"Wow, Michael," Oceana turned to the male diver next to her, eyes wide in admiration. "I almost can't believe what I'm seeing!"
Below them, in a room submerged in water and speckled with pillars that stretched up from far below them, three white whales swam about peacefully. They were beautiful things, colored like pearls and singing amongst one another idly. Michael looked back at her and smiled.
"Neither can I," He said, breathless with excitement. "I never thought this could possibly be what was behind the Song of Dragons!"
"They're quite the interesting find," Hayako mused. She swam down to one of the whales, keeping her distance from it but scrutinizing it carefully. "They look very similar to humpback whales in terms of shape, but judging from their overall appearance it's likely they're an entirely different breed. It's amazing how such creatures can hide from the eyes of humanity for so long."
"Right? These are dope!" Even GG was as excited by this find as the rest of the group. "Man, I think I have a new favorite animal. We gotta take pictures!" He felt along the pockets and pouches in his BCD and dive bag. "Well, dammit. Do any of y'all got a camera? I think I left mine on the boat."
"Hey Michael, you carry one, right?" Hayako looked up at him. "You really should photograph this!"
Michael was one step ahead of them, excitedly feeling through the pockets of his BCD to find his camera. He never went diving without it. "Yeah, just a second! We gotta make this quick, though. I think my air is starting to run a teeny bit low."
"How low, exactly?" GG asked warily. The two ladies looked concerned as well, but Michael shrugged them off.
"Not so low that it's anything to worry about. I'll be fine even if we're down here another twenty minutes or so." He turned to Hayako and the others, "We should be able to leave freely from here, right?"
Everyone considered this for a moment.
"I think so," The scientist finally concluded. "Jean-Eric said this room is in the center of the ruins, right? If that's correct, then this room should be behind the mural we saw when we first entered this place. All we have to do is find the door that bridges the entry to this room, and we should get out of here."
"Well, that should be no problem," Oceana remarked. She looked over at Michael. "Let's just get some pictures of the whales before we go!"
Michael made a face, slipping his hand into a pocket and feeling around inside. "Oh, come on!"
"What is it?" Asked Hayako.
"My camera's not in here either!" The other diver complained. "It must've fallen out, then, because I know I brought it with me! Great. Wonderful. Amazing. I'd bought that one not even a month ago, too! Ugh!"
"Did you take it out at any point during the dive?" Hayako asked, and Michael thought about this for a moment.
"I did. There was a group of horseshoe crabs hanging out in front of some of the rooms and I took pictures of them. I haven't seen any of those since I was living in the States!" He paused. "It wasn't too long after that when I got swept up in that current. I must have dropped it sometime around there. Damn it!"
"Maybe we should go back together and get it," Oceana suggested. "You've got a lot of pictures on it, don't you? It would seriously be a bummer if you lost it all."
"Right?" Michael looked over to the other two members of the group. "Would you two be okay if we went back to look for it? I seriously don't want to just leave that thing behind."
"Hm...I don't know," Said the scientist. "There might be more to this temple that we haven't seen yet. Not to mention there's still those goblin sharks swimming around here somewhere."
Everyone collectively shuddered. The thought of encountering those things again, especially the big bastard that nearly sent them to the man upstairs, didn't sit right with anybody.
"Well, I've still got my pulsar on me," Michael took it out of its respective pocket in his BCD to demonstrate, "So if nothing else we'll have those if anything tries to give us trouble. Plus, we could always just come back here. I don't think the sharks like these 'singing dragons' very much."
One of the whales in the room below made a strange chirping sound.
"You're right. They left as soon as one of them entered that bridge-type room over there," Hayako remarked. "Alright, I guess in that case it's safe to go, but please be careful and hurry. GG and I will see if there's anything else of note in this room and then we'll work on getting us out of here."
GG looked surprised at this idea of being left alone with her and Michael gave him a thumbs-up.
"Works for me," Said Oceana, "We'll see you guys in a bit."
And with that, she and Michael made their way back up through the Celestial Mausoleum into the other room.
"So, have you been paying attention to how this place is set up?" Michael asked, casting a glance up to the ceiling of the mausoleum as they passed under it.
"Sort of," replied Oceana. "It's been hard to tell what's where thanks to getting blown all over the place by those currents, but I think I have some idea of this temple's layout. It's like a big square."
"That's what I've been thinking, too." Michael poked at a passing coelacanth as they swam down the room of the Pillars of Shadow. It wiggled indignantly as it swam away. "If nothing else, it's gonna make mapping this on paper a lot easier. People are gonna go crazy over this discovery!"
"I know, right?" Oceana didn't bother to contain her own excitement and followed closely at Michael's side. She could hardly believe her luck; not only had she finally closed the mystery her father tried so hard to solve before he died, but she'd done it with the greatest team she could have ever imagined having. Of the three of her dive companions, she greatly admired Hayako's cool demeanor and intellect and even held some level of respect for GG's unwavering enthusiasm, but it was Michael who had become her favorite over the several long months they'd spent together. He was the first new friend she'd made in a while. Prior to him joining L&L diving service, she felt as though her only real 'friend' was Nancy. It was a very lonely way to live, and so she was very grateful for the constant companionship of the older diver.
Michael didn't just treat her like a business partner, or like she was just Jean-Eric's annoying granddaughter. Some mornings he'd come over to where she liked to sit on the dock, review map sales figures and new guide requests with her, and inevitably take the conversation in some completely unrelated direction that would leave them cackling over jokes and stories together. He'd tell her tales about his time in university, and she'd entertain him with jokes she'd read on the internet. One or both of them would sometimes laugh or play-shove the other so hard they'd fall off the dock and into the water below. Jean-Eric would shout at them to please be careful, there are rocks in the shallows you could hurt yourself on here, but there was always a twinkle of mirth in those old hazel eyes as he scolded them.
Oceana couldn't remember a time before now when she'd been this content with someone.
Every now and again, some part of her brain would bring up the idea of Michael liking her more than platonically. It was weird, and she knew this; he was in his early twenties, while she was only sixteen. Definitely not a good model for a romantic relationship. She knew she'd get in massive trouble with Jean-Eric and possibly even Michael himself if she tried to get things to escalate, so she kept every last thought on that subject to herself, but...well. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if she could turn a high five into holding hands, or if she could get a comforting hug to linger just a few seconds longer. Even now, diving down into the subterranean reception room with him, she offhandedly thought how convenient it would be for something to pop out and scare her so bad she'd just have no other choice but to cling to his side in terror.
Michael's voice snapped Oceana out of her train of thought.
"I don't see it down here," he scanned the floor of the room carefully. "You don't see it either, do you?"
"Huh? Oh," she remembered the real reason they were alone together now and shook her head. "nothing out of the ordinary or otherwise camera-shaped here."
"Ugh," the other diver groaned and began ascending into the room with the Isis statue inside, his flippers narrowly avoiding a passing nautilus. "so maybe I did drop it in the hallway after all."
"With luck, maybe the current swept the camera down closer to this room," Oceana offered, remembering there was a dead-end wall not far from the staircase bridging the altar room and the hallway.
"If the current is still going at all." Michael swam up to the threshold and stuck his hand out into the hallway. His arm was pushed back like it might rip off and he pulled it back in. "Yep. Still going, and I don't see it on the floor here anywhere."
"Aw," Oceana looked over the floor herself and, sure enough, found it was devoid of Michael's beloved waterproof camera. "I'm sorry, Michael."
"'S fine. We'll just make another dive down to get it."
"Should we go back to Hayako and GG now?"
"Yeah," Michael sighed. "Dammit. I had some really good shots on it, too! You would have loved to see them. There was this one with a pineconefish, I know you like those so I tried to get a few of them in the frame, and it turned out really cool and--"
Oceana listened to Michael's despaired rambling for several moments, flattered that he would have thought to take time out of his dive to photograph some fish just for her. "That was really sweet of you, dude, but you didn't have to do it." she said, smiling.
Michael turned to her and smiled that goofy puppy-dog smile he always wore when they were swapping stories. "Of course I did! You're like my little sister, man. Anything to make you happy!"
'Like my little sister'. Ouch.
Oceana grinned back and pretended like those words hadn't just smacked her clean across the face.