Luminari

Chapter nine

The path was long and narrow with plenty of twists and turns and ups and downs it was pitch black and it would've been impossible to see anything had I not had a flashlight. The flashlight gave off a weak circle of light just bright enough to light a few feet in front of us. Me and Seth hadn't spoken since we started to squeeze our way through the tunnel, and I was starting to regret the things I said. If this tunnel really did lead to the other side of the mountain, then it was a much better idea than going back outside in the deadly cold. 

Seth suddenly stopped in his tracks his ears pointed straight up.

"Did you hear that?" He asked sniffing around.

"No what was it?"

Seth didn't answer right away he continued sniffing and turning his ears like little satellites looking around for something. I spun around in a slow circle pointing my flashlight all around but there was nothing to see except cave formations.

"Probably just the wind," Seth muttered.

Whether it was the wind or it wasn't I pulled my pocket knife out and opened it up, just in case. Though I don't know what I was thinking it's not like I could do any real damage with this thing.

The path began to get wider the path grew so wide you could've driven an eighteen-wheeler through here and not scratched either wall. I looked around the cavern in awe the room must've been over a hundred feet tall covered in glittering stalactites and towering stalagmites so huge they touched each other forming one long formation. The stalactites seemed to form pictures on the walls. I saw horses and knights, princesses and dragons, it was like looking at the clouds. The rocks formed an entire city on their own and I noticed that the city was being inhabited by thousands of tiny bats hanging from the ceiling by their feet.

"Look at all those bats!" I said excitedly and Seth shushed me.

"Be careful, bats are light sleepers, and I don't want to get stung."

I knew bats had teeth and claws, but I never heard of a bat with a stinger, so I stayed quiet. We continued walking through the huge cave and stumbled across a small campsite. There were two small tents set up around the ashes of what had once been a little fire. 

"Look campers," Seth said excitedly running to check out the tent.

"Hello!" I called out as loud as I dared to not wanting to wake the bats, then stepped inside the tent.

These people had left a lot of very nice stuff unattended, huge puffy coats, warm sleeping bags, and boxes stuffed with food. I found Seth inside one of the tents eating from a box.

"Seth you can't eat other people's food!" I said angrily putting my head out of the tent to see if they had come back.

"No one's coming back for this!" Seth said pointing his nose to the corner of the tent where a pile of apples was sitting.

The apples were very small and brown sitting in a pile of their own rotten juice they looked months old.

"Maybe they just like rotten apples!" I suggested trying not to breathe in the sick aroma coming from them.

"If someone had been in this tent recently, I would be able to smell it," Seth reminded me pulling out a brown paper bag stuffed with moldy cheese and wolfing it down, he ate so fast it was like he was inhaling it.

"What happened to them?" I asked starting to freak out.

"They probably went home, you can't camp forever," Seth said sticking his face back in the box.

"But they left all their stuff!" I said looking around at the clothes, dishes, sleeping bags, and oil lamps "why would they leave all their stuff behind?"