Tales of PulchraGea, Vol. 1

Chapter 8: blue keystone

It was lucky for us that we found the map in that hidden room; none of Alex Shepherd's journals, note, itinerary, or anything mentioned a trip to Bay City for any reason other than official business. We took a U.T. Pod, with me piloting, to Bay City. On the way we all pored over ancient tomes on our Scrolls, searching for some hint of legend that might give us a clue where to look. All to no avail. There were no written records of any legends in the city.
However, Katy had an idea.
"I have a cousin in Bay City," she elaborated. "He's a biologist and right now he's looking at Coreala migration patterns."
"How does that help us?" asked Doug.
"Because if it was in town, someone would've found an entrance by now, I'm sure," Crystal assured him. "There's minimal activity out in the bay and all of that is situated near the Sail Center and the Coral Veranda."
Doug was impressed. So was I.
"And since Kermit is out in the bay on a regular basis," Katy continued, "he's bound to know more about it than anybody."
I had to admit, it was a bigger lead than five minutes previous. We weren't exactly losing anything by trying.
"Sounds like a plan," I said confidently.

"So you want me to help you search for a cave in the cliffside?" asked Kermit Hall.
He was about the same height as Katy, about twenty years old with chocolate hair and sepia eyes. He was dressed in a hawaiian-style shirt, pocketed swim trunks, and flip-flop sandals, all in some shade of blue or green.
Katy nodded to confirm his question.
"It's kind of important," Crystal adjoined.
Kermit ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
"Do you have diving gear?" he asked wearily.
Doug held up our rented dive gills and swim shoes.
Kermit made a face that said 'not bad,' as if he weren't expecting such preparedness.
"We're not exactly amateurs at this stage," I piped in.
Kermit sighed deeply once more before waving us down the ramp of the submarine into the cargo bay. Doug stowed our gear in lockers, while the girls moved behind a partition wall to change into swimsuits. Kermit moved lazily into the cockpit and started the engines, closing the top hatch as we moved out into the bay. I unloaded my bag to make a final check. I had about five vacuum compressed towels, each size of a pack of cards. I also had some camp meals, which everyone had swore to me we wouldn't need. I also had a change of dry clothes, my karambit, disposable flashlights, compressed water, and a liquid-cable gun.
Several hours passed with no sightings, though we'd been carefully scanning for caves with an active sonar pulse. It was getting dark above water now, with still no results. Eventually, we just decided to turn around and return to the surface for the night. On the way back, though, we got a ping that we had missed the first time around. In the cockpit, the sonar picture was put together on a 3-D holographic display. A surprisingly large-looking cave stared back from he cliffside.
"That's gotta be it!" Crystal exclaimed from over my shoulder. I agreed.
We gathered our diving equipment and geared up. The swim shoes emitted pulses that pushed the wearer forward, while he dive gills use a form of electrolysis to seperate the oxygen from the hydrogen in the water, allowing for near-unlimited submergence. Kermit emitted an anchor that kept the sub in place and geared up with us. Unfortunately, it was a bum lead. The cave only went a few yards in.
As we were swimming dejectedly back to the sub, we were suddenly attacked by a whirlwind of silver and blue. Noone had to say what kind of danger we were in: gildragoon were known to occasionally enter the bay to hunt, though it was rare. Gildragoon are a little larger than a wolf with grey scales, gill slits along its ribs, a tail that can fold out to a large fan. Like most other dragoons, they have jagged ridges of bone instead of individual teeth, capable of reforming should it chip or break, which it did surprisingly constantly, giving them an uneven and terrifying grin. On land or sea, gildragoon are considered apex predators, with few creatures powerful enough to stop them and virtually no natural enemies.
The only recourse when faced with such a foe in the water is to run and hope you escape. Everyone scattered so as to divide its attention. Katy and I went one way while Doug and Crystal tried to make it back to the minisub. Kermit did his best to distract the dragon, to limited success. As it was, Katy and I were ushered into a small crevice at the base of the cliff and sea floor, no more than a foot wide, barely enough for Katy to squeeze through. The dragon tried to follow us in but learned it was too wide and swam off in search of other prey.
We squeezed farther back just in case it got wise and decided to use its hydro-blast on us; the high pressure stream of water could injure, even underwater. We were shocked to discover that the crack widened out considerably farther in. As soon as we hit the widened area our dive-gills began to fail, flashing a bright red light that told us the water didn't have enough oxygen for the machine to extract for our use. To be honest, it was terrifying. There was no way of knowing if there was an air pocket to refill our lungs, but luckily there was a few dozen feet upwards. Our lungs burned and spots swam over our eyes as we hauled ourselves gasping onto a jutting rock shelf.
Truth be told, the air was stale and barely breathable. Even worse was that we got turned around while scrambling for the surface and no longer knew where the entrance was. We sucked what little air there was in short, ragged breaths. Things looked bleak. It was then I saw the glow and felt the tug of the silver key from the pocket of my swim trunks. It wanted to go back into the water... which could only mean that there was a keystone nearby. I thought quickly before turning to Katy.
"I know you hate me," I said quietly, "but if I were to ask you to do something crazy would you trust me?"
She sighed. "I don't hate you," she replied. "I hated what you represent. I hated that your arrival meant my dad was going to die."
Katy reached across and touched my shoulder. "I'm over it now. I get what my dad was trying to tell me when he made me leave, that he can't be here for me forever and that I need to learn to live without him."
I was speechless and relieved.
"If I keep being angry at you, all it'll do is stain his memory," she continued. "I want to remember him for all the good he did while he lived, not because I miss him when he's gone."
I nodded, flooded with emotion and resolution.
"We have to dive to the bottom of this cave," I told her. "The keystone is there."
"How?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we'll just have to have a little faith."
"Okay," she said and grabbed my hand.
We dove back into the water and swam down.