The Mesmerizing Cave

"We are finally entering the cave!" Chen Chen exclaimed excitedly. He felt like a lot of things had happened since the beginning to lead them astray and that he was making his treasures wait a bit too long.

"Oh wow," as soon as Li Ming Hao entered, he was entranced by how amazing the cave looked like.

"It's all natural!" Su Xin Yu smiled looking at the guy mesmerized like a child by the wonder.

The cave was something out of an animated movie or something. Not even looking at the ground, the roof had very intricate white translucent crystal like formation gracefully falling, like the water froze when it was falling. There were different patterns on the stone. It was a completely covered cave inside, so the only source of light was the big mouth they entered the place through. However, this cave was just the beginning and there were more natural miracles to discover.

"Those knife like structures hanging like a chandelier are all made of calcite," she explained.

"Damn, I really thought it was icicles," Li Ming Hao could not take his eyes off the roof.

Su Xin Yu felt giddy when she saw the look on Lu Ming Hao's face. She had not revealed this cave to anyone before, not even Chen Chen. But again, Chen Chen was not a person who was much interested in the science and art. All he saw was money. They first thing that came to his mind was taking photos to make prints and sell them. If taken correctly, they could become his golden eggs.

He took out his digital camera and clicked a picture. Unfortunately, his flash was on. As soon as the picture got clicked, several shrieks echoed in the air.

"What… what was that?" Chen Chen instantly put his camera back, his hands trembling, as if he had awoken some great entity he was not supposed to.

"How many times have I told you not to use flash? It disturbs the creatures in dark places like this!" Su Xin Yu chided her cousin in a soft voice. If there were really animals here, her loud voice could also affect them.

"Pfft," Li Ming Hao chuckled. "These are just bats, and they look like fruit eating ones," he used his flashlight to show the two bickering people what was going on. They saw small cute black creatures hanging upside down on the roof.

"Again, although they might look harmless, but these are mystical caves. Anything could happen here," Su Xin Yu warned them both again. Chen Chen swallowed his saliva in fear.

Till now, wherever his cousin had taken him, they had been relatively harmless places. She had already known about most of the traps and how to diffuse them. Whenever he was with her, they had gone to places nearby the school only. The only biological encounters they had were small poisonous bugs that were afraid of fire. So, they never had a problem.

But looking at these creatures hanging from the roof, they numbered in thousands. If they were to attack them, even their corpse would not be found.

"Li Ming Hao, can you flash your torch again? Their eyes do not look normal to me," she whispered to the guy who had already turned off his light as soon as Su Xin Yu had issued the warning.

Li Ming Hao did as instructed. He noticed that the red eyes of otherwise yellow eyed bats looked full of bloodthirst. These were supposed to be fruit eating bats, why would they be thirsting for blood? And what was with their unusual color of eyes.

"Are you sure you have identified them correctly?" Chen Chen clung to Su Xin Yu's shoulder when he saw one or two bats spreading their wings.

"I think it is better if we do not make much noise and just walk silently. As long as we do not disturb them, we should be safe," Li Ming Hao's voice had also quietened down and his confidence from earlier had dissipated. There was definitely something wrong with them.

"Okay, where do we go from here?" he asked Su Xin Yu.

"Let me take out my notebook," she took out a small notebook out of her bag.

"What is this?" Li Ming Hao became curious.

"She writes detailed accounts of everywhere we have gone till now. But what are you referring this for? We have not visited this place before?" Chen Chen also looked curiously over her shoulder. Su Xin Yu had sat down and was using her flashlight to look at her notes.

"So, the traps that our tribe put in these dungeons follow a similar pattern. It is based on general directions, direction of water flow and combines a bit of ancient astrology studies from different countries but is mainly influenced by China and India," she explained.

"But if it is dependent on water flow, you mean, we need to find a water body?" Li Ming Hao analyzed her statement in his mind. He did not know anything about astrology but he could talk about water and stuff. Furthermore, this girl was studying geology, so she understood that as well.

Su Xin Yu nodded, "We should find water soon enough. But for now, we should be okay about the traps. I still cannot guarantee, so I need you guys to step only where I do," she grabbed a stone and a wooden stick from nearby and pulled out a rope from her bag. Then she tied the rock to one end of the rope and tied the whole thing around her knuckles.

She took the wooden stick and started poking the stones she saw embedded in the ground to make sure they did not trigger anything. Then she hopped onto them gently one step at a time, signaling the two guys to do the same.

They made sure to look above from time to time as well. Suddenly, a shadow appeared behind them. Su Xin Yu noticed it from the corner of her eyes. The big entrance to the cave was not actually too far away and the only source of light made sure that it was quite noticeable.

Su Xin Yu suddenly stopped and frowned. Did someone tail her? That was not right. She had made sure to take these two guys from the longer way. If she turned around now, then it would alert the person. But who was it? And they were just peeking from behind one of the rocks. What was their….

Boom!

In a split second, her instincts kicked in and she jumped on Li Ming Hao to protect him from the falling debris.