Quoted By:
Drifting behind your pale-faced friend, you can't help but marvel at the kelp towering overhead! Trees!? UNDERWATER!? You never woulda' believed it.
"Look, Stan!" Interrupts Syb as the two of you emerge into what passes for a clearing underwater, "Up on that promontory!"
What's that about a phlebotomy?
"Too late, kid."
Ly's right--you barely have time to blub a response before your pal scampers off like a sugared-out kid at a theme park! Paddling after her, her destination gradually emerges from the undersea muck as you get closer: a collection of stone spires jutting out of a plateau--each one draped with thick algae where a rainbow of fish graze. Not bound to hills and paths, you manage to keep pace with the girl despite your buoyancy differences, and by the time you reconvene at the foot of the hill leading into the ruins, Sybil's already worked up a sweat.
"Stan..." She pants with a wild look in her saucer-sized eyes, "T-tell me I'm not dreaming, please!"
<span class="mu-s">Blub.</span>
"Think dat's an affirmative, teach." Ly guesses as The Goth skips up the hill. "Teach?"
"Just look at it all, Ly!" She chirps, darting to and fro among the piles of smooth, dark masonry like a squirrel raiding a spilled bird feeder, "The craftsmanship--the CONDITION! Completely different from those in the Mermaid Tunnels, and..."
Good, you blub as Sybil continues her rant, the less you see of <span class="mu-i">those</span> creeps the BETTER. Ignoring the pleading look Lil' Stanley gives you from the folds in the babbling bibliophile's cloak, you instead opt to get the most out of your SCUBA gear and take a look around of your own.
"So uh," Ly remarks as you peer into the remains of a room covered in immaculately-carved geometric shapes, "I'm guessin' dis' ain't where dose' sources of life were?"
"Regrettably not..." Mutters Syb as she methodically stuffs a handful of sludge-covered doodads into her sweater pocket next to the increasingly-flustered raccoon. "Aside from the local wildlife that's settled in, I don't detect anything resembling the owners of our mysterious footprints..." Pausing her hoarding for a brief moment, The Goth looks your way with bulging eyes. "This, though... this place is living proof that someone was here--not <span class="mu-i">NOW</span>, of course, but, well... j-just LOOK!"
Blinking into existence inches from your nose, you nearly spit your rebreather out as the girl stuffs two shaking handfuls of <span class="mu-g">WEIRD ANCIENT CRAP</span> into your arms!
"Fill your pockets, Stanley--once this all blows over I'll have made the discovery of the CENTURY!" Grinning at you with twitching eyelids, Sybil blinks away with a maddened giggle and resumes her treasure hunt as Lil' Stanley holds on for dear life!
"Huh." Remark your bones as you both watch your pal's downward spiral with interest, "You think she'da lost her mind at da' <span class="mu-g">MUSEUM,</span> too?"
You shrug. If you had a nickel for every time Syb tiptoed along the deep end, you wouldn't be mopping <span class="mu-i">BONE DUST</span>!
>CONTD.
