It was getting darker now and she knew that this would be where she’d get an even better look at the bugs.
Steadily creeping even deeper, Clem paused and decided that this was plenty far and dark enough. Snapping the flashlight off, she gave her eyes a few moments to adjust and then gasped. The rocky walls were covered in glowing caterpillars, each one a different pastel color. Getting as close to one of the walls as she could without disturbing anything, she leaned in and watched the funky little guys. It wouldn’t be hard to think of all this as magical. Even with her brain skewing more practical, she found herself charmed.
Really, this was almost as good as being out in space. Probably a lot safer, though.
She explored a bit more before deciding that she’d gone far enough. Fortunately, she’d stayed pretty much on the same straight-ish path, so she wasn’t at risk of becoming too lost. But as she slowly wandered back to the entrance, she wondered about the caterpillars. She’d read that they could leave the caves without dying, which had her wondering. All caterpillars were supposed to morph into butterflies or moths. That was the only way to get more caterpillars. But if these guys couldn’t leave and no one had ever reported flights of bizarre cave butters… How were there even so many of the little cuties? It was a mystery. And thankfully, not one that she felt called upon to decipher. But, she’d keep it in mind. Hell, for all she knew, these ones had evolved to glow instead of growing wings.
As she got back towards the entrance point, Clem pushed the thought of caterpillar biology from her mind. She wanted to enjoy the rest of her walk without worrying about bug sustainability.
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