The Underwater Path
You swim about in the lake, thinking. You could follow the river and see where it leads, yes - that one is relatively obvious and in one way could be the safest choice. You could also leave the water and follow the path in the forest toward the weird cave you see, yes - this one is less obvious in a way and perhaps not as safe as the river, but it’s still viable. But there is a third option, too.
You peer down beneath the water to the underwater path that is obviously another option. It’s not as visible as the other two, but you aren’t about to forget that it’s a potential choice.
The one thing you consider is that you don’t know how long you can breathe underwater now, nor do you know how deep or how far this path goes. But, you feel at this rate that there’s no point in letting fear get the best of you - nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all, and so you make your decision.
You suck in a deep breath and dive down, pleased that your eyes can stay open when underwater - you swim down to the opening and begin to follow it, offering some silent hopes to yourself that your lungs keep you alive.
The tunnel appears to loop around weirdly, but, other than this, it feels like you’re getting somewhere by following it. As the seconds fly by, you notice that the tunnel is gradually opening up, until, right when you begin to worry about how long you can hold your breath for, you come to a spot where the water is low enough at the top for you to grab some air.
You shoot up and gasp, sucking in deep breaths. You do this for about a minute before you rub your eyes. Above your head is very soft earth, yet when you press a palm against it - for curiosity’s sake - you can tell you aren’t going to be able to break through it without a lot of time and effort being expelled. So, you must continue swimming through the tunnel and hope that there is an exit waiting at the end for you.
When you feel appeased, you suck more air in and dunk yourself back under the water, and find that the tunnel drops down for a bit - you see the bottom, and as you swim toward it, you see a new tunnel appears before you.
Written by Hollowpages on 11 May 2019