Rocky
You flip away from the Table of Contents and are immediately greeted with a drawing of the cave entrance how it had looked when Faelan had found it. The next page was titled "THE CAVE"
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We found a cave on our exploration today. We left with the simple task of finding out what Death Horses eat, and have suddenly found out so much more about this world's past.
Below this cave entrance, we found a small chamber, Andy insisted it looked like the crust of a massive geode, and convinced us all to work for 9 hours straight mining straight into the ground.
In hindsight... I'm so glad he did.
We were laying into Andy about making us work so much for nothing, when suddenly the ground cracked bellow us and sent us tumbling a short way down into a much wider cavity.
I have no idea how it was physically possible for such a cave to form, only another mystery to this place.
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You flip the page once more and are greeted with a detailed drawing of what the wall in front of you looked like before they'd worked on it at all. There was a Tyrannosaurus looking creature, in active combat with a Sauropod when it was fossilized. The next page is titled "THE BONES"
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It's amazing down here... I mean, it's dusty and dank and horribly dark. But this wall... this wall has millions of years of history on it. Jurassic and triassic creatures, framing a beautiful Cretaceous battle. It's awe-inspiring and terrifying. We've also found amber deposits and fossilized trees that must be millions of years old.
I don't know why we haven't asked each other yet... but my only worry is that all these creatures come from such vastly different periods of time in the normal world... I'm hoping it's not just some elaborate fake, but I've overlooked everything personally so far and nothing has raised any red flags. We have a plan to bring our haul back tomorrow.
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You flip the page once more, realizing you're almost halfway through at this point.
The next page has a drawing of what almost looks like an explosion. The birth of the sinkhole that now sits in front of you. The next page is aptly named "THE SINKHOLE" its also dusted with the red mineral that runs in veins around you.
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Shit went to hell today... literally. Lila and Tim were working on dusting the bones off when we all suddenly started hearing cracking. Tim ran away in time, but Lila was caught in all the dust, and a massive sinkhole opened up against the wall right under her.
We'd messed with the skeletons out enough, I guess... they broke off and fell down there with her. Obviously I'm heartbroken about Lila... she was young, it's a tragedy... but that must've been millions of dollars worth of fossilized dinosaur. None of us would ever have had to work again.
Now we're trying to figure out our next move. Half of us want to go down for Lila and the bones, myself included. And half of us want to get the hell out of here before it happens again.
Lila made our numbers odd... so Tim decided we'd go down and get her. We have a pull system set up for us, and about three days of battery left in our flashlights. I think it should go well.
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You turn the page once more and are greeted with the visual of broken skulls at the bottom of the sinkhole. The Rex's teeth buried in the dirt as far as they'd go, with a hand sticking our from under one of them... this was labeled "THE DECENT"
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You think because you've seen some dead bodies, you'll know how to react when it's your friend... especially just a hand. Bur not Lila. I didn't expect it to ever be Lila.
We made our way down with the pullies, helping each other as much as we could. It was a long way down, but to me it felt like five minutes cuz I was trying to jot down everything I was seeing. Ryder kept telling me to turn my light off before it died but I couldn't stop looking at it all.
It was amazing, at least ten massive, full dinosaur skeletons, from a triceratops to an allosaurus to a freaking spino! I've sketched as many as possible in the back pages of this journal.
I can't belive the sinkhole broke out perfectly to reveal all of this, it must've been some catastrophic eruption or something.
I kinda wish I had stopped looking there like Ryder told me to. Because the bones... stopped looking fossilized.
Maybe it was the gleam of my flashlight or the minerals of what they'd been buried in, but they didn't seem as old or as worn down anymore, and the Tyrannosaurus looked... different from the one we'd found in the cavern above... evolved almost.
When we reached the bottom, we only called for Lila for about 10 minutes before one of us found her hand.
A few of us went out into the odd, Mushroom filled ecosystem to see what it was like while the rest of us grieved our friend.
We decided the Rex skull was so buried it had probably crushed her... and that we shouldn't lift it in order to bury her. I honestly agreed... I wouldn't survive, seeing her broken like that... I'm glad it was just her hand.
Cuz now, even after setting up camp for the night and starting a fire, I cant stop shaking.
One of the scouts came back with a campsite and we left a trail of red string for the others to follow. It was a safe, shallow cave with Thorn bushes around it, allowing us to feel safe.
Tomorrow we're going to explore... it's almost like the Rotten Forest down here. But the trees are mushrooms. I'm beginning to wonder if the core of this place has been infected and is spreading up. Who knows? Maybe I'll find out tomorrow.
I'm glad I brought another journal, I'm about to hit those drawings I was talking about. Until next time.
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You turn the page a final few time to thumb through the drawing of the fossils hed seen in the sinkhole, and you look up to see what remains of their pully system. You could probably use it if you really wanted.
You close the book and take a breath, before thinking about it a bit, the Rex tooth you found before... it probably came from the skull they found Lila under.
You look around and listen for anything else around and don't notice anything out of the ordinary, other than the snoring of your pets.
-You May-
Return to the Forest
Explore the Sinkhole
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