We Are
The Cave

There were several different exits that we could take from the room that we were in, and Diago said that I could choose which one, but I told him that my choice was for him to choose which one.

“Lol,” he laughed, and began spinning around, and said, “Eeny meeny, miny, moe; I suppose that this direction is where we’ll go.” and the two of us took off into the part of the cave that was closest to where he was pointing.

Both of us used the power to light up the area around us as we walked, and for the first 10 minutes of so there was nothing of consequence that we encountered in the cave.

After that 10 minutes, though, we encountered very large creature who told us that he was a troll.

“You two may as well turn back from this path, “he drawled, “because I won’t let you pass this point.”

“I’m pretty sure that we’re able to overpower you if we want to,” I responded, “but why don’t you want us to continue traveling down this part of the cave?”

“Your overconfidence will be your downfall, just as it has been for Kahuna. But how do I know they’re new name?, you might ask. Easy. Kahuna transported here and told me what their new name is. Anyhoo, I am the one who is responsible for Kahuna being trapped down here, and am the one who has prevented Kahuna from traveling past this path in the cave for all these years.”

“Hold up.” Diago interjected, “Kahuna told us that they trapped themselves into this location with their own power usage and that they linked us into whatever was trapping them here which prevents us from transporting out of this cave.”

“That whole word salad right there essentially amounts to Kahuna having told you one truth and one falsehood. Kahuna did use their power to link you to what’s trapping them down here, but it’s my power (not theirs) that trapped them inside of this cave and keeps them trapped inside of this cave.”

“So, they managed to extend a power that you used to contain them here to us?” I asked dubiously, to which the troll responded, “Yes. Think of it like the reverse-transport that they did to both of you. That was Kahuna combining their power and yours in order to accomplish something. When they trapped you in here with them, they combined my power with theirs in order to do it.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Diago said, though he still sounded a bit puzzled, “but how did you even know about the reverse-transport?”

“Kahuna told me. They’re quite a talker, in case you haven’t noticed, and so they transport over here and talk to me quite often. I think that part of their goal is for me to get so tired of hearing them talk that I stop using my power to contain them here.”

“Soooooo… why exactly did you contain them here in the first place?” I asked, perplexedly, to which the troll responded, “It was the ultimate troll move, muahahahahahahahahaha. I had this person who’d just gained all of this power and was ready to unleash themself into an unsuspecting world, and suddenly they couldn’t leave the stupid cave that they were in. It’s the most hilarious and consequential troll that I’ve ever done!, and I won’t back off on it ever, which means that the three of you will never leave this cave.”

“So, that means that you’re kind of our prisoner just like Kahuna is…” Diago mused, “Because we’re keeping two powerful and dangerous power users trapped in this cave.”

“I am no prisoner!” the troll cackled, gleefully, “You don’t get it, do you? I can go wherever I want whenever I want, and still keep you three contained here! You three are all trapped here, and I’m ever-free to troll around and about as much as I please! Muahahahahahahahahaha!…”

Diago and I decided to leave the evilly laughing troll, for now, and headed over to check out one of the other paths.

As we were walking back to where we’d started out at, Kahuna appeared near us, and said, “Do you see now why we have to defeat that troll and break out of here?”

“I see that you fibbed to us about it being your own power that trapped you in here.” Diago accused, to which I added, “And there’s no “we” with the three of us. You murdered Manisha and Pallas, and so we know that we don’t want to team up with you.”

“They were attacking me, though! You saw!” Kahuna protested, to which Diago replied, “You could’ve easily knocked them out or paralyzed them or something. Do you seriously think that we’re stupid enough to believe that you were in a kill-or-be-killed situation?”

“But they wouldn’t have given up their power to you if I hadn’t killed them and transferred their power!” Kahuna argued, to which I responded, “We didn’t want 3x power, and certainly didn’t want people to die in order for us to get 3x power.”

“They wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if I’d killed you two and transferred your power to them!” Kahuna claimed, to which Diago said, “We don’t know that. Sure, they’d lost their way, but I don’t think that they’d become completely conscienceless yet.”

“They did try to kill me, though, regardless of whether they were an actual threat to me or not; and I’m pretty sure that you were about to try to kill them when you were torturing them. Thus, out of the 5 of us, only 1 of us hasn’t either killed or tried to kill, and that’s Khin. So; perhaps she can claim the moral high ground, here, but you can’t.”

“But, I regret having tried to kill them:” Diago retorted, “Do you regret having killed them?”

Kahuna paused, and said, “Hmmm… I suppose there’s no point in lying, I guess. No, I don’t regret it. So, I guess that if someone awards morality points for not being willing to stand by one’s actions, then you two could make an argument that you have some moral high ground over me. I’m NOT into regretting things, and thus DON’T award morality points to people for regretting things, though."

“Let’s bring this conversation back to whether your power or the troll’s power trapped you in here.” I said, feeling like we’d gone through the moral-high-ground issue reasonably well, “Was it your power or the troll’s that trapped you here?”

“The troll SAYS that it’s their power, but I don’t buy it. Since I got trapped right after fusing from 2 humans into 1, I still maintain that I somehow trapped myself here but don’t know how to untrap myself. I suppose it’s theoretically possible that the troll did it, but the troll could just be trolling when they say that they did it! Never trust a troll, because ya never know what they’ve got up their sleeve or when what they say is just a fib that’s in service to a HUGE troll that they’re carrying out!”

“I always thought that trolls were fictional characters.” Diago noted, and added, “But I guess that I thought that having transporting-and-whatnot powers was fictional too.”

“Oh yes, trolls are pretty good at making sure that only those who they want to know about their trolling know about their trolling. Take The Star Wars Holiday Special, for example. Everyone thinks that it was just a big error on George Lucas’s part that got that film to actually air (which thus ensured that it would remain available for all to see for all of time, despite George’s deep desire to see it vanquished), but trolls were actually working every step of the way to make sure that it was created in the way that it was and that it was able to air without George Lucas getting to watch it (and summarily destroy it) first. A truly despicable troll, if there ever was one!”

“I’ve never even heard of that movie…” Diago said, frowning, to which I laughed and responded, “It’s actually my favorite movie of all time, lol.” and Kahuna pointed at me in horror, and said, “Aha! The Star Wars Holiday Special is your favorite movie!?!?!?! No more moral high ground for you, Khin.”

And, with that, Kahuna transported away; and Diago and I had soon returned to our original location and had to choose a new path to embark upon.

“You down to pick a path this time?” Diago asked, to which I said, “Sure, I may was well.” and began walking down one of the paths.

We again used the power to light up the area around us, and had soon reached a place where the path became more like a river-or-something, because there was running water instead of the usual rocky floor of the cave.

Diago stepped onto the water, and must’ve been using the power in order to make himself not sink because he was walking on it like he would a normal hard ground.

“Good thinking!” I said, and followed suit, easily using the power in order to walk on water like he was doing.

We continued walking for over an hour before we reached a place where the water turned into a waterfall. It wasn’t your usual outdoors waterfall, though. It was a waterfall that was completely within the cave (as far as we could tell), and we couldn’t see the bottom of it from where we were.

We both used our power to fly downwards, and continued to do so for a very long time. It had to have been hours.

When we finally reached the bottom, there was some rocky parts and some watery parts, and it was sort of like a naturally formed pool. The pool was the end of the path, though, and so the only way to travel was the same route that we’d traveled to get to the bottom of the waterfall; and transporting back would make more sense then flying/walking back.

“Well, at least we know where a pool is now!” Diago laughed, to which I responded, “For sure. Definitely something that’s gonna come in handy, assuming that we’re gonna be here for a super long time.”

Suddenly, we saw a few female and male merpeople rise up out of the water, and one of them said, “My name is Bonnie. I am the leader of the merpeople who live in the cave. Why are you here?”

I saw that Diago was gawking a bit at the female merpeople, and I lightly kicked the back of his leg to get him to stop. I wasn’t jealous or anything (hell, I found the male merpeople to be very physically attractive too), but we didn’t want to behave in a way that they might get offended by if we could help it.

“Ummmm,” Diago said, his face turning red, “we’re trapped in this cave and we’re exploring.” to which I added, “Are we allowed to swim in this pool, or is that forbidden?”

“You can swim in this pool as much as you like” a male merperson said, “IF you can convince the troll known as Maximon to let Tempest leave this cave. We truly are at our wits end with them, and know that if that confounded troll would just let them leave then we’d probably never be visited by them ever again!”

“Oh, so Tempest’s their original name. It’s Kahuna now.” Diago said, to which another merperson exasperatedly responded, “We don’t care what their name is, we just don’t want them trapped in this cave any longer!”

“And Maximon probably just thinks that y’all being at your wits end with Kahuna is hilarious, because it just means that he’s trolling even more folks, right?” I asked, and they must have thought that I was laughing at them (I swear that I wasn’t!), because they all raised up their weapons and began charging straight towards us!

“Transport time.” I whispered to Diago, and added to the merpeople, “It was nice to meet you! I’m sorry if I mistakenly said something that I shouldn’t have!” and Diago and I had transported back to our original location in the cave before the merpeople’s weapons had reached us.

“Well, so much for all of the good times that we were going to have in the pool.” Diago joked, to which I responded, “I don’t think that they liked me mentioning that Maximon probably loves trolling them by having Kahuna be trapped in the cave that they live in. I really had just been stating what I thought was a pretty likely possibility, and hadn’t been trying to make fun of them or anything.”

“Oh, they were probably more unhappy about how our responses made it seem unlikely that we’d be interested in trying to free Kahuna from this cave.” Diago assured me, “I don’t think that they’re actually as thin-skinned as they made it look like they are.”

“Ahhhhh, so perhaps they wanted to guilt-trip us into trying to help free Kahuna from the cave. I could see that.” I said, thoughtfully, and Diago grinned and added, “Regardless of what was going through their heads, though, the thought of them being driven bonkers by Maximon and Kahuna is pretty hilarious!”

“It probably won’t be so hilarious to you once WE’VE been driven bonkers by Kahuna and Maximon.” I joked, before suggesting, “Ya wanna try this path next?”

“Sure.” Diago agreed, “AFTER we get some sleep. I’m tired af, dontcha know?”

“I guess I am too.” I said, suddenly realizing how tired I was and remembering that we’d been about to go to sleep before having even entered this cave for the third time!

We both used our power to make beds appear (well, I made a normal bed appear, and for some God-forsaken reason Diago decided to make a hammock appear!), and we were soon laying down in bed and quickly drifting off to sleep.

Before I had fallen asleep, I realized that if Diago fell out of the hammock and onto the hard floor he could get hurt, and so I made some padding appear beneath his hammock; and, sure enough, after I’d already fallen asleep, I heard a, “What the f-“ ‘Thump!’ and was very glad that I’d thought to put some cushioning beneath him.

“Thanks for putting the padding beneath me, Khin!” he said, as he got back into the hammock; and I made a pillow appear out of thin air and tossed it at him, which made him fall again!

“Ya sure you don’t wanna use a normal bed?” I asked, to which he chuckled and said, “Oh no, I’m gonna become a pro at hammocking eventually!” and I responded, “Your call, lol.” and quickly fell back to sleep again…

I woke up, and didn’t see Diago anywhere nearby. “Diago! You ready to try out a third path?” I called out, but he didn’t answer.

Hmmm… I tried to transport to where he was, but no luck. Wtf? Where in the hell had he gone off to?

Then, I noticed a note that was on his hammock, and went over to read it.

“We tried to be reasonable, but you jeered in our faces and left us with no choice. We cannot abide Kahuna’s presence in this cave anymore, and have kidnapped your boyfriend. He will be returned to you once Kahuna has left this cave. Don’t think that you’ll be able to reason us into giving him up under any other circumstances. Kahuna must go, and so your mission is clear.”

The merpeople had somehow kidnapped Diago?!?!? It didn’t make any sense! They must’ve had help…

I quickly transported over to the pool where Diago and I had met the merpeople, but didn’t find any of them there.

I jumped into the pool, hoping to swim to them, but there were no tunnels or anything to go into, and I couldn’t find them anywhere in the water that was there.

This made no sense, though! A waterfall was going down into the pool, and all of that water had to go somewhere.

I finally figured out that there were very tiny holes in the rocks beneath the water that allowed the water to move through them but weren’t big enough for even a goldfish to swim through!

Hmmm… What if?… May as well try it… First, I tried to use the power to breathe underwater, and that was easy enough. Then, I tried to shrink myself small enough that I could swim though one of the holes.

It worked!, and I was soon swimming along and hoping that I’d find some merpeople who I could get to tell me where Diago was being held.

I kept on swimming, and swimming, and swimming, and swimming, until I came up out of the water and saw… the sun?!?!?”

“Muahahahahaha!” Maximon said, from where he was on a boat nearby me, “Now you’ve left the cave and can’t help Kahuna escape!”

“I thought that I was trapped in the cave, though, because they'd linked me to the power that was keeping them there.”

“Oh, that was easy to fix.” the troll bragged, “I simply created a temporary loophole in the power that enabled Kahuna to get out of the cave if they went through the pool of the merpeople in order to do so, which meant that (since you were linked to how they were trapped inside of the cave) you were able to get out that way. I’ve changed the power back to normal now, though, and since you’re out of the cave that means that you’re just not linked to the power that was trapping you in the cave with Kahuna anymore.”

“Very clever,” I said, dubiously, “but how do you know that Kahuna didn’t just turn invisible and follow me?”

“One sec!” Maximon said, and disappeared for a second and quickly came back with a defeated look on his face, and said, “Well, damn. Now your bf is the only one who’s being held captive in the cave through my power. Kahuna must’ve done as you suspected she’d done!

Oh well, it was a good troll while it lasted. I feel good about it, and it will be fun to see what they do now that they’re unleashed upon an unexpecting and unprepared world!

I guess there’s no point in keeping Diago trapped in the cave any longer, so here ya go!”

And, with that, Diago appeared on the boat with Maximon, and Maximon disappeared!

It looked like Diago was just now waking up from having been sleeping, which made no sense. Had the merpeople somehow put him into a deep sleep that he’d just now awakened from?

“Hey, Khin!” Diago said, cheerfully, “PLEASE tell me that I’m dreaming, and that us and Kahuna didn’t actually just get released into the world-outside-of-the-cave…”

“It’s possible that we’re just dreaming,” I said, hopefully, “but I have a feeling that this is no dream and that Kahuna is now a big threat to a hell-of-a-lot of people…”

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