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.
Why he was back here at the Reservoir, he had no idea. He had a bone to pick with whatever was in the lake, but he wasn’t planning on trying anything tonight. No, he didn’t have any immediate plans to have another near-death by drowning experience. Today his destination happened to be the nearby caves, which came up earlier that day on his local news feed. Something about “strange, unnamed creatures” or something. He was thinking it’d be something related to youma, so here he was.
They really were just nearby, and he didn’t think too hard about which entrance to use. He just picked one, and off he went.
The air felt damp inside, and it smelled like it did after a light Spring rain. Not all that unpleasant, but not exactly comfortable, either. It was dark, for one. Too dark, and it took a long while before his eyes adjusted enough that he could vaguely make out the path. It didn’t instill a whole lot of confidence, the darkness, but the lieutenant walked on.
On, into the darkness. He was concerned after several minutes that he wouldn’t find anything, but thankfully the caves were more merciful than the reservoir had been. Whatever these “strange, unnamed” creatures were, they had to be just ahead. Where the dim glow was coming from. It looked a bit like how radiation was animated in those cartoons.
“Or fireflies,” he said as quietly as possible. Echos, particularly inside near-pitch black caves when you’re by yourself, were not pleasant. “Let’s go with fireflies. They’re prettier. Less reason to be concerned around ‘em.”
With that he nodded and hurried toward the modest light source, crouching down to get a better look once he was close enough.
Glowing caterpillars.
They had to be alien, he thought, or straight up radioactive. And they were strange, yes, but they were basically caterpillars. Why not just call them that?
Gingerly he picked one up and put it on his hand, staring at it and wondering what exactly made it glow. Fireflies he could read about in books, but these? According to the news they were still researching these so there wasn’t a whole lot of information about them. They were pretty neat, though. Maybe even cute, the way caterpie, the pokemon, was cute.
He stood and walked a bit further in, squinted into the dimly lit distance and wondered how many covered this particular section of the cave. He wasn’t willing to walk to the end to find out, though. For all he knew there was something else waiting for him at the end. With a sigh he grabbed one of the caterpillars and used its light to illuminate his path.
Well. It illuminated the hand he carried it with, but it did absolutely nothing for the path. Still, the light was comforting so he appreciated it. When the moonlight from the mouth of the cave outshone it, though, he set it back down and headed out.
There wasn’t a whole lot to report, so he was moving on, grateful for the uneventfulness of this particular investigation. He had his share of excitement the last time, after all.
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