The Raven And The Wraith (Completed!)

Chapter 18

The Wraith
Chapter 18

The darkness seemed to get thicker the further in I went. Even the scents of the rock walls changed, and I could feel the temperature dropping as I hustled along on my hands and knees. I wondered how good my night vision really was. Would it still be able to guide me even when it got pitch black? I worried I was going to mimic a goat and give some random rock outcropping a solid head butt, due to how dark it was. I doubted I would win in such an encounter.

Then I heard the sounds from my knees and my panting echo out much farther. I could feel there was nothing around me, to either side or above. I stood carefully, hoping I wasn't about to knock my head into a low cave roof.

I could no longer hear Tad chasing me. And I couldn't feel the boiling, frantic touch of his ward. I sighed with relief, then cocked my head as I heard that sound bounce around the darkness. I narrowed my eyes, peering forward intently, but the blackness was simply too thick.

I wondered if maybe this cave I was in had another opening somewhere. I was not going to try to retrace my steps back, knowing Tad and Rhonda would have likely set many magical traps along the path.

I carefully walked forward, hands outstretched in front and my eyes closed. It was now too dark for even my hunters eyes, so having them open was just a distraction. I took five steps, then stopped and clicked my tongue three times, tilting my head differently each time.

Then I turned ninety degrees and repeated the loud, "pop" sound with my tongue, three times. I continued this until I had rotated a full 360 degrees and was now facing the way I had been originally. Now, due to all of the complex echoes I had heard, I had an idea of the cave shape and layout.

I walked forward, angling my path towards the opening I had heard. Halfway there, my foot went over an edge. Into a hole. My balance had been committed to that step, so I pitched forward, falling into the hole, howling out a foul word that was decidedly, and embarrassingly, high-pitched.

The air rushed by, the blackness absolute, and my instincts took over. I rotated in the air, until I was dropping feet-first. Ready to land on my feet. As the milliseconds rushed by, as my downwards speed increased, I realized I may not survive this fall.

Then, after falling what I guessed was thousands of feet, for many tens of seconds, where my conscious mind receded from reality, where I no longer braced for impact, but instead braced for Death itself, I hit water.

It was such a shock, after falling for so long, that I gasped, filling my lungs with water.  It burned my lungs and locked every muscle in my chest into one, huge, agonizing knot. My arms and legs flailed at great speed as I fought my way back towards the surface. The darkness, the freezing water, the convulsions of my chest, all combined to reduce me down to just a panic-stricken creature intent on survival.

I broke through the surface and hacked out a gush of water, then sucked in just enough air to hack again, a blisteringly fast convulsion that racked my body and made spots swirl in my minds eye. Even as I hacked out the water, I noticed I was moving. The water was moving.

I could feel the cold air of the underground cave rushing by and I knew I was in a very fast-moving underground river. Then, as my senses came back, I finally paid attention to my ears. I heard a dull thunder, growing louder by the second.

"Right! Of course there has to be a giant waterfall!" I yelled, frantically swimming perpendicular to the current in a desperate bid to reach the bank before I went over the falls.

The moment my voice rang out, a stunning light show cascaded outwards far overhead. A flashing colorstorm that raced along the cave roof in jagged bolts, like purple, green, and yellow lightning. It was so unexpected, and eerily beautiful, that I momentarily forgot about swimming towards the river bank. But the light faded in less than a second and I again hurled myself into the task of swimming full speed towards the shore.