Hidden Wonders

An Amicabot was missing! Well… they went missing a long time ago, if Lara understood correctly, but now a signal had appeared in Ripple Trench. Moira and Suzie had been going around informing other Amicabots about the situation. Lara felt bad for Orion. The purple bot didn’t seem the cheeriest and she couldn’t blame him. Losing someone dear to you… it hurt. And that’s why Lara wanted to help. She would go right down that trench and find Caspian!

Though her energy and enthusiasm wavered when she stood above the Ripple Trench. The team was split up on multiple boats floating above the dark sea. When she leaned over the edge of the boat, she could only see deep blue water. How big was the trench? And how deep did it go? What if it reached the core of the planet? Maybe that was why Caspian was lost. 

Lara quickly shook her head. This was not the time to get overwhelmed by her thoughts and fears. This was about saving another Amicabot. She was hear because she wanted to help. Now she had to keep her promise. She secured her suit and made sure that all her newly installed modules were functional. Everyone was ready to jump into the water. Some bots flashed her an encouraging smile and she smiled right back. Everything was going to be fine.

After a short quiet moment all Amicabots jumped into the water. Lara followed immediately. The cold liquid suddenly was all around her and held her in its grip. Lara forced her eyes open and at first, didn’t see much. Just blue. The sea wasn’t this boring, right? After floating at the same spot for a few seconds, Lara started paddling and swimming down where everyone else was going. She looked back, the shadow of the boats above them shrinking, smaller and smaller. Then suddenly, shapes started appearing. Slightly darker shadows in the water that suggested, something being there. The closer she swam, the more the colors popped and clearer the contours became. Lara recognized giant rocks and cracks in the solid ground, possibly leading to more mysteries deeper down. Everywhere were animals. Swimming around, hiding in holes, floating aimlessly, walking on the ground… These had to be thousand different species and this was just one area! Even the plants looked foreign and fascinating. So many different wonders laid out below her. She felt like a bird flying around and looking down at a mystical new landscape. She knew that all of this had a logical and scientific explanation. From the biggest predator to the smallest being, everything probably made sense. But could nature really be this imaginative? Even the visible light beams shimmering softly in the water made her feel like in a fantasy story. This was beyond anything she had visualized, when thinking about their mission.

The mission! Right! The environment had completely caught her attention and made her forget her objective. She looked around and saw a few Amicabots searching through the rocks or swimming further ahead to find a clue. Lara quickly felt guilty. How could she have forgotten about Caspian this fast? 

‚Focus, Lara! Focus!‘, she screamed in her thoughts. She could explore the underwater world later. 

After swimming around for 20 minutes and not really finding any clues, she decided to venture deeper. She had seen those giant cracks in the earth, maybe Caspian somehow was stuck down there? Or something fell on him from up here? Even if the shadowy black water looked intimidating, her curiosity was stronger and she slowly ventured deeper. She felt the presence of the water more and more. Probably the pressure of all the liquid above her. Lara tried to keep her focus on her task, but it was harder to see down here. Most of the light came from her own glowing body parts. That’s why a sudden glowing shimmer caught her attention. It seemed to be coming from the trench walls. Confused, she swam closer. She had no idea what it could be. The light grew bigger and stronger until she came across a small tunnel opening in the wall. After investigating the edges, she concluded that she could fit through without problem. Maybe the light came from Caspian?

Lara slowly entered the tunnel and crawled forward. Luckily, she was not claustrophobic, otherwise this would have been torture. The tunnel was pretty long and she nearly gave up. But then she suddenly lost the ground beneath her and fell into a giant cave system. And everything was glowing inside here! The plants, the animals… everything was fluorescent, lighting up the cave as if there was a small sun illuminating inside here. The constant glow and pretty colors around her put her nervousness at ease and she felt comfortable. In a way, she fit right in! Her hard light parts were glowing just like some appendages and spots on the fish around her. If only she could shift her colors like some of the jellyfish did.

Lara ventured deeper into the cave and started exploring every nook and cranny. She didn’t know what she could find here but it didn’t hurt to try. She would take any excuse to stay longer in this cave. All this temptation to have fun, but she had to behave herself. In the end, she didn’t know how much time she spent between the colorful glows. It could have been hours or only minutes. It was hard to tell so far away from the surface and other bots. She probably shouldn’t stay here any longer. The others shouldn’t worry about her as well. With a sad smile on her face, she decided to return to the group and leave this ethereal looking cave. But she would definitely tell everyone about this! Even if there weren’t any clues inside here, every Amicabot deserved to experience something as pretty and wonderful as this cave!

‚Maybe they’ll even let me name it!‘, she thought excitedly and tried to come up with fitting names on her way back.

Deep Glow Cave? Inner Light Cavern? Floating Lights Cage? Underwater Fireflies! No… that one sounded really stupid…