"Oh sorry. I have a theory about how we can get out, but bear with me, until I figure out if it will work. It looks like this pool is connected to the rest of the ocean. See that tunnel down at the bottom?" Nixie said as she pointed to the glowing, translucent pool that Yuki was floating in. The blue-haired girl wiggled out of her backpack, and hopped in with the strange Japanese girl, but she found it pleasant that one of them finally decided to stop worrying, relax, and find a way out. After all, you do your best thinking when you’re calm, she thought to herself. “Yeah, I see it. It seems pretty deep though..” She mumbled the last part to herself, suddenly anxious of the depths of the pool. Yuki was never one for endurance and strength-based activities; that’s why she prefers skateboarding over any sports, because it relies more on how you control your momentum and your agility rather than simply physical toughness. Her weaker than average lungs didn’t allow her the pleasure of surfing and swimming regularly with the others, so when Nixie came back up from the other side and told them it would take “only” a two minute swim, she got pretty nervous.
“Uhm.. You know what, maybe I’ll just.. stick around here, y’know?” Yuki muttered nervously with a smile that tried to hide her anxiety around the waters. “I like the place: it’s beautiful, peaceful, and I want to find out a bit more about the crystals and such. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She looked about the cave room once more, admiring the awe-inspiring grandeur of the interplay between the soft luminosity of the crystals and the dancing shadows hovering in between. She wondered if there was another pathway out that did not require her to drop down a dark hole or search randomly around the island shores looking for the underwater entrance. She sighed disappointedly, seeing there were none, and looked to Tristan as she responded to Nixie’s invitation, "Well that's a bummer... It was looking like it was going to be such a nice night for camping..." Yuki couldn’t agree more, and nodded solemnly to show her siding with the girl’s statement. “Problem is, we don’t have camping gear.. No rations either, since we did plan on just being here for a few hours.” With that discussion out of the way, Tristan jumped into the pool, and the team of girls started preparing to make their escape, when suddenly, a beam of moonlight shot down through the crater and into the water. She stood frozen, completely enthralled by this shining, white pillar. Subconsciously, she reached out and grabbed the other two girls’ hands, and closed her eyes and basked in the strange serenity of the situation. Little droplets of water started floating around the four, and small orbs of light bobbed up from the pool and glimmered against their entranced, relaxed faces. The water started bubbling to a warm boil, which soothed her skin and her now dull, aching bones. Taking this moment to unwind, she submerged herself even more into the pool.
The strange occurrence passed as quickly as it came, the moon shifting phases in the blink of an eye, the little blobs of water and light phasing out of existence, and the water simmering down to its inert state. Yuki opened her eyes, and saw how everyone was just as confused as she was. “What was that? Is everyone ok?” Nixie asked everyone with a rather worried look on her face. Yuki nodded simply in response, and quickly glanced around to make sure that the others were all right as well. "Well... That was better than a full body massage... Yeah, I'm fine. But unless you guys are fine with camping here in the cavern we better get our buts into gear." She opened her mouth to state that she was actually fine with it, but then Tristan went under and swam towards the tunnel towards the exit. Yuki gulped nervously and hard, her anxiety shooting up her throat. She felt queasy, and probably turned a sickly shade of blue, but she swallowed her ill feeling, and shot the remaining two a weak smile that indicated that she was trying too hard to keep it all down. Well, here goes nothing.. she thought helplessly as she inhaled the deepest breath she could, and plunged herself in. She began waddling as best as she could along the pathway, admiring the little dots of light that seem to float about the water, illuminating her way. After about thirty seconds, she calmed down, and thrust her arms forward and back in more fluid motions. All right, slow and steady now.. she told herself reassuringly, and continued at her desired pace. Despite her positive self-encouragement though, her lungs had already reached their limit. Making the mistake of letting out all the air bubbles in her mouth all at once, she accidentally inhaled water in reflex for oxygen. Struggling for a foothold of the situation, she tried to paddle her way towards the opening, which was half-way across, her lungs growing hotter and more bloated in her chest. She looked back, panic flashing from her wide, dark eyes, and gauged whether or not she could swim forward or back fast enough for air. She coughed up another air bubble in her paralyzed state, and her lungs seared with burning agony. Her vision hazed into a blur, her arms and legs grew wobbly and weary, and her body felt like lead. She vehemently hoped that another girl would come soon to sweep her out of her scorching suffocation, as shadows crept into her vision..