As Koge followed by her Celestial Feline, Zenaida and Liatris were exploring the vast confines of the deepest underwater realms, they arrived at the doors of a gigantic wall sculpted at the entrance of an equally large cave. The doors were made out of a special stainless steel material which had never been seen by the trio. Skillfully sculpted reliefs resembling gigantic leviathans were dancing in harmony through the strong oceanic currents which carried giant precious stones such as sapphires, opals, diamonds, rubins and many more unidentified stones decorated the outside while huge columns decorated intermittently both sides. The gate was way too heavy for a normal dragon to move, even with the aid of the strongest magic ever known, Koge doubted they would have moved by an inch. Luckily for them the huge doors left just a bit of space, just enough to let a full grown Sapiere pass. The dragons took the opportunity on the fly and swiftly sneaked past trough just to come face to face to an even greater opening leading to an as big as majestic cave.

Impressive luminous and colorful crystals were hanging from the ceiling, shining so bright that, in Liatris’s opinion, a single one would have been enough to light up a big portion of the surroundings.

Big holes, natural and dug up, were present in both the sides and the roof, on which were installed doors similar to the ones already seen at the entrance: decorated and made out of the same material, the only difference being the size. 

Big pot-like containers often accompanied the entrances with their colorful and vast assortment of seaweed and other plants, while smaller cavities similar to windows, with the vast majority presenting columns, stalactites or stalagmites, gave a chance to the group to take some quick peeks to the interior. Koge had to prevent several times her companion from entering the structures which were just as spacious and decorated as the outside.

It didn’t take them much time to find who inhabited such enclosed artistic paradise, as a couple of medium-sized leviathans swam past the group without noticing them. The trio had to quickly move further to the side to avoid the shockwaves produced by their movements.

As more and more citizens began to flood the streets, they soon realized that moving in such an environment would have been a feat.

As they began to carefully move around occasionally dodging fins and whatnot, big paper-like posters caught their attention, forcing them to stop by to read.

Intrigued by the underwater paper poster, Zenaida swam closer, and relatively soon discovered that it was made by a smooth flexible rock, cut so thin to appear as paper when seen from afar.

The sheet presented incisions depicting words in an unknown language and a detailed illustration of a leviathan, similar to the ones seen before. Next to it, a similar sign was afflicted on the rock, this time depicting a different leviathan.

Liatris and Koge swam up to Zenaida, wondering what this might mean.  After a moment of considering the posters and getting nowhere in deciphering the unknown language, Koge decided to take a more active approach to getting answers.  She waved a wing wildly, trying to flag down a passing leviathan.  Most of the huge dragons seemed to be rather busy, though, and didn’t spare the trio more than a quick glance.  Zenaida huffed at how rude they were being.

One of the leviathans spotted Koge’s celestial feline, and while she could apparently ignore a dragon waving for her attention, she could not ignore a cat, and she swam closer to coo at the little feline.  Liatris took the opportunity to glide up next to her.  “Hey, we were wondering if you could read these posters?” he asked, gesturing to the two paper-thin sheets depicting the leviathans.

Her nose wrinkled over being interrupted in doting on the cat.  “Of course I can read the posters.  Those are Dragonfruit and Cavendish, two of our elders.  They’ve been missing for days,” she said curtly.  “It’s not like them to just vanish.”  She swam off, the cuteness of the cat not being enough to bribe her into more conversation.  The trio of dragons looked at each other.

“Missing?” Zenaida wondered aloud, eyes wide, “I wonder if they’re okay?”  Liatris nodded, also concerned.

Koge tapped a wingtip to her chin, thinking.  “We know the corruption has reached all the way down here,” she started slowly, “Maybe these elders were infected too and it made them wander off?  If we’re going to look for them, maybe we should bring aberrant cleansers, just in case.”  She looked at the other two, waiting for their response.

“Of course we should look for them!” Zenaida said.  “We can’t just let missing dragons stay missing.”

Liatris just shrugged, noncommittal.  “I’ll follow you guys.  But I think bringing cleansing potions is a good idea.  Just in case,” he added.

Koge grinned.  “Then let’s go looking!  They’re huge eel dragons, they shouldn’t be that hard to find!”  The trio carefully navigated among the other leviathans, but trying to explore the city was difficult while dodging so many large fins and tails.  They eventually swam higher, closer to the massive crystals decorating the ceiling.  The light was painfully bright, but there wasn’t any traffic and they had a great view of the entire cave below them.  After a moment of looking around for likely hiding spots and debate on where to start, the three dragons headed toward the first location.

Half a day of searching had not yielded any results, despite their targets being a pair of large pink and yellow dragons.  Koge’s celestial feline had long since taken to resting on her back, too tired to keep swimming.  They had peered through the windows into many of the structures (and been yelled at for it), they had wandered up and down the alleys between the structures, and they had passed over something that looked like a garbage heap.  They had even explored a leviathan-sized theater.  Gardens overflowed with trailing kelp, seaweed in red and green, and corals in fantastical shapes, but did not hide Dragonfruit or Cavendish.  Many times one of the dragons thought they spotted someone around a corner, only to swim up and see it was just a lavishly carved statue.  They were beginning to lose hope.

The group agreed to take one last look to the ceiling, as it was one of the least explored areas due to the unbearable brightness. Ascending from the streets the dragons bumped into the rocky top, which they had not noticed due to their vision being compromised. They began to further explore the rough surface, carefully scanning the rocks in the hopes to find any breach.

Suddenly Koge’s wing talons sank in what seemed to be a big clearing. Signaling the others with a tap of her tail or wings, making sure to not lose the location of the chasm-like hole with the other wing.

Once entered the crack the group found themselves protected from the light and were able to fully open their sore eyes again. As gradually their vision came back, they began to get familiar with the surroundings. It was an ordinary cave decorated by a myriad of stalagmites, stalactites and a few rare columns. Fish occasionally swam between smaller cracks in the walls, often filled by colorful corals which served as homes for the little creatures.

Unlike the city, there were no signs of artistic decorations, meaning that this place wasn’t often frequented.

Swimming deeper into the rocky maze, the group identified what appeared to be a giant fin sitting among a cluster of tall seaweed. The trio swam closer to the limb, soon realizing that it belonged to Cavendish. The gigantic yellow leviathan was found leaning against the cave’s wall, his eyes gazing in the air as he was pondering, most likely on what had to be done since he was probably corrupted.

Zenaida carefully advanced towards the leviathan’s snoot, catching his attention. The leviathan tilted his head sideways, curious by the unknown little creature.

“Must be already hallucinating…” Cavendish shook his head, dejected.

As the leviathan spoke a second more colorful one, raised her head from another kelp cluster in another corner of the clearing. The three dragons questioned themselves how they could have missed the second one, which they identified as Dragonfruit, especially for her extremely bright coloration.

“The speed of corruption varies as much as the symptoms do.” The bright leviathan, which the group identified as Dragonfruit, bantered the other, booping her head up and down as if she was reciting a nursery rhyme for hatchlings. Her long whiskers followed every move of her head as Cavendish grumbled, trying to ignore the other.

Zenaida quickly zoomed in front of Cavendish’s right eye, unhappy to have been ignored again. “We are here to help you! We’ve got the remedies for your troubles!” The Sapiere shouted as she reacquired the leviathan’s attention.

“That’s right!” Liatris added as he was approaching the two alongside Koge, both firmly wielding an aberrant cleanser held by their claws.

Now Dragonfruit’s attention got caught as well as she proceeded to swim towards the group, intrigued by their statements.  Koge and Liatris divided their paths, stopping right in front of the respective leviathans' faces, showing them the lotion they’ll need to apply.

“As you can see, those vials contain the potion capable of saving your scales” Zenaida spoke as she pointed at the two dragons before continuing. “Don’t worry about the aftermath, you’re not too far gone so all you are going to feel is a little tickle and the flavor shouldn’t be that bad.” The Sapiere hinted a smile, trying to reassure the two.

The two leviathans exchanged a perplexed look before agreeing, nodding two times.  They grabbed a vial each with their front fins’ talons and gulped down the potion.  What Zenaida said turned out to be true, as they did not feel any discomfort, but rather they seemed slightly more awake than before.  Cavendish and Dragonfruit thanked the three, now feeling much better.  With this major problem resolved, Koge invited them to return where they belonged, reminding them of all the worried citizens they left behind. The leviathans, overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, agreed and followed the trio back outside, where a soft fragrance of cooked seafood waited for them.