I came to in dark surroundings, a small fire burning for warmth. My head was pounding, and I felt weak. I slowly sat up to see Brendan sat in the opposite side of the fire. He was sat up straight on guard.

I looked around, quickly coming to the conclusion that Brendan had brought me just inside the ruins as to my right was an opening where I could still make out the vegetation. It was raining.

“What happened?” I asked.

Brendan smiled with relief. “You passed out.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged his shoulders. “You stopped on the first step and collapsed.”

“Weird.” I began to think, I remembered seeing Fang standing atop the stairs with Larana. “Larana, do you know?” She appeared, nodding her head. “Come on, tell me.”

“As your clairvoyance evolves so will your abilities with it, so much so you can actually see more than a few second into the future, but also events of the past,” informed Larana. “Until you master this power, it will leave you feeling weak after such episodes as you saw and unfortunately in most cases you will have no control over what you see.”

“Seriously.” I wasn’t sure how to process what she was telling me.

“This one most probably occurred because of my own connection with this place and…” She looked at me, then away almost like she’d almost said something she mustn’t.

“Your memory.” I wanted verification.

“In a way yes,” she nodded.

“So, I can see your memories, like dad did, pretty cool,” I nodded, thinking about all the secrets I could unfold.

“Our sync rate isn’t high enough for that,” she smiled.

“Oh,” was all I could say.

“Do you think we should continue then, if it could have this kind of effect on you?” asked Brendan concerned.

“Why stop now.” I stood up. “The legendary Fang came here once, and I want to see what he saw.”

“You still believe those old stories,” commented Brendan.

“Yes, I do.” I puffed out my chest. “Rumour had it Larana and Mila were both his talismans when he fought against the eternal dragon.”

“Well, I find that hard to believe,” sighed Brendan.

“Believe what you want, but no one is going to change my mind.” I turned to look deeper into the ruins. “Let’s get moving.” I picked up one of the ember covered logs, using it as a torch.

“Shouldn’t we wait till…”

I stopped him before he could finish. “What? Until the sun comes up.” I let out a laugh. “Not going to happen in the cave now is it.” Brendan looked away from me. “We’ll be fine Brendan; just remember your training and we’ll take it slow.”

“There is nothing to worry about,” smiled Larana. “These caves have become sacred places and are protected by powerful spirits.”

I began heading off, deeper within the caverns. “I’m not telling you again Brendan. I’ll leave you behind.”

“I’m coming!” He ran in after me, coming up to walk beside me. “Where to first then?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “We’ll just keep following this passage until we find what we’re looking for.” I glanced at the torch; the embers were really weak, but I knew I could regulate it by circulating air around them.

I thought back to the Jubatus Dash I had helped before, he would have come in real handy with those light up spots of his, shame really, I didn’t see all that much of him since helping him with his Leo problem, maybe he would help with mine in the future.

For the longest time we walked in silence as it got darker around us the further away from the entrance we went. I kept glancing at the torch, making sure not to feed it too little or too much.

“Nice control master,” commented Larana.

“Trying to stay focused,” I responded stepping over some rubble.

There had been no sign of anyone having been within these caves for many years. We came across signs that Animalia had once lived here as mum had described, with cooking pots, old rusted weapons, and tools.

I felt this strange sadness, to think this place was once used on a daily basis, but now was left to crumble away over history. So much so that no one came here anymore. I felt a sudden excitement come up from within me, wondering what they were missing out on, the secrets that this place could be hiding.

I let out a sharp breath trying to calm myself down. I couldn’t let myself get too excited otherwise I would lose my concentration on keeping the torch stable.

“You’re excited,” commented Brendan.

I glanced at him. “What gave you that idea?”

“My brother always got that look in his eye when he was excited, whether it was unexplored areas or a fight with a strong opponent,” responded Brendan, thinking back on the memories of his brothers. I noticed the claymore on his back, gleamed in the darkened light. I kind of wished I could tell him that his brother wasn’t too far.

“Who wouldn’t this place is a mystery and we’ve only scratched the surface,” I grinned. “What secrets lay below our feet, will we find some lost tribe living down here, what connection does those crystals have? Where are they? How many are there?” My questioned started blurting out, I couldn’t hold it all in anymore.

“Calm down, we’ll find out soon enough,” laughed Brendan.

“What’s so funny?” I gave him a weird look.

“You are so much like my brother,” he mentioned.

“We are brothers now, aren’t we?” I nudged him.

“Brothers,” he nodded. “I like that.”

“Good.” I walked a head slightly. “Careful.” I stepped over some items that were on the ground, a sheet of metal and more rubble. I lifted up the torch a little higher, making it brighter, seeing ahead the cave sloped downwards.

I looked down at my feet to feel the ground was colder, slightly wet. The water from the rain was traveling down like a slow moving stream.

“Wow!” I heard Brendan cry out. I turned quickly to see him slipping, landing on the sheet of metal.

“Crap.” I didn’t have the chance to move out of the way, as Brendan had ended up on the metal sheet, sliding towards me at fast speeds.

I was knocked over, letting go of the torch as I landed on Brendan as we slid down the slope, following the flow of the water. We both cried out in shock, wondering where this was going to take us.

“Do something!” shouted Brendan.

“Like what?!” I shouted back.

“Use one of your talismans or something!”

“I don’t know if that’ll help!”

“Try!”

I tried sitting up just a little bit to summon Mila to slow us down but couldn’t concentrate long enough as we hit the sides of the cave, turning a sharp corner.

Holding on for dear life, we continued to slide down what seemed to feel like an endless tunnel to only god knows where. I found myself clinging to Brendan, actually scared as to what might happen, and the tension I felt from Brendan let me know he was feeling the same.

Just as fast as it had started, it was almost over as we saw a light at the end of the tunnel, glistening blues, purple and golds.

Then everything opened up, revealing a huge cavern, lit solely by glistening crystals, it was breath taking, that we almost forgot we were sliding down on a sheet of metal.

“What is this place?” Brendan gawked.

I had no chance to reply to his question as we hit a rush of water, sinking down not really realising until we were both completely submerged. I saw Brendan floating there in front of me, his cheeks puffed out as if that would help with holding his breath.

I hadn’t really bothered holding my breath, shocked I grabbed hold of my throat thinking I was about to drown, but I realised I was breathing underwater.

“Brendan,” I said. “I can breathe.” I laughed purely out of nervousness.

“Of course, you can master.” Mila appeared swimming around me. It was her doing, her attribute allowed this to happen. “But he can’t,” she smiled.

“Oh.” I swam towards Brendan, hooking myself under his arm, where we headed for the surface. I quickly realised I could also swim faster; the water held no restrictions for me.

Reaching the surface Brendan took a huge gulp of air. “That was pretty cool,” he commented.

“I know,” I smiled as we swam to the edge of the waters, where we had an opportunity to really get a good look at our surroundings.

The walls of the cavern were covered in a thick layer of shimmering crystal, naturally creating light that filled the entire place. The huge lake which covered sixty percent of the cavern was filled with crystal clear water, you could see fish swimming about and the plants swaying at the bottom.

Around the lake was green shrubs, strange flowers that glistened like the crystals spotted about the place. Tall trees filled with fruit, there were wild animals running around.

“Wow.” Brendan and I looked at each other astonished by what we were seeing. Looking around even more I couldn’t wait to see what else we would find down here.