Continued from The Audience in Pink.
The sudden light surprised him. As did the feeling of his feet in cool water, the cool breeze on his face, and the distant rumble of a waterfall’s end. But for all the surprise Kiringul couldn’t help but feel absolute calm as he opened his eyes.
He had landed in the shallows of what looked to be a great river that stretched out some distance beyond where he currently stood, the water somehow spilling over the edge yet the river showing no signs of emptying. Directly ahead and all above him was a breathtaking expanse of the cosmos, innumerable stars against the dimness of twilight. It seemed to him a perpetual state. In the minutes he’d spent staring the light was steady, and by the time he realized he’d been staring for probably far too long it should have already fully gone.
It was a long while before the stillness, as soothing as it had been when he first got there, began to weigh on him. There was just something about it. Eerie, maybe. Off-putting, definitely. Now that he noticed it he couldn’t help but tear his eyes away from the view so he could see the rest of what his wonder had to offer.
Directly behind him, well past the rocky beach, was a village, possibly a temple. It looked abandoned, with rundown buildings, the broken outer walls, and vegetation growing and creeping where it shouldn’t. The closer he got the more he noticed the air becoming thicker and heavier, and a strange silence somehow drowned out the sounds from the river. It was almost as if there was something resisting him, rejecting his very presence. He even physically slowed down as everything seemed to press down and into him and a sense of foreboding gripped the entirety of his being. Still he pushed onward, past the outer discomforts and growing disquiet within him. He was trying his best, but even just standing at the entrance was unbearable.
He moved to step toward the broken gate, and it took everything he had to do just that. He took one more burdened step, then another, then one more before the faintest of tugs caught his attention.
Gentle, just in the back of his mind he felt it, and he turned his eyes to the mountain beyond the village.
Its base was covered in a mist produced by its multitude of waterfalls, but the mountain stood tall and proud, with its many peaks, smatterings of faded green and streams of blue across the otherwise craggy gray-brown surface. Its highest peak was barely visible from where he stood, but the perpetual twilight made it very clear that it was white-capped and gleaming.
“Gleaming?” he muttered aloud, brows furrowed. He set the thought aside for later, though, as he felt the tug again.
This time he worked to turn his body in a direction away from the village. With each step leading away from the village he felt his body loosen and lighten until eventually the air felt normal again. He could hear the rumble of the waterfalls and feel the breeze against his face. He could breathe easily and move freely once again, much to his relief.
Carefully he made his way to the base of the mountain, past slippery rocks and what could have been certain death by drowning if he lost his footing, past what seemed to be one end of the great river and behind the waterfall to a cave entrance. Large and inviting, as if begging its discoverers to come in and see all that it had to offer.
’What could a cave possibly offer, anyway?’ he thought to himself as he inspected the entrance, as though he was expecting there to be some kind of booby-trap. It was modest in size and completely normal, at least as far as cave entrances went, whether on Earth or in a strange, undisclosed location in space. When he was satisfied that there was none, he walked inside.
He was met with a rush of warm wind, and when it passed he just knew. He understood and accepted it without any hesitation. One glance over his shoulder confirmed it–the entrance wasn’t the same.
Where the modest-sized cave entrance should have been there was instead a large entryway, carved into the stone. Whatever symbols there had been were now indecipherable, the text forever lost to time. His first touch of the stone produced a very dim light overhead, so Kiringul ran his hands along the cool surface of the tunnel’s wall as he walked to give himself a light, not for the first time today simply rendered speechless. The tunnel continued on almost endlessly, but like the start of his visit he found it more calming than anything else.
The further he walked he began to hear the sound of rushing water. Louder and louder it grew until he could barely hear his own thoughts by the time he finally came upon the source.
The tunnel led to a cave that had more depth than it did height, and was relatively well lit given that the ceiling had a large opening that gave way to a large waterfall. He found himself on one side of a stone bridge that passed directly through that waterfall. It looked barely wide enough for two people to walk on it side by side, and it had no railings of any kind. He blinked several times and felt the calm from earlier quickly starting to leave him as he watched the waterfall crashing endlessly onto this very natural, very simple, very insecure bridge.
He felt the tug again. Stronger now, perhaps because he was starting to resist it. Despite his nerves he took a step toward the bridge. Hesitant step after hesitant step he moved toward it, fighting every instinct to go back home. He thought of his family. His mother, his daughter. His best friend and roommate; yes, in that order.
What if this was it? Could a knight die at their wonder? Would he be the unlucky one to provide the universe with the answer to that question? Inside him was a raging war of contradictory emotions. He was beyond scared of what could possibly happen, nearly petrified by the idea of leaving these people behind, but somehow the closer he got to what was making him nervous the calmer he felt. His steps slowly gained in confidence until he was face to face with the water and he just…walked right through.
The water rushed over him for all of a second before it stopped. The deepest of calms settled over him as he took the next few steps through the waterfall. Security, peace, focus, clarity. He felt each emotion envelope him as he walked through, emerging on the other side of the waterfall not only in complete serenity, but also clad in a lovelier shade of pink.
The clothes were somewhat of an afterthought; he noticed, but he noticed his state of mind more. It was refreshing, to say the very least. He glanced back at the waterfall, curious but again leaving that for a later time as he felt the tugging once more.
The tunnel started once more, though it wasn’t long before the cold, barren stone walls made way for dense, overgrown forest walls. Considering it all sort of came together at a single point, he hoped it was the exit.
The page began inspecting the exit much in the same way he inspected the original cave entrance, and in the midst of his searching for a way past the shrubbery he felt the same tug again. He stood up and stared down the exit once more, and there it was again. He reached out now, curiosity filling his eyes as he extended his hand to rest where a doorknob would have been on a conventional door.
Slowly, very slowly, the forest walls fell away, creaking and splintering as it went, as though it’d been ages since it was last asked to make way for a visitor.
No, that wasn’t right.
Guardian. Caretaker.
Friend.
Kiringul couldn’t help but smile at that. This was his wonder, after all. This place and everything in it was under his charge and his to protect.
Eventually the walls did fully fall away and he found himself on a very dimly lit landing. Dimly lit because the only bit of light was what was coming from the tunnel, which was already flickering…
Flickering, flickering, and it was gone.
Kiringul was engulfed in pitch black, absolute darkness.
As much as he wanted to stay and revel in his newfound peace and serenity while exploring his wonder, well. Much like his visit to Einhornhöhle, his wonder seemed to have cut off this visit as well. He had to come equipped with a flashlight or a lantern and lots of batteries for next time, he thought.
And maybe a machete.
For now, there wasn’t much sense in staying there any longer, so he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and thought of home.
1514 (gdocs)
