We were at the edge of the canyon. We were ready to start exploring, but there was a problem first: we couldn't figure out how to get down.
There was a big drop to the canyon below. The red river rushed vigorously; even if any of us were considering jumping into it to get down—we weren't—how would we get back up? Besides, it was probably a far enough distance for the surface to kill on impact.
As we were thinking about what to do, Azarias suddenly asked a question. "Are any of you hungry or thirsty?"
I didn't recognize either of those words; neither did the rest of the group. "What does that mean?"
Azarias sighed. "That confirms it. I was starting to wonder why nobody has said they're craving food or water yet. It's for the best that we don't have to deal with either, but I'm puzzled as to why they wouldn't be needed in this world."
Someone else in the group spoke up—a man with red hair and a beard. "What are food and water?"
"On Earth, you have to pour liquids down your throat and shove objects of various colors and textures into your mouth in order to survive."
The others reacted to this with disgusted expressions, but the red-haired man's eyes lit up. "Yes, that's what I want to do. It's like my throat needs coating; it's been making me feel miserable."
Azarias raised an eyebrow. "Aleksi, you're thirsty?"
"Yes, I'm very thirsty!"
Azarias mumbled, "Only one of us needs water, and it's not me, even though I'm the one who remembers thirst as a named concept. Not one of us has said they need food… I wonder if the same goes for the other group."
He turned and pointed at the fountain in the center of the plateau. "I saw water in there earlier. Uh, I can teach you how to drink it if needed, but I imagine that'll be instinctual."
Aleksi rushed over to the fountain and stuck his head inside.
"Hey, what are you doing?" came a call from Athalia's group. "Someone stop him."
Someone rushed over and pulled Aleksi off the fountain before he could truly quench his thirst. He was shoved to the ground, and the others in Athalia's group stared at him angrily. "He's vandalizing the Fountain of Väinä!"
"Who the hell is Väinä? I'm thirsty; please let me drink."
"Drink? Thirsty? What are you talking about? You are dirtying the sacred fountain which the 8-Ball itself has named!"
Azarias stepped in between Aleksi and the one who had pushed him down. "It's hard to explain, but if he doesn't stick his head in the fountain, he won't survive. Have we not had enough death already?"
Aleksi's attacker didn't back down. "The very object which has saved us told us that the fountain is important, and is called the Fountain of Väinä. It is a sacred object. How could polluting a sacred object be required for this man's survival?"
Then, Athalia's voice was heard. "Let him go; it's okay."
The one who had attacked Aleksi looked at Athalia in confusion. "But…"
"Just because the Magic 8-Ball said the fountain is important doesn't mean it can't be used. We've already determined that it's hard to get exact answers out of it, right? Important could mean anything."
The man went silent. Athalia looked at Aleksi with a smile. "Get up," she said while extending her hand.
Azarias watched tensely as Athalia helped Aleksi to his feet. Athalia then said to the crowd, "Why don't we have the 8-Ball answer whether it's okay? This man can ask the question. The 8-Ball already told us: Anyone can ask a question, including Azarias and his friends. And nobody owns the 8-Ball. That includes me, and that includes you."
The man hung his head and shrank back into the crowd. Aleksi picked up the 8-Ball, which was sitting in the center of Athalia's group. He shook it and asked, "Am I allowed to drink from the Fountain of Vainä?"
He looked nervously at the blue triangle. Then, his face relaxed as he held the black orb up to the crowd. The message read, "Yes, but I'd advise finding a cleaner source of water."
Athalia chuckled. "There you have it. Now, while you're all over here, I'd like to ask a favor of Azarias. Well, it's not really me asking the favor, but the 8-Ball. We asked about your future, and it said you would write an encyclopedia of all your knowledge of Earth. You'll do it, won't you?"
Azarias smiled widely. "Yes, of course I will."
He walked away, the rest of our small group following behind. Once we were just out of earshot, he groaned. "That's going to be so much work; why would I be asked to do that? Where am I going to find a pen and paper, much less a way to bind books?"
We stood at the edge of the canyon again. Azarias stood right at the precipice. "Look," he said, "The source of the river has to come from beneath our feet. We have to find an entrance from up here. Once we do, maybe we can even float our way down."
Someone in our group laughed. I turned to see who it was: a very pretty girl with green eyes and dark skin. "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? We haven't even explored the part we're standing on yet."
Azarias nodded in agreement. "You're completely right. However, I don't want to interfere with the other group too much for now. Let's check this place out without bothering them. Our first destination should be that building over there."
He gestured towards the box-like building made of bricks with a concrete door. As we made our way over, Azarias was fidgeting with something in his ear.
We tried the door to Sariel's house, but it was locked, just like when other people tried it earlier. As we were looking around, I was worried about another intrusion by the other group, saying something like, "This house is sacred!" But it didn't happen.
As we stood in consideration of whether we should force our way in or move on, we were interrupted by Aleksi.
His act of drinking water earlier finally had an effect. A bizarre plant shot out of his mouth, one with a maw but no eyes. It immediately tried to attack the people nearest to it.
As Aleksi was struggling to subdue the plant, Azarias identified it. "It's a flytrap?"
"Whatever it is, it's making loud noises inside my head. It's talking to me, and I think it can read my thoughts."
"What is it saying?"
"It's saying… that it'll help us get inside, but only if we feed it first."
"What does it want to eat?"
"Flesh."
"Well… there's a pile of bodies over there, but that would be wrong. Maybe we should leave this building for later."
Then, the flytrap's stalk broke free from Aleksi's grasp and shot at the ground beneath his feet, throwing them both down. It took a big bite out of the ground and swallowed it, then burped. After a second, it seemed to have calmed down.
It dragged Aleksi toward the concrete door, slithered under the crack, and opened it from the inside. The concrete door swung open.
I looked at the ground. That doesn't look like flesh to me; it's all dried out and brittle.
We peered into the small room. All that was inside was a bed with perfectly clean sheets. Azarias pursed his lips and turned around. "Come on, there's nothing here; let's go."
I took a last glance at the bed before leaving. "It looks comfortable; it makes me want to go to sleep for a long time."
"Did you say sleep? That's interesting. How about the rest of you; do you feel tired at all? Do you know what sleep is?"
Everyone nodded, making Azarias go into thought for a moment. "Some things were kept, some things were not. Sleep was kept; hunger and thirst were not. Interesting… Well, if you're all tired, we can go to sleep before we leave."
Everyone shook their heads. "No, we want to go exploring."
Azarias smiled. He pointed at the Fountain of Väinä. It had a strangely violent design; it looked like a giant shredder. I imagined that if you ran into it fast or fell onto it, you'd be torn into tiny pieces.
"Where do you all think the water source comes from?" Azarias asked.
Nobody had an answer. The water in the fountain was cloudy, but it definitely didn't look dark red, so how could it come from the river?
I suddenly had an idea. I walked over to the fountain and pressed my ear to the ground beside it.
After a few seconds, I didn't hear anything, so I moved to another spot. The others were looking at me like I was crazy. But then, I heard what I was looking for. It was a faint rushing sound from underground.
I crawled along the ground, following the source of the sound. After a good distance, it appeared to be still going straight, so I stood up and pointed in the direction I had been following. "If we go up there, we should find something."
Towards the back wall of the cave, there was a hill laden with boulders. We scrambled up to the point where it leveled out. There was a playground, which I immediately recognized as such, and a field of lifeless gray grass. The grass was covered in markings for some kind of game.
"Azarias, do you recognize any of this? For some reason, I know that's a playground, but I'm unsure about the field."
Azarias shook his head. "I have no idea. There are lots of sports from around the world; it could be anything."
There was a large boulder that caught all of our eyes. It was engraved with two markings, making an equals sign. When I performed echolocation on the sides, I could tell there was a passageway behind it.
No matter how we pushed the rock, it wouldn't budge. Even when we all lined up and pushed together, it didn't move a single inch.
Azarias suddenly held up an object. "I found something."
It was a fingernail, a very long fingernail that wasn't attached to a person.
"I know what to do with this."
We were somewhat surprised. "There's an Earth custom relating to fingernails?"
"Yeah, you can say that… Ow."
He cut himself with the fingernail across his forehead. Then, he wiped the blood across the two lines of the rock. It rolled to the side on its own. In the tunnel behind the rock, a waterslide flowed down into darkness. We looked at each other with trepidation.
Then Azarias dove down the waterslide. "Come on, this is fun!"
Everyone followed after him, some needing more encouragement than others. Even though I didn't trust him, I couldn't help but want to go along too.