I Am Alone

Chapter 12: Haunting Memory

Crimson stays at home with Aph as I trudge through the snow with Fang, My bow slung across my shoulder while I grip my spear tightly.

Carved into the mountainside is a large opening to a cave, stalactites hang from the ceiling as drops of water drip from them, splashing onto a pool on the floor.

I light my torch as Fang ducks his head to go inside. The cave is old, as far as I can tell, but narrow, I can immediately tell I would have to go alone.

"Fang, you can't fit buddy, you'll have to wait outside." He whines in protest but I give him eye and he lays down in a part of a cave he can fit in.

"Good boy, now stay here." I step deeper inside the cave, my burning torch illuminates the gray, damp, cave walls. It seems to slope downward, I pick up the distant sound of rushing water.

I brush my hand against the wall, it's damp, and has small sparkling pieces of metal, I grin and take a bit, I would come back later with Aph to mine it.

I mean Aphmau. I need to stop calling her Aph. That's not her name.

Why? She doesn't mind. Bear.

Ugh. I am never going to live that one down. Am I?

Not since Aphmau called you a Bear, you will forever be know as The Bear.

I hate you.

I know.

It gets narrower as I go deeper, making it harder and harder to squeeze inside, it is getting damper, I hear the rushing water get louder and I suddenly lose my footing, I expect to hit ground but I continue to fall, and then I hit hard, wet ground with a sickening crunch.

I can't see anything, my torch was extinguished on the way down. The rushing water is roaring. I feel lightheaded, and blood drips from my head.

I try to sit up, but my leg is twisted in an odd angle, It throbs dully, I had sprained it when I fell down. I could still stand, I just had to be careful.

My head starts to pound.

I feel around for the torch, I grab something that feels like it and I yank it, there is a popping sound and the I light the top of the torch.

The caves chamber is huge, a waterfall falls into an underground, green paradise, I spot a bat or two, but they seem uninterested in me.

I look down, I've got a few scrapes and bruises, but except for the sprained leg, nothing too major, I hold my leg as I try to look for an exit.

There is a passage in one corner of the cave, but I cannot go the way I came in, I sit down, careful to support my leg, I make a makeshift brace out of a stick and fiber from the small bushes that grew down here.

I stand, using my spear to help me walk, and I stumble into the passageway, it takes a sharp angle upward. But I somehow manage to climb it without breaking myself. I leave a trail of blood, I must have hit my head, or cut it.

I tumble into the air that was outside, but I am nowhere near where I was before. I'm standing on a manmade overhang, pillars bigger than the Parthenon hold the ceiling up, and the air is humid but slightly cold.