The two wandered between the stalagmites and rock walls, slowly at first as their eyes adjusted to the dim light of just their weapons, then gradually picking up speed as they continued. The confines of the cave were constantly changing, with the space opening up long enough to give them false hope of finding what they needed, then closing back up enough to make them fear that they were about to finally hit a dreaded dead-end.
They reveled in the serenity of knowing that they were in no immediate danger of death, and instead simply faced an impending slow death. The past week of running from an entire world of upset warriors was behind them, and instead they faced a potentially impossible puzzle of escaping from being buried alive.
The calm opened both of them up for idle conversation that they seldom had time for outside of the confines of hyperspace. In reality though, they spent most of their free time in hyperspace catching up on training or discussing their training. Now they didn't have that relative luxury, so they simply talked.
Most brothers would share stories, or discuss women and relationships, or perhaps discuss their benign days. The two Sith brothers instead began discussing plans for what they would do when they escaped. They came up with outrageous plans for revenge or galactic domination that made them both laugh as they traveled. Despite the numerous hilarious plans for what to do to the cities and bodies of their enemies from the Meisosians all the way to the Jedi, they both agreed on Trychon's last idea.
"I think maybe I'll just travel to the resort planet Risa, capture it, and then hold it ransom for life-time free passes. Our enemies will die of jealousy for not coming up with the same plan sooner, or they'll seek us out for council. Then I'll kill them."
They chuckled about that one for a long time, and as they continued their descent their conversations began to cover wider, more conventional topics as well. As long as they kept moving, and there was some faint hope they might find some other passage to the surface they were content to keep discussing the lighter side of their lives, subconsciously keeping their minds off their impending doom.
Only able to go by their internal clocks, they ignored their hunger, which was mostly annoying at this point, and stopped finally to get some rest. The next morning, or presumably what they thought should be morning, they awoke and continued on their journey.
A few times they came to what they thought were dead ends, only to find some passage upon closer inspection. Once they had to slide on their stomachs to the next part of the cave, and once they had to climb a little ways up part of the cave wall, but each time they we able to continue their journey.
A few hours into the day they stopped to take a little break. They were in no hurry as they had been on the surface. Shutting their blades off, since it made no sense to keep them on if they didn't need to see where they were going, they noticed the cave didn't become immediately pitch black. Instead a faint bluish glow seemed to linger.
"Phosphorescence of some sort in the rock, I would imagine," Trychon explained after Raezyr questioned what the cause might be. "Probably set off by the faint light in our blades... should wear off soon." But it didn't. They tried to look around a bit, and the light did seem to be emanating from the rock around them, but there was no apparent cause for it to continue. They didn't worry about it too much, and continued on their way.
They continued to use their lightsabers to light their path until it seemed that Raezyr's blue lightsaber was seemingly giving off a much stronger light than usual. Shutting their blades down again, they found the blue phosphorescence had now become strong enough that they could see fairly well without their weapons to light the way, and as they moved on, the light only seemed to get stronger until by mid-afternoon sometime, the light was bright enough they could make out most of the details around them.
Finally they crawled through a narrow gap and emerged onto what appeared to be a sandy bank along the edge of a small underground lake. It was little more than a decent sized pond. They threw a few rocks across the water to estimate the size, since distance was deceptive in the bluish light that surrounded them. Their best guess was about thirty to forty meters across.
Trychon started to climb the walls around to the other side in case there was a way out over there, but Raezyr grabbed his arm. "Don't bother. We can see well enough to know there isn't anything there."
"Well..." Trychon was rarely lost for words. "I really wish we'd at least brought along that shell to bring water back with us."
Raezyr snorted. "It wouldn't have fit through some of those crawlspace sections."
Trychon sighed, knowing that his younger brother was right. "Well, I guess we should get our fill of water and some rest, then drink some more water before filling up and heading back. I don't think we missed any likely forks."
Raezyr sat down, trying not to feel defeated. If they got out, it wouldn't be easy. "Not a chance, sadly."
They had only traveled half a a day since they last camped, but they settled in to meditate and rest before heading back. It would allow them to get the most out of what water they could store in their watersockets.
Two hours later, the occasional dripping sounds were interrupted by a soft clacking noise.
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