Godphrey Mathews ~Part 1

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'Not all those who wonder are lost.'


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~Colton~


River and I stare with wide eyes at the cave before us. A part of me knows that somewhere in there, the man from my visions, Godphrey Mathews, will spend his days. I'd seen flashes of his cave home, where them man had spent much of his life. He'd mixed up concoctions of science in his laboratory and had lived off wild dinosaurs in the forest. I'd seen him traipsing through the bushland and lugging heaping piles of berries back to the cave. Yet there had been something in his sharp, angular face and scraggly brown hair that reminded me of someone I hadn't even met before myself. I couldn't quite place it at the time, but whoever it was, I am certain that they're important.


Still flustered from what I'd just seen, I shake my head to clear my thoughts and take a tentative step into the cave. The rocky ground is cold and wet underfoot, and I catch myself quickly before I slip. River follows close behind, his eyes darting around as though he's watching something invisible. I don't know much about his condition, Schizophrenia, myself, but I do know that it muddles the brain and makes you see things that aren't really there. Somehow though, River saw Godphrey Mathews, just as I have.


As we move deeper into the cave, I turn back to the entrance, the rest of our group nowhere in sight. "Should we wait for the others?" I ask, my voice echoing off the slick walls.


River, who'd been staring up at the stalactites jutting from the ceiling of the cave turns to me, his mouth firmly shut and eyes as confused as ever. I can tell that he barely comprehends what I'm saying. After a pause though, he shakes his head, pointing forward and mumbling. "Master Unicorn."


I nod in confirmation and we continue stumbling through the darkened rock formation, the entrance growing further and further away by the minute. I shiver, the temperature dropping with every step. I wrap Ben's jumper tighter around my bony shoulders, thankful for the thick polar fleece material that I'd never had the luxury of before.


"Maybe this is the wrong cave..." I start to say, after about fifty metres of walking. River is quicker to shake his head this time though, and gestures up ahead to what seems like more freezing darkness. To my surprise, only a few seconds later do my feet find the top of a winding staircase, each step carved out of the cave itself. What surprises me more than the staircase itself though, is the fact that it's human sized. Which means that Godphrey Mathews himself wasn't the laquanian I'd perceived him as. It brings a sigh of relief from my lungs, as the two of us descend blindly down the stairs. I keep my hands firmly on the slippery cave walls to avoid losing my footing on a roughly carved step.


Suddenly, the stairs open up into what appears of be a hollowed out space, lit by a flaming wooden torch hanging from the ceiling. River and I let out a collective gasp, as we enter the chamber, which leads off into an arched hallway. I turn to the other human, who's just as skittish as I am in entering the main section of Godphrey's home, but after a few more seconds of wariness, I take the first cautious steps down into the depths of the cavern...


... and what awaits is more amazing than I could ever imagine.


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