The Orb And The Onslaught {COMPLETE}

The Orb

   
     The cats weren't forthcoming on where they were taking the group; after packing up their things and dousing the fire, the cats merely beckoned for them to follow and trotted off. Which wasn't an easy feat in the dark, and somehow it only seemed to get darker the further they went. Florence noted the lack of moon but since she didn't know what day it was, she couldn't tell if that was normal or not.

      A moment later she, Quentin and Skyrah almost tripped over the cats. They'd stopped and none of them had spotted it, each cat meowed just in time to let them know they were there.

"You almost stopped my heart, what are you doing?"

Florence huffed and tried to find the glint of their eyes through the darkness.

    "We're here, this is as far as we can take you, now you must go in front alone." Nathan spoke from somewhere below.

Florence sobered and peered around them, her eyes had adjusted partially and she could now see an impossibly darker hole, potentially a cave, up ahead.

"You want me to go down into a pitch black hole, alone, where I know there are things waiting to trick and test me?"

     "Yes, unfortunately we do." Joey said in an apologetic voice.

"I see... well alright, but if I fall and break my neck, this will all seem quite silly." She shook her head at the absurdity of what she was about to do and then plunged ahead into the dark abyss.

    She couldn't see her hand in front of her face it was so dark. Her feet shuffled over the ground, she didn't want to be surprised by any sudden changes in the path beneath her. She didn't want to reach out and feel her way around, just in case she touched something unsavoury. There was no telling what could be lurking in this tunnel, however to her relief, her trusty walking stick and knitting needles were within arms reach.

     She walked a few more steps before something changed, illumination began to swim into view. Minuscule points of light and they were growing closer, until she could finally make out what they were. Tiny bugs moving along the walls of the tunnel, their fluorescent bodies shone blue in the darkness. There were so many of them they lit the tunnel and showed Florence the path ahead. She could now see that the tunnel was just big enough for the average adult to walk down, alone.

     "At least they're consistent," she muttered to herself and sighed, forging on.

She started to hear footsteps the further she went, before she could react, she realised they were coming from behind her and assumed they belonged to Quentin and Skyrah- the cats still made no noise when they walked. She felt conflicted at how comforted she was that they were coming with her, despite the possibility of danger.

    She walked for several more minutes in the glittering tunnel until it suddenly opened out, revealing to her a grand subterranean landscape. An ethereal light seemed to illuminate the space that should have been pitch black; she hoped in the back of her mind that it wasn't more Vainsteor. Florence shook off the random thoughts, she had no choice but to keep walking, either something would stop her or she'd find the Orb with no problems. The latter thought seemed the most farfetched to her.

     The stalagmites and stalactites made huge and beautiful formations that fascinated her, distracting from the growing boredom and uneasy feeling in her stomach. It felt wrong to go this long without anything happening. The cats had told her she'd have tests to face and she'd assumed it would happen as soon as she entered. She took a deep breath to ease the frustration and kept walking. She could hear the rush of water somewhere in the distance, there must have been an underground river passing nearby.