Miata had enjoyed the little get-together she and Mason, Lusin and Nefer had spent together for her twenty-first birthday. Those three were like her family, and she cherished them dearly. She smiled at the thought of it as she rounded another corner and flitted down a few more ledges in the ever darkening cave.
But now was a different time. She would have to soon put those thoughts aside and focus on the path ahead. She knew it as she came upon a small flight of carved stairs in the rock, ageless and worn. She slowly descended the stairs, reaching out to touch the rock formations --rising from the floor and descending from the ceiling like fangs-- to either side of her. Untouched and unfamiliar to her in this uncharted, yet not untraveled, passage.
She gasped as her foot suddenly plunged not to yet another step, but water. Glancing around, her dragon eyes aiding her sight in the darkness, she found herself at a dark pool of water at the bottom of the stairs. "Looks like I've made it... " She murmured to herself as she reached for something in her satchel. "I wonder what time it is on the surface..."
Withdrawing a colored stone, she walked over to the gaping maw of what must have been some Pokemon carved into the rock, but the details of which had long since been worn away, leaving only the mouth left discernible in the wall. Placing the stone in the orifice, she leaned close and used Dragon Breath on it. It was a move she seldom ever used, but it did its job. The stone sparked and crackled, before smoldering and releasing a thick, colored smoke... that seemed to disappear into the orifice in which it sat.
"It's just as Mason said... and that opening leads back to the surface... this'll let them know how far I've made it."
Turning her attention back to the water, she took a breath and stepped into it, the coolness creeping up her legs from it was unsettling, but she'd been training for this. She could handle a bit of cold for something as important as this trial. Standing there in the water, she could feel the sharp drop-off in the middle of the pool. It was time for that.
Reaching into her satchel once more, she took out a smooth, pink sphere attached to a beaded chain. The single pearl made and then discarded by a Clamperl upon its evolution, it had served who knew how many other Oasis Mystics before her, and would now fulfill its purpose once again. It was a diving pearl, infused with its former-owner's technique to dive to great depths. It seemed to glow with its own light as it sat in her hand, as if it knew its time had come.
Passing the chain over her neck, Miata peered one last time behind her. Some of the Pokemon that dwelt in the caves had followed her, having known her all their lives, but had never seen her down this far, this deep into the darkness. She smiled at them, as if to reassure not only them, but also herself, that everything would be alright.
Taking a steadying breath, she willed to the pearl, speaking the word aloud before plunging down into the deep, dark water.
"Dive."