Chapter 10: Chapter 10 – Into the Depths

He was woken up to bells clanging, and saw that all the other prisoners were getting up and filing out of the building.

Grayson joined them, moving out into the open area of the compound. Guards shouted orders about as the prisoners gathered together, and after just a minute the prisoners were lined up to be counted.

Apparently everyone had arrived, because they moved out not long after, heading toward the dark clouds he had noticed when they first arrived on the island. He tried to ignore the looks he was getting from the other prisoners as they walked, but his heart started beating faster as this was all starting to become very real. It was likely those same people were going to try to kill him today.

He was surprised when he only saw the men in their compound being brought, so me moved over to Capso and asked where the other prisoners were.

“The different groups enter the zone in different areas. Partly to keep us dangerous criminals separated from the others, and partly to more easily and quickly search a wider area of the aquadome.”

“Huh,” Grayson said, “I guess that makes sense.”

They didn’t walk too far before Grayson saw strings of kelp rising up in the distance behind a wall, that looked to be encircling the entire aquadome. Grayson saw guards perched at sentry points along the wall, each one armed with a bow. It looked like anyone caught trying to climb over the wall to escape the proving grounds would get an arrow for their trouble.

Soon enough they reached the edge of the dome where a large break in the wall gave a good view into the proving grounds. For having such a fearsome reputation, they looked calm now. Seeing the aquadome, it was now clear that the place where he had arrived on Selenya was indeed an aquadome as he had guessed, but this one was different. Instead of the trees and grass he had seen in the other aquadome, there was only sand, and the kelp grew in large swaths that were incredibly thick to the point it was impossible to see even a few feet into the stuff.

“Alright, listen up. As always, we have new arrivals, so you’re going to get the speech.” A guard with two lines on his clamshell rank insignia shouted out.

He went on to explain much of what Grayson had learned from Brother Capso the day before, but Grayson wasn’t going to complain about getting a reminder. The new things Grayson picked out of the announcement were that when the pearl was found and returned to the guards, the sentries on the wall would blow horns to let everyone know it had been found and that it was time to return.

Anyone seen loitering around the edges of the aquadome where it was safer would be punished. The guard also explained that if more than three quarters of the entrants left safely, all the prisoners would get extra rations until their next entry into the aquadome. If less than half of the entrants returned, rations would be halved. It appeared that the guards wanted to incentivize teamwork, or at least keep backstabbing to a minimum.

The guard wrapped up his little speech, and the prisoners were pushed to the entrance and into the dome. Grayson’s heart felt like it wanted to beat out of his chest, and his palms were so slick with sweat he thought they might start to prune up.

As he passed through the opening in the wall, Grayson felt a heaviness to the air that he hadn’t felt in the other aquadome, though he hardly noticed it as he looked towards the more experienced prisoners. He was hoping to pick up on anything that he should emulate.

Most of them were moving purposefully into the aquadome, though they all had their heads on a swivel looking in all directions around them. Grayson moved forward as well, and as he looked out warily, he saw many of the creatures he had seen in the first aquadome. The exotic looking fish and other assorted crustaceans and sea life were all there. Nothing that looked too dangerous so far, but Grayson decided to take Brother Capso’s advice and not try to search for the pearl today. He would just go in far enough that the guards on the wall wouldn’t be able to see him. He started to make his way farther into the proving grounds, making sure to carefully look at where he was stepping as he moved forward cautiously.

A scream rang out, raw and full of terror. Grayson looked over and saw a man was being grappled by something resembling a giant octopus, but with far more than eight tentacles. The man tried to struggle, but it was useless. He was easily overpowered by the creature, and his screams became muffled when his head was enveloped by Grayson’s blood ran cold as he saw the man slowly enveloped as he was dragging into the thing’s maw. By the way the octopus’s skin blended into the sand, Grayson figured this must be one of the ambush predators Brother Capso had mentioned.

Grayson let out a shuddering breath after witnessing the attack, and with that chilling reminder that death could be moments away, Grayson renewed his efforts to carefully make his way forward into the zone.

Not long after, he saw a massive swarm of jellyfish drifting toward him. He had two options to avoid the jellyfish. He could move back, or go forward. Moving back wasn’t a good option because the guards on the wall would definitely still be able to see him from this distance, and he didn’t want to risk being punished for avoiding the center of the aquadome. He decided to go forward, moving through a pair of rocky outcroppings jutting out of the sand.

He carefully walked forward, though he occasionally looked at the swarm to make sure it wasn’t growing too close. After turning back forward from one such look, he froze. On the back of one of the rocky outcroppings, he almost missed it, but another one of the octopus creatures was hanging there. Its skin blended almost seamlessly into the rock, and if Grayson hadn’t seen the previous man who had been attacked, he probably would have had the same thing happen to him. Grayson slowly backed away from the creature, his heart beating faster than ever, knowing how close to death he had just been.

The octopus must have noticed him backing away, because questing tentacles reached toward him, and Grayson was forced to backpedal away from the thing.

It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to get through the two outcroppings, so he retraced his steps, his new goal to get around one of the outcroppings before the jellyfish arrived. He let out a growl of frustration as he saw the swarm was getting close. He berated himself for choosing a direction that would funnel him in a single direction. It was probably no mistake that the octopus creature had decided to lie in wait in that spot. He moved as quickly as he dared to try and get out of the way of the swarm, but the jellyfish moved deceptively quickly. He had wanted to be safe and carefully inspect everywhere he stepped, but he was slowly forced to move faster and faster as the swarm approached. Grayson had just rounded the outcropping and was about to make a short dash to safety when the first jellyfish passed in front of him, cutting off his escape.

The next few minutes were some of the most tense of his entire life. Part of it was the jellyfish themselves, they were dangerous enough, judging from the fish that were stuck in their tentacles, but what really had Grayson worried was that he was forced to move in specific ways to avoid the things. He couldn’t look out for dangers that might be hiding nearby while he was dodging between the creatures. If he stumbled over something hiding in the sand, it was all over for him.

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Fortunately, he had managed to get far enough away from the main swarm of jellyfish that he wasn’t instantly engulfed, but the fringes of the hoard were dangerous enough. He was forced to dodge and weave through the creatures, giving everything he had to avoid every single tentacle. He slowly made his way toward safety, though several times he was forced to moved farther toward the swarm to avoid danger.

As he moved, he couldn’t help but feel like he was in one of those heist movies where some character needs to creep through a laser grid to reach the goal. He twisted and contorted his body to ensure he wasn't so much as grazed by a single tentacle.

Grayson ducked under one jellyfish, and almost went headfirst into a second he hadn’t seen behind the first. Cursing, he almost reflexively jumped back into a third before he calmed himself and moved to the side to get around all of them.

After that, the creatures thinned out noticeably, and he was able to army crawl the rest of the way until he was finally out of the hoard.

Sighing in relief, Grayson got to his feet, but froze as he noticed where he was standing. Less than a foot away, a delicate looking stalk drifted through the air. Any further, and he would have come into contact with the thing. He saw several other similar stalks coming out of the sand from a central point not too far away.

Brother Capso had said to stay away from the antennae like stalks at all costs, and Grayson wasn’t going to ignore that kind of advice. Carefully, he edged around the stalks, while keeping an eye out for any jellyfish coming up behind him. As he started to put a little distance between himself and the antennae, a wondering jellyfish brushed up against one of the stalks gently.

The world seemed to explode in that moment. Sand flew through the air, as a giant, vaguely centipede like creature erupted from where it had been, and the jellyfish was how shredded by massive jaws that had clamped down on it like a vice. Grayson gaped at the sight, only for the creature to disappear back into the sand moments later. The sand roiled until the thing completely disappeared with the jellyfish in tow, the only clue that something was there were the stalks that were once again left drifting through the air.

Grayson was terrified. The creature’s reaction had been instant. Nothing that big should have been able to move that fast.

No wonder Capso said to stay away from the stalks, Grayson thought grimly as he mutely stared. He shook himself out of it quickly when he realized what he was doing. He couldn’t afford to be caught unaware. It was becoming increasingly clear he would die if he did that.

Grayson started moving a little deeper into the aquadome, but wasn’t planning on moving much farther after that. He had seen enough while moving around today.

He found a relatively open area that seemed relatively safe, with kelp forest nearby. Brother Capso had said that the larger predators avoided the kelp, so he thought it would provide a nice escape route if something big took notice. He tried to document what he saw with his mind. Everything here was incredible, and he would have been fascinated if he weren’t so terrified. He saw a salamander crocodile like the one he had seen in the other aquadome, though this one was large enough it looked like it might be able to swallow Grayson whole. He also saw what appeared to be a giant snake swimming through the water far off in the distance.

Grayson wondered how such a small area could support so many massive predators. There was probably more food in the ecosystem than usual because of the prisoners forced to enter every couple of days, but he was sure that hadn’t always been the case.

In the end, he just decided it must be something about the magic in the area that made it possible. He was continuing his observations of the aquadome’s dangers when he was distracted by voices sounding out from the kelp forest nearby.

“Are you sure it was this direction.” One voice asked skeptically.

Grayson was surprised at the sound. He hadn’t seen any sign of his fellow prisoners since the very beginning. He wanted to hide, but he had purposefully put himself in a fairly open area to be able to see all around him. He started to move away as the conversation continued.

“Yes I’m sure.” Another voice said, sounding annoyed.

The voices drew closer, and all Grayson could do was hope that these people weren’t dangerous, because the kelp near the edge of the forest was starting to move noticeably.

Sure enough, moments later, a figure that was recognizable as the man who had threatened him in the camp became clear. Grayson felt like crying as the man immediately spotted him, a vicious grin breaking out on his scarred face.

“Looks like you were right,” He called behind him, and soon a group of four others walked out of the kelp, and all of them made a beeline straight for Grayson.

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