Submission (#1934) Approved

Amongst the rolling round hills of Sulapei and the neverending mist that swirls between them, on one particularly large hill a pair, an elnin and a kittom, climb. The kittom small, watery blue in colour with his namesake, 'ripple'-like markings all along his coat, and an elnin, in monochromatic shades of black lacey markings and white body, hike up the mountain. Ripple, the small blue toned kittom, takes a break on a rather flat overgrown ruin of sorts sitting his pantalooned tushie on the smooth surface of the stone. How did I even think this was going to be fun? 'Go on a hike' she said. 'It'll be great fun' she said. 'Lots of exciting scenery and ruins and the like' she said. Ripple rolls his eyes, and turns to look at his hiking partner Airi, the black and white lady, owner of one of the fanciest hotels in Sulapei, but also his teacher and friend for most of his life. Airi's black wavy hair tumbles in the wind, while she examines the ancient markings on the ruins he sits on. Ripple rolls his eyes again and turns his gaze back to the scenery. At least we're pretty high up, he thinks to himself. Pulling his left paw up he squints his golden eyes against the sunlight to gaze off into the distance. The dark green long sweeping leaves of Kyendi's eldertree, slowly sway in the breeze far off into the distance. And if he concentrates hard, he can almost make out the city of Eiloen beneath it. If only Pomu's don't have to hibernate, Ripple grumbles to himself, then I could move on out of Sulapei and to the more exciting parts of Kyendi. It had only been a couple weeks since Ripple had arrived in Sulapei, but in that time he'd gotten used to the sights and scenery. The rice festival had been and gone, and now he was stuck exploring super old ruins that held nothing but old glyphs, and crumbling dreams of a forgotten civilsation long past its expiry date.

Now sufficiently rested and sick of his own inner grumblings. Ripple hops off of the overgrown rock and butts his head right up next to Airi's.
"Anything.... interesting?"
"Plenty! Why we're getting close I believe!" Airi replies cheerfully humming along to a popular tune that was all the rage on the radio.
"Close to what?" Ripple asks confused.
"Well, if memory serves correctly. A very fun exciting place, you've yet to see." Airi says with a wink. "Right, that's enough dallying. Let's get a move on, kid! Upwards and onwards as they say!" She says puffing up her chest and pointing to the crumbling road going up. "Or... was it onwards and upwards?" she mutters to herself pondering the linguistics. After walking for another hour, the path diverges into two, one path leading straight to the top of the mountain, the other continuing around it at the same elevation level. Airi, seemingly knowing exactly where she's going, ignores the path going upwards and continues around the bend.
"Wha-Airi!" Ripple yells at his compatriot, "You're going the wrong way! The way up to the mountain is this way?!" But Airi, too busy humming along to the earworm stuck in her head, rounds the bend and disappears from sight. "Wait up!" Ripple yells and shakes his head muttering at how some elnin are too old and stubborn to be wandering mountains like these, before rushing after her. As he too rounds the corner, he sees the path end at a small cave. Not seeing Airi around, Ripple decides to go inside the cave, and see if she had gone in.

The inside of the cave is rather dark but a path can be made out ahead, leading downwards. Ripple looks around and sees Airi holding a lit candle in her hand a little ways further down. She rolls her eyes at Ripples worried look, and waves him to hurry up. O..kay... this was NOT how he had imagined this going. Quickly he catches up to her and as they continue down the narrow path, it appears to lead deeper down into the mountain. Do all these round topped mountains have secrets like this? Ripple can't help but wonder as he looks around the deep cave. As they wind down ever deeper, small blue glow worms light up the walls. Their subtle twinkling, almost akin to stars slowly coming into existence within the night sky.
"Woah!" Ripple exclaims softly letting out a low whistle.
"Heh, told you, you'd enjoy this place." Airi smugly replies.
"How did you even know this place exists?!"
"Well, all good explorers can find such places. If you learn to read the signs, explore and always travel with a buddy. You never know what'll turn up." Ripple's golden eyes twinkle in the dim light at Airi's words. This was one of the reasons he loved the black haired Elnin. She'd taken him in under her wing when he was a very young kittom. At first he thought her a bit outlandish, but after travelling with her for a while had found her knowledge and expertise of travelling, social skills and amazing nose for finding the most amazing places had left him in awe. One day he hoped to be just as knowledgeable if not better than her. As the cave continued winding further and further, deeper, and deeper. The cave began to evolve around him. Small waterfalls seemed to burst from the walls, their steady stream of water, bursting out from above, and tumbling down into the depths below. The air became more humid and the foliage became more vibrant. Mosses in varying shades of blue and green grew in abundance, and began to carpet the walls and floor, soft and spongy underfoot. Finally ahead Ripple saw the bottom of the cave. As they approached the small round cavern seemed to open out in a bell like manner, revealing a deep underwater lake of sorts. Its water luminous with the light emanating from the glowing mosses below, and the ceiling lit with an abundance of glow worms. The path they were walking down led to a small landing where a shack and several boats lay next to a small rundown pier.
"Welcome to Sulapei's cavern lake! It's a treasure hunter's trove for fishing down here." Airi says gesturing to the water below.
"Woowww!" Ripple can't help but let his jaw drop to the floor as he peered over the side of the path and looked down into the lake below. Strange silver fish seemed to swim below in small schools, and staring down he could not see the bottom of the lake bed below.
"Heh, you're glad I taught you to swim now, aren't you?" Airi said peeping over his shoulder to look down into the depths below. "The lake's pretty deep! And we haven't fully explored its depths either. Although most of its treasures have been fished up by now, occasionally sometimes you can fish up a really cool vase from some ancient sylvan civilisation or something. Heh, a few of the decorations in the Black Lace Hotel are fished up from here actually!" Airi chatters away as she heads to the shack and rents a boat from an old local Elnin behind the counter.

The duo hop into a small metal dinghy and Airi loads it up with the rental gear from the shack. She then takes hold of one oar and passes the other to Ripple, before teaching him to row in sync to move forwards and how if only one person rows on one side the boat will rotate on the lake. After a few minutes of practice they head out into the main portion of the lake. As the boat gently comes to a stop in the center of the lake, Ripple sees they're not alone! A couple other small dinghy's are strewn across the lake each with an Nin or two, and one with a Nin fast asleep near his fishing line! Airi proceeds to teach Ripple how to fish for rare treasures... namely, attaching a net attachment to the bottom of the line, reeling it so it goes so far deep into the lake that you can't see it anymore, and then rowing around the lake till, they feel a difference in how hard they have to row.
"B-But what about those nin over there?" Ripple asks, "Aren't they hunting for treasure too? Why don't they row around?" Airi turns and looks at the fellow Nin on the water before letting out a small chuckle.
"Oh Ripple, these guys aren't treasure hunters like us. They're fishermen! Although in saying that, there's been several local stories about there being big fish who live in the depths and have gobbled up stray Sylvan artifacts that are usually worth quite a bit... but, who knows? They could just be tall tales. We have plenty of time for fishing after we search around for some treasures anyway." she says with a wink.
"I guess so..." Ripple says and shrugs, before following Airi's suit, and setting up his net attachment just like hers.

- Several hours later -

As the duo slowly climb down the mountain, the sun begins to set over the horizon, giving a beautiful golden glow across the local Kyendi mountaintops, and in the distance small lights can be seen under Kyendi's eldertree as the lights of the homes in the city of Eiloen begin to flicker on.
"Well, I'd say that was a magnificent haul today, Ripple." Airi says beaming with pride and cradling three treasures they had managed to claim from the watery depths.
"It was a lot of fun! Not to mention did you see that big fish the napping Elnin caught?! It was HUUGE!" Ripple exclaims stretching out his paws to mimic the large size of the fish.
"-ahem- well, yes. Some could say he was very lucky. A shame it had no artifacts inside its belly... though it did look mighty tasty." Airi muses to herself, before polishing a dark spot on one of the sylvan vases they had managed to snag. Ripple on the other hand, pulls out of his jacket pocket several small strange rocks his net had managed to dredge up from the depths. Although he had managed to pull up a rather large vase, he was much more interested in the shiny rocks that seemed to be laying at the bottom of the lake. These will be great souvenirs for Poru! Though I'm sure he'll want to fishing there with me when he's back out of hibernation. Oh he's going to be so miffed he missed out on the big fish that Elnin caught... I hope he comes out of hibernation soon, he thinks to himself. As the pair head back to the Black Lace Hotel for the night.