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20

Marlin observed the door, taking a deep breath before knocking.

"Come in," A voice said from behind it.

Marlin walked in. The smell of the room was sweet, eucalyptus mixed with lavender. The room was mostly taken up by a large canopy bed with slightly transparent pink curtains. Two people stood near the bed, a petite feminine silhouette and a tall masculine one. The slight beep of a heart-rate monitor could be heard, muffled by the curtains. The only lights on were the ones strung overhead in the bed's canopy.

Kiari leaned in towards the figure on the bed, then pulled the curtain aside and walked out. As he did so, Marlin glanced inside. The nurse had a glass filled with the vitality sap that some goons had collected from the orange trees. She mixed it with water and other medicine to make it go down easier. The woman on the bed was in her twenties, with dark blond hair. Her ordinarily dark tan skin was now a sickly grey. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing was shallow.

"How's Addilynn?"

"Well, after we found the sap, her health stabilized slightly, and she isn't on the verge of...well, but nurse says that we don't know how long this will work. Anyways, you have good news for me?" As soon as Kiari asked, he regretted it, as he saw Marlin's eyes get wetter than usual. "What happened?"

Marlin choked back a sob and reiterated what Geier had told him earlier.

Kiari's nostrils flared, and he gritted his teeth. "Follow me," he commanded in a subdued voice and exited the room.

Atop the hill with the waterfall, Jashin looked around. Asking the rest of them to look and tell him if they see anything the least bit suspicious.

He moved his hand along the grass, feeling around. His fingers caught the edge of something, and he grabbed it and yanked open the hatch, quickly ushering everyone inside before closing it behind him. Ivy clung to the new man's back as they descended the ladder. The descent was long and murky, light not reaching a foot in front of their eyes. Her light-up shoes gave the tunnel a strange glow.

Barely anyone had said a word since the earlier encounter; Jashin had been the only one talking, instructing everyone where to go.

The damp, earthy smell only increased as they descended the ladder. Zoe half expected to grab onto an earthworm at some point. She looked up at Ivy, a heavy wave filling her mind. 'I barely did anything. She almost died, and I just froze.'

Flickering light from below slowly illuminated the tunnel as they went lower and lower. The rock sides were jagged and sharp. Spiders and other odd insects scurried alongside them, their eyes glistening as they watched them pass downwards.

Once they reached the bottom, Zoe skimmed the surrounding area; the light was dim, but she was still amazed by what she saw. Towering luminous mushrooms alongside cold pine trees filled the enormous cavern. Scattered throughout the forest were stone statues. The biggest one was made to be hunched over on one knee, holding up the cave roof with his arms and back—below, the fungi cast‌ blue, green, and purple light across its frame. Others were wearing clothes from different eras and cultures. Large granite pillars stood adjacent to one another. On the cavern walls, paintings and murals hung; some were of historical events, others depicting fantastical beasts and what looked like humans using magic.

Though faint, they thought they could hear it, an auditory afterimage. The sounds of past footsteps and murmurs emanating from the fungi itself. Playing back memories.

There was a trickling coming from the far wall. In the middle looked to be a stone pond, no bigger than a hot tub. A small stream of water came from an open faucet set several feet above it. The water seemed to sparkle as it reflected an invisible light.