- CHAPTER 27
- >You know, you’ve never really explored this place.
- >Or given it a name.
- >Cause calling it a cave isn’t an apt description.
- >Everywhere you go is a cave.
- >“The Bath Cave” sounds kind of punny.
- >You laugh at your own joke.
- >You’re a fucking hilarious comedian. Not.
- >You explore the bath cave a bit.
- >The far wall is pretty deep, with a waterfall seeping from a modestly sized crack in the wall.
- >Unfortunately for you, the crack isn’t big enough for you to fit through.
- >And the water would have just pushed you back out.
- >Escape probably isn’t happening any time soon.
- >Not unless there’s a drain in this bath cave.
- >You blink.
- >Hey, what about that black hole you saw earlier?
- >The water here has a current.
- >Which means it must drain somewhere.
- >You look back at the cliff face.
- >The two changelings are watching you, but they aren’t really doing anything.
- >You’re sure they wouldn’t mind you diving.
- >But you’ll have to be quick about it.
- >You take a deep breath and submerge yourself.
- >Fingers crossed, hopefully it’s an exit.
- >You peer into the hole.
- >It’s dark as hell.
- >It’s been about twelve seconds since you went underwater and already your lungs are screaming for air.
- >You fight the urge to breathe in a gallon of water and keep pushing on.
- >There’s hardly any light for you to see, but you decide to paddle your way into the dark opening.
- >A couple meters in and you’ve hit a wall.
- >Worse, the current is pushing you downwards.
- >And it’s stronger.
- >Much stronger than before.
- >You do your best to keep your cool as your body is swept away by the pull of the water.
- >Your lungs are on fire.
- >Fuck, this was a terrible idea.
- >You clamp your hands over your mouth and nose to stop yourself from exhaling.
- >Your shoulders smash against the stone walls.
- >Water seeps through your lips.
- >At this rate, you’re going to drown.
- >You have to stay calm.
- >If not, you really will drown.
- >You know for a fact that you can last a minimum of two minutes.
- >You used to do this all the time as a kid at the local pool.
- >You’ve been in the current for about a minute and a half.
- >You notice a small patch of light at what seems like the end of this tunnel.
- >You start kicking your legs, swimming towards it.
- >And for a moment, you’re fucking golden.
- >Air.
- >You gasp it in.
- >And the next moment, you’re in free fall.
- “FUCK!”
- >You’ve barely had a second to breath and already you’re breathless.
- >You crash into a natural water basin below.
- >As you tumble in oasis, you desperately try to get your bearings, right yourself.
- >You need air.
- >You claw up to the light, pushing as hard as you can to break the surface.
- >And you break the surface only to meet more water.
- >Like fucking Niagara Falls.
- >Torrents of water cascade down around you as you gasp for air.
- >You gulp it in greedily.
- >After taking a few minutes to regain your composure, you swim ashore.
- >And get a good look of your surroundings.
- >You’re in another cave-wait no.
- >It’s more like a fissure.
- >Easily a hundred meters deep. Maybe even more.
- >You can see sunlight bleeding from the top of the cliff walls.
- >... sunlight.
- >It’s been days since you’ve last had that.
- >You step into it’s warm glow and let out an exhausted laugh.
- >There’s no time to waste.
- >You have no idea if Feral and Eisen are on your tail.
- >You need to find a way to climb up to the surface.
- >If you were feeling gutsy, you’d climb up the vines that are hanging from the top of the cliff, but... no.
- >Something is telling you that’s an awful idea.
- >It’s probably because those vines look rather thin and weak.
- >There has to be a better option.
- >The cliff face is smooth, with barely any cracks in it.
- >No way you can scale that.
- >There aren’t even any ledges for you to jump your way up.
- “Nothing? Really?”
- >You hear a water drop echo from your right.
- >You turn and look.
- >A small brook is trickling away from the basin.
- >It’s going downhill and looks like it’ll go through a winding tunnel.
- >Which you’re not even sure if it’ll lead to the surface.
- >It looks like it would lead you deeper underground.
- “Fuck.”
- >You wring out water from your hair and shake it off of you.
- >You spend a few more minutes inside the sunlight, drying yourself off.
- >Getting a heavy dose of that Vitamin D as well.
- >You sigh and stand up.
- >Those vines will probably lead to certain death.
- >The tunnels on the other hand, have a 50/50 chance of leading to the surface.
- >Well, maybe not 50/50... but it’s still a better alternative.
- >You follow the water down through the tunnels.
- >You kind of wish you had a trail of breadcrumbs to follow back, just in case you got lost.
- >The further you walk, the narrower the tunnel gets.
- >The ceiling is getting lower too.
- >Within minutes, you’re crawling through a tight-squeeze.
- >Luckily for you, the walls are slick from the water.
- >Through sheer willpower, you slip through the narrow confines of the tunnel.
- >Into another, darker cave.
- “... great.”
- >You keep seeing chunks of rock being strewn across the ground.
- >A few fragments of gems lay embedded in the walls.
- >As if someone was digging for them and gave up.
- >You realize this isn’t a cave.
- >It’s a mine.
- >You hear a scraping noise just ahead of you.
- >Followed by a voice.
- >”...-’s nothing here!”
- >A changeling?
- >Before you can panic, you hear a second voice.
- >”Are you a dog or are you that whining little pony? Just keep digging!”
- >Dog?
- >They certainly don’t sound like any changeling you’ve ever heard.
- >You round the bend and see two oversized dogs digging into the cave walls.
- “H-hello?”
- “Hi...”
- >You cautiously approach the two dogs.
- >You don’t want to appear as a threat to them.
- >Besides, they might be your only ticket out of here.
- >The stare at you.
- >”Who are you?”
- >”Why do you look like a hairless monkey?”
- >You blink.
- >These guys aren’t like Winona.
- >They speak.
- >And they’re a bit tactless.
- >You examine them carefully.
- >They’re very top heavy.
- >Both of them are wearing gem-encrusted spiked collars, with colored jackets.
- >There’s a big dark brown dog and a short tan one.
- >They remind of you bull dogs in a way.
- >Or pugs.
- >”Aren’t you going to answer our questions?”
- “I- uh...”
- >”Spit it out!”
- “I’m Anon... I-... I’m lost.”
- >”Lost?”
- >”You’re in our diamond mines!”
- >”How did you even get here?
- “I wa-AH!”
- >You’re grabbed from behind by a massive gray dog.
- >He holds you up in the air, his hands keeping your arms pinned.
- >You let out a nervous laugh.
- "H-hi."
- >”Who are you?”
- “I-... Anon. I’m Anon.”
- >This isn’t exactly what you were expecting.
- “My name is Anonymous, Anon for short. I’m a human.”
- >They’re murmuring to each other.
- >”Human?”
- >”What’s a human?”
- >The middle sized dog stares at you.
- >”Why are you in our caves? Are you here to steal our gems?”
- “What? No! I-I’m kind of... lost.”
- >”Lost...”
- >”Pft, yeah right.”
- “There were these changelings chasing me, and-”
- >“Changelings? Ughhh, you were with those disgusting bugs?”
- >”Why were you with the changelings?”
- >”What are you doing down here?”
- ”They had me as their prisoner.”
- >That shut them up very quickly.
- “I don’t want to go back there. Please... can I stay with you guys for a little while?”
- >They huddle together and whisper amongst themselves.
- >They’re not very quiet though, you can hear everything their saying.
- >”She was their prisoner.’
- >”Must be valuable.”
- >”What’s she worth?”
- >”What can she even do? Why did the lock her up?”
- >”Can she find gems like that one pony?”
- >”We can put her to work.”
- >You blink.
- >What?
- “I can’t really help you.”
- >”What? Why not? It’s just digging.”
- “I-”
- >Even though lying would be really beneficial to you...
- >Even though these dogs could probably kill you without a second thought...
- >You’re not going to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
- >Trading a lifetime with Mara for an unknown amount of time as a digging drone doesn’t sound like an improvement.
- >You waggle your arms like a comedic raptor, displaying your fingers to them.
- “No claws. I’m not really able to dig. At least, not without a shovel or something.”
- >The dogs glare at you.
- “I mean, I can work for you guys if you’d like but... I can’t really… work for you guys.”
- >Your voice trails off.
- >”If you can’t work, what good are you?”
- >Out of the shadows comes a creature.
- >With a deep bassy voice, large size, and dark fur.
- >Wearing a crimson hood.
- >Something’s off about him, but you’re not sure what.
- >”Set the monkey down Fido.”
Pastebin launched a little side project called HostCabi.net, check it out ;-)Don't like ads? PRO users don't see any ads ;-)
CYOA Badluck Femanon Ch 27
Text below is selected. Please press Ctrl+C to copy to your clipboard. (⌘+C on Mac)
create a new version of this paste
RAW Paste Data