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Sunday, October 4

Ocean Meets Sky: Part 3 – Cave Entrance

The water of the Pale Sea dripped into the mouth of a darkened cave, but the magical seal between the shipwrecked fihali vessel and the coral reef held.

Kham dropped to his knees and doubled over as spasms wracked him. Water exploded from his lungs. He lay gasping and coughing on the floor, dragging in deep breaths of air.

Beldin and Sebastian spat up water, but with much less violence than Kham.

“Is it always like that?” asked Kham, catching his breath.

“Yes,” said Sebastian. “But it’s tougher on humans.”

“Since when didn’t you consider yourself human?” asked Kham.

Sebastian let his twitching tail speak for him.

The cavern dripped water all around them, but it was not submerged. A shallow depression ran through it, a river beneath the ocean, forged through magic. A wider path of black volcanic led into the cavern.

Kham took a few steps in, then stopped. He bent down to inspect something he had kicked.

It was a skeleton, half-buried in silt, with its arm outstretched towards the strange river. There was a rotting pouch in one skeletal hand, a rusted cutlass in the other.

“That’s strange,” said Kham. “Looks like this guy’s bones were broken around his neck and shoul…”

There was a rumbling overhead. Beldin shoved Kham aside, shield over his head.

“Down!” more

Labels: arcanis

posted by Mike Tresca at 9:26 PM

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