Night 70: Underground Lake

[nobleman]

[From here.]

They appeared in the same area as they always did when they transported, but a different part of it. As Guy found his feet unsteadily settle on the other bank of the shore, where the ferryman had taken them the night before, he almost stumbled right into the lapping water of the lake. He stopped himself up, sucking in a breath as he came face-to-face with one of those drowned ghouls.

Guy regained his balance, backed away, and then glanced at the torches that only sort of lit the way into the tunnel where they would be heading next. It was just as dark and mysterious as it had been last night, but they couldn't let some apprehension stop them now.

"Well, at least that ferryman kept his word," Guy said. "No toll, no crossing the river, we're just... here." Which meant that they probably shouldn't waste any time seeing where the tunnel led.

Comments

[gald_digger]

The transition was jarring as always, but what was even stranger was when Anise looked around to try and get her bearings, and she realized this wasn’t where they usually teleported to. A short distance ahead was the dark mouth of the tunnel she’d been staring down just last night.

But in the end, that was good. They didn’t have to deal with tolls, or crossing the creepy lake. They just needed to go forward.

“Well, there’s only one way to go from here!” she said, trying to muster up a cheerful, optimistic tone. “Now we can find out where this leads.” Even though she was worried this could be another trap, part of Anise was excited. There had to be an end to all those stupid trials, and maybe this was it.

[kings_thief]

[From Here]

The new area was the opposite of the tunnel. It was large and open and definitely made up of the lake they'd been hearing. From what he could make out, it seemed they were in the middle of the lake and two shores lined opposite end s of the cavern. It was too dark to really make out much detail or even discern a clue as to which shore they needed, but he could tell they were a fair distance from where they were now.

Locke went as close to the water's edge as he could and crouched down in an attempt to see the water better. Who knew what was in it, but maybe they'd be able to swim their way over to one of the shores before anything could get them. Experimentally, he stuck his finger into the water and instantly pulled it back. He would have yelped if he could have, the water was just that cold, so he settled for glaring at it instead. Maybe they could swim it if it wasn't as far as it looked, they were both in good shape after all...but that temperature would prove to be a problem. Even if they made it, they'd be freezing by the end of it.

He hadn't fully been paying attention to the water, but as he came out of his thoughts and focused on the surface again, he started to think he could see something. It almost looked like...-! The treasure hunter scrambled back from the water's edge and stared in horror at it. That wasn't real, right? He was hallucinating, or maybe it was another institute trick. Yeah, that was what he was going to tell himself.

Where were they?