Chapter Fifteen: The Underground Caverns

Kojiro, Yuli, and I made our way into Talpa's castle. Well, we were in a stone corridor that was probably close to the pit. "Cye, are you sure the Pit is a good idea?"

"Positive," I said. "You just have to be careful after we jump."

"Jump?!" said Kojiro. "We're jumping into something called the PIT!? Are you NUTS!?"

"It's a semi-liquid, semi-gas substance. That's what I heard from Rowen, but that was four years ago," I said. We came to the mouth of the corridor, which opened up to an absolutely huge cavern. At the bottom was the Pit. "There it is."
"It does look like water, and no Tin Heads around. Let's go for it," said Kojiro. The three of us back up, and took off into a run. I jumped off the edge, and dove straight down into the Pit.

When I initially hit it, I felt as if I was slowly sinking into breathable quick sand. I couldn't see anything. "Can you guys hear me? Can you breathe?" I asked.

"Yes and thank GOD yes," said Kojiro from somewhere to the right. I think. I wasn't sure which way was up. All I knew was that I was hoping that I had made the right choice on where to go.

Eventually, the Pit opened up the big drop. That's where you free fall for roughly ten stories. But there's water at the bottom, so I wasn't scared. Kojiro and Yuli were probably heard the USA. Feeling a bit, I don't know, egotistical, I made a swam dive into the water while the other two hit the water in the forms of panic-stricken belly flops. Moderately funny.

Once they surfaced, we let the current from the underground river carry us along. "Where is this taking us!?" asked Kojiro. He was treading water and seemed to be doing all right. There was a peaceful sound up ahead, but I couldn't put my finger on why it sounded so familiar. The current was moving a little fast, but then again, we'd get ahead faster that way. We'd find the guys sooner, beat Talpa sooner, and I'd get back to Ariel sooner.

Ariel. Things had changed for me so much with Ariel's birth. I was rarely allowed a night out to go to a club or a party, most of my earnings were towards the survival of myself and Ariel, although the majority of it was towards her. Now, things were even more important. When I was fifteen, I was more than willing to risk my life if it meant saving the Mortal Realm. Now, that decision was harder to make. Could I still do that? Would Ariel understand why I'd left her? No, I couldn't do that to her. She'd lost the chance to have a mother who cared about her, I wasn't about to let her loose me. I'd defend the world, but I'd have to be able to live afterwards.

"Hello? Where are we going?" Kojiro asked once again.

I snapped back to reality. "Not sure, but I think it'll be going to a-" I started. I was going to say "alcove", but then Yuli interrupted me.

"You mean WATERFALL!" he screamed.

I looked ahead and sure enough saw a drop-off. "Uh oh," I said.

"Get a hold off a rock or something!" I yelled. "Then we have to try and jump for the shoreline!"

"Cye! I can't get near any of the rocks!" cried Kojiro. I took a quick look at Yuli. He was perched carefully on the edge of a rock. I went after Kojiro.

"CYE! DON'T DO IT! SAVE YRSLF!" Kojiro took in a mouthful of water. I got a hold of his wrist.

"I got you!" I said.

"But who's got you!?" said Kojiro.

Good point.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

I don't know how long it took for me to wake up. But I remember that much. I did wake up. My mind was a jumbled mess as I tried to remember what happened.

Ariel. The Pit. The Dynasty. Kojiro. Yuli. River. Waterfall. Lots of pain and screaming.

"Cye, you awake?" I looked up to see Kojiro looking over me worriedly. "Thanks for coming after me, but you shouldn't have done that."

I smiled. "It's all in the job description," I said.

"Job description!?" said Kojiro. "What job description?!"

I laughed. Then, my face straightened. "Where's Yuli?"

"I don't know. I think he got away, though," said Kojiro. "We'd better go find him."

I say up and looked around. We were roughly an eighth of a mile (Note: I know the Ronins would use the metric system, but I'm not familiar with it enough to make a half decent judgment on about how far away something is with the kilometer) away from the waterfall. It was actually gorgeous, a crystalline white that looked like falling clouds.

"How'd we survive?" I asked.

"Not sure, don't really care," said Kojiro. "Let's get out of here."

"I'm still pretty convinced they're down here somewhere," I said.

Kojiro sighed heavily. "Whatever you say, dude, whatever you say."

I stood up and dusted myself off for no particular reason. Basically, it was instinctive. The two of us headed off in a direction picked by the "scientific" method (Or Kojiro spun around in a circle and randomly chose a direction to travel in) and hoped for the best. Little did we know but we were about to encounter some very unpleasant obstacles.

After an hour or so, we came apon a steamy room filled with exotic plants. Pinks, blues, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, burgundies, colors I don't have names for, all lined the room. The plants were different sizes and shapes, some resembled plants that most people know (rose, daisy, ect) and some weird ones I had only seen in science fiction films. The steam was so hot, I was frying in my subarmor.

"Wow, someone's got nice taste," said Kojiro.

"I don't know," I said. "Somehow these plants seem, funny."

"What do you mean they seem funny?" said Kojiro.

I tried to wipe away some sweat. "The heat. It's as hot as a sauna in here."

"Well, maybe it's for the plants," said Kojiro.

"Maybe, but why do I get the feeling it's something more than that? Surely it doesn't need to be THIS hot?" I asked.

I heard a light hearted yet very evil laughter in the distance. I looked around. "Shung Le, Dark Warlord of Flora," I said.

"Hmm, I see you've heard about me, and my name is NOT Shung Le! It's Kioko! Why do people keep calling me SHUNG LE!?" came the now exasperated voice. A somewhat pretty woman with electric blue hair and deep green eyes jumped down. She wore a deep gray subarmor with a black plate over her. . . chest.

"I don't know, but that's how I heard it," I said. I shook my head. Why was I trying to be nice to her? I almost felt like I was trying to impress her.

"Kioko" walked up to me and began to stroke my chin. "Hmm, Torrent, you're cute. And, supposedly, you're experienced. This'll be fun."

I closed my eyes. "I take it your virtue is Desire or Lust?" I asked.

"Desire, very good! I like an intelligent man," said Kioko. "So, how's about we-"

"No way," I said, pushing her hand aside and backing away. "I'm not that kind of guy."

"Oh? You mean you're gay or something?" asked Kioko.

"No!" I said. "I meant that I don't do sluts like you!"

Kioko's eyes began to fume. "Really? Well, no one turns me down. And lives to tell about it. Either you give in to me- you as well, Icefire- or I'll be forced to kill you."

"Yeah right, ya witch," said Kojiro.

"WITCH!? YOU CALLED ME A WHAT?!" screamed Kioko. "Okay, bud, that's it, forget about Torrent, you and me, one on one!"

"Like he said, no-" started Kojiro.

"Not that, you moron, I'm going to kill you," said Kioko.

I looked at Kojiro. "You want-"

Kojiro pushed his hand out towards me. "No, go find your friends. I can take care of this prima donna. I'll meet up with you later. GO!"

I didn't waste any time running for the exit.