At first, things are calm. They've all been told that this should be a relatively safe trip, and so Steven isn't that worried about it when he enters. He exchanges his flip flops (which earns him some unbelieving looks from those more pragmatic about spelunking) for boots and heads into the cave with Lion at his side.

The similarities strike him immediately. This is that cave! The one from the dreams! He's absolutely thrilled - they've been talking all month about trying to find the place where the fae dream happened, but here they are, stumbling into a perfect copy of the mystery cave only a few weeks after dreaming about it!

"It's the cave from the dream!" Steven will proclaim, loudly and to everyone who will hear it. "Do you guys remember that place? There were the same enchantments and everything!"

Steven doesn't go into the water personally, mostly because he doesn't think getting wet will help him with spelunking any, as deeply appealing as it appears. He's gazing longingly as other people do it, though - which means he's in the perfect position to notice the grey spots forming on exposed skin, whether or not you do first.

"Wait... there's something on your skin! Is that from the water?" he points out, coming to the edge of the pool. He's concerned, but not yet panicked. It could be something totally innocuous... right?

After things have settled down in the opening of the cave, Steven will tentatively begin to wander towards the tunnels leading down from the upper chamber. He figures that he understands the cave's tricks now - the water is actually bad. He never really touched it at length in the dream, so maybe that was always true. It's not that shocking, he guesses, and drying off seems to fix it alright.

It had been easy to get down to the lake before, though, so he doesn't imagine it will be a problem here. He starts travelling down the tunnel, activating his light scroll as Lion follows behind him at a leisurely pace. At first, it seems like more of the same stuff he witnessed in the dream, so none of it seems that alarming. Old stuff from people who lived here, probably a long time ago. What he isn't aware of, is the new things that are living here now.

For a giant spider, it sure manages to slip in close. When he first sees it appear out of one of the darkened rooms, it startles him so bad that he stumbles, dropping the light scroll. The spider lunges at him, and he cries out, scrambling back into action and slipping down the tunnel, leaving the scroll behind. He sees the webs ahead of him, but he's pretty sure he's ducking through them - it's the funnel web at the end that catches him off guard.

He slips on the moistened ground and plummets right into it, the webbing sticking to his body and clothes. Behind him, he can hear Lion roar, rattling the stone of the tunnel - and then the sound of fangs snapping. Suddenly, the light from the scroll goes out. Steven is trying to get up, but he can't unstick himself from the webbing - his lack of strength becomes obvious to him all over again.

It's then, making helpless whines of effort, that he heard something getting close in the dark. It's a spider - either the same one from before, or another from deeper in the tunnel, he doesn't know. He lays flat, his heart pounding, thinking over and over: please don't see me, please don't see me.

And, somehow, even as it leans over him, its mandibles shifting - it doesn't.