Ocean Shadows Event

Livius watches in awe at the other toa's strength in the water. Aborakota had hauled them out of the water with ease, even as his legs felt like pudding finally being on something solid, and now he was moving gear around as if he hadn't just spent several hours straight in water. Livia had barely kept up with him in the water, but on land, they worked as a team to get things back in order on the ship. Apparently Kartha had taken great interest in their Watcher experience after she'd come back from the landing party. So, now a day later they were adjusting the gear on the ship to go back down into the water and streamline the process.

"Livius, mind giving us a hand?" Aborakota asks over a very large box.

Livius sets down his sketch book and answers, "be right there!"

He moves into position as they push the large box towards the hatch on deck. Minding his claws, he puts his weight behind his pushing, and with a thump it slides onto the winch. More voices below move it down. He turns around and sees Aborakota already digging into their gear to give to them. Aborakota holds out Livius' mask with a smile.

"Thank you, I take it we're going down soon?" Livius asks.

Livia nods his head, "yeah, as soon as we get our gear on, we're due in the water."

Livius holds in his groan, you signed up for this, remember? Going outside your comfort zone, and Giaris is being taken care of. He puts his gear on and makes sure the seals are tight. Livia bumps his shoulder and grins at him. The simple gesture relieves some of the stress. The transition into the water was the hardest. Being in the water was fine, but for some reason, his heart always started pounding as he prepared to go in the water. Despite what he tries to tell himself, it was nothing like diving off the floating islands on Giaris. But... he takes the plunge, there's a different sense of freedom in the water.

Splashes sound around him as Livia and Aborakota join him in the water. A deep breath in to calm himself, and he slips under the waves. The signs come to mind and he directs the others to the place he saw the Watcher move towards, and where Livia last saw the mysterious person. They don't go far before finding the drop off, and it being riddled with caves. How interesting! he thinks,and turns to sign.

He gets Aborakota and Livia's attention before signing, Caves Below, Look?

They both nod their heads, and move in next to him. Aborakota asks to speak into his neck, and he nods his consent. 

"Why are we going into the caves?" he asks.

Livius turns and says, "I'm hoping our mysterious Watcher will see us go into the caves, and follow us in."

"What's the plan if we run into a critter there that's not happy about us being there?" he asks, mulling over the plan.

He turns to say, "depending on size, capture it or take it up top for the others to study. Kartha mentioned something about tagging animals for later study."

Aborakota relays the information to Livia, then they move. Livius marks the cave on his way in, and follows them in. His neck feathers start to prick, but when he turns around, there's nothing. He mentally tracks the direction, and keeps going. Hopefully they take the bait, he thinks, maybe then we can get some answers.

The cave darkens, and then as he goes deeper he sees a glow outlining Livia and Aborakota. The deeper they go, the brighter it gets, until he can see every nook and cranny of the rock, sand, and flora. yet it is soft enough that some details are hazy. Well, that's what happens when the plants and animals themselves glow. Corals emanated the brightest of the soft light, and he struggled to see if it was the coral itself glowing, or if it was some sort of bacterial film on it that glowed. Other sea life glowed, but the corals were the brightest. His mind was working going through known classifications to gauge where these might fall with relations. 

Tap.

He's startled out of his mindscape by Livia, who signs, Don't touch, and points at the corals. That's when he notices a fish that looks recently dead with a glowing film spreading from where it made contact with the coral, and glowing remnants around its beak. Intriguing, a self defense mechanism? He files the knowledge away to come back to later. He watches Aborakota carefully poke at a different creature, something that almost looked like an anemone, but something about it was strange. Livius flicks his head around when he feels his neck feathers prick again.

I didn't sense anyone, so how..?

Livia watches him from the corner of his eyes, and nods. He noticed it, too. With that he pays more attention to their surroundings while Aborakota and Livia "distracted" themselves with the animals and plants.

There!

He whips his head around, and movement blurs from one shadow, to another. Our Watcher! He can't hide that he's aware of the stranger any more, but, the stranger doesn't move from where they hid in the shadows. They're also too close to one of the other tunnels for him to approach without fleeing. Instead of trying to approach them, he pulls the bracelet Aborakota had found the day before and sets it down on the sand in front of him. A peace offering, hopefully. 

Then, he signs for the others to head to the exit. He takes one last look behind him as the others file out. Shadow takes loose form as the stranger approaches the bracelet. They pause when they see him watching them, and he turns back around to leave. Progress, I hope. They head towards the surface.