//------------------------------//
// Deeper 
// Story: Inside of My Chrysalis 
// by EpicChrysalis 
//------------------------------//

	The faint glow of Illy's skin is all that lit up the dark caves. We all agreed to stick together for the sake of light. We would find the exit to the mines. It collapsed hundreds of years ago, but we could work together to destroy the material blocking our path. When we ended up at a fork and argued about which way to go, it always ended something like this:

"I want this way and that's final!"
"My skin lights the path so you need me, Chaos!"
"Stop arguing!"
"I'm the light, and my way is final!"
And then we went Illy's way.
Illy hasn't sobbed or cried in the caves yet. But she has been cranky. When we decided to rest, everyone was desperate for entertainment. We were bored to death. Illy perked up and said.
"Want to hear the story of how my skin turned pink and glowed?"
We've all heard this story a million times. We're sick of it. But Illy loves to tell it. She just needs a kind audience to feel sympathy when she cries. But right now, we're extremely grateful Illy glows. That story, which we've only heard before this mess started, reminds me of school, days of no breath tax, days of less hunger, just normal days in the poor town of Noapte. It was bad having a little bit of food only once a day, but it seemed like a wonderful life compared to right now. 	Right now, since we were desperate, we all nodded or heads, widened our eyes, and listened closely.
"My mother was being punished for a terrible crime. She robbed the royal bank. Took millions of bits. She was expecting me when she did this. Of course, Nimbus was furious. She tied my mother down onto a board, in pits of flames. She wanted to roast mother.  Father had all the bits she took. He could still afford a rich life for me. He fought the armored guards off with his  double sided spear. The guards all easily went down. Surprisingly, they surrendered and he kept the money. But mother was still on fire, and was giving birth to me at the same time. Yeah, not a wise thing, mom." Illy rolled her eyes. We all gave a little laugh. We were grateful that her mother's timing was terrible.
"Anyways, the second I came out my father's voice screamed to my mother what I looked like. When Father told the story, he said I was ice blue, with ice blue eyes and an ice blue mane. I cried as my father tried to figure out a way to get me out of the fire pit. I stepped off the platform and fell into the platform, my hairs all disappearing and my skin turning hot pink. I was flaming. Father rushed to the control room and scared off the guards with his spear. He smashed a button and the fire stopped. He set up a poorly structured static boundary. I lit up with blinding light the second I touched that forcefield. My mane and my tail poofed out and stayed that way ever since." Illy paused to poke a piece of her poofy hair. We chuckled, it was hard not to laugh at her obnoxious hairstyle. "And I bounced right back on the platform, and my father flew out and picked me up. He was devastated at the loss of mother. And..." She stopped as her eyes swelled with tears, but gave up on holding them in when she burst into crying. "And I was too! I never met her and it makes me cry! I wish I'd known her! And even though I lived a rich life, and had a great destiny ahead of me, there was a hole in my heart I could never fix. Father loved me so much and held me so tight, but neither of us could bear the loss of her. Father always said if she had lived, we would have a 'life full of sunshine'. But it looks like Nimbus through a dark cloud over that sunshine, just because she can!" And that's when Illy throws herself on the ground in tears. For the first time, the end of the story makes me cry too. She did a good job of wording the death, probably the best she's ever done. And we don't have the strength to be cruel enough to roll our eyes. Not even the strength to not cry. We all collapse on the cold hard ground and cry ourselves to sleep.

When we wake up, we're still in puddles of tears. No heat or sun to evaporate them down here. Wiping the crust from our eyes, we regain our knowledge of our surroundings. We argue about forks every time they come up. After an argument that resulted in us all getting a minor injury, we agreed rock paper scissors, best out of three, would choose who selects the path. We came across a five way fork. The paths were unique this time. The one in the center had bright light shining through it. And it was obvious only the sun made that kind of light.  The one on it's right had sounds of water coming through it, and the one on the far right was snowy. Faint voices could be heard. The other two were ones with light from supposedly a fire, and the other had molten, red magma oozing out.
"I think we can all agree on the middle one. Only the sun makes light that bright. " I chuckled. They didn't take the joke. They were being serious. Illy grumbled.
"I say the water one! I'm really thirsty, and if the sun is so bright there's probably a drought. We'll take a drink, and then the sun one."
"There's voices in the frozen one! Changeling voices! We should help them!" Chaos snarled, only to add stress.
At least no one wanted to take the molten or fire path.
"We gotta save ourselves! They may be guards! They may fight us! And who knows if the water is safe to drink!" I screamed. "Rock paper sci-"
Illy screamed as loud as she could.
"I'm getting water so I don't die of thirst!"
"But Illy! Chrys is right! What if the water is bad?" Chaos and I thoughtlessly followed the glowing pink pony. She wasn't good at hiding in the dark, because she glowed. So it was easy to find her. Drinking the water.
"Illy! Does it taste odd? Do you notice anything odd about it?" Chaos said in a panic.
"A-a-abou-ou-out wha-a-a-t?" Illy said so slowly it bothered me. She looked at us slowly, with red puffy eyes that were half closed. I panicked too. This was bad.
"The water Illyot! Is the water odd?"
"Huh? It's, fi-i-i-ne. I-it sa-a-a-aved me-e-e-e!" her wretched smile concerned me.
"Illy, that water's going to kill you, not keep you alive. It's probably not even water. It may even be-" I was interrupted by the gurgling of the river. It was louder than it should be. I looked at it, bubbling, gushing, vulgar. I almost vomited. It was gooey, slimy, sticky, thick, and black. Illy shouldn't have drank it. I slapped her really hard. I regretted it soon after. What if I just screwed something up that was tying to make her puke the stuff out? Her skin felt droopy and thin, like it was falling off. She looked at me, her eyes still wide.
"Huh? Oh crap! Sorry, I'm going insane! We should bail." Illy said quickly. I realized what she meant. The muck was crawling onto the shore. It oozed towards us. It made odd noises, including an "Ahhhhhh Illy" that could be faintly heard above the bubbling. We all screamed. The deafening screech of terrified little girls. But this time it wasn't a ghost story at a sleep over party. It was real.
Chaos sealed her lips after a second. I softened my scream down, then completely stopped when I noticed it. Illy kept screaming, but Chaos punched her arm which shut her up. And it was really bad timing when Illy started vomiting. I groaned. We didn't have time for this.
We had to get out.