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Meryl's POV

As her feet touch the ground at the bottom of the aqueduct, soft light floods the area. Not like the lantern's light, but a gentle glow as if lit by fireflies or maybe starlight. There are small orbs embedded in otherwise smooth wall evenly spaced for as far as she can see in either direction.

She blinks slowly, eyes adapting to the fact that there is little in the way of lighting, it's more of a soft light compared to the harsh sun and electric lights of world above.

Once her eyes have adapted, she lets go of the ladder rung and takes a better look around. It's far wider than she was expecting down here, with the walls being a good thirty feet apart. The walk ways are roughly ten feet each, if she's not mistaken, which means the aqueduct is about that size as well. With the low light, she can't determine exactly how deep it is.

"How big is it?" she inquires as she continues to scan the area.

There are lizaeri and memousi working individually, pairs, or groups for as far as she can see in either direction. Some seem to be measuring the water at various points, others seem to be working on the walls still. Smoothing them out and adding support beams as far as she can tell, though she's not sure what they are made of as they are a similar color to the stone. There are some carving small niches and benches into the walls as well.

"This one is fairly small, only twelve feet across by twenty feet deep. The water levels have not yet hit their full height as we have been slowly letting it out, to keep from draining other aqueducts too much." Mykala answers, motioning to one of the several bridges she can see crossing the water. "Our aqueducts are made of a combination of natural springs and water created by the Gracious Ones."

Nodding, she glances along both directions again. Most of the work is away from the village, back towards the direction they came from. Though there seems to be a dam at the end towards the village, keeping the water from passing in that direction. Along with levies and gears to control it.

They start walking towards the bridges.

"We will monitor the water levels, insure it stays clean, and keep a fairly accurate count on how many fish swim within it of each type." The memousi representative informs her, voice bursting with pride at their work. "We also make sure to feed the fish if there are not enough insects for them to feed properly."

Again she nods, because that makes plenty of sense.

The walk over to one of the further down bridges, crossing over and heading through a small entry way she hadn't noticed in the smooth stone walls from where they were standing.

"This will be the entrance to our settlement. Right now they are building the pathways," here it is a bit brighter, there are glowing orbs embedded in the wall. "They have already started the center, as you can see."

The center is a large dome like area, with slender pillars that don't match the other stone seeming randomly placed but actually making an octagon if she's not mistaken. In the middle is a small fountain, with little benches placed against the pillars.

She can see where they have already started the first home if she's not mistaken. Actually, it might not be considering the way they seem to be making a window or window like area with shelves.

"Do your communities have stores?" she ends up asking, even though she feels like an idiot for doing so.

Mykala's head bobs, long ears flopping as she does so, "Yes, though not like human stores. We barter, rather than money."

"That makes sense," she murmurs, glancing about once more. "How do you cook? Ventilation wise."

"Careful ventilation shafts are added to every building and sent through to our underground gardens." The memousi answers as she motions to the ceiling above their heads.

"There will be a garden?" She's not sure why she's startled. It makes sense that they would have an underground garden here.

"Oh yes, with mirrors built into the ceiling in order to light the plants without being overly harsh, glass covering the lighting vents to keep from having too much moisture escape as the room heats during the day!" Mykala sounds even more excited, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "That might not be my field of study, but I am always excited for science to be successful."

They make a circuit of the room before heading back towards the entrance that they came through.

Head tipping to the side once more, the representative queries, "Is there anything else you'd like to know about?"

She thinks about it for a bit, thinking over what she's seen so far. "What type of fish and why fish?"

Mykala's head tips to the other side, tips of her ears twitching, "We eat fish, along with fruits, vegetables and nuts. The lizaeri also eat fish. Mostly trout, though there are some smaller fish for them to feed on. We plan to introduce other varieties of fish to one of the ponds in the future, that's my field of study actually."

That makes a lot of sense about the fish, why didn't she think of that? Probably because she considers mice as herbivores, rather than omnivores.

"Once there is enough fish, we'll barter with humans perhaps," the representative of the memousi comments, shrugging a shoulder. "It depends on how our communities get along."

She nods in agreement. That also makes sense. If the communities don't get along there will probably be a lot less working together than if they do.

She makes her way back up the ladder, partly distracted by the thoughts racing through her mind about the two species the tunnel. She's pretty sure she could have asked other questions, about where the fish are from, what creates the lights, and whatnot but pretty much those can be asked later. For now she's good with what she's learned so far.

Since she will be living with Knives in close proximity, she's certain she'll get a chance to speak with them later about it.

Almost as soon as she's topside, the entrance closes up, leaving it sealed tight once more. Giving her something else to think about. There seems to be a lot of that going on around for her. So many things to think about in so many details.