Climbing through the Himalayas, I had been lead here looking for the cave. I had been told by the locals that he lives there. I had managed to pay one of them to lead me there. Me and my team, the four of us; brave explorers of the unknown. There were five of us altogether in the expedition. Our guides name was Ajay, and he came from a small village in the middle of the Himalayas, located near some supposed yeti sightings (thats what we had come to investigate).
The university I worked at, I worked in the classics department, had allowed me to come on this trip to see the ‘amazing’ cave of the yeti. I was allowed to take four people for my team – I chose Jack Davies, the smartest person from our department, as well as a close friend; Sam Silver, a trained spec ops officer who started studying classics after he left the army; Jesse James, he has a natural sense of direction, and he's amazing with maps, he's also a talented singer and quick thinker; and finally, Jason Manson, he’s amazingly talented at basically everything, and he's been to the Himalayas too many times to count, he's also a really old friend.
As we had reached the village, after a four hour walk, we went to the leader, I had already arranged to meet him, and he introduced us to Ajay, saying that he knows the area better than anyone else. Ajay was shy at first after we left, but soon he wouldn’t stop talking. He told us that we would have to camp overnight, out in the cold, as the cave is more than a day away. We also had to carry all of our equipment, and Sam was carrying most of it. We struggled through a snow storm, and finally settled in a small cave, which Ajay said would protect us from anything, even an avalanche. He made a fire, and we all set up camp. We ate cold pizza which Sam had brought with him from the airport, and drank some mountain water, which had gathered in a pool at the bottom of the cave.
Jack seemed to be distracted by some drawings on the wall. I went over to him, and asked him what it was.
“It's a drawing, depicting villagers, they seem to be fighting off a yeti or something similar.” The yeti depicted was twice the height of the men in the drawing.
“Big man, dangerous.” Ajay wasn’t fluent in English, and only one of us knew Nepali.
“Ok everyone. Let’s get some rest, we’ve got more walking to do tomorrow.” Everyone groaned, except Ajay.
I slept perfectly, camping always did that for me. Whenever I’m at home, I can’t sleep at all, but camping, I can sleep like a dead man. When we woke up, Ajay said that we needed to move as quickly as possible. None of us questioned him.
While we were walking, Jason was speaking to Ajay in Nepali, he said it was helpful to him. Jesse was looking at his compass, he kept mumbling something under his breath and shaking his head. I questioned him and he said it wasn’t important. Jack was trying to teach Sam what some of our equipment did, mainly the unique age detector thing that Jack had designed, and only he knew how to use it. I just walked, observing the environment.
At around noon, we stopped to have some lunch. We sat down, and Jack pointed out all the flora and fauna around us. None of us thought about the fact that half of them shouldn’t be here, in the middle of a mountain range; there were vulture circling about a mile away (according to Jesse). I looked around, and saw a strange flower, it was pure white, with yellow in the middle. I went over to it, and was about to pick it up, but Ajay stopped me.
“Don’t pick flower, spirit flower.” He explained in the simplest words that the locals believed that these flowers were gateways to the afterlife, as they always grew near burial grounds.
After we had finished, Ajay led us to a canyon, which was lined with multiple caves. He led us to the centre of the canyon, and went to the entrance of the largest cave. He stood next to it, and gestured us in. I went first, leading the way. Sam and Jason were the next to follow. Jesse was next, still mumbling about the compass. Jack was last.
As soon as Jesse reached us, his compass went crazy, and he dropped it, yelling in pain. As this happened, a laughter came from the entrance, we all looked, to find Ajay there, pushing a boulder across the entrance.
“Sorry about this, it’s the only way the save the village,” he shouted, and sealed the entrance. From down, in the pits of the cave system, came a roaring. We were in trouble.
