Donal's Deep Dive

The water was warm and the air was cool, but the sun was hot. Even with a wet cloth wrapped around my head like a turban, I couldn't stop dripping sweat. This must have been what hell was like.

"It's this way!" exclaimed Liritho, pointing to his right.

"I thought we were going left!" I shouted back, shielding my eyes from the sun as I stared at him. He had a smaller turban on his head and he was wearing a long robe with sleeves that flapped in the ocean breeze.

"Why did you think we were going left?" he asked, stopping in his tracks and turning to face me. He had a tinge of redness in his cheeks which made me wonder if he was getting sunburnt too. But then again, maybe everyone who lived under water got sunburnt easily.

"Because you said left! You just said left twice now! Which means it should be right!" I yelled back at him, my voice muffled by the damp cloth over my mouth and nose.

"Oh," Liritho said sheepishly, scratching his head while he glanced to the side. "Oh yeah."

He looked back at me and pointed to the right again.

"Yeah... it's this way."

He looked so embarrassed that I couldn't help but smile despite our situation: lost deep below the surface of an alien world where sunlight never penetrated beyond its surface, where water touched rock instead of sky, where creatures that would make your hair stand on end could be hiding around every corner and even within yourself.

"Where are we?" I asked Liritho as we continued walking through the endless blue-green expanse of ocean floor filled with rocks and coral and other creatures swimming about aimlessly. Everything from gigantic fish with gaping jaws big enough to swallow us whole without chewing to tiny little shrimp too fast for us to catch no matter how many we threw at them - it seemed like everything in this world wanted to eat us and there wasn't a single thing that we could eat in return because nothing here grew on land or grew on trees or grazed on grass - a world without plants! It was insane!

"This is the Waverunner Strait," Liritho replied as he stopped to rest against an exposed rock formation. He pointed forward with his thumb. "Do you see those lines of dark sand?"

 I squinted my eyes against the bright sunlight reflecting off of everything around us, but eventually I saw what Liritho was talking about: long rivulets of dark brown sprinkled with hints of yellow running through otherwise pristine white sand bedding underneath perfectly clear seawater as far as my eyes could see from here - probably further than that actually since I couldn't see past Liritho blocking my line of sight behind him as he leaned against some rock jutting out from underneath one of those rivulets of sand. As for those rivulets themselves... well I had no idea what they were except that Liritho called them 'Waverunners' earlier when he first spotted them while we were still above ground on dry land walking along one of these 'rivers' shaped like a snake instead of like a river; but whatever they were they looked pretty impressive considering how far up they went before turning into regular seawater again somewhere up ahead beyond this place where we stood now - all this talk about 'wavers' made me wonder if these rivulets were made by waves somehow or something? But then again there shouldn't be any waves down here because there aren't any real waves underwater anyway - just currents caused by moving water interacting with objects floating in their midst; so maybe these things really were just 'racing runners' and not wave-runners after all? In any case, whatever they were they sure looked impressive enough to get us stranded if we didn't figure out how to follow them deeper into this vast ocean no matter what happens next!

I shook my head and tried not to let my imagination run wild while Liritho continued talking beside me:

"If these sandy lines lead back upstream then we should be able to find our way back home."

 "They don't," I said flatly, glaring at him as I swatted away yet another mosquito buzzing around my earlobe trying to suck blood out of me - only very few species here actually bit solid flesh out of animals though most preferred sucking juices out of plants; but those few species here sure loved human blood even more than those same bloodthirsty mosquitoes back home! And speaking of bloodthirsty things... why did this place have so many goddamn insects everywhere? It's not like there weren't flowers or fruits growing around here and attracting pollinators either! What's up with all these fucking bugs?!

"How do you know?" Liritho asked, cocking his head sideways as he gave me an inquisitive look while straightening himself up again while brushing off dust from his clothes. All that dirt caked onto him made him look more like a caveman than anything else; but seeing how everything within reach was covered in either mud or saltwater crustacean shells most likely coated in seabed muck, it didn't really matter how dirty your clothes got down here anyway - everyone back home probably thought that we were dead already anyway just like all those people who tried to travel across oceans without exploring them first before doing so...

"Look at those waves," I explained pointing towards the horizon where rolling waves slowly approached us from behind, each crest standing higher than the last until finally reaching such heights that it broke into spray before crashing down onto itself splashing droplets everywhere with such force that it pushed aside all other waves coming behind it until finally all those other smaller waves reached their own crests too before breaking over themselves into their own spray all along the shoreline lining up alongside us where we stood now watching them approach us; then suddenly each wave disappeared beneath wave after wave until eventually all together they disappeared altogether leaving nothing behind except for faint rings visible on top of normal seawater before finally disappearing completely leaving crystal clear seawater in their stead which refracted sunlight into rainbow patterns across its surface before suddenly vanishing itself too once all seawater turned pure blue once again - after seeing all these things happening right before my very eyes one could bet money on everything including people thinking that either: A) We'd been dead for ages; B) They didn't want us dead quite yet; or C) We're still alive somehow though not quite ourselves anymore seeing how different everything looks compared to what they're used to back home... but then again people do tend to exaggerate these days too so maybe they were simply being annoying as usual? Who knows?! But anyway... why exactly did our presence cause these strange 'waves' in the first place huh?! And what exactly are these 'waves' anyway?!

 "Those aren't normal waves," Liritho explained calmly with a relaxed smile on his face as if nothing was amiss whatsoever instead of standing naked waist deep inside seawater surrounded by countless dangerous creatures ready to consume him whole at any moment in time rendering our entire venture futile before it ever began; speaking of futile ventures though... why did he insist on wearing long robes instead of swimming trunks just like me? Wasn't he hot wearing them?! Maybe he liked being seen naked by everyone around him because even though everyone else might wear clothes too there's always those times when you accidentally take off your shirt or trousers or whatever without realizing it first while fumbling around looking for something hidden underneath your clothes - so yeah maybe having someone walk around bare naked showing off their googly eyes plus tentacles plus facial features plus everything else amidst all this chaos might turn out helpful later on seeing how everyone else probably couldn't care less about anyone else's sightseeing experience down here after seeing many other humans walk around looking like hermit crabs earlier today? Or maybe wearing long robes wasn't such a bad idea after all if only because they could wrap themselves up nicely afterwards without worrying about being seen naked by others like some hasty little boy shamefully rushing off into some corner somewhere trying desperately hard not be seen even though everybody already saw you already anyways! But then again maybe wearing clothes wasn't such a good idea either for another reason entirely: When suddenly attacked by something nasty down here, it wouldn't be very nice if you had nowhere else to hide besides your clothes which could easily tear apart under attack leaving whatever body part protected by said garment vulnerable instead! So really nobody wanted to wear anything at all when travelling underwater unless absolutely necessary because otherwise everything would get wet including clothes which would weigh down upon people making everything harder especially if underwater pressure affected people stronger than expected which might cause problems later on causing people not wanting to wear anything at all ever - unless absolutely necessary! Unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... unless absolutely necessary... except for finding ways for people doing stuff underwater not feeling very tired during their journeys; and finding ways for keeping food fresh longer besides drying things directly underwater instead