• A Cave That Forgets

The gush of wind refused to let a thought grace his mind. It whipped past him as he plummeted into the unfathomable burrow, tearing at his clothes and his hair. Talon — ever faithful — had dived after him, matching his speed as they hurtled downward together.

But the fall seemed never-ending. As Spheris struggled to breath, it felt as though the more he fell, the deeper the recess got. Darkness enveloped him as he descended farther from the red light above. The surroundings blurred into a dizzying whirl of blurred shadows and echoes. His heart was pounding so fast he could hear them in his ears.

But still, no land.

Glancing to his left, Spheris caught a glimpse of what he thought was his reflection. A fleeting image of him cascading down the void like a waterfall frozen into a mirror. The hollow began to make strange noises, and it seemed to warp and shift around him, morphing into unscientific shapes and aberrant pigments as they hurtled past.

He looked up and was relief to see that Talon was still with him. Then suddenly, an impact jolted through him as he collided with a jagged rock, sending oscillations of pain rippling through his body. Seeing that he was finally approaching land, Spheris instinctively rolled, using his shoulder to cushion the blow as he crashed onto the cold, unforgiving ground below.

"Argh!" he groaned in pain. The pang was deep and agonizing, leaving him a little worried that he might had dislocated his shoulder. But nevertheless, Spheris managed to pull himself to his feet as Talon met him at the ground. 

He looked around the chasm, holding on to his shoulder as his his breath grew heavier. "Where the Hell am I?" he muttered. He cast his gaze behind him, confused. Was he alone?

His expectation was that once he got to the floor, he would be confronted with an angry Nero, blaming him for teleporting them on top the mountain. Where was everybody?

"Hey!" he cried into the half-light. He only heard his voice yell back. Spheris frowned. "Thorin! Cerene!?" 

No reply, there was an insidious silence. High and low.

"How is this possible?" Spheris asked himself in a whisper. They had all fallen into the same mountain, hadn't they? So why did it seem that he was the only one inside this place?

"What is this place, anyway?" he uttered as he inspected the cave. Somehow, it looked despicable. It was a labyrinth of coarse saw-toothed rock formations, some shaped in eerie twists while some stropped. Spheris got more disoriented by the second, trying to make sense of his surroundings.

The rocky protrusions were jutting out at odd angles, their edges sharp and unforgiving like a warrior's vengeful blade. They casted long obscure shadows that seemed to stretch out endlessly, and the smell of dry ancient rocks infected the air in great proportions.

From where he stood, three narrow passageways branched out, each one disappearing into the darkness after it. With [Nocturnal Perception], Spheris could easily make his way as he stumbled aimlessly, however, the Influence didn't grant him the knowledge of what was beyond those dark passageways. To find out, he would have to tread them himself.

But Spheris wasn't feeling very adventurous at the moment. With a painful groan, he gazed up at where he had fallen from. A befuddled expression drew on his face. How was it possible? He could still see the red clouds from down there, even some parts of that spiky sun. 

It made no sense to him. His fall into the chasm had lasted for minutes on end, and yet somehow the cracked opening which had swallowed him was fairly close by.

He braced himself. The opening was too far away for him to climb, but it was seemingly the perfect height for [Embrace Of The Darkness] to reach. All Spheris had to do was activate the Influence, stretch forth the [Embrace]'s tendrils all the way out of the opening, grab onto the rock and pull himself out of this ungainly strange place.

It seemed simple enough. But when the tendrils began to scale the heights of the chasm, stretching as high as it could, it never arrived at the red light of the outside. Spheris struggled to lengthen the tendrils, focusing more of his Essence, but it never arrived at the peak, it never reached the gaping maw he had fallen through.

With a groan of frustration, Spheris unconjured the [Embrace], gazing into the shaft which he had fallen through. Magic was involved in this, was his discernment. In between the hole and the shaft and the end of the pit where he stood, there was some sort of dimension. It must have been what he saw when he had seen his reflection on a waterfall mirror. 

Talon cawed beside his feet and he gazed down at the bird. An idea struck him.

Spheris instructed Talon to fly as high as he could out of the hole's mouth and report to him what he saw. Talon obliged. 

As Spheris watched, the bird ascended the chute, flapping its wings to gather as much momentum as it could. He waited, gazing with hope as the bird continued to upthrust. But suddenly, Talon vanished. 

Spheris's gaze reduced to a dithery frown. "Talon?" he called in a hushed tone. "Talon!" Spheris felt his heart beat race. He approached further, gazing into the shaft and out into the red sky, but there was no sign of the raven. 

"Talon!" he cried out fearfully. 

Caw! The sound of the bird's caw had never brought more relief to Spheris. He looked away from the hole and hurried to the sound. There, he saw Talon flying towards him from the left passageway. The bird landed on his arm, cawing continuously as it on loaded it's information to Spheris.

"How did you fly in from here?" Spheris asked, excited yet mystified. "Did you find a way out? What did you see?"

Talon's replies came in more caws.

"That's not... possible," Spheris muttered with damned eyes. He gazed into the willowy passageway, and the cold unknown darkness gazed back at him, daring him to come through and determine whether what the bird had told him was true.

With a resolute breath, Spheris forced his shoulder back into its socket, a guttural groan escaping his lips as he endured the searing pain of the successful relocation.

Then, with Talon now on his shoulder, he carefully paced into the dark passageway. His vision was obscured, but the deeper he went, the more he felt. [Nocturnal Perception] was certainly his favorite Influence at that point. 

Against his fingertips, the rocky walls, even though dry, were very cold as he traced his way forward. His footsteps echoed, gusts of wind from behind whispered through the cavern, and after what seemed like an eternity of navigating through the labyrinthine passages, Spheris emerged from another opening. 

This one was slightly larger, with stalactites hanging ominously from the ceiling and stalagmites jutting up from the floor like Gorgolithian teeth. With a sense of unease, Spheris pressed on and surprisingly found himself back at his vantage point below the cracked opening.

"What...the...crap?" Spheris uttered in bewilderment. Talon was right. He looked back at the opening he had just emerged from and then at his base where he had landed on. He looked back again, still far from a believer at what he had just witnessed.

He had to be sure. And so he threaded back the opening he had emerged from, but alas, he returned to the same place through the earlier opening. Then, he tried the third opening, but yet again, he emerged from the second one. 

In stunned silence, Spheris stood there, his mind reeling with disbelief at the inexplicable phenomenon he had just experienced. Too many emotions gnawed at him — there was fear and there was worry. Both stemmed from the realization that he was trapped in some sort of manifestation of The Abyss's malevolence.

All roads led to one.

☯

Several hours later, Spheris laid on the rocky earth, cradled up with his scarf over his shoulders and his knees above his chest. The cold was atrocious and unbearing.

Night had come at last and the chasm was even darker than before. Colder as well. The biting cold seeped into his bones despite the meager warmth provided by his black myrethian leather gear and the scarf. Talon nestled inside his closed arms, but even the bird's body heat offered little solace against the freezing.

This place hated him. It wanted him to die.

And even worse, he was starving. He hadn't eaten anything since the morning he left Endswatch, and the hunger gnawing at his stomach did well to remind him. 

He could feel his strength waning with every passing moment, his body growing weaker and more sluggish as the cold and hunger took their toll. And with the hopeless realisation that perhaps he was stuck inside this place forever, Spheris began to wonder which would win the race of killing him.

The cold, or the hunger?