Endless dark... stretching into infinity around him. The shadows were thick, echoing with the distant plop, plop of thick cave water. A sharp rattling clang stuck his ears with a painful screech as a stone clattered away from a hoof. Dropping the offending limb to the ground the stallion ceased his pacing. Unwilling to add any more agony to his pounding head. Every noise was a new pain, screaming round his skull like banshees. Yet the darkness pressed in, thick fingers seeking to grab at his coat, to pull him down into the darkness puddled round his hooves.
The cave was high up the mountainside, formed by a once mighty river, the water had fled downhill as the mountain grew and now, the entrance of the cave was dry and brittle, the wind whistling through the craggy peeks above with a mournful tune. Dark clouds hat had hung thick and full over the mountain peek for days had grown ominous, and within moments, the first few drops of rain began to darken the pale rock.
With raggy brush growing around the cave entrance, it looked no more different than any other dent in the ageless stone. Except for the hoofmarks just visible in the scree at the mouth of it. Inside, the gloom was thick, proving that the cave was deep.
Indeed.. the cave ran backwards into the rock for several paces before opening out into a slightly wider cavern. The light here was gloomy, but just enough to still see the floor, ceiling and walls. At the back it narrowed into another 'hallway', leading further into the heart of the mountain, and the hoof prints, scoured into the rock floor, led into the darkness beyond.
