You step lightly and cautiously down the tunnel. It's straight with a gentle upward slope. You don't see any shafts of light indicating a path up to the surface, but remain hopeful you'll find something without too much difficulty. The sounds of the water sloshing behind you give way to a more rhythmic motion of the air, like the cave is breathing heavily. You're starting to wonder what direction the air might be coming from when you hear a hissing sound again.
Instinctively, you switch off the light and move against the wall. The darkness in this part of the cave is overwhelming, and you wonder if it will be just as blind as you. Within moments, you hear a soft plodding of webbed feet strike the hard stone as a lizard emerges from a side tunnel several yards ahead. It pauses.
You guess that it's waiting for you to make a move, but then this hissing sound becomes more excited. It's panting heavily. You realize almost too late that it's sniffing the air, then you hear it charge at you, having gained your scent.
You flip on the light, blinding the lizard. It stumbles over itself in surprise and rolls onto its side. You take advantage of the situation charge forward, kicking it hard repeatedly. The creature pulls itself up scrambles away, hissing loudly. You start to chase it, but stop when you see what else is in the side tunnel.
It is another lizard, but much, MUCH bigger. Larger than a crocodile, it eyes you with a solemn gaze. It's skin is knarled and hard. You think for a moment that it might be the remains of a long dead creature, but then the mouth opens. As it breaths, you realize that is the sound you heard before, not air currents moving through the tunnels.
The smaller lizard skitters between the legs of the large one, and the large one moves at you. The light does not seem to bother it.
Instinct takes over and you race further down the tunnel, away from the pond, as you know you cannot escape that way. The large lizard moves surprisingly fast, but not fast enough for you to quickly put distance between the two of you. You race for what seems forever, though it's probably only a few minutes, down the main passage. As you go, you glance down side tunnels, hoping to see a glint of sunlight, but all of the side passages only go down.
The tunnel makes a sharp right. As you round the corner, you come across two lizards dragging a young, pale girl down the tunnel in the direction you were coming from. The three are all stunned by the light. The girl is alive but does not look very healthy to you. You guess she's from the nearby village, somehow got captured, and is being taken for food.