[EO:BW] el sol se recuesta

and shadows fall across the sea

Meanwhile, back in the room with the whales, GG and Hayako were somewhere between struggling and having the time of their lives.

"These things are so cool!" GG shouted down at the scientist, attempting to hold onto the side of one of the white whales. Hayako, who had been inspecting the intricate designs carved and painted upon the walls, looked up at him with disdain.

"I don't think they like being touched, GG," She warned, and as if on cue, the whale bucked its back upward, sending GG soaring up towards the ceiling.

"Ack!" He narrowly avoided crashing into a pillar and shook his head. The singing dragon he'd been trying to hold onto made a sound not unlike a chuff. "Yeah, I think you're right. See anything interesting down there?"

"Hmm," Hayako gave the mural she'd been staring at a second glance. It was very old and faded, but she thought she could make out the outlines of people worshipping some kind of idol. "There's another mural down here, but I can't tell what's on it."

"That's a shame." GG remarked, moving out of a wayward jellyfish's path. "Maybe that one might have had a clue on how we can get out of here."

"If worse comes to worst, we could always just retrace our steps and go the long way," Hayako pointed out, giving the wall in front of her another once-over.

"But there's still that current keeping us from getting out," the other diver replied. "I don't think those are going to let up any time soon."

The scientist cursed. "Of course. How could I forget about that?" She turned to look up at GG. "See if there's anything in that room with the statues that could open the door."

"I'm on it!" GG gave her a mock salute and swam back up to the Celestial Mausoleum. Hayako rolled her eyes. His eagerness to please--among many other things--made him pretty annoying, but she was grateful he wasn't fully incompetent.

Though GG was just as anxious to find a way out as Hayako was, he was only slightly more interested by the menagerie of shinies in the room the Singing Dragon had opened. As he ascended up into the Celestial Mausoleum, he could see flashes of gold peeking through the doorway of the Pacifica Treasure room, and he grinned. The stuff in there was probably worth a fortune! With the cash he and the rest of L&L could make from salvaging the place, they'd all be filthy rich!

"Holy shit," GG realized with a dopey grin, "I might even be able to pay off my student loan debts now!"

It was at that moment, just before he was to enter the room containing the Pacifica Treasure, that he stopped to give more than a moment's glance to the structures near the middle of the room. There were three statues Michael had used to open the door into the other room with the whales, but now that he was paying closer attention it looked like there was another usable structure here too.

"Hey, doc!" GG called to her through the radio, "There's some kind of wheel-lookin' thing up here! Do you think that might be our way out?"

Hayako thought about this for a moment and swam up to where GG was. "Now that you mention it, that does look like a wheel." She remarked, unsure of how she or the other two divers they were with hadn't called attention to it earlier. "Let's try pushing on it. It should open the door to the exit from here."

The other diver gave her a thumbs up and attempted to rotate the pedestal clockwise. It wouldn't budge, but GG felt like it would give with just a little bit more effort. "Gimme a hand, doc!"

Hayako considered for a moment thumping him on the forehead for not using her name like any normal person would but decided against it. She instead wordlessly held onto one of the spokes of the pedestal and pushed it in sync with GG, happy to know that the extra manpower was all it took to get it moving. The pedestal made a deep rumbling noise as it rotated. The pair pushed it in a circle a few times and then stopped.

"Do you think it did anything?" GG asked after a few seconds went by without anything happening.

"Well, I suppose there's only one way to—" Hayako was cut off by the sound of a loud, reverberating whistle echoing throughout the temple. It sounded similar to the earlier tune the Dragon Flute had played, but this one played for several more seconds, long and drawn out in comparison to the short notes of the original. The whales in the other room began to make a strange whining noise.

"Uh..." GG looked nervously over at the other diver. "Is it just me, or does the Song of Dragons sound different now?"

"It's not just you," Hayako affirmed, looking around nervously. Nothing was visibly different and that concerned her. "That was close to being a different tune entirely."

In the room below them, the whales briefly echoed the song the pedestal had played. It was, in a way, almost like a flock of parrots mimicking a noise. Then, right after they'd finished their singing, the first whale smashed its head against the wall, the sound of the impact ringing out with a deafening crack. The mausoleum began to shake, and Hayako and GG looked at one another nervously. Both parties were too shocked to say anything, but at this point it went without saying: it looked as though they'd fucked up, big time.