Alaric's mind was numb, his ears ringing and his vision blurred from the impact when his head had crashed against the hard stone. He slowly rose his head with a groan. Rolling over onto his hands and knees he placed a hand against his head.
He lifted his eyes to look around him. Complete and utter darkness. It appeared that, in the fall, his lamp had gone out. He only hoped it hadn't broken. He began to rub his hands over the stone ground, searching for the lamp.
He shuddered, his head snapping up in the direction of the sound he'd just heard. It had sounded like nails or stone scraping over cold stone. A long minute later, as Alaric sat in still silence, he could hear some kind of bang, followed by a screech like that of a bat, echo from deep within the cave.
"What.. the hell?" He asked I confusion, keeping his voice low. He was having a hard time absorbing the current events. What the hell was happening? What was the thing he'd seen in the forest? And what had just made those sounds..?
With a sudden rush, he felt the urgent need for light, as though it would keep him safe. He began to frantically search around him for the lamp, as he did he could here the sound of something moving above him, like hundreds of spiders rushing over stone all at once. The image flashed in his mind, sending a shiver through his body.
His finger suddenly brushed against something cold and metallic. There it was! The lamp!
He quickly lifted the object off the ground with a slight scraping sound. He dug into his kimono and pulled out the match box, fiddling with it for a long moment before he finally was able to pull out a match. He struck the match across the side of the box, but it didn't light. He struck it again now, as the sounds above his head grew louder and closer. No light.
He struck it again, this time with more force as he grew frantic. The match snapped, breaking. He cursed under his breath, grabbing another before striking it across the box. This time, to his joy, it came alight. He quickly grabbed the lamp, taking note of the fact that it had a large chunk of the glass missing in its frame. It must've been broken when he'd dropped it. As long as no breeze blew the flame out, it did not matter.
Alaric put the match against the wick within the lamp. The flame quickly caught and he once again had the comforting glow of the lamp by his side. He flicked the match out, tossing it aside.
He quickly lifted the lamp above his head, looking above him, half expecting to see millions of black spiders crawling in mass across the mouth of the cavern, half expecting to see some mythical monstrosity.
But there was nothing, and really, that was worse. He was no idiot, he knew he was being watched, being hunted, by something. Or some-things. But he'd rather have an enemy to face, something he could see, to know what it was and to be able to draw his blade on it and defend himself.
To not know what it was, to be unable to see it, to not be able to direct his blade at its throat, was much, much worse.
Alaric rose from his knees to his feet. He turned, looking up to where he'd fallen from. He could slightly see the illumination of his lamp on the mist that rolled in through the entrance. He had fallen quite a ways, it would be difficult to get back up.
Alaric turned to the void that stretched on before him. Immediately when you looked forward, the cavern split off in two directions. Above the paths were small waist sized holes that crossed and intertwined through the rock like a system of ant holes.
He moved forward up to where it split off. He peered up into the holes, moving he light around to get different angles of sight. He could see nothing within them, they just seemed to go on and on into the rock.
Swiveling the lamp around, Alaric turned and faced down one of the paths he had to choose from. He could only see it stretch on for a short distance before the shadows consumed the light, blotting out what lay ahead.
Turning to the other path, Alaric found that this one went in a downward slope, leading to an even darker void.
Which way to go? He tried to think of what direction he'd be made to go down, which way would they choose for him to retrieve the token? He considered the level pathway, but he assumed that would be too easy. He peered down into the abyss beyond the downward pathway. He figured that would make the most sense.
But then, maybe, they had left clues for him? He considered the idea, and decided it was worth a try. He went down the level path some ways, scanning the walls. He walked in silence for a while, the flames casting his shadow dancing across the walls, until he eventually came across some sort of distortion in the wall.
Upon closer inspection, Alaric traced his fingers across the engraved stone and rubbing away the grime and dirt. He found that it was an "X". He assumed this meant he was going the wrong way.
Alaric rose the lamp above his head and peered beyond into the pathway before his feet. He thought, for a moment, he could hear the faint whispers of something residing within the cavern. A gentle, hot breed brushed past his skin from within the cavern.
Definitely not the pathway to choose.
Alaric turned away and, hurriedly, headed back to the entrance, where he turned about and began to slowly walk down the sloping path. He repeated the same routine as before, holding the lamp up to the walls and scanning for any kind of marker. He made it quite a ways before stopping and turning around. He must've missed something, as he had found no marking or sign whatsoever.
Backtracking the way he'd come, Alaric began observing the walls, more intently this time. Sure enough, he had missed an indent in the rough stone. He wiped away the grime, holding the lantern to it. The Sarua insignia was etched into the stone. This was the way he needed to go.
Holding out the lamp before him, Alaric began to descend into the bowels of the earth. Above him, Alaric could see the strange holes he'd found from before. They were littered into the earth like a beehive. He only could imagine the things that had created him.
Stopping in his train of thought, Alaric realized he was now completely acceptant of the idea of mythical creatures. After what he'd seen, and the things he'd been told, he was not entirely believing, but was weary of the idea. Images of grotesque beings, giant insects, demonic figures and distorted beasts flashed into his mind. He shivered, glancing up at the holes.
As he moved ever downwards into the depths of what seemed like a cold, empty hell, Alaric became more and more unsettled by the silence. He felt like he had demonic eyes glued to him from all directions, crushing him entirely. This, he thought, had to be one of the worst feelings possible.
After a long time of just walking, Alaric came upon a large, open cavern. It was expansive, the roof extending high above while stalagmite and stalactites hung from the ceiling and jutted up from the earth. The ground was covered by a thin layer of murky water.
Alaric could not see the opposite end of the cavern. Actually, he could not see any wall other than the one nearest him. The cavern was just a massive void, the only thing he could see being the stone spikes and the reflection of his lantern off of the still water.
Stepping forward, he tested how deep the water was. It only went up to his ankle. Ripples reverberated out across the water's surface, disrupting its mirror like appearance. His feet softly splashed in the water as he moved. He did the best he could to quiet his movements, but he quickly realized that if anything did reside there it would've already noticed him. Between his light and the sound as well as the ripples across the water, he was basically screaming that he was there.
Once reaching the center of the cavern, Alaric stopped. He had underestimated its size, he could not see any wall in sight. It was just an infinite, flat world of water and stone. He suddenly felt a sense of vulnerability, he had no clue where he was, where he was going, or what was around him.
Then his heart exploded from his chest a jolt of adrenaline ran through him.
A ways off behind him, he could hear the faint sound of footsteps in the water.
Something was stalking him.