Is Someone There?

Lyra groaned as a wave of pain washed over her. She lay motionless for a bit as she attempted to open her eyes. When she did, a light flashed into them, and she squeezed them shut again, only adding to the pounding in her head.

Wait… light?

She slowly opened them again, keeping a squint at first. There was indeed a green-blue light filling the area she was in. Eventually, she could get them fully open without irritation. Still laying on the floor, she looked around.

I’m still in a cave… but it looks different. I don’t know if I should be relieved or even more worried. 

The cave was covered in blue bioluminescent mushrooms and green moss. Adjusting, she noticed she was lying on a bed of moss that felt paw-crafted due to its size. Stretching with another groan of discomfort, she stood up and looked around a bit more. There were many mouths leading to tunnels embedded in the walls. Her ears drooped.

Man… how the hell am I gonna find out which way is the one out of here?

Then a thought clicked into her head. Lyra remembered how she got here in the first place. Just maybe, if she could find materials in the tunnels, she could build a makeshift ladder of some kind to climb out. Then it would be as easy as coming back the way she came. That would mean abandoning the current mission, but at this point, her safety was proven to be at risk without any proper equipment. She’d just have to tell everyone back at the Port what happened. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get lectured for her rescue methods. She looked up to get a metric of how much it would take to reach the spot she fell from. Her eyes widened.

There was no hole of any kind in the ceiling. 

“Wuh!?” She was so shocked she couldn’t keep it a thought. The cave ceilings were low enough the mushrooms were illuminating it, and there was not even so much as a crack anywhere. She also noticed the lack of dirt from the sinkhole she fell through anywhere on the ground. It was also strange that she didn’t feel much dirt trapped in her fur. She went to inspect herself next.

Looking back at her flank, there was no dirt of any kind. It was like it all magically vanished. Next, she checked her mane, ruffling her right paw through it. Only some loose flecks of dirt trapped deep under it fell out. So there was still some, but it’s like most of it got brushed away. It was a similar story with her hair.

This is all so strange… What happened when I was out?

It puzzled her to no end. It seems like she’d have to try each tunnel then.

Wait! I should stay put and try sending my own distress signal back to the Port. Thinking about the irony of this whole thing is better than getting even more lost on an abandoned planet…

She sat back down to pull up her watch. Hopefully she wasn’t too deep and could send out a signal while being underground. However, she was faced with a completely different problem.

“Huh?”

Her left wrist was completely bare. No watch. Even her bead bracelet was missing.

“What!? No, no, no, no, no, no! Where is it? Where’s my stuff!?” She began spinning in circles, looking around in a panic for her lost accessories. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find so much as a trace of them. Her breathing quickened, starting to really panic now. It had to be somewhere, right? It couldn’t just vanish. 

Things started to click into place in Lyra’s head. There was a reason there was no hole in the ceiling where she fell through, a reason for the lack of dirt from the hole on the ground or on her, and a reason all her stuff was missing.

This isn’t the original spot where she fell.

Something, or someone, has brought her here.

But who or what would do that? And take her stuff?

Lyra’s stomach felt heavy with unease. She was undoubtedly trapped under the caves of Awan with an unknown presence with no contact to anyone else. All because she rushed into trying to help. Even if someone say her message about her going to investigate, how would they know to find her down here?

She didn’t have a clue what to do next, so she sunk down into the bed of moss she woke up in.

It was at that moment a noise echoed through the cave walls.

Lyra shot up at an instant, fur standing up on end.

“W-who’s there?” She stammered. There was no instant response. The noise came again a few seconds later.

“Hello?” She tried calling again, but the results were similar. Something was in the cave with her, but it seemed to far away to hear her, or perhaps whatever was making the noise couldn’t understand her.

Still alarmed, she approached the tunnels, attempting to hear for which tunnel the noise came from. If something was down one of them, surely it had to lead somewhere. There was a problem with this approach, though. Without Lyra knowing what was down the tunnel, she could be walking straight into danger? She knew there was some Cirrocanius that had experienced so much radiation posioning they had lost all sense of themselves and became so stressed they turned aggressive much like a cornered animal, attacking anything they see as a threat. The was also the Squees she was told about… She shivered in disgust and fear. Hopefully she’d never have to see one of those things ever…

As she could closer, the sounds continued and got slightly louder. She leaned more into the opening, trying to understand what kind of noise it was. It didn’t sound like any animal noises she was familiar with, it sounded more like…

…murmurs?

…Was someone talking?

Standing and analysising it more, Lyra tried to see if she could pick up words from the sounds, but the noises were too muffled to hear clearly. It definitely sounded like talking.

Someone is talking! Someone is down here!

Lyra was ready to head down the tunnel, though she stopped in her pawsteps. Was that the person who took her stuff? What if they took her as a prisoner, for whatever reason? Would approaching them make stuff worse or put her in even more danger? Could she trust this person to help her.

After a moment of thinking, she swallowed away her worry.

This is the best shot I have of getting out of here… If things go wrong… I won’t go down without a fight. I don’t plan on dying here, and I’ll make sure I don’t.

Lyra would find out who was making these mysterious voices, and she would get off of this planet. She had to. Thank stars for these glowing mushrooms lighting her path. Hopefully whoever brought her here had no ill intentions, and this was all a big misunderstanding. Lyra continued on her way down the tunnel.