It was a beautiful night in the land of Colsentia. And one of many shooting stars zipping through the night sky, landed on a craggy mountaintop overlooking a town embedded into the side of the mountain. Aeon flared out their wings, embermark like a halo centered in-between small wings of black. They sat primly looking down at the town below. It had been a tiresome day filled with soul-guiding and sightseeing. The human world was filled with curiosities not found in Colsentia. How Colsentia still remained so pristine and untouched compared to the human world astounded them. Lithely they flapped their wings and glided on a breeze, hat ruffling in the wind, suddenly a rogue gust blew them backwards and unprepared for the sudden gust Aeon found themselves blown into the mountain and inside a cave. Aeon felt themself get blown back slamming into a cavern wall before falling to the cavern floor unceremoniously. 

"Ouch... wasn't expecting that." they muttered to themself, before looking around at their surroundings. They had found themself in a cavern of sorts. Glowing blue mushrooms lined the floor, and a bright green algae seemed to be growing on the ceiling. Hmm... this place certainly hasn't been explored in some time, they thought to themself. Curiosity peaked, Aeon found themself walking further into the cave and away from the exit, they rounded the corner and gaped as they felt a wall of warmth hit their face. It seemed they had found themselves deep inside the mountain, and they could see a stream of water with steam emanating off it in waves. Curious they flew deeper down into the cavern gently easing themselves down into the steam, and touching a toebean into the water below. 

"Hot.... but surprisingly... not extremely hot? How bizarre..." they exclaimed to themselves, before lowering to stand in the shallow stream of warm water. It was almost soothing how warm it was. Hmm... I wonder where this could lead? They thought to themself, so they continued on following the stream down deeper into the cavern. As they continued further down, the stream joined several more to become a series of small waterfalls and finally they found themselves in a large cavern filled with hot spring waterfalls that seemed to pool into a large glowing hot spring lake! "My word, this has got to be a hidden wonder of Colsentia!" they exclaimed. Quietly they landed at the base of the large underground lake. They couldn't help but marvel at the gorgeous scenery that had remained undiscovered for so long. As Aeon walked around the base of the cavern they couldn't help but notice something was glistening at the bottom of the large underwater pool. Curious, Aeon flew overhead trying to get a good look. Could it be? A... comet shard?! How did it get all the way down here! They thought to themself. Well, waste not, want not, they thought, before looking around to find a place to rest their clothes and hat. After flying around the cave, they decided on a small rocky ledge, lined by glowing blue mushrooms, and a soft bed of green moss. Carefully Aeon untied their bow, cravat and cape. Folding them neatly, into a small pile and topped it off with their favourite hat. They turned around wings flared and got ready to dive into the water below. After a couple bum wiggles, they jumped off the ledge and dived into the water, tail arcing gracefully in the warm steam. 

 

The water was slightly too hot to the touch, but after swimming a little Aeon quickly got used to the temperature. Slowly Aeon scanned the bottom of the lake, and noticed that there was not just one comet shard, but two.. no, five comet shards?! Quickly they realised they were running out of air and swam upwards, taking a deep breathe before diving back down under the warm surface of the lake. This was almost like a giant heated pool those humans like to swim in, but natural, they couldn't help thinking. Swiftly they swam downwards to the very depths of the lake, toebeans at the ready carefully grabbing a couple of comet shards and swimming back up towards the surface. Wow, these ones are particularly shiny, Aeon thought to themself, perhaps the warm steamy water had kept them clean and stopped any fall damage from cracking these ones. Aeon carefullly flew up towards their clothes, wiping dry the pair of comet shards on some moss before wrapping them up in a different section of moss. They then flew back in the water to grab the remaining comet shards from the bottom of the underwater lake. Weirdly enough Aeon found the water kind of soothing, and after wrapping up all the comet shards, they deliberated taking another dip in the relaxing lake. It was a calming place they thought to themself. It might even be my new secret hideout. Then, after redressing and putting on his hat, he decided to fly off home with his new treasures in tow.