DUOPIA

Chapter 2 - The Cave

"I want pancakes Mum! It's Sunday Funday! We always make pancakes on Sunday Funday!" Mikey pouted as he sat at the breakfast table.
Mum leaned her head through from the kitchen, looking at Mikey with a stern gaze.
"No, your Father would always make pancakes on Sunday Funday, I am making baked beans on toast, either that or no food at all." she stated.
"Fine..." he muttered.
James sat on the other end of the table, feeling very much on the side of his brother. Pancakes would be perfect today, but didn't want to cause a fuss so he kept quiet.
They had been living in the house for the past week and both of the boys were starting to get bored. It was the holidays and school didn't start for another week. James and Mikey had spent most of there time in this house, with very little if not nothing to do.
"Not like it's gonna be a Sunday Funday anyways, it's so boring here..." Mikey exclaimed just loud enough for his mum to hear.
James agreed, he had been really bored also. The attic was filled with old furniture and chairs from the previous owners which disappointed Mikey and James as they explored the rest of the house already. The new book he had found was intriguing enough but without a way to read any of it he wasn't able to enjoy it's contents. The only thing that caught his interests was the picture of the window, with the X on the glass. He knew that pointed to the caves on the beach near the cliff. It just had to be the spot that was marked! He needed to see if it was true, but it had been raining all week. It never seemed to let up! Today it was sunny for once, perfect day for exploring.
"Could we go down to the beach today mum? It stopped raining." James asked.
"Well sure! Sounds great!" She exclaimed as she came into the dining area with baked beans on toast for us.
Mum placed down our food and looked at her watch, she was all dressed up ready for work. Black pants with a frilly white shirt, her hair was flowing and smelled like sweet honey and lemon.
"Alright boys, I'll be in my study working." Mum said as she headed upstairs.
James watched her walk up the stairs and down the corridor towards her study, where she spent most of her time since we moved here. Always staring at her computer screen. She was always tired at the end of the day, like she did a long bike ride and needed a long sleep.
BURP
James turned to look at his brother, seeing he had already eaten his breakfast as quickly as he could. His cheeks stuck out his face and a stupid smile radiated something to be proud of.
"Now... Dis is hoo ooo eee in waa bye" Mikey dribbled out his face.
James erupted with laughter, he couldn't understand a word he said or imagine Mickey being this stupid, but he just saw it now, and gosh did it make James laugh.
Mikey started laughing too, and like a mudslide all the food he pushed into his mouth came flowing out back onto the plate. The mess left looked a lot like dog vomit, which made James laugh again.
"Now THAT looks delicious!" James said through giggles.
"Tastes just as good on the way out as it did on the way in!" Mikey said, bits of food hanging on his face.
He grabbed his fork and started shovelling the food back into his mouth, as quickly as it came out. A manic expression was on his face, the more ridiculous he made himself look, the more James laughed.
The boys mucked around at the table for a while, James ate while Mikey finally ingested his breakfast.
James was excited at the idea of heading to the beach, knowing there could be something other then sand and water down there made him very excited.
"Come on! Grab your beach towel JJ, we going or not?" Mikey said.
He was already at the back door heading outside with his dark blue and yellow beach towel in his hand. His black cap was facing backwards so he could run fast without it coming off. James rushed upstairs to his room and grabbed his towel from the wardrobe. He glanced at the book, paged opened up to the map, double checking which particular cave it was that the red X pointed to.
James hurried downstairs and made his way out the backdoor. He quickly danced down the outside staircase and walked across the backyard, past the rusty clothesline towards a set of concrete stairs that headed down to the beach.
Mikey was already heading down the staircase path. The descent was quite steep, and there was no hand rail. If the wind blew hard enough, it could knock you straight off the cliff into the water.
James took a deep breath, and slowly started descending. Step by step, he made his way down the cliff face, seeing the different colour variations through time on the surface of the cliff beside him. The sound of the ocean was loud now, the waves crashing on the sand in an everlasting back and forth.
James made it to the bottom and planted his foot in the sand. Warm from the sun, which had just disappeared under a cloud. He let out a deep breath, realising that he was holding it all the way down to the ocean.
"James move your butt! I want to go to the other side! I wanna explore the caves!" Mikey yelled over the pound of the ocean. He had already started running down the beach, his towel flying behind him like a cape.
"I'm coming! James replied as he too started running.
James was hoping to explore the caves by himself, but maybe having his brother around would be good. He wasn't being as much of a booger as usual so it might be fun to go exploring with him, specially if gets stuck somewhere in the cave, Mikey would be able to help him.
James had to sprint to catch up with his brother, but he didn't mind one bit. He was too excited about finding out what was so special about this cave. Why was it marked in the old 'Duopia' book? Was it merely story or was it something real?
Running from one side to another didn't take very long, but both of the boys were puffed out a little. As they slowed down, they noticed up close that there were six caves in total.
Two of the caves you had to swim to to see what was in them, and with the tide this high the waves would wash you up against the wall of the cliff. The other four caves were easily accessible on the beach. The second one from the beach was the biggest cave out of the cluster. The entrance was as tall as Mikey, and looked like it didn't end for quite sometime.
"Wow..." James gasped.
Michael started walking up to the entrance of the second cave, towel over his shoulder.
"Let's look in this one JJ, or are you scared?" Michael said mockingly.
James was a little scared, he had to admit. He couldn't see to the end of the cave. It looked like it could have gone on forever, and it gave him a little chill. James hugged his arms as he then realised that it was starting to rain a little.
He covered himself with the towel he brought with him and moved into the cave entrance. His feet hit the cool rocky surface and instantly felt calm. He looked down, as if to see some sort of magic at play, making him feel lighter but it was just rocks.
"This place is cool!" Mikey said.
James looked up. Mikey was already down the main corridor of the cave, he almost couldn't see him.
"Wait Mikey!" James exclaimed as he picked up the pace.
The roar of the ocean was behind them, it started to disappear as they entered the cave. The rock wall around them was smooth, different shades of grey. The ceiling of the cave corridor started to change, the deeper James and Michael walked in, the longer and more frequent the stalactites became. The corridor started slowly turning to the right. James started hearing the sounds of the cave more, the drip of water getting in somewhere, the echo of his and his brothers footsteps. It seemed peaceful and quiet, like no one had ever walked in here before. Untouched by anyone, like explorers discovering new worlds.
As the two brothers walked on into the unknown cavern, the darkness became more and more apparent. It was getting harder to see where they were going.
James was squinting in the darkness, trying to see what was ahead of him. He could see more stalactites but it was too dark to make out the details. He took another step forward and stubbed his toe on a big rock below him.
Tears welled up in his eyes instantly as he grabbed his injured foot. The pain was overwhelming.
"OW! Owowowowowowow" James muttered over and over.
"You idiot hahaha" Mikey snickered back.
James was hopping on his one foot, trying to walk it off.
CRASH!!!!
Before James could gasp from shock, he hopped onto a spot on the cave floor that gave way. James disappeared in a flash into a hole made by his hopping and some unstable rock, dropping him down into another cavern. He landed on his side, breaking his fall with his butt and hands.
After a few moments, James sat up realising what had just happened. His toe was bleeding a little and his hands were scraped up from the fall, but James wasn't paying attention to that. He was staring straight ahead. He never expected to see this in the cave marked in his book, it was beyond his imagination.
"James! Are you OK?" Mikey shouted. "JAMES!?"
"I'm OK!" James responded. "You need to get down here! It's amazing!"
"What? What do you mean?" Mikey replied
"Just come on down!" James insisted.
James could hear Mikey climbing into the hole he just fell into, with a bit more grace then his brother, he slid down and hopped over next to James.
"That's how you do it JJ, but either way it w-" Mikey stopped dead in tracks.
He was looking ahead just as James was, looking into the cavern that they were in.
They were speechless.
Both of the brothers had slipped into a small hole that led them too a giant oval shaped cavern. It was as big as their old school play ground, but what had taken their breath away was the lights!
Thousands and thousands of glowing lights hung from the cave ceiling in tiny strands, lighting up the entire cavern. The strands of light gave off a light blue luminescent glow, that radiated around the whole space, shining on every surface and detail of the cavern.
James and Mikey were stunned.
"What is this place?" Mikey asked.
"It's so cool." James said.
Mikey started walking down towards the centre of the cavern, noticing that the floor was of smooth stone, with no cracks to be found at all. The strands of light were just above him, within arms reach. The ceiling was quite low, but the size of cavern was huge.
"We are probably the first people to find this place JJ!" Mikey said as he trotted down the slope into the centre of the cavern.
James was still a little stunned by what he saw. It was so beautiful! He felt a slight breeze coming from across the other side of where he was sitting, it was almost sweet and fruity. It was so calm and peaceful here, he could almost close his eyes and have a nap. He couldn't hear the ocean anymore, just the echoing footsteps of his brother exploring.
James tried to get up, feeling a bit stiff and sore from the fall and stubbing his toe. It still stung a lot but he could limp on it now until the pain subsided. He stood up and limped down the slope to his brother.
"They are worms! The glowy things are worms!" Mikey stated.
He was holding a worm in his hand, and saw that his entire hand was indeed glowing! James rushed to him.
As James got closer, he noticed the rows of strands above his head, how perfectly in line they were. Perfectly spaced from one another. He approached Mikey who was standing on the stone floor that stretched for ages, with his hand out in front of him.
"Wow that's so cool!" James replied as he looked into Michael's hand.
It looked more like a grub, no more then two inches. It's skin looked translucent but glowing a bright blue-white colour.
"And it's poop glows too!" Michael said.
He picked up a worm from the ceiling with a strand hanging off of it. Sure enough, it was a strand hanging off the rear end of the worm, glowing just as much as the worm was.
Without a second thought, Mikey took advantage of his little brothers curiosity and threw the glowing poop strand at his brother's face.
James squeaked from fright and fell backwards, landing on his butt again.
"Mikey you idiot!" James yelled.
Mikey was laughing too hard to be paying attention, James had a strand of worm poop right down the left side of his face, and his face was glowing. He reached for it to try and take it off, but as soon as James touched it his fingers got all sticky!
He wiped his face with his towel and got most of the sticky glowing poop off. He looked at his towel and it was glowing just like the strands, but not as bright.
"You suck Mikey!" James shouted.
Mikey shrugged and threw the weird worm to the ground and turned around, facing the other side of the cavern.
"At least I didn't have poop on my face haha!" Mikey sniggered back. "Hey what's that!?"
Mikey started running towards the other end of the cavern, up the slope.
James followed suit, and chased after him. "What is it?" He asked.
Mikey stopped right at a wall across the other side of the cavern to where they fell, and stared at something James couldn't see yet. The sweet smell was getting stronger as James got closer to Mikey.
"Buried treasure, maybe?" Mikey said while rubbing his hands together.
James came up next to his brother and saw what he was talking about. He gasped.
"What's wrong?" Mikey asked.
"Nothing, my hands and butt still hurt." James stuttered.
"Oh... sook." Mikey said.