Chapter 4 Glowing Cave

“Meet him.” I repeated. “Meet him where?” I asked nervously as I shot Byron a glance. My apparent twin had a fork in his mouth as he simply waited for Trei’s response. Skyr was trying to busy himself by eating, but you could tell that he was listening as well.

I mean, hearing the leader of the sea people, a race that was once thought of to be extinct is kind of…

…Let’s just say that even though we were trying to act normal, we are still trying to adjust to the fact that we are in a cafeteria full of them.

And it wasn’t easy to stop ourselves from staring at them.

“I’ll take you both there when you finish eating.” He assured us. “And as for the general, it might be difficult since it will be in cold waters. We haven’t invented the right breathers that wouldn’t freeze and break at the drop of temperature.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll train.” He says and continued to eat.

“So…” Byron started to say. “If your great grandfather is the leader, or let’s say king, does that mean that you’re like a prince here?” 

Trei was taken aback by his comparison. “I...I guess you could say that? But I don’t even want to think of it that way.”

“Wow.” Byron, despite being a legendary demigod himself, still seemed fascinated by him. “Can you show us your skin again?”

Skyr almost choked at what he was eating while I reached under and kicked his foot. “Byron, I think that’s rude!” I hissed and looked around us in case anyone heard it.

Trei simply laughed and didn’t seem offended. “It’s fine. We’re all used to it that it doesn’t bother us anymore.” He says, then he looked at Byron. “Unfortunately, this is the skin that I am born with. The blue skin that you saw before only appears when I am underwater.”

“How is that possible?” I asked.

“Most of us here have more than half sea people blood. In my case, I belong to those under the fifty percent cut. That is why I have the skin of a human when I am on land. And,” He paused and looked at me apologetically. “It is also part of the reason why I am chosen to be the one to watch over you. Only I was human enough to look after you.”

Now it all makes sense why Trei was afraid of pool and beaches when we were kids. He was actually afraid that I would find out about….his over nature.

I moved my gaze back to my plate. “Right. How can I forget?” I said and then continued to eat. “You know, I can’t wait to meet this grandpa of yours. I bet it’s his idea, isn’t it?”

Trei didn’t respond after that. But I took his silence as confirmation for my suspicion. We all ate in silence after that. Once we were done, Skyr headed in another direction to head for the training room, which I was jealous of since I miss the exercise.

“Come on, Nat.” Trei called for me as he and Byron her already a few steps ahead of me. I glanced in the direction where Skyr went one last time before I followed them.

***

“You have got to be kidding me.” I said. Trei led us to an elevator that took us down to a secret underwater cave. “You guys connected your facility to a cave underwater?” We got out of the elevator. It was very dark and the only light that we have right now is the one from the elevator.

Trei got out three glow sticks and handed one to me and one to Byron.

“Cool!” Byron says just as the elevator closed. His voice now echoed into the cave.

“Byron!” I hissed lowly and pulled him back when he looks like he was about to run forward. “We should stick together. We know nothing about the cave and what’s inside of it. Also, aren’t you cold?” I asked. We weren’t exactly wearing anything except for the full rashguard that they made us change into before coming here.

“Not really.” He shrugged. “But don’t worry, Nat. Your body will get used to it soon.” 

“We’re in Antarctica! Ice basically surrounds us!” I almost screamed.

“Your brother does have a point, Nat.” Trei inserted. “Atlanteans barely feel the cold. In fact, they feel the heat more than the cold. And since you are also a demigod, well...you should technically not feel it. It’s just in your mind.” 

I could feel that we are somehow getting closer to the water because of the moist rocks under my bare feet. And I had to grit my teeth whenever I feel icy cold water. I shivered.

All in my head they say. Easier said than done.

My twin, Byron, doesn’t seem to be having any problem at all as he would simply run whenever he sees a clear path. When he crossed a small puddle, he even jumped on it, causing it to splash on us.

I growled in annoyance after I wiped the water off of my face. Byron turned back and flashed me a nervous smile. “Sorry.”

Trei laughed. “It’s not so bad. We’re going on a swim anyway.”

“Great.” I tried to sound excited, but just imagine myself swimming in icy cold water doesn’t sound appealing to me. “Can’t wait.”

We continue to go deeper into the cave until we a huge opening with a pool in the middle. “This is it.” Trei says as he placed the glowstick on the ground. 

“We’re not bringing the lights?” Byron asked, looking like he doesn’t want to part with the glowsticks at all.

“No. If they break, it would be hazardous to the sea life.” As soon as the words left Trei’s lips, Byron immediately dropped the glowstick like it was the most offensive item that he has seen in his entire life.

Well, it probably is.

Trei wasted no time and dived into the pool. Byron followed next. Seeing as I was the only one left, I pushed all of my worries behind and jumped.

As soon as my body touched the water, all I wanted to do at that moment was to resurface and swam to the shore. But I stopped when something caught my attention. The area underwater started glowing all around us that I found myself swimming even further. The deeper I went, the brighter it got.

Just then, something grabbed my wrist. When I turned around, it was just Trei. His skin was light blue once again. Gills once again appeared on his neck and arms.

‘Breath.’ He mouthed.

If he hadn’t told me about it, I would have actually forgotten about my other ability to breathe underwater. Or even remembered to breathe at all.

As my lungs started to fill themselves, Trei grabbed my hand and swam deeper into the hole and through a cave. As we continued to swim even further, I realized that the lights were coming from colorful green and blue stones on the walls. I was actually curious and would have swum closer, but Trei was pulling on my hand.

The further we swam, the bigger the gave got. I saw Byron just in front of us. Unfairly using his power to swim effortlessly.

Finally, we reached the end of the tunnel and found ourselves in a large cave full of those glowing stone crystals. There were a lot of them situated just at the center. They formed some sort of throne. 

And there, sitting on it was an alien-like humanoid sea creature. His skin was in a darker shade of blue. Darker than the other sea people that I have seen. His eyes were double lidded, white, and glassy. He doesn't have a nose. Only gills at the side that help him breathe underwater. He was bald as well and instead of ears, he has fins.

So this is the current leader of the sea people. 

I remember Trei saying that he was the old advisor of the first demigod. But looking at him now, he doesn’t seem to be old. In fact, his figure reminds me of a muscular man with his bulking muscles. 

Well, I really can’t judge him properly since I don’t know what old sea people look like.

I looked at Trei for confirmation. Then I saw him bow down in front of the man. Byron and I did the same.

‘Welcome, demigods. My Lords!” A voice spoke in my mind making me look up in surprise. And when I did, I saw the man smiling at us with razor-sharp teeth before he got up and bowed to us instead. ‘I have waited patiently for your arrival. There are a lot of things that we have yet to discuss.’