I remember so clearly what I was thinking before it happened. My feet felt sure and nimble as I fearlessly descended the tricky waterfall. I was pondering that Gwydion would approve of these winding underground caves and caverns. The thrill of adventure. What unknown challenge lay around the next bend? My muscles felt strong from days of marching. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the ever changing flicker of the torch in this dark place. I heard a shout and looked down the tunnel to see a cloaker rising, bat-like from the water, droplets clinging to it’s wings and falling back to the river. I took my ready stance, a spell on my lips, then my ears split open, my skull fractured, and through the gaping hole shot a terrifying shriek. It filled my mind, rattling like dice in a cup. Fear, fear, fear. How do you escape terror when it’s within your own head? The need to run overpowered me. Helpless, without any logic, I ascended the same waterfall we had just painstakingly picked our way down. My feet flung the stones behind me. My cloak tore on the jagged spikes of rock. My clothing dragged through the water. Get away! Get away! Dripping sweat in spite of the bone chilling river. Then as suddenly as it began, the cleft in my head sealed up, my fear erased. I turned back down the waterfall to my comrades- soaked to the skin, disheveled.
Hours later we are camped in a cavern. My cloak may never dry. Am I shivering from the cold, or is it a memory of the terror? I worry this feeling will be with me long after my cloak has once again regained it’s warmth. Has this memory carved a path in my mind, like the underground river through the rock, that will allow fear to visit me again? I look around at my comrades and hope for their sake it is not so.
Hours later we are camped in a cavern. My cloak may never dry. Am I shivering from the cold, or is it a memory of the terror? I worry this feeling will be with me long after my cloak has once again regained it’s warmth. Has this memory carved a path in my mind, like the underground river through the rock, that will allow fear to visit me again? I look around at my comrades and hope for their sake it is not so.
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Posted on February 16, 2019 15:46
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