[Maaike]

Maaike and Aifric helped Aiden dig. She didn't have the strength to morph even her hands and hadn't had chance to quench her thirst yet, so she curved her fingers like claws instead and the cartographer mimicked her style. When they hit the spongy layer, she sat back on her heels and glanced about for something to cut through it while Aifric grabbed a small, jagged rock and bashed vainly at the dirt. Kiel had taken his katana and hook swords into the hole with him, but one of his throwing knives must have come loose when he dunked his head in the water — the blade was sitting right by Maaike's hand.

Holding on to the blade was awkward because it was designed for throwing and didn't have a hilt. She nicked herself a couple of times as she tried to cut through the layer of sponge. “Aiden, you shouldn't stand in there.” No sooner had she said the words than he scrambled back because the ground rippled, as if it was alive. Maaike gasped and yanked back her hands.

“The heck is this thing?” She scanned the length of the trench to her left and right, noting how the water thrashed and turned. Everything they'd discussed about watering holes being the perfect spot for an ambush came back to run circles through her mind — as did the fact that, despite this being the only water source for miles, they were the only ones here. In a desert, the oases became the centre of life. There weren't even any plants here.

“You! Zanaryan, Faris. What are we likely to find under here?” Besides Blabbermouth, she meant. The Zanaryan was no Dryad, but he could use the water to feel out the surrounding area and give them a better idea of what was down there. She was beginning to think this watering hole was no natural occurrence at all but an elaborate trap. Did the Malaki live underground? Or was there something even more dangerous out here?

“How deep is it?” Aifric asked. “How long do we have before he suffocates?” A grisly thought occurred to Maaike: The water was still trying to flood into the porous layer despite the Marid's efforts, so did that mean Kiel would drown before the air was gone?

Finally, the knife cut through the spongy layer and she managed to peel it back a little to create a gaping tear.

[Faris]

The moment the rest of party realised that he was able to get vision of the underground through his ability, they started pelting Faris with questions. He instructed Ninian to shore up a makeshift dam at at the new-formed turn and set to work answering as best as he could. The water level in the cordoned-off length of the trench was lower now, and getting steadily lower still. With any force or current to move them along, the water simply started to heading downwards to the lowest point they could find.

"Nothing, at least not yet. Everyone stay off the trenches - it's not that deep but-"

Maaike had managed to pierce the ground, revealing the darkness below. He saw a faint movement, but Kiel was the only one in the hole. This hole anyway. Further down, near the central source of the water... Stabbing the prongs of his weapon into the tear, Faris tapped into his inner farmer and started shoveling away at the spongy dirt. Interestingly, due to the very nature of the ground Faris was able to shovel with unexpected efficiency despite the the gaps between the prongs. With a few strokes he had managed to one-sidedly widen the tear. He lowered the blunt end of this trident down into the rough D-shaped hole, calling down.

"Kiel! Can you stand? I'm going to try and pull you out, hold on tight!"

There was good reason for Faris' urgency; the nature of the spongy, rippling ground had reminded him of arachnids. The grains of rock and stone were not spongy; it was the odd substance sticking them together that was making the ground behave that way. And coupled with how the trails of water had radiated outwards in a manner similar to a spider's web, Faris was very nervous indeed.

[Kiel]

Like, Kiel was starting to actually think he was, like, actually going to die, man, for sers! Like, water was trickling in and the air was getting squeezed out and, like, dirt kept falling in his mouth and he had to keep spitting it out and, like, his breaths were coming shorter and shorter 'cause, like, there was less and less room for it in the confines of whatever trap he'd been sucked into.

“Dude, like...” Gasp. Air suck. Scratch scratch scratch. Let me ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut! Like, he didn't like being in tight spaces, okay? Like, he'd grown up on a farm with wide open fields and, like, okay so he'd also grown up in a house full of kids and adults and had to share the bathroom and his bed and he couldn't move three inches without tripping over someone or something they'd left behind, but, like, there was a whole vast world of difference between a bunch of toys left lying around and, like, a pitch dark tiny hole that was totally trying to kill him, you know? He wanted out, like, now, like right now right now right now, okay?!

And then there was a hole and there was oxygen and light and voices. Kiel's fingers were bloody from all the clawing at the rock but he didn't quit clawing, you know? And as soon as the hole was wide enough, he shot his hand through and cherished Faris' beloved voice like there was no tomorrow. “Dude! Like, dude! Get me outta here, okay? I think I'm lunch!” There was a gooey quality to the water that seeped through his trouser legs. Like, it kinda felt like mucus and that was totally a bad sign, you know? Like, he was swimming in snot, okay? “Get me outta here! Please. Please! Please please please!”