A Child's Life in the Caverns

Khuba sprinted up the stream, chasing Tina through the darkness as the two children traversed the bathing chamber of their subterranean village. "I'm gonna get you!" He taunted as he gained on her. Sulfurous water splashed about as their little feet landed one after the other in the hot creek bubbling up from the deep places of the earth. They could hear the protests of villagers behind them as they disrupted their bathing, but they paid them no mind. Khuba saw the slick moss wall at the edge of the chamber coming up in front of him, and figured that Tina must already be halfway up - but he knew he was a better climber, and he could surely catch her here. As he threw himself at the wall, his hands and feet finding their place in the tiny cracks of stone that only a child could properly use, they propelled him upwards, and he closed in quickly on her. He could see the red-green ribbons of her ceremonial gown waving in the still air behind her now, and he was just meters away from reaching out and grabbing them. As Tina neared the top, he came up at her left side, and tackled her onto a ledge a few feet below. The two siblings went tumbling into the rock face and barely managed to avoid falling into the hot water beneath them by grabbing onto the moist branch of an undertree at the last moment.   Catching their breath, brother and sister clambered back onto the ledge and sat with their backs to the rock, taking in the view of their bathing cavern with its hundred hot springs, and crystals of onyx shimmering beautifully overhead. "Your turn!" Khuba shouted, as he abruptly stood up on the ledge, grabbed his sister's arm, and vaulted her over the edge of the cliff. Tina let out a brief shriek as Khuba started giggling uncontrollably, but before he knew it she had grabbed his leg and they both fell eight meters into the pool at the cliff's bottom. There was a moment of silence, followed by a loud splash as they landed in the center of the pool, nearly on top of an old couple who sat nude in the spring, attempting to relax and clean themselves at the end of the day. As the children popped their heads out of the water, they noticed their mother running up to the pool, behind the startled, wrinkly faces of the couple they had nearly crushed. "Sorry!" the twins said in unison, before rising out of the water and sprinting together away from mother.