Faithful Pebble
Part Twenty-Four
The darkness was deeper twenty plus minutes laterand twenty plus minutes later, he still had yet to come up with a plan. So instead, the man reached back into his pocket and re-retrieved the watch, the light shining just as brilliantly as before,his irises glimmering with it. Erupting with vision, his gaze easily penetrated the darkness around him, allowing him to see, once again, the archways to each tunnel, the curved lined walls defining them, the dirt floor and its debris which caused him to squint…
And consider…
In the rubble, he could see pieces of molded bread and rotting fruit. The wanderer grimaced recalling instantly that he had put his hand in it…
That he was currently sitting on—
He quickly rushed to his feet brushing off the trash and dirt clinging to his trousers. He was just about to put his watch away when out of the corner of his eye he saw something luminous glitter in the waning light. The man paused steadily, slowly, inquisitively re-tracking the watch from the flapping folds of his tunic. He edged to the middle of the vortex, the heart of the well in which the girl had lived, and looked down using a booted toe to sweep away ancient rye, ancient cloth, ancient whitewashed pebbles to find metal, a sharp glinting piece of blackened steel.
The wanderer blinked before he put the watch away. His sight now clear once again, he bent to push away the garbage to find treasure—no.
An arrow?
No.
A door, a trapdoor made out of arrows.
With hope re-igniting in his heart of hearts, the man bent and casually lifted the cloth bound, well hidden iron gate of a trapdoor made solely of rusty hunter's arrows. The gate jerked and lifted open easily letting some of the garbage fall, tumbling blindly into the enigmatic pit shrouded carefully underneath it. It was darker than even the tunnels were, but it didn't reek of rubbish like those had, just of damp earth, warm, fresh and comfortable. He looked about the tunnels a moment before he gently eased himself feet first into the hole, careful to not trip or fall in case the cavity was deeper than he imagined.
It wasn't. Only 5-6 feet in height, the tunnel was just short enough to cause him to crouch, but just tall enough for someone smaller of statue to stand up right, a child perhaps, a woman. He steadied his feet then lifted high to close the gate cautious so to not accidentally cut his fingers on the arrowheads.
Afterwards, he looked around at his surroundings. It didn't surprise him what he found.
Thanks for reading and reviewing. - Calla