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 Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:43 pm
Double-Stripe laughed. "An adventure indeed! Have you had any adventures yourself, Strange Land?"
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:50 pm
"No. I sing of them at times, but song is a poor substitute for experience -- so I search for my own adventures." And cave-exploring was a good way to start.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:38 pm
She shook her head, facetiously tsk tsking as him. "No adventures of your own at all? ... I'll have to see about fixing that," she finished, suddenly ducking under a mangrove root. She had slipped from sight, but not to be hidden - her laughter led the way clearly.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:43 pm
He smiled, though when she ducked under the root, he had to double back to follow, ducking his head to avoid catching a horn on the root. "I look forward to it. It seems to me that perhaps I've been looking for adventure the wrong way all this time -- it was right in front of me."
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 8:13 pm
Around the back side of the trees was the beginning of some dry land; about a tree height's length away from where Strange Land had come through, Double Stripe was standing in front of what looked, from the distance, like a ditch or furrow in the earth. When one got closer, however, it became obvious that it was actually a large crack in the earth, with only a few kimeti-lengths of its downward slope exposed to direct sunlight.
Double-Stripe pranced around from the slope-side to the lip of the hole nearest to the storyteller and called a playful challenge to him, "Here's your first adventure, Strange Land!" She turned again and dashed down the rocky slope into the twilight beneath the earth.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 5:56 pm
It didn't look like much until he came right up to it, and realized how deep it was. He hesitated just a moment, arching his neck over the hole as he looked down, down, down, as far as sunlight could reach. His first adventure was it? He took a breath and followed after Double-Stripe, following the sounds of her hooves on the rock. "Indeed it is, and I'm fortunate to have a knowledgeable guide."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 10:18 am
The sounds of their hoof-beats and the tiny pebbles that they knocked down the slope were somehow multiplied in the closed space of the cave, a disorienting aural experience for a people so used to the open spaces above ground, where echoes did not reverberate so. All the way down
Knowledgeable she was, though only in comparison. She had never brought another into the caves before, and was determined to see him through the showing safely. To be certain she did not lose her companion in the dim light, Double-Stripe had paused at the end of the slope down, just before the first chamber. As she heard him draw near, she said to him, "It is not so dark as it first looked from the entrance," moving close and reassuring him with a brush or her nose on his shoulder. "With a moment's waiting will come your night-eyes, and you will see at least a little."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 10:41 am
Strange Land was used to the sound of birds fluttering, insects scurrying, and his own voice singing. To hear the rattle of little pebbles echoing in an enclosed space was new, "The roar and rush of raindrops," he mused to himself, following.
He followed carefully, straining to see in the dimness. "Thank you. Truthfully, I can't see much but you," he remarked, nudging a shoulder against her side. It was part teasing and part flirting, and all true. She was so colorful that when his eyes began to adjust, she stood out all the more against her drab, rocky background.
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 5:25 am
She giggled a little at his flirt, careful not to let it become too loud. Laughter did not sound as pleasant, reverberating through these dark underground places of stone and fungus, as it did in open air.
After waiting a few moments more, Double-Stripe said softly to Strange Land, "Let's see what we came to see, then, if you can now?" Without waiting a moment more, she turns and enters the first chamber.
It's decently sized, irregular, and damp. There is a dripping sound, which, upon investigation, comes from several large fangs of stone on the ceiling. The floor is rough, easy to trip on if you're not careful. The stone of the walls undulates and swirls in strange patterns, as though water had petrified instantly in its flow.
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 9:19 pm
"Of course." He keeps peering here and there as he follows her, trying to let his eyes adjust to the deep darkness. When they enter the first cavern, he tries his best not to gasp in surprise and awe. The spikes of glass dripping from the roof are staggering, like some massive lynx had driven his claws into the earth and left them there. The swirls in the wall are like the wind, frozen during a strong gust and set in colored stone.
"Incredible. What great mind could have shaped these?' he murmurs, investigating one of the fangs of stone. Even those soft words echo off the walls of the cave.
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Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 8:38 am
Double-Stripe replied coyly, "Who else but Motherfather?" Matope was, of course, behind all things in the swamp. No other could have the massive creative drive, or the careful skill, or the sheer might to shape the land. Kimeti could only aspire to shape her so far with their own abilities; these efforts were impermanent at best, and Motherfather always reclaimed what was hers.
She led him deeper into the cave, each chamber and cavern almost more of the same, but with endless variations of shape and subtle changes of hue (what little could be seen in the dark). In one chamber there are even lines of columns where the top teeth and the bottom teeth met and fused together; in another, the walls are made of a different, brittle rock that chips off in blocky pieces; in another, strange sharp crystals jut out of the wall, reflecting what little light is there into redoubled brilliance.
The chambers grow darker the farther and deeper they venture, but the floor then begins to slope up again, the air to grow lighter; they soon reach the cavern with a hole in the roof, and in the middle is a beautiful clear pool, lined with green and blue crystals in strange, undulating shapes. the reflections from the almost still pool ripple over the whorls in the walls and over the bumps of the teeth, almost making the cavern dance in a slow, alien rhythm. It's a fascinating sight.
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Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 11:21 am
"I have never seen its like." Trees, and water, and bogs, and the sky -- those he knew. But this cavern was wholly new.
He follows her, drifting every now and then to examine a new rock or a glittering crystal, almost cutting himself on one of the sharp edges. But he's careful not to fall too far behind; without a guide, he would be utterly lost in the damp and dark. Echo is silent, gripping his shoulder scale and huddling, a miserable mass of feathers; birds are not meant for caves.
But the pool -- the pool makes even the songbird perk up. "Amazing." He approaches the pool, looking down at his reflection in it, then up at the spirals and swirls over the walls and rock-fangs. "To think, all the time I was traveling, I might have walked over these caverns and never known what lay beneath my own feet."
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Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 7:47 pm
Double-Stripe distractedly acknowledges Strange Land with a quiet phrase, "There are many mysteries in the world yet," as she attempts to ascertain what time it is through the hole in the ceiling. "We shoudl have time to see a few more chambers past this one, maybe make it down to where it ends in water. Speaking of," she suddenly turns to Strange Land again, "I wouldn't try drinking that, or any other water in here. No way to tell if it's good for drinking, you know. Not safe to test it, no way of knowing what could be in it. Ready to move on?"
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 9:31 am
Many beautiful mysteries -- ones that he does not fear, like he does the lands in his dream. As she looks up at the hole in the ceiling, he does as well, watching the small circle of blue sky. "I will be sure not to drink. Yes, let's move on," he nods, turning to follow her.
Unbidden, the songbird leaves his shoulder in a quick flutter of wings. "Echo!" he calls, but to no avail; the songbird flits out through the hole in the ceiling, and is gone.
He looks at Double Stripe. "My apologies. He does that sometimes -- he'll be waiting outside when we leave. Let's go, shall we?"
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 8:29 pm
Following the bird with her eyes, Double-Stripe assures Strange Land "I'm certain your songbird means no offense."
With a playful swish of her tail, she cheerfully agrees, "Yes, lets!" and turns about to guide him to the next chamber.
She leads Strange Land through another succession of caverns and rooms, narrower than the first set and traveling deeper than before, making light conversation. The light steadily dwindles, and Double-Stripe pauses and grows quiet at the dark mouth of another chamber. Her head is tilted, confused, and her tail and ears twitch agitatedly - not that much more than an impression of motion can be seen in the darkness...
The darkness is precisely the problem. Normally, this cavern - the third-to-last traversible one - was lit well enough for decent admiration. However, the room is indistinct with smudgy shadows. She turns back to Strange Land.
"Something's not right. It's far too dark in here; we should be able to see more than this.
"It's not safe. We have to head back."
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