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“Why do you even have one of those?”, Lapis looks over at the end of the garden. Hidden behind wild grass and low hanging branches of the nearby trees lies what seemed like a weird formation of rocks of some sorts. Grandma Lazuli just informed the young girl that it was in fact a well.
“Dear, it wasn’t my decision. When your grandpa built this house, it was already here. And we never felt the need to get rid of it”, her grandma explains, calmly rocking back and forth in her chair on the porch. Lapis is sitting on her lap, her long and wavy hair being slowly combed through by her grandma’s wrinkly but soft fingers. It feels comfortable, familiar.
The child had adapted to the new environment in an instant. At first, when they entered into the small village, all the unknown houses and strangers on the street scared her a little. It didn’t seem like home, everything was just so … wide … and … small all the same …
No skyscrapers, not a lot of cars, very few people … and everything was green. All these houses having porches and patches of grass not only in the front, but in the back as well. Lapis associated plants only with potted plants being used as decorations on the window frame or outside on the balcony, if you had one. Also the park and playgrounds she visits with her parents from time to time. But here it’s like being drowned in nature. It felt … alien …
Until they pulled into the driveway of this big, blue house. At least two stories tall! Okay, it wasn’t as tall to someone from Empire City, maybe, but in-between all these other small little buildings they passed on the way here, this one definitely takes the cake!
When she exited the car, all the little Lapis Lazuli could do was stare up at it and its vibrant color in awe. She knew what graffiti was, but she had never seen a house completely emerged in paint like this. It seemed like a big villa to kid’s eyes, full of mystery, surrounded by vines crawling up the sides – she already looked forward to exploring all the thousands of different rooms, finding hidden treasures, rescuing damsels in distress from evil dragons that kept them prisoner deep in the cellar. This was going to be an awesome weekend!
It already had a weirdly familiar tone to it all, despite the fact that she has never been here before. At least from what she can remember. It only became clear why when her grandma finally opened the front door, smiling and waving at the family.
A wave of happiness overcame the little girl and everyone, who saw her at that moment, could confirm that her eyes started glowing like stars. “Mema!”, she shouted, running towards the elderly woman and nuzzling into her dress when she reached her.
“Hey, sunshine”, she had answered with a melodic voice, petting the child’s head, “haven’t seen you in a long time.”
“Too long …”
As her parents had followed suit in climbing the front stairs, the air was filled with more greetings and hugs, until they entered the villa-like house of secrets at last.
“Mom, where do you store your pots and pans?”, a voice sounds from inside the house.
It isn’t close to sunset yet, but you can feel the day ceasing leisurely. Lapis’ parents stated they wanted to prepare dinner for everyone, taking some of the strain off of her grandmother. She hasn’t been the same since she had the surgery … her parents had told Lapis, that her grandma wouldn’t be able to visit them anymore, the traveling being too much of a burden on her now. That’s exactly the reason why they returned the favor this time.
“I’m coming! Can you jump off and excuse me for a second, sweetie?”, Lapis climbs off her grandma’s lap and the woman makes her way inside on shivering feet. You could make out slight complains of her mother, saying she just needed an answer and her grandma should sit back and relax. Her grandma was having none of it, it seemed, taking over the kitchen as she went.
Being alone in the backyard, her view lands on the far away well again. Without anything better to do, she decides to cross the grass and take a closer look. Although no-one explicitly forbid her to explore the environment, she feels a little sneaky unsupervised and alone. Like an explorer.
Despite being small, she has to duck under a few branches that are blocking the way. As if she was in a deep forest or a jungle, she thinks, smiling.
The rock-ish construction becomes clearer with every step. Lapis has never seen a real well before – only in cartoons. It is made from uneven bricks stacked upon another, they had turned dark and dirty over the years. The cracks are filled with moss and bigger plants grow out from around it, some climbing up the well in its length. On top is a small roof, a decaying wooden bucket hanging from the contraption, like you would imagine it would, only missing the rope to let it down.
The edges of the well go up to Lapis shoulders, making it difficult to look inside. No problem for a clever explorer like herself, though. Searching around the fence of the property, she quickly finds a wooden box near the little gardening shed that seems like it hadn’t been used in a while. Menma is in no condition to keep up the massive garden herself, that much is obvious – how is the majority of the grass this clean then? Lapis wonders …
It wasn’t easy to drag the box over to where she needs it, but after some time and under a lot of strained grunting, she managed to get it there. She quickly climbs up and leans on the stones to look down.
“Wow …”
A pit of black nothing stretches the farther she looked down – she can’t even make out the bottom! A ladder goes down one side, but even that is swallowed by the darkness after a few rails … well, the sky was rather cloudy and it was beginning to get dark, but still …
“I wonder how far it goes …”
Lapis looks around the well for a second, bending her knees and grabbing a nearby stone lying on the ground. She has seen this trick on the TV sometime, what a great way to put it to the test now. Wasting no time, she lets it fall and focuses on her hearing. After just a few seconds, she hears it hit water.
It can’t be that deep then …
“… Hello?”, a small voice echoes up to her and scares the little girl. “Is somebody there?”, the voice was soft, but pervaded by slight fear as well, judging by the slight shiver in tone.
Still watching the inside of the well beneath her, Lapis can make out some light flickering. There was some kind of corridor there, right beside the ladder, just a few meters down. Who builds a well like that? For what cause?
And more importantly – who sits in an abandoned well anyway?
The light vanished again, and Lapis felt weirdly fascinated by that mysterious person, despite her instincts screaming “stranger danger”. That someone was sitting in her grandma’s well, so they can’t be bad, right?
She musters up all the bravery she has and tries to put on a strong voice that would last down there, “Hey, I’m Lapis, who are you?”
The flickering comes back in an instant, though, fast steps coming closer. “Are you a ghost?”
Lapis snickers at that, “Nooooo, I’m an explorer!”
The light becomes brighter and suddenly a small tuft of blonde hair emerges from the corridor, as well as the origin of the light. From the distance, Lapis can’t make out too many details, but judging by her size, the girl can’t be much older than herself.
As soon as their eyes meet, the other girl let’s out a surprised gasp and moves a few steps back.
“Wait!”, Lapis shouts, not wanting the stranger to leave so soon. That’s every explorer’s dream, to find a mystery right in front of their eyes!
She jumps off the box and moves it to the side of the well where the ladder is placed.
“Can you light the way? Then I can come down there!”, she shouts while doing her best to climb the outside wall of the construction.
“Isn’t that too dangerous?”, the small voice returns. The well becomes slightly more lit again.
“Somehow you made it down here, too, didn’t you? And I’m a great explorer, so don’t worry about me!”, Lapis has reached the start of the ladder at that point, cautiously stepping foot on the first rail. Thank gosh it wasn’t a rotten wooden ladder. A little rusted metal, but it seems sturdy overall.
“But what if you are a bad person? My parents told me not to talk to strangers …”, the voice becomes more clearer the further Lapis climbs.
“Explorer’s aren’t bad people, we just love mysteries and discovering. And you already know my name, so we’re not strangers anymore!”, she reaches the entrance of the corridor way faster than expected, but now there’s another problem – to get over to there without falling down the rest of the well. “Ehm … could you lend me a hand?”, she reaches out with one hand.
Finally she’s on eye-level with the other girl. She’s definitely somewhere around her age; messy blonde hair on top of her head, eyes behind a thick pair of glasses. She wears green overalls and underneath a yellow t-shirt with the edges of some cartoon character sticking out, backpack strips around her shoulders. And she still seems reluctant.
“I’ll probably fall without your help …”
The blonde looks down on her hand again, takes a deep breath and grabs it, after placing her flashlight safely on the ground.
Lapis jumps off the ladder and the momentum let’s her tumble to the ground once she reaches the corridor. She overestimated the distance, but better to be safe than sorry. She giggles slightly as the other girl falls as well. “Thank you!”
Standing up, she dusts herself off and extends her hand again, to help her companion up in return.
“Again, I’m Lapis Lazuli, explorer, nice to meet you!”, she says with the biggest smile.
“I’m … Peridot”, Peridot answers and picks up the flashlight again.
With the corridor visible once more, Lapis spins around and examines the cave-like structure. It really was a long corridor, just as she expected.
“So, what are you doing inside a well, Peridot?”, she takes a few steps towards the darkness, but stops once she notices that the other girl and the light isn’t following. “And how did you even get down here? You don’t live with granny, I have never seen you before.”
“T-this is my secret hide-out. I like to take books with me here and read”, she gestures to her backpack, a slight smile on her lips.
“Here in the dark? Isn’t it more comfy at your home?” Sure, Lapis loves exploring. But she wouldn’t choose a dark cave over a warm house and blankets and hot chocolate right around the corner.
“It’s … more quiet. I can concentrate better down here”, her smile slowly fades. Facing the flashlight past Lapis, Peridot walks along. “You can follow me!”
No need to tell an explorer twice.
Now with a light source, their surroundings are easier to make out. Except for the ground, which is only a beaten trail of dirt, the walls of the corridor are the same as the well itself – old stacked rocks in an asymmetric fashion. Some burnt out torches ever so often. People used to be down here on the regular it seems …
“I can get down here, because your well is connected to a well in my parents’ garden. It works just the same as yours”, Peridot explains after a few moments.
“And your parents allow you to be here without any supervision?”
“Yours don’t?”, Peridot asks confused.
“I … haven’t actually asked them … I’m an explorer, I go my own way most of the time!”, Lapis proudly proclaims.
“Wow … that would get me in a lot of trouble …”, the other mumbles and Lapis decides to let it slide without comment.
Suddenly, Peridot stops and opens her arms. “Welcome to my lair!”
They’ve reached the other well, Lapis could see the round form of it outside of the other entrance, a similar ladder going up. On this side, there was a small plastic box and a collection of pillows and blankets though. Above the uncommon display was some sort of holding device let into the wall, like the ones used on the torches, only hanging way lower.
“Your own Handman’s tree!”, Lapis exclaims after a few moments of taking everything in.
Peridot looks at her with an irritated expression.
“The lost boys’ lair in ‘Peter Pan’?”, the other’s features soften and she nods understandingly, “Well, more of a lost girl’s lair, but you get the point.”
Lapis takes a step closer, examining the assembly.
“I use that box as a small table … and to store the pillows and blankets in once I’m done!”
With a questioning look, Lapis lets her fingers glide over the metal sticking in-between the bricks.
Peridot doesn’t hesitate to pick up the unanswered question, “I use that to hook the flashlight into” She steps beside Lapis and demonstrates what she means. “So I can read without having to hold it in one hand all the time. A make-shift reading light if you will. I had to borrow a hammer to make it stay there between the stones!”
“All on your own? You’re some-kind of inventor, huh?”, Lapis concludes.
The blonde thinks for a moment and a grin starts to spread across her face, “I never thought of it like that … I guess you could say so, yes!”
“That’s awesome! So we’re the perfect explorer-duo!”
Peridot’s grin only widens at that and the two smile at each other, until a third voice echoes from the other side of the well, Lapis’ well.
“Lapis! Where are you?”, it’s her mother, no doubt about it. She did kind of vanish without telling anybody where she was going … she doesn’t seem too worried about her disappearing yet, though. She probably shouldn’t let it get to that point either.
“I think that’s my family looking for me … I have to go ….”
Peridot starts to pout a little, shuffling with her feet.
Lapis doesn’t want to leave her new found friend so soon, too, but she suddenly gets an idea. “But we can meet tomorrow! I’ll be here, visiting my grandma for the whole weekend!”
The other’s eyes light up again as she looks at the slightly taller girl.
“Lapis!”, another shout from upstairs.
“I have to hurry … I kinda need you to lead the way back with your flashlight though … don’t want to fall or something!”
Peridot nods and both of them take off, racing each other to the ladder.
“I’m coming, mom!”