Curiosity, you know what they say about it... when did that become a saying anyway?
Er, right, story.
It starts a long, long time ago. It had been one century and a few years since the war against Monsters ended, people didn't live super long back then, not like today with medicine and healthcare, two generations had already lived and many of them had died, those that hadn't were old men venerated as elders of our small villages.
Ah – before we continue – I should mention that the years have changed my appearance, at that age I still wore youth well, five foot seven, gaunt features, rather slim and with your standard black hair, all in all I was average for what you'd expect from someone of that generation.
Anyway, even despite the short time compared to now, the war was already starting to fade from public memory, people like me, the scholarly sorts, as well as the elders of the war, knew that if there wasn't some defined proof that the war would fade into myth and if monsters ever returned, we wouldn't be ready for it. So I, at sixteen years of age – a grown adult by all intents for that era – made my way to Mt. Ebott to record the truth, a quill, inkwell and a notebook my only companion.
For all my book smarts, I was rather an idiot.
The journey was long and not terribly easy, Mt. Ebott's reputation had lent itself well to being the type of place nobody would venture to, it made it a favorite hideaway for those who lived on the fringe of morality, more than once I had to pay off cutthroats demanding a toll, and when I ran out of money I had to pay in supplies. I went from having food and drink for a week to just the clothes on my back and my literary tools.
As I found my way up the mountain, I found markers in the stone and a rough pathway leading me to a massive, yawning abyss of a hole in the mountainside.
"This... this looks like the entrance." I said to myself. Even despite believing the stories, I still, well, didn't entirely, so I walked forward and put my head down into my book to read what the elders had told me about this place.
"The seven mystics sealed Monster-kind under a barrier after driving them deep into this cavern, here in this cave mouth... I think it-" I hadn't realized until it was too late that I had been walking as I read, into the cave, until the rush of energy that was completely alien to me caught me off guard.
"Oh no...oh nonononono." I turned around and dropped my book, the path I had just come through, the setting sun, was being muffled by a massive tunnel that wasn't there before, a gray light rushing down it.
I had just distracted myself so thoroughly by reading about the barrier that I had unknowingly walked through it.
Smart, huh?
I immediately slammed against it, "No! Come on, let me out! I'm not a monster!" I screamed, hoping that the barrier had some form of semi-sentience that would let me out if it knew I wasn't what it was supposed to be trapping. I beat against it for around ten minutes and screamed myself hoarse before I slid down it on a final hit. Scared out of my mind, trapped in the realm of monsters who would want me dead, I huddled up, I wasn't ready to die, not like that.
As the sun set and the last peek of twilight faded over the world, I was plunged into darkness in that cavern. Time passed and I breathed in and out, I wasn't going to die like this, I told myself, I refused to. I didn't know what to do next though, dare I walk further in? Risk my life to maybe find a weakness in the barrier elsewhere? Before I had made up my mind, my feet were already carrying me deeper into the darkness.
I was scared out of my mind, I was worried about dying, but I kept the hope of finding a way out, and it gave me determination.
As I walked, I saw more light illuminating the path ahead of me. Slowing my steps to a crawl I walked forward, through a smaller mouth I looked in the sight ahead of me and my mouth dropped. There was a volcanic font beneath me bubbling with magma, it looked like the pissed off mouth of hell itself.
After I picked my jaw off the floor, I started taking in the area and noticed a small path off to the side, carved in the shape of a stairway. Surely the mystics wouldn't have taken the time to do that, but were monsters capable of chiseling? I shook my head and proceeded downward.
The path took me down around the caldera, the convection heat was awful, I was thankful I chose to wear a robe, someone in armor would be miserable moving through this. As I reached the end of the path I felt the area cooling down, which struck me as odd since I was still moving deeper, logic would have told me it would have gotten worse.
I still don't know how the underground has biomes laid out like this, even all these years later.
The sound of rushing water and a cool spray greeted me as I left the volcanic area, after that heat it felt nice to have a cool rush of water. As I walked, I noticed the place was freakishly well lit for an area that actually looked like a cave, glancing up I saw crystals embedded on the ceiling, creating the light of a clear, star-filled night.
"These roofs are lovely, aren't they?" Another voice spoke out to me, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard it, I thought I had been discovered by a monster. I spun around to see a large blue flower, as tall as a child, propped up behind it me, its petals were rustling and repeating that sentence.
"What is this?" I said, looking into the flower. The flower stopped abruptly, and its petals began to rustle in a different pattern, "What is this?" It said back to me in exactly my voice.
Those echo flowers still creep me out at the best of times even today, by the way. Doesn't help when someone thinking they're funny puts one that says "Behind you" at a dead end path.
I walked forward, eventually hitting a lip and falling into some ankle-high water with a loud splash. I saw a hallway lined with echo flowers in front of me, each one saying something different, and one beside me that had caught my fall, the embarrassingly high-pitched scream I made, and the sound of the splash, "Oh shut up!" I said to it, "Oh shut up!" It said back.
I crawled back onto dry land and sat down "Unbelievable, I'm having a war of words with a flower, how long have I been down here anyway?" I looked up at the sparkling roof, time had lost meaning without the sun to guide me... is this what the monsters were forced to live with? I thought to myself.
As I sat there looking up, the day's weariness caught up to me, I realized how tired and hungry I was, and the bandits outside had taken all my food. I let out a loud groan as I cupped some water from the rivers into my hand, I looked at it through the light of the crystals, "It's... so pure, safe to drink, I hope." It tasted like the best drink I'd ever had, even though it was just water. Was it the rocks purifying it? The echo flowers? I wasn't sure, I just drank until I felt somewhat sated. "Still hungry." I muttered to myself as I walked into the last room so the echo flower's talking wouldn't keep me up, as I sat, I put my hands on the ground. I felt something slimy and immediately yelped again, not a monster, just a snail.
"A snail." I said to myself, "Ohhhhh, really?" I said half-whining, half-exasperated as my stomach groaned at me.
Yeah... I uh, got used to the way they taste, actually kind of like them now.
As I prepared to go to sleep, I took out the only belongings I still had on me, my book, my inkwell, and my quill, and I wrote.
"Dear diary: I'm an idiot, an absolute idiot. I came searching for proof of monsters, of the barrier and the war, needless to say I think I have reason to believe it all now. I walked through the barrier and learned that it doesn't care what you are, it's not going to let you out. I've walked I don't know how far, all I know is that if I slipped, I would have taken a very hot bath, and now I'm in a cave that looks like a night sky.
I consider myself lucky that I haven't found a monster yet, if they've been living in these conditions for over a century, they'll try to kill, I'm sure of it, grudges don't go away.
I've found food... awful as it is, I swear these snails are smiling at me like they have a consciousness, doesn't make it any easier to eat them, but I have to do what I must.
I'm not going to die down here, if I have to go deeper to find a way out I'll do so, and if I encounter a monster I... oh who am I kidding, I'm going to die down here.
And, if a monster with a mind finds this book, please don't destroy it, it's the only thing I'll be remembered by."
I closed my book and put it in the top of part of my robe so it wouldn't get wet if I had to wade to progress when I woke up. I huddled in the back of a small cave and let the sounds of running water soothe me to sleep.
I had to stay determined.
End of Day 1