Maiors

Fatima XXXII

Ymir cried as he hugged Yuseff. They had been separated for over a month now. He tried his best to be strong as we looked for our friend, but he couldn't help but be overwhelmed with emotion. [None of us could.] Yuseff had no choice but to cry as well. He spent a month being tortured by Kassandra, not knowing if he would ever see Ymir again. I bet he thought of so many things he wanted to tell him, but all that could come out were tears. The rest of us rejoiced as we were reunited with Yuseff.

"Well." Nadir said, "Who would've guessed you'd free yourself."

"I didn't do it alone." Yuseff replied, "If it wasn't for Penelope here, I'd still be on that fucking ship."

"You needed help." she said, "I couldn't sit there much longer."

"I'm glad you didn't." I said, "Thank you so much for saving our friend."

"Don't mention it." she chuckled, "But I'm surprised to find you guys here. We washed up ashore two nights ago. How'd you know to come to Sinai?"

"Well.." I answered, "I've got a bit of a story to tell ya."

I began to update Yuseff on just exactly what was happening to us. [With some help from Jahmal.] He sat there, soaking it all in. He had the same expression as I did; not sure how to process this information. He didn't know whether to feel relieved for finally getting answers, saddened by the sacrifice that transformed us into Naji, or terror for the war to come. From a young age, we knew the world held terrible people. Only the FGN members on Eneo had the power to create Maiors. And they used them to conquer the world. We had hoped that was in the past now, but unfortunately, that's exactly what we're up against. Luckily a god intervened.

"So." Penelope asked, "What's next?"

"We have one more stop left to make before we head out to Deupoint." I answered. I pulled a map of the island out of my bag. On the far north shore of Sinai laid a large hilly area, dotted with caves.

"In my vision, I was lead to a cave here." I said, "I think Ife wants us to learn something here."

"Like another vision?" Yuseff asked.

"Most likely." I replied, "But I feel like something else as well. The cave must hold something important. Why send us here just for another vision?"

"Good question."

"But there's got to be dozens of caves here." Ymir said, "Which one could it be?"

"That's easy." I replied. I pointed to a cave at the bottom of one of the hills.

"The cave in my vision had a stream coming out from it. This is the only one with water flowing from it."

"Sounds easy enough." Penelope said.

"Yeah." Yuseff agreed, "But let's not forget my vision. Those crocodiles mean something. There's going to be some kind of danger waiting for us."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." I replied. I ordered the rest of the group back to the boat while me, Yuseff, Ymir and Jahmal made our way to the cave.

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The cave was bigger than the opening had suggested. As we got further from the entrance, our radio buzzed.

"Figured that would happen." I said.

"No connection?" Ymir asked.

"Afraid not."

We made our way deeper into the darkness, the sound of water flowing became louder and louder. Once we were around 100 meters in, we came into a large opening. Right in the middle of this chamber was a large waterfall crashing down into an enormous lake. The stream flowing out of this cave was just one of dozens, all leading out into various halls.