"Wait, everyone… stop chasing the butterflies. Everyone, stay here with me."
Marina had walked back to the entrance of the cave, so the others went to her side. The butterflies resumed their flights in the same trajectories they were following when the party entered the cave. [M]
"Have any of you ever seen a butterfly flying so orderly? All of them are following strict patterns."
She pointed to the butterflies, and everyone's eyes widened as her words sank in.
"You're right… they are all following… circles? No, those aren't circles. But are shapes that repeat over and over again."
"Yeah, and they are in groups… groups of three. Each group is repeating one pattern."
Carlos and Henrique also pointed out more things that made the butterflies' behavior even weirder. Then, Ravi couldn't contain his excitement anymore and blurted out.
"This is a puzzle! This has to be a puzzle! We need to solve it and get some reward!"
Nobody dared to retort. This scene, in fact, looked like a puzzle waiting to be solved. But it was Marina who noticed one more detail.
"There are exactly five groups of butterflies. And each group is flying around a small area of the cave. Should we look for something on the floor in those places?"
"Sounds like a good hypothesis. Let's go test it."
Carlos walked towards the nearest group very quickly, despite his somewhat overweight form. All the others followed suit.
The butterflies ignored them and kept flying in the same pattern.
The ground at the center of the pattern was bare of any plants, forming a somewhat circular area. But, besides that, there was nothing there.
"Huh? Did we miss something?"
"Well, this circular area must mean something. There are plants all over the cave, scattered in a very organic way… only this circular area doesn't have anything."
Marina was again showing off her experience of trekking in the Brazilian wilderness. But Carlos had noticed the same thing.
"Let's go to the other patterns and see if they also have these areas."
The group walked together from one pattern to the other, always finding the exact same thing: a somewhat, but not exactly, circular area without plants, around which the butterflies roam in the air.
"Let me just check something. Wait a minute here."
Marina said that and then walked around the entire cave, looking at the floor, and then came back to her friends.
"Yeah, those areas only exist where those butterflies are. Or the butterflies only are where those areas exist. I don't know which one came first, but they are connected without a doubt."
"Yeah. Probably this isn't even a puzzle at all. Maybe just some biological oddity, like those mushroom circles in some European forests."
"Should we proceed to the next cave, then? There are two exits from this cave, besides the one we came from."
While Marina, Carlos, and Henrique were discussing how to proceed, Ravi stepped forward into the circular area. Suddenly, a drawing appeared on the ground, showing a strange pattern.
"Hey guys, look at this!"
Ravi jumped out of the area, and the drawing disappeared. Then stepped into it again, and it appeared again.
"I told you! This IS a puzzle!"
"Whoa… what the hell?"
Marina squatted to look more closely at the pattern, and then her eyes shone, but Carlos stole her idea before she could say it.
"The pattern drawn on the ground is the same that the butterflies are following in the air."
"Hey! I was going to say that!"
"Hehe, I'm sorry. But I wonder what would happen if each of us stood in one of those places. There are five groups of butterflies and five of us."
"Look, you two, the trail of dust of the butterflies!"
Heloisa called their attention, and they turned to look at the butterflies again. Indeed, the trail didn't disappear anymore, instead clearly forming the drawing of the pattern in the air.
But that only happened with the group that circled where they were right now. The other ones didn't change at all.
"That only reinforces what I just said. Maybe we really have to stand on those areas, one of us on each."
"You're right. Let's try it. What could go wrong, right?"
"Marina! Don't raise flags like that!!!"
They all giggled and went their way, each one of them towards one of the butterfly groups.
"Hey, a pattern appeared in the ground here as well."
"Here too!"
"So pretty…"
Henrique, Carlos, and Heloisa, and then Marina, entered their respective areas.
When Marina entered the last one, all the patterns began to shine brightly, and the butterflies accelerated.
The purple, ethereal dust slowly expanded like a gas, covering the entire area of the cave. The luminescent butterflies became brighter and brighter until the five couldn't look at them directly.
"Yawn… this place is so beautiful and calming… I think I could even take a nap here."
Marina turned to Heloisa, who had just said that and was tilting her head with her eyes closed.
"Huh? No, Helo. Don't sleep. Helo?"
"It's so cozy… it feels like home…"
Heloisa was already lying down onto the floor. Marina looked around and saw that the others were doing the same. Her own eyes also started to feel heavy.
"No, I can't sleep here. It's dangerous. What did we activate?"
She shook her head, trying to stay awake. Then she tried to run back towards the entrance, but her body didn't react to her commands, and instead she fell to the floor, dozing off.
The butterflies kept doing their patterns, and a purple mist had taken over the cave completely.
:::
"No!"
Marina woke up, shouting. Around her, the others were also waking up. They were still in the same place as before.
"Marina? Guys? Is everyone okay?"
"I'm alright, Helo. I just feel weird."
"I'm okay, not weird at all."
"I'm okay as well."
Marina released a sigh of relief. It seems that their sleeping wasn't fatal, as she feared.
Then she noticed something different.
"I'm okay, but my mind feels… clearer than before?"
[Soul Expansion successful. Congratulations, team Earth 277 for being the first in your area to unlock the Soul Expansion. Appropriate rewards will be given at the end of the activity.]
All of them suddenly stopped as soon as the voice started speaking in their heads. When it finished, it took some minutes for someone to dare to talk first.
Marina looked at them one by one and asked.
"What the fuck is that Soul Expansion?"
"No idea, Ma. But Earth 277? First team in our area? Does it mean that there are others like us stuck in this 'game'?"
"And what are those other areas? Are they aliens?"
Carlos and Ravi asked more questions instead of answering the first one, and then everyone started talking at the same time.
Heloisa noticed the way this was going, took a deep breath, and spoke with more weight in her voice.
"Everyone. Calm down. This way we can't even hear what each other are saying."
They all obeyed and looked at her, waiting for her next words.
"Our goal here hasn't changed. We still have to find a way out. And, for that, we still need to find out what's going on. So, let's take a deep breath, calm down, and think rationally about all the information we have so far."