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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.
Originally, Hyeon had fully planed on sticking to the reservoir to relax and cool off from the heatwave that had been hitting the city hard. However it had quickly become a bit too crowded to truly relax and he had heard about the caves that were nearby. It lead him to now has he peered into the dark opening that he had found nearby in his search. He wavered between going in and changing his mind to stay out in the cool water before a burst of laughter behind him had the man signing and taking his first steps into the darkness.
The temperature quickly dropped within twenty feet from the opening, sending shivers up Hyeon's spine as the now cooler air chilled the sweat that had gathered on his body while he had been out in the sun. It was very much a welcoming change and he certainly would be complaining about it, though he did hope that the sweat would dry soon so he wouldn't be too cold. It wouldn't do to get too chilled after having been so overheated, it could very easily make him get sick with the vast temperature change after all and he would rather avoid that.
Pushing that aside for the moment, he focused on the cave around him, holding his phone up with the flashlight app going to illuminate his way. There were plenty of stalagmites and stalactites in the cave, many with smooth spots from people toughing their sides repeatedly. In addition, there were many openings that lead down additional pathways that if he remembered right were supposed to eventually loop back around either to the main paths or to other openings to the lake. Though he supposed it was possible that some could lead to dead ends instead of a way out.
It was probably an hour later that he ended up pausing and covering up the majority of the light from his phones flashlight as he thought he spotted something glowing in a dark crevasse. Sure enough after his eyes adjusted to the lower light, he could indeed see something glowing in the darkness of the cave, many somethings at that. Hyeon stepped closer to find they were tiny caterpillars that glowed softly, with pastel colors for the glow. He stared in awe at them for several minutes, just watching the small caterpillars going about their business living in the cave.
Eventually he shook himself out of it and with a smile, continued on his cave exploration, though he kept part of his light covered so he could spot when more of the caterpillars would be on the walls, floor, and ceiling. He spent a good few hours exploring the caves this way before eventually making his way out of it and into the bright sun. He turned of his flashlight app with a sigh as he looked around, finding himself a good ways away from where he head gone into the cave system. Before he headed back to where he originally had been, he checked google on his phone to find out more about the glowing caterpillars, reading the few articles about them as he walked.
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