**(A/N: Thanks to Arinya for the inspiring, though slightly violent review; I'm glad I've already decided to continue this story, as I happen to like breathing.)**
7
Ann walked into the cave without hesitation. She looked ahead several steps to pick her path through the rocky terrain. It was like second nature to her; she leapt from rock to rock easily, as if dancing across the sharp indentations. She had once climbed a mountain with a friend in this fashion, jumping from rock to rock instead of climbing up the dirt path. Her friend wouldn't believe her when she said her way was easier. But it was - when you're having fun, you're never as tired as when you're not. The long, narrow cave gave little room for interpretation. The only way to go was forward. She was tempted by the small shelf-like rocks on the wall that were just begging to be climbed. You're on a mission, she told herself, stop fooling around. Maybe on the way back. . .
The cave became narrower and narrower. The ceiling that had once opened into darkness was rapidly approaching her head the farther she climbed. She couldn't tell whether she was going up or down, but the small rapid hills soon evened out and became almost flat. She walked quickly, disheartened at the lack of a challenge, watching as the walls on each side became closer and closer. Soon the cave ended into a tunnel where she could reach out a hand on either side and touch each wall - the ceiling likewise was now only about seven feet up. The cave narrowed still, until it came down so sharply she was forced to hunch over and shuffle through. She was left facing a black hole the size of a cat door. Ahhrr! She hated climbing through tunnels - it was nerve-wracking to have little choice in exits. But she had no sooner stuck her head in when she found herself confronted by rock. There was no exit - heck, there was barely an entrance. She pressed her hands against the hard surface in front of her disbelievingly. It couldn't just end! There had to be something to it, something she had missed in the riddles. But the riddle mentioned nothing else about this particular part of the caves. She was simply supposed to go through it to the end, only there was no end.
"Crap!" she shouted to herself. She listened to the echo bouncing off the walls behind her, as if the cave was playing a heated game of dodge ball with the sound. She punched the end of the tunnel with her fist, willing it to disappear. 'Break knuckles - bad idea,' she thought as she put her sore fist in her mouth. This wasn't a barrier like before - it was the end. Squirming backwards back out into the main tunnel, she started to retrace her steps, looking behind every rock for any sign of another tunnel.
She heard a small click and with out thinking dove for the end, where the ceiling had first dropped down. She turned to find solid rock behind her, right where she had been standing. It was a decoy! And you fell for it you stupid sap, she berated herself. It was testimony to the immense age of the cave's rusty hinges that it had taken so long for the trap to close. Why hadn't she seen it before? Of course, there was only so much you could see with a flashlight, but she was never this slow! Was she loosing her touch? What if the trap had fallen while she was still trying to crawl forward into the tunnel, and not at the end walking back? She shuddered at her stupidity. One more mistake and you're going back where you came from, she growled to herself.
"Look, look, look, look," she sang quietly to herself. So where was the real tunnel? Somewhere dark. . . She looked in every crevice and behind every rock she found, even walking the thin bridge of rocks that spanned the dark pool on the side of the cave. The pool! Don't let it be the pool, she prayed silently. She wasn't keen on wading through centuries old stagnant water full of rot. It would take forever for her clothes to dry in this humidity. As fun as these adventures were, sometimes they could get depressing. She tied her flashlight to a string of rope and lowered in into the pool. It looked about eight feet deep, with nothing visibly swimming through it. She shivered violently, remembering an encounter with some particularly nasty flesh-eating reptiles she had less than two years ago. The light from her flashlight slowly circled towards the end of the cave away from the door and then Ann could see it - a tunnel. Underwater.
Well this is it, she told herself and she lowered her body into the dark pool. This is when you hold your breath for three minutes and swim into a dark tunnel of unknown origins not knowing how long it takes to swim through - so you either make it or die trying. Ho hum. Whoever designed this cave was a sicko - making her trudge through water, as if she had nothing better to do. Give me something to fight, like those ugly llorsks - just not underwater, please. It had been ages, it seemed, since she had practiced holding her breath underwater for longer and longer periods of time. She had started years back, when she was still a rookie, with only thirty seconds, a pitifully short amount of time. Several ultra-marathons and triathlons later she could hold her breath for several minutes without trying. Good thing I'm out of practice, she thought sardonically.
Here goes.
The water wasn't shockingly cold or gently warm, or anything poetic at all. The only thing she could really think to describe it as was wet, a very unflattering analogy. Something to tell your grandkids, she laughed to herself (as if!). At first it was a normal underwater scene - the slow, surreal movements, propelling forward using the rough rocks lining the tunnel, more thoughts full of curiosity of what lies ahead than on the fact that the air supply is limited. Of course, the tunnel would seem to go on forever, it was new and unexplored. She thought she saw something dart underneath her and brought her head up in surprise, dropping her flashlight as her hand scraped against the wall. Some air escaped her mouth in one large bubble. 'Good going, just let out all the air before you reach the end'. But it had looked suspiciously like an eel darting underneath her. There aren't eels in cave pools you idiot, she reassured herself. 'Oxygen starting to run out, starting to see darting movements'. She started to kick quicker, scratching her palms on the rocks in her hurry to rush by them. Was there an end to this tunnel? It struck her that she could easily die like this, swimming in this tunnel forever with the too familiar acidic burn in her lungs, the barely withheld panic that only the lack of oxygen can so artfully produce.
And then the tunnel ended.
Is that how the story of my life ends, she wondered. With a solid wall? The edges of her vision were now red-tinted. Another bubble escaped from her mouth as she pounded on the wall in desperation. She watched the bubble float up, and up, and up. . . She followed it and burst out into the cool air above.
Once she could see straight, she found herself in another cave, this one completely smooth. It was circular, with a high curved ceiling. At one end was a pedestal with an object lying serenely on it. Ann gaped at it unbelievingly - there was no way it could be this easy! But it appeared to be true, because lying there for anyone, even a Muggle, to simply walk over and pick up was the book.
She stared at it in awe before moving towards it. It was rather large, with uneven pages, the result of thousands of years of use. No doubt it was flooded with anti-magic charms. My but we guard our knowledge quite possessively don't we, she asked silently. One would almost think that the Mages didn't want the book to be found. The cover was moldy and half decayed, covered in eons of dust. She felt the familiar excitement surge through her, the yearning to turn the thick pages of the mysterious book before her. Her fingers itched to trace the words on the page. She picked it up carefully as if it were a fragile, holy relic and she were a messenger of God. Holding her breath, even the smallest shake might turn up the edge of a page, she slipped it into her attaché case, filing it away into the bottomless storage. It was now officially hers, she thought as she closed her knapsack.
A grinding sound behind her told her that the room, as predicted had sensed the removal of the book. Having failed to guard the book from outside intrusion, the cave would now revert to Plan B: destroy the intruder. The pedestal where the book had been slowly lowered into the floor, leaving a black gaping hole in its wake. Ann cautiously walked over and shined her flashlight down into it. A long, dark brown tentacle was slowly feeling its way up the hole. Surely they can do better than that, she thought. She could either climb into the hole and kill whatever the hell this crap-ass creature was or she could high-tail out of the cave the same way she had come in.
She looked over her shoulder at the small pool of water and thought of the tunnel far below that led back towards the entrance. Too convenient, she decided. She hadn't had much fun yet. She took out her dagger and made a couple practice swings. But something was wrong. She watched in fascination as one end of the dagger followed the other a full five seconds behind. Her vision was all funny, and not just because of the unstable glow from her flashlight. She waved her hand in front of her face and was amused that she saw only a pink blur, not the actual movement. Not prime conditions for fighting, she had to admit. What was wrong with her? Damn it! What was the point of coming down here if she wasn't going to have any fun? I can probably still fight fine, she thought.
She flung her dagger at a spot on the wall. It cut smoothly into the stone, but six feet away from her destination. That wasn't right either - when Ann was at full concentration she had a straight aim. She hated to back down from a challenge - she could say that she hadn't been at her best and still defeated whatever was currently climbing out of the well. But she had never failed a customer yet - the best thing to do would be to go back the way she came, where she knew the route. The fact that her chances of surviving where better in that direction was also to be considered.
"Maybe later, eh? My place next time?" she called down to the tentacle which was now only five feet from the top of the hole. Lightening-fast, she switched the batteries in her flashlight and tightened the strap on her knapsack. A glance at her watch told her it had been five hours. Can I make it out completely in seven, she wondered. Eight tops? The tentacle now reached the top of the hole and started slithering across the floor towards her. She made a face at the slime that covered it and jumped back into pool of water.
She sank like a rock and wasted no time in propelling herself down its length. It seemed shorter this time, now that she knew where she was going. She glanced through her feet and saw no sign of whatever was behind her. What's the matter, can't even chase a little Muggle like me properly, she taunted silently.
Suddenly the top of her skull connected with hard rock. She let out half of the breath she had been holding in surprise. The tunnel had been blocked by a solid wall of rock. She started to reach for her knapsack to find her Exe, but mentally groaned instead. It was useless - the potion was a liquid, it would simply float off the rock in and into her face, likely amputating and decapitating her simultaneously. And how in the world could she say the incantation underwater? It was better than nothing.
She stuck the entire vial in a crack on the wall and pushed herself backward a bit, as there was no room to turn around. She muttered the incantation as well as she could, letting out more air than she intended in a small colony of bubbles, and shielded her face. A soft, dull thud and the sting of hot water on her arms told her than it worked. The firm tug on her foot, pulled her back towards the room she had been fleeing let her know that the tentacle had caught up with her.
**(A/N: Anyone recognize the allusion to the well from The Ring? But this time Samara grew some more interesting appendages. . . .)**
7
Ann walked into the cave without hesitation. She looked ahead several steps to pick her path through the rocky terrain. It was like second nature to her; she leapt from rock to rock easily, as if dancing across the sharp indentations. She had once climbed a mountain with a friend in this fashion, jumping from rock to rock instead of climbing up the dirt path. Her friend wouldn't believe her when she said her way was easier. But it was - when you're having fun, you're never as tired as when you're not. The long, narrow cave gave little room for interpretation. The only way to go was forward. She was tempted by the small shelf-like rocks on the wall that were just begging to be climbed. You're on a mission, she told herself, stop fooling around. Maybe on the way back. . .
The cave became narrower and narrower. The ceiling that had once opened into darkness was rapidly approaching her head the farther she climbed. She couldn't tell whether she was going up or down, but the small rapid hills soon evened out and became almost flat. She walked quickly, disheartened at the lack of a challenge, watching as the walls on each side became closer and closer. Soon the cave ended into a tunnel where she could reach out a hand on either side and touch each wall - the ceiling likewise was now only about seven feet up. The cave narrowed still, until it came down so sharply she was forced to hunch over and shuffle through. She was left facing a black hole the size of a cat door. Ahhrr! She hated climbing through tunnels - it was nerve-wracking to have little choice in exits. But she had no sooner stuck her head in when she found herself confronted by rock. There was no exit - heck, there was barely an entrance. She pressed her hands against the hard surface in front of her disbelievingly. It couldn't just end! There had to be something to it, something she had missed in the riddles. But the riddle mentioned nothing else about this particular part of the caves. She was simply supposed to go through it to the end, only there was no end.
"Crap!" she shouted to herself. She listened to the echo bouncing off the walls behind her, as if the cave was playing a heated game of dodge ball with the sound. She punched the end of the tunnel with her fist, willing it to disappear. 'Break knuckles - bad idea,' she thought as she put her sore fist in her mouth. This wasn't a barrier like before - it was the end. Squirming backwards back out into the main tunnel, she started to retrace her steps, looking behind every rock for any sign of another tunnel.
She heard a small click and with out thinking dove for the end, where the ceiling had first dropped down. She turned to find solid rock behind her, right where she had been standing. It was a decoy! And you fell for it you stupid sap, she berated herself. It was testimony to the immense age of the cave's rusty hinges that it had taken so long for the trap to close. Why hadn't she seen it before? Of course, there was only so much you could see with a flashlight, but she was never this slow! Was she loosing her touch? What if the trap had fallen while she was still trying to crawl forward into the tunnel, and not at the end walking back? She shuddered at her stupidity. One more mistake and you're going back where you came from, she growled to herself.
"Look, look, look, look," she sang quietly to herself. So where was the real tunnel? Somewhere dark. . . She looked in every crevice and behind every rock she found, even walking the thin bridge of rocks that spanned the dark pool on the side of the cave. The pool! Don't let it be the pool, she prayed silently. She wasn't keen on wading through centuries old stagnant water full of rot. It would take forever for her clothes to dry in this humidity. As fun as these adventures were, sometimes they could get depressing. She tied her flashlight to a string of rope and lowered in into the pool. It looked about eight feet deep, with nothing visibly swimming through it. She shivered violently, remembering an encounter with some particularly nasty flesh-eating reptiles she had less than two years ago. The light from her flashlight slowly circled towards the end of the cave away from the door and then Ann could see it - a tunnel. Underwater.
Well this is it, she told herself and she lowered her body into the dark pool. This is when you hold your breath for three minutes and swim into a dark tunnel of unknown origins not knowing how long it takes to swim through - so you either make it or die trying. Ho hum. Whoever designed this cave was a sicko - making her trudge through water, as if she had nothing better to do. Give me something to fight, like those ugly llorsks - just not underwater, please. It had been ages, it seemed, since she had practiced holding her breath underwater for longer and longer periods of time. She had started years back, when she was still a rookie, with only thirty seconds, a pitifully short amount of time. Several ultra-marathons and triathlons later she could hold her breath for several minutes without trying. Good thing I'm out of practice, she thought sardonically.
Here goes.
The water wasn't shockingly cold or gently warm, or anything poetic at all. The only thing she could really think to describe it as was wet, a very unflattering analogy. Something to tell your grandkids, she laughed to herself (as if!). At first it was a normal underwater scene - the slow, surreal movements, propelling forward using the rough rocks lining the tunnel, more thoughts full of curiosity of what lies ahead than on the fact that the air supply is limited. Of course, the tunnel would seem to go on forever, it was new and unexplored. She thought she saw something dart underneath her and brought her head up in surprise, dropping her flashlight as her hand scraped against the wall. Some air escaped her mouth in one large bubble. 'Good going, just let out all the air before you reach the end'. But it had looked suspiciously like an eel darting underneath her. There aren't eels in cave pools you idiot, she reassured herself. 'Oxygen starting to run out, starting to see darting movements'. She started to kick quicker, scratching her palms on the rocks in her hurry to rush by them. Was there an end to this tunnel? It struck her that she could easily die like this, swimming in this tunnel forever with the too familiar acidic burn in her lungs, the barely withheld panic that only the lack of oxygen can so artfully produce.
And then the tunnel ended.
Is that how the story of my life ends, she wondered. With a solid wall? The edges of her vision were now red-tinted. Another bubble escaped from her mouth as she pounded on the wall in desperation. She watched the bubble float up, and up, and up. . . She followed it and burst out into the cool air above.
Once she could see straight, she found herself in another cave, this one completely smooth. It was circular, with a high curved ceiling. At one end was a pedestal with an object lying serenely on it. Ann gaped at it unbelievingly - there was no way it could be this easy! But it appeared to be true, because lying there for anyone, even a Muggle, to simply walk over and pick up was the book.
She stared at it in awe before moving towards it. It was rather large, with uneven pages, the result of thousands of years of use. No doubt it was flooded with anti-magic charms. My but we guard our knowledge quite possessively don't we, she asked silently. One would almost think that the Mages didn't want the book to be found. The cover was moldy and half decayed, covered in eons of dust. She felt the familiar excitement surge through her, the yearning to turn the thick pages of the mysterious book before her. Her fingers itched to trace the words on the page. She picked it up carefully as if it were a fragile, holy relic and she were a messenger of God. Holding her breath, even the smallest shake might turn up the edge of a page, she slipped it into her attaché case, filing it away into the bottomless storage. It was now officially hers, she thought as she closed her knapsack.
A grinding sound behind her told her that the room, as predicted had sensed the removal of the book. Having failed to guard the book from outside intrusion, the cave would now revert to Plan B: destroy the intruder. The pedestal where the book had been slowly lowered into the floor, leaving a black gaping hole in its wake. Ann cautiously walked over and shined her flashlight down into it. A long, dark brown tentacle was slowly feeling its way up the hole. Surely they can do better than that, she thought. She could either climb into the hole and kill whatever the hell this crap-ass creature was or she could high-tail out of the cave the same way she had come in.
She looked over her shoulder at the small pool of water and thought of the tunnel far below that led back towards the entrance. Too convenient, she decided. She hadn't had much fun yet. She took out her dagger and made a couple practice swings. But something was wrong. She watched in fascination as one end of the dagger followed the other a full five seconds behind. Her vision was all funny, and not just because of the unstable glow from her flashlight. She waved her hand in front of her face and was amused that she saw only a pink blur, not the actual movement. Not prime conditions for fighting, she had to admit. What was wrong with her? Damn it! What was the point of coming down here if she wasn't going to have any fun? I can probably still fight fine, she thought.
She flung her dagger at a spot on the wall. It cut smoothly into the stone, but six feet away from her destination. That wasn't right either - when Ann was at full concentration she had a straight aim. She hated to back down from a challenge - she could say that she hadn't been at her best and still defeated whatever was currently climbing out of the well. But she had never failed a customer yet - the best thing to do would be to go back the way she came, where she knew the route. The fact that her chances of surviving where better in that direction was also to be considered.
"Maybe later, eh? My place next time?" she called down to the tentacle which was now only five feet from the top of the hole. Lightening-fast, she switched the batteries in her flashlight and tightened the strap on her knapsack. A glance at her watch told her it had been five hours. Can I make it out completely in seven, she wondered. Eight tops? The tentacle now reached the top of the hole and started slithering across the floor towards her. She made a face at the slime that covered it and jumped back into pool of water.
She sank like a rock and wasted no time in propelling herself down its length. It seemed shorter this time, now that she knew where she was going. She glanced through her feet and saw no sign of whatever was behind her. What's the matter, can't even chase a little Muggle like me properly, she taunted silently.
Suddenly the top of her skull connected with hard rock. She let out half of the breath she had been holding in surprise. The tunnel had been blocked by a solid wall of rock. She started to reach for her knapsack to find her Exe, but mentally groaned instead. It was useless - the potion was a liquid, it would simply float off the rock in and into her face, likely amputating and decapitating her simultaneously. And how in the world could she say the incantation underwater? It was better than nothing.
She stuck the entire vial in a crack on the wall and pushed herself backward a bit, as there was no room to turn around. She muttered the incantation as well as she could, letting out more air than she intended in a small colony of bubbles, and shielded her face. A soft, dull thud and the sting of hot water on her arms told her than it worked. The firm tug on her foot, pulled her back towards the room she had been fleeing let her know that the tentacle had caught up with her.
**(A/N: Anyone recognize the allusion to the well from The Ring? But this time Samara grew some more interesting appendages. . . .)**