Aeolia

37: Ascent Through Dark

Ravine coughed and a single petal fell from her lips. Strung thick with saliva, it dropped into the puddle beside her and lay there, floating, a pink vessel upon still black waters.

     The woman lifted her head to find that all around her coiled strange tunnel entrances. They ranged from thin doors to gaping hallways, or the smallest perforation to the widest rend. Each opening welcomed her with shades of darkest shadow. Yes, she was kneeling alone in the middle of an underground junction, and just how deep she was, she feared to know.

     Though she had many persistent questions prodding at her, one rose above all else: Which way had the Viper gone?

     Ahead of her, she remembered, it had slipped into the smallest tunnel, its body squeezing through the slit and disappearing from view. Why had it left? Ravine hadn't done a thing. She had been weak, she had been terrified. She'd just cried and cried. And it had simply left her.

     But undoubtedly, this meant it would return. Wherever she was it would find her. She didn't know why, but it wanted her. It had tracked her from the Meadow of Nightmares to here, where they were nearly to Aeolia.

     They? Why had she thought they? She. She was nearly to Aeolia.

     There was no one in this lonely world she knew. There was no one else that would come for her, none but the ever-present Viper.

     The Viper. She had to get away from this dark labyrinth. Repressing shudders, Ravine stood and turned the other way. She would take the larger shafts and hope they didn't taper too much. Claustrophobia and apprehension wrapped around her but she shook it all off.

     She would travel until she felt herself ascending, until the scent of air was near, until her lungs could take a breath without convulsing in disgust. And then... she would continue. She would keep going until she found something. What that something was, she didn't know. But it didn't matter, not really.

     Ravine had emerged from her previous daze now. No longer was she an unmoored boat, simply drifting. Now she was tethered, almost painfully so, to the rock-hard things surrounding her.

     She couldn't say she understood, but she wasn't lost either.

     She held her arms out from her sides, feeling the crooks and crags in the cavern walls dig into her hands as she walked. Her palms tore and bled but she didn't care. In this darkness she needed a steady guide, and the pain was muffled to a point.

     Her bare feet tested the ground before her. Soon enough they had begun to bleed as well, but she walked on. Nothing mattered in her narrowed mind but getting out. Wherever out led to, it had to be better than here.

     As she walked, she watched pale creatures squirm in their cocoons in the rock. The sight of the beings pressing their skinny legs into their soft white skin turned her stomach. All the creatures did was fiddle and pierce, fiddle and pierce, for no reason, and without end.

     Ravine swallowed, turned her gaze down, and kept going. Maw after maw enveloped her. After minutes the creatures' numbers began to lessen, and the earth around her slowly shifted to a brighter color.

     And she could hear, very faintly, above the layers of stone and dust, water running lightly. Was it a river? Most likely. She would enjoy a drink. She would get one soon, for she could tell that it was close, near the surface of the earth-near her. It had to be.

     She would see light soon.

     Her ascent through dark was nearly done. She smiled.