Chapter 2

I wake up to find the large blinding crystal above me. It seems that both of them might move and come back. Many high-pitched whistles ring in my ears all around me as I stir awake. It’s almost as if this place is alive and wishes to sing me a very poor melody.

My back aches from having slept in a very poor position, though that can’t really be helped. How long was I asleep? Mom and Dad must be freaking out, same with anyone else who knows me well. What’s going on down there? They’re probably about to begin searching for me, so maybe They’ll find me before I find them.

My stomach rumbles loudly as I think to myself. I’m really wishing I never lost my stuff, I should have been more careful. 

Maybe there’s some mushrooms around. Dad said when he was a kid he’d always find mushrooms with his friends and take them home for dinner. I can probably do the same here. 

I carefully climb down the tree I had taken refuge in, just scanning around with my eyes, I see mostly green foliage. Just a bunch of green and brown, sometimes broken by some small plant that has a weird color like purple or orange. I like them a lot, they look pretty. They remind me of the stories gran would tell me, about vibrant people who smell of freedom. 

I decided to pluck one of these small plants, its yellow with many little things coming off a round black center. Just holding it close, I can smell it. It's a faint smell, but it smells lovely, though I don’t think I can relate it to anything.

I put the beautiful plant on the ground and try to help it stand back up in the dirt, but I fail. 

This place is full of things I've never even dreamed of seeing. It’s bright everywhere and warm, but not crazy humid. Climbing up a large tree, It's green for as far as I can see, this place seems to never end. I see massive sharp behemoths of rock far away, with small white tips. I've never seen such a distance before but something tells me this is far larger than anything I can imagine. 

I bit off more than I can chew. Not only am I lost, I’m also hungry, and I want to go home. No matter how bright or vast or beautiful this place is, It doesn’t matter if I don't get home. And I will never get home If i go hungry. 

There’s a lot of mini ground trees around, and I saw a small furred creature take a lumpy black thing off one and eat it, so It must be food, so could I also eat those? Going up to the ground tree, the lumpy black things felt squishy, and when I squished it too hard, it let out blood-like juice. 

I pop one of the things into my mouth. It's sweet and very sour. Not that I don’t like sour, It’s a good kind of sour. Tastes a lot like some of the candies Gran used to give me. And the juices feel good and cool in my mouth. What do I call these? I’ll call them black plant candies for now. 

Thinking about it, if these are candies, which I hope not because I care for my health, I don’t think I could survive off of these alone. Should hold me over though.

I try to find as many as I can and stuff them in the unripped compartment on my backpack, and when I opened It, I was lucky to find the utility knife that I had shown to my friends in school. It should be able to help me do things in case I need to cut something. 

Considering the situation, a lot could be worse. For all I know there could have been giant bugs here, and if that were the case, I’d be fresh meat. Though something on my mind tells me that I’m not safe at all. 

Maybe I can find my way back home If I set up a base. That’s what the delvers do, they set up camps beyond the outer rim for resupply and somewhere to go while not going all the way back home. I could possibly find a way to mark where I have been and slowly chart this place. 

How do I make a base? The trees seem like they’d be pretty good for looking at the above stuff, so It would probably be the largest tree I can find, hopefully near a river for a good supply of water and maybe fish. 

I had spotted quite the large river up ahead, maybe about fifty furlongs away, so I began trekking my way over there, making sure to mark my path with big Xs on the trees. I will never get lost again, getting lost means losing hope for home.

I have this incredibly eerie feeling, I feel like I’m being followed, but I'm not sure by what. I hear a little bit of rusling in a dense ground tree. I'm not sure what It is, but I bet It’s what’s been following me. 

Before Inspecting the ground tree, I pull out the knife that I have and then push aside the branches, but there’s nothing there. It must have been some small animal or something. 

I get up and turn around, but after doing so I spot right at my feet, a small black creature.

“OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU”

Looking at the little guy, It’s hard to tell its shape, it has a puffy tail and a weird head, I feel like I've seen a person with a similar shape. It has a weird shadowy presence, I'm not sure how to describe it other than like a dark ghost because it’s just barely transparent.

“I apologize, I didn’t mean to shout at you. I’m new here and am lost.”

It doesn’t respond. I can feel it just looking at me. Kinda rude to stare, but I guess if I ignore it, it might go away? Lots of weird things have happened recently, this guy is probably not the weirdest. I just want this guy to stop looking at me, though I guess It wouldn’t hurt to have a friend here. I put my hand out towards the little shadow guy to see if I can touch him, but as I do, he just evaporates.

My mood is ruined, I just unknowingly murdered a shadow. How could I? I was only trying to say hello, and now he is one with the air. I can’t get distracted by such things though, I need to find a location for base camp.

***

I need to find my daughter. She should have known not to go out into those caves. I know I gave her special warnings for her not to go there. Why did she have to take after me and not her mother? What a pain.

 I used to be a geomancer back in the day, so I can maybe find her that way if she had gotten lost. Miss Hari gave me permission to search beyond the gate for my daughter. I'm glad she informed me Immediately. 

Feeling the fluctuating heat, she had gone this way, but It’s not definite. Even I would get lost if I was her, so I can’t blame her for getting lost, just going where she shouldn’t. 

approaching a tighter crevice, I can tell she went up it, though It seems like it goes up forever, so I’ll have to focus on this. Feeling each and every movement in the air and the temperature changes that are so minute, I can feel her climbing, reaching up out into a cool area, and just as she gets above what she’s climbing, she vanishes.

Just as I lose my sense of her, the caves begin rumbling, they are unstable. The breaking of rock and stone, the very material that we live under, shatters and rips through the caves. This is why I quit my job for fishing. 

The tunnels around me begin crumbling around me as I make an attempt of escape, I’m too old for this. 

The paths are winding, but I’m aware of the way back, and just as I reach beyond the gate, the entire system beyond it collapses, and just as it does, I feel a sharp snap in my leg as I am tripped over by falling stone. My leg has been crushed, and so has my daughter. 

I feel cold tears drip down my face because of a much larger pain than losing a leg. I lost my child. I try and shout until my lungs have given up as I wail, stuck to the floor as I wait for help.

***

I hear the rushing of the water from the river, although it’s not as loud and fast as the one at home, it's far larger and more beautiful. So this is what a river looks like without the caves. It’s kind of like I imagined, except lighter and bluer, which must be the reflection of the ceiling, although it is also much dirtier than the river at home, although I can still easily see through it. 

I want to share this sight with dad, he would love it. A larger river means more fish, so he would have an easier time at his job. Same with mom, It feels fresh, she always comments on how stuffy everything feels, usually I’d say she’s wrong and that I feel perfectly fine, but not that I’m here, the air feels unbelievably clear. Reminds me of the inner ring, the one time I had visited it, except this is vastly superior, refreshing to an extent where I don’t think I can go back, but the thought doesn’t last. 

I still need to think of getting home and making a base. Probably my first goal is to figure out a place to stay, but for some reason, I feel like I can’t move. Where is Home? Will I ever find home or am I stuck? What’s going on with mom and dad? They must be so angry at me, and sad that I’m gone. But they must be able to find me, right? If i was able to get here, a search team definitely can! But why haven’t they come? It has to have been at least a day.

Maybe I’ll never get home. I sit myself up against a tree, thinking back on it. If I’m never able to get home, what am I supposed to do? I can’t live on my own, or at least I don’t think I can. I have to stay tough about this. If I give up, then I know I can’t make it back. 

My eyes begin to well up as I notice the ‘light gem’ falling behind the massive behemoths of landforms in the distance, and the ‘dark gem’ coming into existence. I’m tired, I must have walked a lot. When the light comes, It's another day.