~Memories~
By Ola
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Part 18~ The glittering caves
"Last one before lunch break."
"Uh heu."
Neither sounded very enthusiastic. They had been exploring caves half the morning, spending the other half looking for them, which wasn't all that hard since this region was covered by them. Most of the ones they had pocked their heads into were mere shallow depressions in rock faces and not real caves per say. Deep enough for ten people to escape from the rain; and when they became short tunnels from time to time, they were mostly straight or a little curvy, and light always reached the back wall, although sometimes few of it was left to see by.
And what exactly are we doing this? To look for immigrants who hide in them from the border guards! Yep, that was the captain's idea. Don't ask me. What are we supposed to get out of this "training"? Fieldwork and teamwork he said! Pfua! I would say pneumonia.
It was one of those perfect autumn mornings. Sunny, cold and crispy. Leaves in their most vibrant colors, ranging from yellow-green to dark red, almost points of light themselves. But nature's beauty was wasted on those two people at the present time. At dawn, they had set off with smiles, eyes aglow, but boredom and monotony had quickly set in with no one to talk to, and nothing to look forward to but more caves. Actually, there had been plenty of occasions to talk, and on several occasions, both young people had been on the verge of saying something before remembering their ongoing quarrel and shutting up in their shell of proudness and stupidity. Thus, what could have been relatively easy was turning out infuriatingly frustrating and at the same time horribly monotonous. But it was the last cave.
As soon as they stepped inside, they knew it was much more extensive than the previous ones. A cold draft came to caress their ankles while an odor of mustiness, of humid and dark places where neither light nor fresh air were known assailed their nostrils. The mouth of the cave was a few inches taller than Sindarin; it was also strangely symmetrical. The path went straight as far as they could see, only slightly dipping into the ground, but the light of day did not reach more than a hundred feet into the tunnel. Farther away, there was only the true darkness of the undergrounds.
The young man looked at his partner, relieved that she could not easily distinguish his face and the emotions it held, too busy rummaging in her pack. Suddenly, light flared from a piece of burning oiled cloth. Shadows jumped back, a bubble of orange light surrounded the two travelers in a semblance of safety, although it did not seem to penetrate the secrets held by the dark. Lanea shrugged and moved off; Sindarin quickly followed, keeping himself in the light; only once glancing over his shoulder at the retreating circle of white light. Before long, they came to a split. Before them were two tunnels with equal size and the same smooth floor.
"This cave is man made...or made by something else, but not nature."
"Do we split up?"
"It seems to be abandoned." Lanea's stomach growled, echoing loudly in the silence.
"It will take less time, and we will cover more ground." Another torch flared; Lanea got two more out and gave one to Sindarin. "When the first one goes out, we come back and wait for each other here. Which one do you want? Left or right?"
"I'll take the left; I'll go left at every intersection. You take all the right ones. We shouldn't loose ourselves that way. Hopefully."
Lanea frowned, then quickly disappeared into the hole. A few steps later, she began regretting her choice. Alone, she was much more aware of the heavy silence and the way the shadows danced on the walls. The outside world seemed to be separated from her by space and time. As if I was the only one down here. Trapped for eternity. She shuddered. But alone is good. I don't wanna met anyone…or anything. Stop. Don't think about meeting…stuff. Don't look at the shadows, don't imagine noises in the dark. Gasp! What was that? She stopped, holding her breath. Yes, she was right. Far away, she heard the trickle of water echoing with a hollow, sharp sound. Water? A river? She concentrated on the noise, not knowing whether it was putting her into a trance or half scaring her to death.
What she knew scared the heck out of her was the first split in the road. The dark opening to her right had appeared so suddenly that she had taken it for some creature about to jump on her, and she had almost dropped her torch. No no no no no! Don't drop torch, don't drop torch. Don't want to look for flint and second torch in the dark, while anything can jump on me. Don't think about jumping! Think about…the trees outside. Yes, the trees. Her heart calmed down and did not skip a beat at the next intersections. Always to the right. The trickling was now much closer, and she could distinctly hear each drop hitting the water. Ploink…ploink…and reverberating all around her...and inside her too. She stopped again for a moment, listening to the liquid symphony. She began distinguishing a pattern in the drops. The slow, heavy ploink, and a faster, more crystalline plink. She imagined a vast chamber filled with a dark lake, with stalagmites and stalactites, the two meeting in places into white columns of limestone or salt…The circles of the drops, dancing waves on the otherwise smooth surface of the icy lake, the vaulted ceiling of the chamber lost in darkness, some unknown hundreds of feet above.
At the next intersection, she clearly heard the sound coming from the left. Damn. For a moment, she wondered where she was now, relative to the entrance. Lower? Higher up? If I always took the right passages, I could be exactly under it, having made a circle. Mmm, wonder if my path would actually meet with Sindarin's or if we are going in totally opposite directions. She looked at both passages carefully. Maybe I'll take the left one and go only as far as the next intersection than come back and continue with all the right ones? It's not as if I'm looking for anything specific, and that silence is unnerving. Makes me wonder whether I've become deaf. And I wonder if it really is a lake…or a puddle. She smiled. There's no harm in going down just a little.
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A/N~ oh, girl, you can't possibly know….
And that's coming in the next chapter…some time soon, hopefully =)
Meanwhile, please review!
~Ola~
