As soon as their camp was packed down, they didn’t waste any more time, and everyone walked towards the edge of the hole. The plan was for Alo to carry Mika on his back while Zhang would carry Luka, and Nakai would carry Wang Bao. Despite already being aware of the fact that he wouldn’t need to do the climbing, Wang Bao couldn’t stop his heart from beating rapidly against his chest, or the constant trembling in his legs. While everyone continued to walk to the hole that could potentially take them out of the hell hole that the mine had become, Wang Bao unconsciously stopped at the dry shoreline, his body refusing to move any closer to his potential impending doom. Before anyone could turn back to see what was taking Wang Bao so long, Nakai told them to start the descent without them, before turning around. When Nakai was only a few steps away from Wang Bao, he spoke in a light tone.

 

“Come on scaredy cat, the sooner we do this the quicker it’s over.”

 

With every step Nakai was taking closer, Wang Bao started taking one step back while asking if he could stay behind and wait for them to return instead. Hearing Wang Bao’s question paired with the cowardly expression on his face, Nakai’s want to tease Wang Bao grew, and he replied with a smirk while also quickening his steps.

 

“No. What if we find a way out? How will you get out of the mine then?”

 

Without giving Wang Bao the chance to reply, Nakai lunged forward to catch Wang Bao in his arms, but Wang Bao’s reflexes were on high alert thanks to the adrenaline running through his body, and he was able to run sideways to escape Nakai’s hands. With both men laughing from the impromptu game of cat and mouse, Wang Bao started running around the empty space that had once been their camp until Nakai finally put in the effort to actually catch Wang Bao. As Nakai pulled Wang Bao closer into his body from behind, he whispered with a dark voice in Wang Bao’s ear.

 

“Stop playing around, it turns me on.”

 

Wang Bao knew he could only admit defeat, and he reluctantly climbed onto Nakai’s back. Holding onto Nakai as they walked closer to the pitch black hole in the ground was okay for Wang Bao, but when he caught sight of the distance between them and the rest of their group, he couldn’t help but try to climb down from Nakai’s back. However, Nakai didn’t stop walking forward, instead he reached behind and spanked Wang Bao’s bottom before saying seriously.

 

“Don’t move around like that, Wang Bao. Once I start climbing, I won’t be able to hold you.”

 

Wang Bao did as he was told, and forced himself to stay as still as possible, while also holding onto Nakai’s shoulders with a tight grip. When it came time for Nakai to start climbing down, Wang Bao’s mind went blank, and he found he could only stare at the dark wet rocks in front of him. The climb down itself didn’t take long, and as soon as Nakai reached the bottom, he crouched down before helping Wang Bao onto his feet. Once he turned around, Nakai could see Wang Bao was both sweaty and sickly pale, as if he was about to faint. The sight was quite concerning for everyone, and Nakai gently wiped away the sweat on Wang Bao’s forehead while saying softly.

 

“See, you made it down in one piece. Do you need to take a break before we start walking?”

 

It took a couple seconds for Wang Bao to return to reality; although his legs felt like both jelly and lead, he slowly shook his head. Nakai didn’t want Wang Bao to push himself too far, but he also knew Wang Bao didn’t want to be a burden to anyone. All he could do was say okay to Wang Bao’s decision before turning around to start leading the group. At the opening of the cave in front of them, Nakai’s light stick was still shining brightly, and he bent over to pick it up in order to light their way, while holding Wang Bao’s clammy hand tightly with his free hand. From above, the cave had appeared small, but now that they were walking through the dark space, Nakai was able to completely upright with room to spare above him. Because of the recent passing of water through the cave, the air was slightly damp yet surprisingly warm. They hadn’t been walking for long, when Luka and Mika spotted a stray calcified egg stuck between a crack in the ground. Like the other eggs Alo had given them, there was a soft glow being emitted. Because Nakai was yet to see any of this, Alo asked for the calcified egg before passing it onto Nakai, asking for his opinion on the oddity.

 

With the glowing egg in his hand, Nakai inspected the object thoroughly, but he had never seen anything like it before. While passing the egg back to Mika, he said.

 

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Where did the eggs come from?”

 

Wang Bao quickly filled Nakai in on what had happened mere minutes before he had woken up. He also mentioned how he thought the eggs could be from the insects that had been buzzing around them before the eggs dropped into the water. Nakai on the other hand wasn’t convinced about the eggs coming from insects, and he said as they continued walking forward.

 

“I don't think those are bug eggs. Maybe we’ll see what they really are when we make it to the end of this cave.”

 

As the group continued walking, every few minutes Mika and Luka would spot a stray egg stuck in a crack in the ground, or tucked behind a rock. After walking for what felt like half a day, the eggs had grown to the size of a grapefruit, and both Mika’s and Luka bags had grown significantly heavier. Before they continued walking any further, Alo and Nakai agreed to stop for a food break; this allowed Zhang to check over the map while Wang Bao started cooking, and he was able to see they had covered a lot of ground in the six hours they had been walking, most likely because the cave was mainly a straight line, unlike the winding path with constant ups and downs in the mine that had taken triple the amount of time to walk the same distance. 

 

The cave itself wasn’t on the map, but Zhang was able to see their location and used the surrounding tunnels to find where they currently were in the mine. Without looking up from his screen, Zhang informed everyone. 

 

“We are currently under the place where we ran into that worm beast. If this cave has an exit, then we should be out of here in only a couple days.”

 

Luka came up behind Zhang to peek at his phone over Zhang’s shoulder. He couldn’t understand anything that was being shown, and he asked Zhang.

 

“What will we do if that beast finds us again?”

 

Without sugar coating, Zhang replied to Luka honestly.

 

“It would be hard for us to find an escape route down here;we would only have one option, really. Kill the beast or die.”

 

With that being said, Wang Bao handed everyone a sandwich to eat, and Luka forced himself to eat the food while also forcing the thought of the rancid smelling beast out of his mind. As soon as everyone had eaten their snack, the group set off again. Nakai and Alo wanted the group to cover as much ground as possible, and they refused to stop for the night until both Mika and Luka were complaining about their feet. Wang Bao was never one to complain openly whenever he was in pain, but Nakai knew something was off with him since he had stopped talking after their sandwiches. Thankfully it didn’t take long to set up the three tents and have a meal; the moment that Nakai crawled into the tent after Wang Bao, he pulled Wang Bao’s boots off and started massaging the slightly swollen feet. Wang Bao hissed from the sudden discomfort of having his tender feet massaged, but his feet weren’t the worst of his problems. Nakai was surprised to see Wang Bao wasn’t putting up a fuss like usual, and he quietly asked Wang Bao with a look of concern on his face.

 

“Are you still bothered about having to climb down the drop off earlier?”

 

Before answering, Wang Bao wriggled around on the ground since his back was in too much pain to ignore, and the hard ground was only making it worse. Despite their being a sleeping bag and blanket for them, Wang Bao felt as if each individual stone was stabbing through his skin. Trying his best to ignore the constant shooting pains in his back, Wang Bao replied to Nakai.

 

“I was only scared during the climbing, after it was done I was fine.”

 

Hearing Wang Bao’s answer and seeing him continuously moving around, Nakai was finally able to put two and two together, and he stopped massaging Wang Bao’s feet to turn the man over onto his stomach. This gave Wang Bao slight relief but he quickly cried out in pain as Nakai started massaging his back. Wang Bao wanted to shove Nakai away, but every time he jerked around to hit Nakai, his back would cease, forcing him to lay on his stomach and accept the painful massage. Seeing Wang Bao so pitiful made Nakai feel bad as well, and he asked Wang Bao with a stern voice, as if he was about to start scolding Wang Bao.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me your back had started hurting again, Wang Bao?”

 

Now that Nakai knew about his back, Wang Bao stopped being brave about the agony he had been keeping to himself for the past few hours, and he complained loudly with a slight pout.

 

“It’s not just my back! It’s my waist, knees, ankles, hips. My entire body hurts!”

 

All Nakai could do was sigh since there wasn’t much help they could receive while in the middle of an unknown cave underneath an ancient mine. To try and soothe Wang Bao’s pain slightly, Nakai worked hard to give Wang Bao a full body massage, only stopping once Wang Bao was able to fall asleep comfortably.

 

. . . . . . . .

 

Over the next three days, the group continued walking. Luka and Mika had stopped finding stray calcified eggs, while Wang Bao’s back pain was constant from the moment he woke up, until Nakai would massage it in the evening. If it hadn’t been for Zhang, who was keeping them updated on how close they were to the edge of the mine, everyone felt they would have gone crazy or fallen into a dark depression thanks to how dire the journey was looking. With the day growing later, Nakai thought they would need to carry on walking tomorrow, but the dark cave they were used to walking through, slowly grew brighter, as if there was another source of light further ahead. The new sight was refreshing for everyone, and they couldn’t help but quicken their steps. As the group drew closer, Nakai was able to see a large pit in the ground that was filled with crystal clear water. The sight of bright clear water was what everyone was needing after going so long without seeing any form of natural daylight, but before their hopes could rise too high, Nakai crouched down and scooped a handful of water into his mouth, after swallowing the cold fresh water, he said.

 

“The water isn’t salty; the cave most likely connects to a river or lake. This also must be where the eggs travelled to.”

 

Hearing about the eggs, Mika and Luka quickly threw away the idea of getting out of the cave, and instead looked around to see if any had been caught behind a rock, curious to see if the eggs had continued to grow in size. The cave was large, but not big enough to have a lot of hiding areas, and it didn’t take long for the two brothers to find a stray egg tucked behind a large rock a few feet away from the underground pool, only the egg they found wasn’t calcified yet. Shouting from the surprise of seeing a glowing egg the size of a large melon, Mika quickly recovered from the shock, and saw the egg was sitting in a small puddle, helping it stay alive. Because both young men had shouted at the same time, everyone else walked over to see what had shocked them.

 

Once Nakai saw the egg, he stepped closer to get a better look while everyone else stayed close to one another. Nakai was yet to inspect a living egg, and he used his light to try and look through the see-through milky skin. As soon as his light bounced off the iridescent surface, he could see a snake-like creature squirming around, and he looked back towards his group before saying.

 

“Step back, I’m going to pick it up.”

 

Everyone took a simultaneous step back while Nakai slowly picked up the soft large egg. Nakai was barely able to get the jelly sack off of the ground when the egg broke open; clear slime splattered against the rocks and Nakai’s hands, while the creature slithered around the puddle manically. Now that the egg was no longer protecting the mysterious creature, everyone could see the egg had been housing a beast that looked similar to an eel, only its skin was a pale pink and a loud clicking noise could be heard whenever it opened its mouth. The body of the eel only appeared to be half a metre long and not too thick, without hesitating, Nakai reached forward and picked the pink eel up, using one hand to hold the creature's mouth shut while the other held its tail still.

 

Seeing that the creature wasn’t able to get out of Nakai’s tight hold, Wang Bao walked over to get a closer look at the mysterious creature. With a better look, he could see the creature was very similar to eels back in Man country, with only slight differences, the main ones being the colour and clicking noise. Wang Bao was only able to look at the eel for a few seconds though, when he noticed the colour of the eel changing as more slime dripped from the creature's body. Wang Bao figured the creature was supposed to be born inside the water, and quickly told Nakai.

 

“Its skin is drying out. Hurry, put it in the water before it dies”

 

Nakai did as Wang Bao said, and threw the eel into the water pit behind them. In only a few seconds the eel slithered out of their sight through the underwater tunnel. Once he could no longer see the eel, Wang Bao said.

 

“It wasn’t a bug at all. How did the eggs get into the dome area then if they weren’t from the bugs?”

 

Nobody really knew the answer to Wang Bao’s question, and they could only remain silent as they wondered about it as well. Wang Bao also gave it some more thought before muttering to himself quietly.

 

“Well female eels die after laying eggs, so maybe that explains some of it…”

 

With one mystery solved, the group moved onto more important matters, and Zhang instantly pulled out his phone to check where they were on the map. Usually he would cross reference their location with the tunnels that were above them, but when Zhang opened his phone, the screen wasn’t showing any of the mines. Swiping across his screen frantically, Zhang was able to find the solution to the blank screen, and couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly.

 

“Guys, We’ve made it out of the mines! Ah…Well, technically we’re still in the mines, but as long as that tunnel under the water leads outside, we will be out of here in no time!”

 

By the time Zhang finished speaking, his excitement dulled as everyone came to the realisation that their escape was within reach yet still so far. Even Nakai found himself being quite disappointed in the water that was currently blocking their only way out, and he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t been hoping to finally get out of the mine. There was nothing they could currently do, aside from set up camp in the hopes that whatever was on the other side of the tunnel was a body of water with a tide. Usually Wang Bao would jump at the opportunity to cook everyone's meals, but his back was in too much pain, causing him to lay on the ground between Nakai’s legs beside the water. Slowly the light passing through the water dimmed, signalling that the day was fading into night, and it wasn’t long before Mika and Luka crawled into their tent for an early rest. Zhang followed not long after, while Alo wanted to chat with Nakai for a little. 

 

Wang Bao had fallen asleep not long after lying down, and before sitting down, Alo draped a blanket over him. As for what Alo wanted to discuss, he was already aware of how much of a secretive man Nakai was, and once he had sat down by Nakai’s feet, he spoke in a low voice.

 

“When do you plan on telling Bao about his Mother, Nakai? It won’t be long before we reach the islands, and Ala will also be meeting us soon with potentially bad news. Don’t you think Bao has a right to know about this?”

 

Nakai understood Alo’s concern, but he had his reasons for keeping Wang Bao in the dark about many things. While gently combing his fingers through Wang Bao’s hair. Nakai replied to Alo in a quiet voice.

 

“...I want to find out more about his Mother first. As for the islands, I won’t tell him anything until we have gotten there. I know we don’t have far to go, but if for some reason we are separated during the last leg of this journey, then it is safer if Wang Bao doesn’t know where his brother is. Too many people’s lives would be at risk.”

 

Before asking Nakai another question, Wang Bao suddenly groaned in his sleep, then rolled over to lay hug Nakai’s thigh. After Wang Bao had settled, Alo, although hesitant, quietly asked.

 

“What will you do...If Ala brings back information that threatens Bao’s safety. Will you return home? I’m sure you have your own search and rescue team out looking for you; would you call on your own troops, when only a few months ago you and the Human’s were at war?”

 

Nakai didn’t answer right away after hearing Alo’s questions. His hand that was stroking Wang Bao’s soft hair never stopped, and when he finally answered, his voice was so quiet that Alo had to strain in order to hear him.

 

“If that crazy bitch tries to take Wang Bao away, I’ll kill her. I’ll burn her entire kingdom down with her inside.”

 

Alo could already guess Nakai’s reaction so he wasn’t surprised when he saw how dark Nakai’s eyes had grown. With nothing left to talk about, Alo continued to sit quietly, his eyes looking through the dark water. Neither Nakai or Alo wanted to retreat back to the tents just in case the water magically started emptying out of the pool. Alo didn’t know how much time passed, but he had been falling in and out of sleep for some time when he felt Nakai tap against his leg with his foot. Before Alo could fully register what was happening, he heard Nakai ask in a tired voice that signalled he had just woken up as well.

 

“Alo, do you see anything different with the water?”

 

After rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times, Alo forced his dry eyes to focus on the dark water. Without a bright source of light it was hard to see where the edge of the pool was, but Alo felt as if the gap between top of the pool and the water had deepened slightly. Thinking out loud, Alo asked with a tired, raspy voice.

 

“Has the water gone down?”

 

Before Nakai could confirm, the water suddenly dropped before flowing out of the tunnel completely, leaving behind a wet rocky tunnel that could lead out of the mines. As soon as Alo saw this, he jumped to his feet, ready to wake everyone up in order to finally see the outside world, but Nakai was quick to stop him from acting too quickly by saying.

 

“We can’t see past the bend so we don’t know if there is another body of water waiting for us. Let’s check it out first, then wait to see how long the water stays drained.”

 

Hearing this was all it took for Alo to calm down, he nodded swiftly while Nakai stood up from the ground with Wang Bao in his arms. Before heading down into the pit, Nakai gently carried Wang Bao to their tent, and got him settled. A frown appeared between Wang Bao’s brows as soon as he was out of Nakai’s arms, but there was no time for Nakai to soothe him properly. They were unsure of how long the water lever would stay down, and they needed all the time they could get to make it out of the tunnel then back to their camp. Once Nakai was standing at the edge of the empty pool, Alo informed him that two minutes had passed already, and they jumped down together.

 

Unlike the cave, the tunnel in the pool was short and skinny, giving Nakai barely enough room to run through the winding path. As they ran through the warm, damp space, Alo let Nakai know after each minute passed. After running for almost seven minutes, the scent of damp rock changed to something more refreshing, while a slight draft travelled through the tunnel. With the taste of freedom on the tip of their tongue, both Nakai and Alo pushed themselves to run faster for the next five minutes until coming to a halt. Right before their eyes was a large river with tall black mountains in the distance; because of the dark night sky, not much detail could be seen, but the sight was mesmerising nonetheless. Before they could become too enamoured in the beautiful sight, the sound of clicking and thrashing water could be heard in the distance, without walking too far towards the river edge, Nakai peered into the black water with strained eyes before he could make out the sight of pink and white eels. Unlike the eel they had found inside the egg, the bodies of these eels were easily bigger than both Nakai and Alo combined, and before they could catch the attention of the large creatures thrashing in the water, Nakai stepped back into the cave, then turned around. 

 

Alo flashed Nakai both of his hands twice to inform him it had been twenty minutes. They could see the water was already beginning to seep into the cave again, and before they could get stuck, they took off running back to their camp. By the time they made it back to the pool, their ankles were completely soaked by the rising water, and once they climbed back to where they had been sitting earlier, the slowly flowing water suddenly forced its way through the tunnel, rising to the pool edge with the loud sound of waves crashing.

 

Before saying or doing anything, Nakai and Alo sat on the cold ground catching their breath. Unlike a regular tide, the river flowed in and out of the cave pool quickly. Now that they were certain they could finally get back into the fresh air, Nakai tiredly stood up before helping Alo to his feet. Because the night sky was still pitch black, Nakai figured they could still get a good night's sleep, and he told Alo while stepping towards his tent.

 

“Let’s head to bed, tomorrow we’ll see if this tide is a recurring thing then get the hell out of here.”