A Journey Through the Pits - 7/10/19

This document serves to retell the story of how humans first interacted with the beings known as the Watchers, inhabiting the Border in the Nightlight Zone. They appear to know everything that happens in their realm, yet they chose not to share all of it, presumably because they simply do not want humans knowing everything there is to know. For what reason it is unclear.

Overview

A man named Ethan Hodges, along with his friends Jane Abrams, and Cali Rogers, have left their homes in Netarts Valley in Oregon, and have moved for the time being in Ireland. The earthquake in the Netarts area originally pushed the three out, and along with the wind and the shortages that followed, they thought they made the correct decision. Recently, Ethan had won the lottery, although at first he was not believed. He used his winnings to buy a personal submarine, his main reasoning being he was experienced in piloting seacraft already, and he wanted to use to simply pass the time. Both Jane and Cali were skeptical of his decision, but were eventually convinced to join him on his test run. The day he tested the vehicle was foggy, but otherwise it worked in their favor, until the Gatekeepers briefly appeared along that same coastline. At first, the three had no idea what to make of them upon first seeing them, but both Jane and Cali wanted to stay away. Ethan, however, got close enough to get transported to the Nightlight Zone.

The group was met with a large flat area, cast in darkness, with only a faint teal glow in the distance. Ethan was eager to get a closer look at everything, and put Jane and Cali at ease with the fact they could use the sonar map to head back to the entrance chutes. They drove over the bed of rock, until they got a closer look at the underwater river that was causing that teal glow. They hurriedly drove over more rocky plateaus, and soon found a Cave Stalker with a spear in its arm staring at them, causing Ethan to drive the submarine closer out of curiosity. As soon as they got closer, another Cave Stalker attempted to attack the submarine with a large club, but was stopped by the one with the spear. More of the creatures came into view, and the three watched them as they looked like they were talking to each other, like a group of people. Soon, an X-Ray Eel ambushed the group, chasing them away.

Ethan drove the submarine with the Cave Stalkers, seeing they were the victims of the attack as well. Then, the eels began tearing the submarine's hull away, coming close to breaking through and flooding the interior. The three inside got out just before the glass broke, crawling along the sea floor underneath the eels. They were then grabbed by the Cave Stalkers, who pulled them towards an air pocket in the ground, covered by a rocky roof. After making sure they weren't at risk of freezing to death, the Cave Stalkers returned and one began speaking to them using telepathy. This individual called himself "Anāk," and explained that they found themselves in a strange place compared to their world. They turned out to be at risk of some "monstrous being" finding them and killing them out of anger with them all, and the Cave Stalkers planned to get them to an exit chute as soon as they thought of a way how. Though, this took nearly a month to figure out, and the three were stuck in the cave while the band of the Cave Stalkers watched over them. They seemed to want to help the humans to keep them away from their conflicts.

The two groups spent their time learning about each other's physiology and culture, and the three humans were given the waterproof clothing made from the cloth of their bags. Eventually, the chief of the band was tasked with leading them through an air pocket tunnel straight towards an exit chute, along with Anāk. The three walked through the tunnel, while Anāk spoke to them above ground. They had to maneuver around the inhabitants of the cave, as well as a Nauapallin that attempted to lash at them through a nearby entrance. Once they reached the other side, they had to hold their breath while they followed the chief towards the chute, and were soon met with a large Watcher which swam above them. Out of panic, the three raced towards the cave once again, making it there just before they ran out of breath, and out of reach of the enormous being. It threatened to kill the three of them as it thought they were going to interfere with his plans, yet it didn't elaborate on what those plans were.

Ethan, out of ideas on how to return home, spoke with the being, proposing a fair trade for their escape. They would leave the realm as it wished, but the Watcher had to tell them the basics of how the Nightlight Zone worked in return. Presumably the last part was the only thing Ethan could think of in order to get the being to not kill them, and acted like he was endlessly fascinated with the realm and absolutely needed to know more. The Watcher granted him his wish, and let them swim towards the chute, but the three caught a glimpse of the being lashing out at the Cave Stalkers as if in anger. Yet, it was too late to help them. Once they were on the surface again, they rushed towards Ethan's house, which was located near the beach. Ethan realized he suddenly knew almost everything about the Nightlight Zone. He could recall the different environments, and the creatures that inhabited them. But he also saw the cause of Netarts Valley's problems, a Cave Stalker that was recently killed by the nomadic band that they were interacting with just hours ago.

Explanation of the Watcher

Netarts Valley had been experiencing several storms and natural disasters which did not appear at first to have a known cause. Later, it was found that a Cave Stalker had been granted the ability to control animals he had captured in order to gather resources for himself, also able to control the Gatekeepers to let his private army onto the surface to collect the resources from there. It is thought this particular Cave Stalker, called Tenubis, lived far away from the rest of his species, and had trouble living on his own. A Watcher saw him and granted him his supernatural abilities, and as a consequence of controlling the Gatekeepers' schedule, he would cause their storms to spiral out of control and harm coastal settlements.

This Watcher was doing this without regard to what the others thought, performing an experiment of its own out of curiosity of how their realm and the surface world interacted. At one point Tenubis traveled towards the Halocline Pits, in order to gather food coming through the entrance chute located in there. However, he was killed in a conflict with a nomadic band of Cave Stalkers, which angered the Watcher that give him his abilities. It is thought that the Watcher killed the entire band as an act of revenge, while simultaneously taking its anger out on Ethan, Jane, and Cali. Some time after Tenubis was killed, the surface's weather patterns returned to normal. Although the Watchers are secretive of how the Nightlight Zone operates, it thought giving it away to one human wouldn't cause harm, as even if he wanted to share the information he would not be believed by other humans.

It is still unclear what this Watcher is still doing in the Nightlight Zone, and how the others would react to it interfering with their creation.

Anāk

The band the three of them met was no larger than twenty members, with Anāk being one of the only ones that knew English. He had interacted with a human before, able to learn the language while they were still alive. Apparently, he attempted to teach it to the other individuals in his nomadic band, but failed due to the others deemed it unnecessary. He likely did not believe in the same beliefs as other Cave Stalkers, and preferred to explain the world without reference to mythological stories. Although, he did retell their stories to the group he later met, as his companions requested it. This also meant that he was the one that stayed with the group the majority of the time, rarely going on hunts to feed everyone.

Miscellaneous

There was a brief period of time in the cave when Ethan tried to start a fire, as they were leaving their wet clothing to dry. He managed to make a brief spark, which startled the Cave Stalkers around him. However, the cave air preventing a fire from starting. The three of them instead relied on huddling together to stave off the cold, which they detested at first, but did it out of necessity.

When they first got away from the pack of eels chasing them, the Cave Stalkers helped them get out of conflict, as they recognized them as victims of the attack. The rest of the band drove the creatures away via a distraction, later finding the humans again. When Anāk told them the humans were trying to get home, they helped them after being convinced that they were in the same situation as them, a simple problem of survival.

When Ethan, Jane, and Cali returned to the surface, they soon moved back to Netarts Valley seeing as its weather conditions had died down, and they were met with the other people that managed to explore the Nightlight Zone. Victor Tenorio was especially keen on documenting as much as he could from Ethan. He wanted to do something with the information, though he knew it would be rejected from scientists all over the globe. Victor eventually settled on turning it into a children's book, aiming to teach the basics of how the natural world worked, while using concepts "inspired" by the Nightlight Zone to illustrate it. With the help of Cali, he finished the project, but it remained rather obscure among other children's books, with mixed reception from critics.

Type
Documentation
Related People
Ethan Hodges
Jane Abrams
Cali Rogers
Related Locations
Netarts Valley
The Halocline Pits
The Air Pocket Caves
Related Species
The Gatekeepers
The Watchers
Cave Stalker

Related Historical Events

• 2019 AD
  Travel in the Halocline Pits