Letting his hand slide along the texture of the wall James cautiously stepped forward. Being unable to see the ground made him consider any step he took twice, probing with his toes before he shifted his weight onto his foot making progress only at a crawling speed.
However he would rather be cautious and slow, than shattered at the bottom of a pitfall. After all he had "all the time in the world now". Laughing at his own joke he took the next step forward, and the next, as a slow methodical rythm set in. Probe, step, wait for something to smash him into peaces and repeat.
Suddenly a creaking sound from his front right could be heard. He froze. "That's it!" He thought, " I'm dead! Something's going to attack me and rip me apart. That's not how I wanna die." His whole boy began shivering. Although he was an orphan and didn't know his mom nor dad he now called for them. "Mom, dad" He wispered, "I love you!"
All the while his eyes were darting around trying to make out the source of the sound. Obviously, due to the complete darkness, they weren't very successful in that.
After minutes of anxious silence he relaxed. Either whatever had made that noise wasn't alive, or it had no hostile intention, otherwise he would have been dead by now, as he was basically completely defenseless. "Although it would be kind of wierd of that thing to just stalk me." He chuckled as he imagined a giant, terrible monster, watching him as he blindly stumbled along the wall and tiptoed as if he was walking along the edge of a mountain, afraid to fall.
Well, thinking about what it was would not change anything, as he basically was fully at its mercy. If that was the case than why not explore further. And so he began engaging in his wierd dance again. Probing for any traps ahead. If his leg was smashed he would still be fine. He wouldn't bleed and he could just make himself feel no pain at all. He wasn't so Shure about his head thought. Although it was most likely empty, as the Egyptians did remove the brain of the deceased through their noses (look it up it's kinda gross) before mummification, he was sure that it's discintigration would surely cause him some problems.
While thinking about this he took another step, sifting his weight onto his right foot and letting his and slide along the wall. The patterns on it where everchanging but also swung so artistically he could only imagine how beautiful they would look, would he be able to see them. After another after another perfect line there was a particulary big bump and then his hand slipped into emptynes.
The wall was gone! He sumbeld back two steps, frantically reaching for where he deemed the wall, if he lost it, he might never find his way back to the light.
Finally his fingers toutched something. Something hard and unmoving. The wall! It hadn't moved, just cut off. He brought his mouth towards the wall wanting to kiss it out of joy, only to stop himself in the last moment. Thinking of the fact that someone, or something, might be watching him, he concluded that he'd rather keep his dignity should he ever meet them.
Promptly his thoughts went back to the sudden changes in the wall. Why had it cut of. Slowly he traced back the path his hand had took before it had left it's "guide". There it was again. That strange bumb and then the wall just ended.
Keeping his right hand on the wall he reached out, waving his hand, trying to find out where this interruption in the wall lead. With a slap his left hand landed on the wall again and James laughed in enlightenment. The wall didn't end there, this was just the entrance to another hallway branching of.
This discovery presented three possibilities to him.
Firstly he could trace his steps back to where he came from, abandoning his little adventure. He immediately ruled out this possiblity, as he had already invested too mutch time, and he wouldn't know, where to go from here if he turned back.
Secondly he could try to get past the branching corridor and continiue to follow the wall after that. This opportunity could be discarded as well. This was what he was searching for. It was another possible exit. He could not bring himself to walk past this, even if he was scared shitless, by whatever lay in the darkness.
He decided to go with the third opportunity: follow the branch and see what he found. Without a doubt this was his best bet to find something that could help him get out of this place.
Carefully he switched out the hand that was touching the wall, went around the corner and continued his slow journey towards, whatever lay at the end of this corridor.