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Ahio had been hanging around at the mouth of the caves once again, against the better counsel of his parents, who cautioned that the deep sea was no joking matter. Out there, in the open, it was nothing like the comfortable familiarity of the caves, and more than one poor soul had been lost out there, swept away into the depths because they simply hadn't known where to go.

But Ahio had twice over explored every inch of Po'lua that he cared to see, and his feet told him there was more out there to enjoy. He had taken to spending more and more time out on the precipice, on the off chance that something came his way and swept him up in a grand adventure.

He wasn't expecting that little voice calling out from the darkness, though.

"Who's out there?" he called, looking for a light and failing to find one. He would have chalked it up to just noise from the outside, but there had been a bit of fear in that small voice, and Ahio couldn't quite convince him to ignore it. He rose from his seat and swam out a short ways, eyes pitching this way and that.

It was too dark, he couldn't see anything. But he began to wave his arms, hoping that the gentle glow of his scales might catch the attention of the speaker. "Over here! Toward the light!"

Ahio quickly ushered the youngling toward the mouth of the cave, where the gentle bioluminescence on the walls marked a safe, secluded spot for a rest. The mere thought of such a young one swimming through the deep ocean alone made his heart pulse with anxiety. What if some creature had snagged him before he'd made it down here?! Oh boy.

"I'm so glad I heard you out there, Ikaika," he said, breathing out a sigh, unsure if the youngling knew how dangerous it could be and equally uncertain about whether or not he should tell him. "I'm Ahio. I live down here in the caves. You can rest here for as long as you need, we'll make sure you're safe."

He sat down next to Ikaika and gazed curiously at the youngling. "How did you... make it all the way down here?"

"I'm just glad you didn't run into any trouble along the way," Ahio said, words tumbling out of his mouth as he stared wide-eyed at Ikaika, as if he couldn't quite believe it himself. Thoughts of all the terrible fates that could easily have befallen the youngling flashed through his head, and he was so horrified by them that he almost didn't hear Ikaika's next words.

"Huh? Oh, the walls!" he said, snapping out of the nightmarish reverie. His head whipped around to look at the walls and his mind went blank for a moment before rebooting and the answers came flooding back to him.

"They just, uh... They just do. They just are," he managed to say, and then he pointed to some of the scales that adorned his arms and face, glowing a gentle pink against the dark backdrop of the caves. "There's no other light down here, so everything that lives here glows by nature. Kind of a self-preservation system, I guess."

He let out a quick laugh. "Or, you could argue that you got more of an adventure than you'd bargained for," he suggested. "Just imagine the story you'll be able to tell! Stumbling across Po'lua by accident. Not many from the surface can say the same."

"A guide to the surface?" Ahio said, looking down at the wide-eyed youngling. He was right. There was no way Ikaika could be expected to make it up to the surface on his own. The Kawena rubbed his chin, thinking. "There aren't many around here that will venture up the surface. My father is one of the few, but he's not scheduled to go back up for weeks..."

There'd be no convincing the man, not when he had just returned with a new shipment of goods from the surface to trade.

"Well... maybe..." Ahio started, then stopped himself, as if cutting off a particularly bad idea. But when he looked at Ikaika again, he couldn't think of another option. After all, asking the child to stay down here in Po'lua for weeks while waiting for a guide would be absurd. His poor parents probably thought he'd been abducted.

"Maybe I can go with you," he said finally, sounding a little uncertain. "Although I've never been to the surface myself. I could probably get directions from my father, though..."

Ahio didn't feel confident, but it did seem like the best choice they had. Maybe this was the nudge he'd always needed to get out of Po'lua and see the world for himself.

"Oh!" he said with a start, smacking his head with a palm and shaking it. "Of course you are, you probably haven't eaten since leaving the surface." He ushered Ikaika toward the caves, pointing to a softly glowing green symbol on the wall. "Let's go this way, then! We'll fix you up a nice meal of seaweed and stari, ask my father for directions, and head on up to the surface."

As they swam toward Hota, where his family lived, Ahio pointed out some of the runes on the walls and the moss that lined the sides of the cave where the bottom met the walls. "Those help us tell time down here," he explained as they passed some of the crystalline mosses. "They change colors between night and day! Not that there really is night and day down here."

"Let's not think too much about that," Ahio replied with a laugh, leading the way through tunnels that he knew by heart. Navigation wasn't easy down here in the depths, and one relied largely on a feel more than anything else. He took the turns instinctively, drawn by an inexplicable sense of direction and orientation.

"Everything down here has evolved for survival in the dark," he said with a nod, watching the moss tick by as they swam. "Sometimes, you can encounter some nasty beasties that will attach, but most of the time, they stay away from our settlements."

They reached Hota, and Ahio steered them past the local market and toward his home.

"He does! My dad is also pink, my mother is yellow. My brother and I both got pink scales, but I look more like her," he said, smiling fondly as he came to a stop outside a relatively nondescript tunnel and motioned for Ikaika to follow.

"Truth be told, I find it hard to imagine a world with light," he said as they entered his family's home.

Ahio glanced over and noticed Ikaika shivering. "Here," he said, motioning to a couch made of rock and padded with moss. "Why don't you sit down and put on this cloak. It's not much, but it might help a little bit." He handed the youngling a cloak made of seaweed, and then bustled off into the kitchen to scrounge up some food.

When he returned, he was armed with a platter of stari and edible seaweed, along with a map that his father had handed off to him with little protest. Now that Ahio was growing up, the family wasn't terribly opposed to his desire for travel. If nothing else, it would take him off their hands for a bit, and every knew that his mother wouldn't complain about a bit of rest after raising him for 18 years.

"Here you go!" he said cheerfully, handing the plate to Ikaika. "Stari are a delicacy down here, they've got a nice crunch and they're about as harmless a food source as you'll find in these parts."

Then he sat down next to Ikaika and unfolded the map. "Well... It doesn't look terribly complicated..." he said, squinting at it.