Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It may be ... more pleasant if you close your eyes," Aragost informed them all as he started to lead them down the tunnel, moving slowly so that none of them would trip or fall. "It will not be for long ... I promise you ... but you will understand what I mean ... when we arrive."

He was rather enjoying this.

For several long minutes, the group shuffled forward silently, slowing, edging deeper and deeper into the tunnel of the cave, until suddenly the slight noises that they were making during their movements began to echo as if they were in the middle of a large chamber.

"All right," Aragost murmured, releasing Adan's hand, "you may open your eyes now."

Adan was the first to have his eyes open, and even though he had known what to expect, he was still filled with awe.

The cavern was the size of a large house. The five of them were standing on the edge of a natural stone bridge that crossed a pool of softly bubbling water. The entire room, while not hot, was very warm - so warm that it would be possible to be completely naked in there in the middle of winter and still be quite comfortable - not that anyone would actually do that.

But the warmth had a second reaction: the walls, entirely made up of glowstone, were glowing a pale, bright green, filling the entire cavern with a soft glow.

"Oh! Wow...." Lin took a few steps forward the moment she opened her eyes.

She looked around seeing everything aglow, and looked at the ground. It looked like a hot spring of some sort, she had heard of such things, but had never seen one.

Shiro, excited now to see what Adan was so eager to show them, let go of Ura's hand and darted forward to join the boy on the bridge.

"What is it?" he asked breathlessly, kneeling down beside him and peering over the edge alongside him.

In almost any other instance, it would be darker under the water than above; yet here was not the case at all. The water was filled with phosphorescent fish, whose glow made the area under the water just as bright as above it.

Some were long, some were small, but all were thin and wiggled from side to side in the water, projecting themselves forward, time and again splashing above the surface and snapping hopefully for an insect or two.

Lin thought that would be a funny idea, to glow because you ate a fish that glowed, but they were a lot bigger than fish.

"I think.... it would take more than a glowing fish," she murmured, "We're kind of big, compared to the fish I mean."

Shiro giggled and glanced over at Aragost. "That would be fu-"

He broke off suddenly, seeing Ura.

No wonder his grip on his hand had felt so strange ... the demon had grown ...

... a lot ...

Previously only about up to Shiro's waist, Ura now appeared to be taller than him.

But when? And so silently? Why hadn't he said anything?

"Ura?" he called tentatively. "Are you all right?"

The demon blinked his yellow eyes at Shiro and nodded once, a single dip of his head.