Lunch was a quiet affair. Mith’s mother, Lora, bustled around and kept looking back at the two of them. It was like she couldn’t believe they had managed to survive the encounter in one piece. When the food was gone and the plates cleared, Mith turned her attention to Tru.
”Are your parents home?” Mith asked.
”Now don’t go bothering the historians. They’ve got bigger issues to worry about than answering your endless questions.” Lore chided.
Mith bowed her head. Her mother was probably right. The local historians had their hands full. While Mith’s family struggled to grow food for their people, Tru’s parents were the foremost experts in ancient relics. Some in town even believed the surface held the answers for the sunlight issues.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 21:59, Mon 31 Oct 2022.

"Th-they might w-welcome the break," Tru stuttered out quietly. She wanted to get away from the strained atmosphere. Either to her parents or the crevasse, she didn't care which. But she was too polite- or timid- to just leave. She picked at her variegated purple scales, scratching at her arms in discomfort.

Lore sighed and gave Tru a warm smile. "If I'm not careful I'm going to end up with a historian on my hands. I suppose that might be a good thing though, with the way the worlds going. Alright, off with the two of you then."
Mith didn't give her mother a chance to change her mind. She exchanged a hug before toting Tru out the door with her.
Once they were free of the dwelling, Mith headed further into town. The sea floor dropped significantly as they headed into deeper water. Most of the inhabitants of Situri lived several hundred feet down, sequestered among the lava tubes that reached for the surface. Today was a sunny day and Mith could see almost the entire town before they began their descent. The sediment count was low despite the cooler currents signaling the change of season. Bright spots of light dotted the floor where smaller gardens were growing. Despite the size of Mith's family farm, it wasn't enough to feed everyone with what they needed and still send supplies to the main city. There was not a single patch of sunlight without a garden of some sort.
It didn't take long for them to reach Tru's house. It was one of the largest dwellings in Situri. It housed all of the information that had ever been collected about the crevasse and legends about the surface. It was Tru's parents primary focus. When they walked up, though, they were surprised to see three black hydro-cars parked in front.
"Those look important..." Mith said, wondering what the government of Cowansha Ait would want with Tru's parents. "Should we wait to go in?"

The already delicate shades of lavender on the scales around Tru's face paled further at the sight of the black vehicles. "Ah... I forgot. That's why I went to your farm in the first place. I wanted to get away before they arrived.... We should... probably wait."

Mith didn't question it, though she sorely wished to. Tru's parents were some of the kindest people she knew and worked hard to help the residents however they could. The government wasn't nefarious, necessarily, but her people didn't like more hands than necessary in the pie that was her town.
She turned and headed away from the house, towards the nearby park. It would give them a chance to talk uninterrupted. She intended to ask Tru what she knew about the vehicles, but knew they didn't need to do it here.
She put on a burst of speed, relishing the feeling of water as it surged around her. It didn't take long before they arrived at the park, Mith breathing hard with the exertion of swimming fast.
"Okay, spill. What were those cars doing at your parents place? And why wouldn't you want to be there? I'd love to be a fly on the wall to see what the government wants."

Gasping but smiling at the brief race to the park, Tru settled a little higher in the water than Mith, glancing around as she caught her breath. They were alone. She let herself sink as she curled up, bobbing comfortably beside her friend.

"It's something to do with..." She waved her hand in a circular motion toward the surface. "... the sun. Those big guys they have following them around just give me the shivers." She made a face and exaggerated her shivering shoulders.

Mith glanced up, though she couldn't see the surface. They had descended deeper, where the lava tubes had spread out before shooting for the surface. A crater had been created as a place to gather with the overhanging rock preventing natural light from entering.
Instead, tiny glowing lichen covered the walls and various spots on the ground. There were bigger, more luminous fish that darted around sporadically. The ground here was harder and a deep grey, almost black, color. What Mith called a 'park' was just an open expanse of unlit rock where children went to play games. Various paint lines covered the surface indicating different types. Mith could remember playing sponge ball on this surface, but it felt like it had been ages ago. The worn look of the markings indicated as much.
"The sun? I thought your parents dealt in history, not current events," Mith said, turning to look at her friend.
The pastel coloring of Tru's scales had always stood out to Mith. Her own coppery silver seemed so mundane against the exotic lavender. Even her brothers held the greens and blues of the sea.
At one point she had thought her coloring reminded her of the surface, but after repeatedly being told that her interest was an oddity, she had discarded the idea. Mostly.
When Tru didn't immediately reply, Mith continued.
"I say we go ask them what's going on. I've not seen anyone even approach the surface. That's where all the issues are, isn't it? How can we find out what's wrong with the surface if we don't actually go up there?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:05, Wed 09 Nov 2022.

Tru winced. Mith's impatience was almost impossible to curb. Sometimes she was a force of nature, like a strong summer current come to carry everything before it.

"Go to the surface?" she asked, keeping the conversation going in an attempt to stall for her parents sake. "Isn't that too dangerous? The predators... the sun itself..." Her parents had been scouring the records for weeks in preparation for the government visit. Tru had read a scrap, so degraded the strange material that it had been written on was frayed almost illegibly, though it had been pressed between panes of glass to preserve it. On it she had seen the word 'sunburn', and that smacked ominous to her mind indeed. She found it difficult to believe; she loved sunlight. She loved the soft warmth of it. How could it ever be harsh enough to burn? She continued in a subdued voice. "They said something about the past informing the future, Mith. Maybe something like this has happened before. Maybe there are answers from the ancestors."

Mith chewed her bottom lip, still staring upwards. She wanted the sky to give her an answer. Something that would solve their problems. When it neglected to fulfill her wishes, her worry turned to frustration. She ran a hand over her scales, rubbing them backwards in agitation.
"How can I decide what to do with the rest of my life, if all it's going to amount to is fear and worry for my family?" Mith asked of the dark space above her.
She wasn't expecting an answer, not really. But it felt cathartic to voice it allowed. She felt Tru begin to answer and shook her head. "There's not an answer, Tru. I'm just... wishing I could do something other than just sitting here.
Tru's words finally registered though and she gave her friend a sharp look.
"Wait, they found something new? Where? The crevasse?"
The thought of returning to the chasm flitted across her mind and goosebumps erupted on her arms. The dark expanse threatening to snuff her out of existence had been a powerful deterrent. But... Maybe there was something there, something she had missed in her exploring. She'd never gone into the space, only near it and inside the small caves and cracks before the opening. But if Tru's parents had found something there, something that gave them more information, maybe there was more to be had. If she could find it...

Tru shook her head as she forlornly reached out to flip her fingers through the fronds of a nearby polyp. The creature only retracted for a moment, used to the attentions of young vanora. "I don't know what they found or where. They won't tell me... that, more than anything, scares me. I only know it's about the sun because... well... I eavesdropped." She said the last in an ashamed whisper.

In reply to Tru (msg # 10):

Mith's eyebrows shot up as a wide grin spread across her face. She bumped her friends shoulder with her own.
"I KNEW my influence would pay off eventually!"

Tru smiled while trying not to smile, resulting in a pinched pucker as she sucked in her cheeks in an effort not to giggle either. Both failed, and Tru put an arm around Mith's shoulders and squeezed affectionately as they laughed together. She looked off toward her home and the black vehicles still sitting in front of it like patient predators, waiting for dinner. Her eyes became distant. "I don't understand what's happening, Mith. My parents, your parents, our teachers, our leaders... everyone is so..." She trailed off, looking back at her best friend, her eyes pleading and frightened. She wasn't even sure what she wanted from Mith. Comfort? Lies? She trusted Mith, and looked to her for the next step, whatever it could be.

The temporary relief that laughter had brought, faded away. Mith struggled to find the right words.
"They're worried and trying to hide it from us. But we're past the point where our parents words will nullify our worries. There's too much going on." Mith chewed her lip, forcing herself to continue. "But I had a dream last night. It was... one of the more vivid ones."
She hated to dump her worries on her friend. Her best friend, granted, but still someone she cared about. But as the thoughts swirled around, the startings of a plan formed. It scared and excited her all at once.
"We need to get back over to the crevasse. I need to figure out what it was that I saw. It's connected to the failing sunlight, I just know it.
She could feel the water shift and glanced to Tru's house. The black vehicles had started to move away from the house, the engines sending a wave of warm water towards them.
"Let's go talk with your parents and see what they think of what I saw. Maybe they'll have an idea?"

Tru nodded. Her parents were some of the smartest people she knew. They always had theories. She gave Mith a small, encouraging smile. "My mother loves listening to my dreams. I'm sure she'll love to hear yours too." She struck off across the park, already feeling happier now the appointment that had so worried her parents was over, the big, scary vanora gone.