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 Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 2:54 pm
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.
Mel was more adventurous than him in that regard.
He glanced back down the path they’d taken to get to the caves and noted the lights with some relief. If they got split up, at least they’d be able to make their way out and meet up back at the reservoir proper.
Satisfied that they at least had an out, not to mention a small sling of “just in case” items that he packed for each of them, Harvey followed after his girlfriend with his usual expression of barely tolerating whatever he was being made to do. It was, between the two of them, his very unique way of saying, “You’re lucky I love you.”
“Remind me why we decided to do this after sunset? The caves should still be dark inside whether the sun is out or not.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 7:53 pm
“To be fair, it wasn’t quite sunset yet when we came in here.” Close though, but close only counted in horseshoes and hand grenades. “That, and it was just supposed to be a way to pass the time until it was dark enough to watch the lanterns.” What she didn’t anticipate was getting lost and spending probably two to three times the amount of time in a muggy humid cold cave. Her sandals and lower part of her jeans were both soaked and she could feel a blister forming on the side of her foot. “Mistakes were made, I agree.” At least she could take responsibility for being the reason they were here, as for getting lost well… that part was a bit of a joint effort. And if things couldn’t get worse the flashlight on her phone dimmed as a warning that the battery was low. “I have 7% left on my phone…” They could possibly switch to his or Melody could power up and use her tea-lamp lantern to maybe find a way out of here before Stacia sent a search and rescue after them for now showing up for work on Monday. However, other than telling her work bestie that Harvey was taking her to the reservoir this weekend, she wasn’t sure her friend would know which direction to point them in. Quite the conundrum.
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:01 pm
"True," he had to concede--it was still light out when they got there. How they managed to find themselves lost, he had no idea, but it might have just been one of those things that they hadn't mentioned in the article. A weird occurrence, a happenstance, whatever.
Harvey sighed and let the topic go, not wanting to be too grumbly while they were meant to be hanging out and having fun together, and when she mentioned her phone's battery life he quickly caught up to her and handed over his phone.
"Here, use mine," he said as he swapped their phones. It took a minute but he soon had the device plugged into a power bank he had in his pack. "You have one in yours, too, but this way you can still call me if we get separated or something." He took that moment to check on her, too, though not much came of that given the limited lighting. He couldn't really see, so instead he took a hold of her hand and gave it a little squeeze.
"We gotta get outta here soon. We'll miss the lanterns at this rate."
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:02 pm
“Thank you,” she gave his hand a return squeeze of reassurance that she wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m glad that at least one of us came prepared.”
“I wonder, do you think we’ve at least come far enough to see the glow worms the articles mentioned?” She’d read about them before a year or so ago but never really found time to go to the reservoir. Instead, she visited the beach on her wonder where there would be no annoying squeaky sand or litter on the ground. It was a clean place and completely stress-free.
“I would like to get a picture of them maybe.” However, she had no real experience with photography other than getting her picture taken at conventions. Aperture settings, exposure, steady hands… ok well the steady hands she had because otherwise she’d have more pin pricks on her fingers from sewing but the others… all she knew was that the flash had to be off and the setting set to at least night mode which didn’t bode well for getting something worth sharing.
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:03 pm
He smiled the usual small smile when she squeezed his hand in turn, finding the contact provided some security in knowing that she was still there with him and she was doing alright.
At her question he took a look around, squinting as though that did anything at all to help with the darkness. His eyes had adjusted about as much as they were going to adjust, so without additional light he had no hope of seeing anything in any more detail than he saw right then, which was...not detailed at all.
The man clicked his tongue but kept looking around anyway, and when he saw what he thought might be some kind of light that wasn't coming from them, he squeezed her hand again. "Maybe over there?" he said, pointing in the direction of a room that was emitting a very, very faint glow. "We might have to turn the flashlight off when we get there to be sure, but I think there might be some there."
Again, he wasn't a fan of the idea, but it wouldn't be for forever. As long as someone's phone was charged, they could get a flashlight back on once they were done looking at these glowing...things.
Caterpillars?
Not that it mattered. He generally disliked bugs, so he’d probably be grossed out by whatever they found.
"Not sure if we'll be able to get a picture with our phones, but it's worth a shot if we do find 'em." He took a step in the direction of the glow, paused, then turned back to her and added, "No pun intended," before turning and starting to walk again.
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:13 pm
Melody caught a glimpse of the light he pointed towards but also noted that the path narrowed in that direction as well. “Do you want me to take the lead?” she asked since she was the one holding the ‘flashlight’.
On their own, bugs never really bothered her. What she didn’t like was how they’d sneak up on her and startle the crap out of her unexpectedly. Jumping spiders were in their own category, but more often than not she’d get one of those monster mosquito-looking bugs flying at her face, or a housefly bumping into her monitor when checking her email.
Then of course there were the occasional swarms of gnats or fruit flies or just ants that were nuisances more than anything.
But glow worms were kind of like fireflies in her mind and from photos she’d seen from other caves this might be the closest she’d come to seeing something truly awe-inspiring.
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Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 8:37 pm
“Yeah,” came a very simple answer before Harvey positioned himself so he was standing just behind her, and he followed her lead toward the bit of light.
It wasn’t a long walk by any means, but it was longer than he thought it would be. From where they had been standing when he first spotted it he guessed maybe a two-minute walk? It wound up being a very winding ten-minute trek through a basically pitch-black cave. He nearly slipped several times, and successfully managed to stub his toe a few times, but managed to get through without doing any serious damage.
As much as he enjoyed hiking, he was coming to realize that spelunking was probably not his thing.
They came upon the cave before long, though, and the narrow, winding path they had taken very abruptly expanded out into a modest sized tunnel where, lo and behold, these bugs abounded in all their glowing glory.
Harvey’s face scrunched up a bit, but he held his tongue. They were interesting, that was for sure, but he wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a pretty sight.
“The camera on my phone might be able to get a few decent pictures,” he said as he sidestepped to make sure he wasn’t in the center of where he imagined she would be pointing and shooting. “Have at it, I’ll be over here if you need me.”
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Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2024 7:53 pm
“Thank you,” Melody rose up on the balls of her feet, nearly slipped off a slick rock in the process, but managed to give him a small kiss on the cheek. At least nobody else was around to witness the small public display of affection. “I should only be a few minutes.” Although it was difficult to tell in the dim light, Melody was in genuine awe by the glowworms’ bioluminescent color. It was a soft blue hue that made the cave feel almost magical like it should be a knight’s wonder. Almost, because it still smelled of stagnant water and felt uncomfortably humid. When she found what she hoped was a good spot, Melody switched to camera mode and turned off the flash. “Wow…” kind of feels like being in a stary snow globe. she mused. After taking a few photos she moved to another spot to try and get a wide photo of the room but upon inspection of the original few, Melody realized that her hands were perhaps not as steady as she thought they were. Sure she could thread a sewing needle easily but keeping still for several seconds, well… was not a skillset she possessed. Mmm, maybe I can lean against a rock? Or prop her elbows on one. She turned the phone around and, with the soft glow, found a place that seemed like it’d work perfectly. However, when she rounded the hip-high boulder it felt like she was suddenly falling, knee-high in water and yet…not. Although it happened in an instant, for Melody it felt like everything suddenly slowed as her hand reached out to grab hold of something. But before she could so much as call out Harvey’s name--Melody was gone, taken somewhere far from the reservoir through a rift that had opened up beneath the puddle of water she intended to step across.
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Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 5:17 pm
The small display of affection pulled a smile onto his usually grumpy face, and as he gave a nod of his head to acknowledge the time estimate, he couldn’t help but think that this was worth the effort of making her happy.
Once he settled into a spot away from where Mel would be having her photoshoot with the bugs, Harvey pulled out her phone to check on its battery percentage. To his surprise, it wasn’t charging anymore, so with eyebrows scrunched together he began to investigate. By the time he figured it out, the “few minutes” had long passed.
“You done?” he called as he put her phone away again. When she didn’t respond, he finally looked up…
He went from confused to worried to very near panicked when he saw that she was nowhere to be found.
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