The Cave

By Nathan Smith

Sally ran through the rain. It saturated her clothes and chilled her skin. She needed to find shelter. The fields stretched out all around her for miles, broken occasionally by small thickets of trees. She had tried hiding under the trees, but the rain cut right through their thin branches. She came to a line of trees and shrubs and after carefully passing through them to the other side of the field, she saw a large rock sitting a few yards away with a dark opening at its base. It was a cave.

Sally darted towards the cave, happy to find some relief from the downpour. Upon reaching it, she quickly huddled inside, shaking and rubbing her arms, trying to warm herself. She looked ahead of her into the blackness of the cave, which seemed to extend deeper than she would have guessed. She moved to the cool, rocky wall and sat down, huddled up with her arms around her legs. Shuddering, she rested her head on her knees and closed her eyes, listening to the seemingly endless stream of droplets cascading just a few feet away outside the cave’s arched entranceway.

She wasn’t sure if she’d slept, but she must have nodded off somewhat. She found herself rousing from some kind of slumber to the familiar sound of rainfall, still resounding just as fiercely as before in the outside world. She was still damp, but not as cold as before. She stood up and watched the rain for a moment, before turning around and staring into the yawning darkness before her. Removing a small flashlight from her pocket and shining it ahead revealed that the cave seemed to extend several feet inward. As she moved a bit further into its domain, she realized that it began to dip downward. Moving even further she realized she was moving at a steady decline down beneath the earth. Not wanting to brave the baleful rain again, she decided to continue moving forward, unsure of what lay ahead.

The cave was a fairly even, narrow passageway. As Sally walked, somewhere behind and above her she could still faintly make out the echoing patter of the rainfall. It was warmer in the cave. The passage seemed to extend miles beneath the surface, but she really had no idea if that were true or not.

After some time, the sound of the rain ceased altogether and Sally was left with only the soft pattering of her footsteps. The cave dipped further and further downward and didn’t seem to have an end in sight. But then something strange happened. It was almost imperceptible in the dull sameness of the cave, and Sally wasn’t sure exactly when it had begun, but she happened to suddenly notice that she wasn’t walking downward anymore, but instead was noticeably heading upwards. The cave looked the same, but now the path was on a steady incline. What a peculiar thing, she thought, a path through the earth, dug out in such a neat and tidy way. She kept walking, upward now, for what seemed like miles more (but probably a lot less than that) until finally she began to perceive sound, quiet at first, but then unmistakable. But it wasn’t rain. It was simply fresh air, swirling about, somewhere ahead. And soon, she saw a misty light ahead. Not long after, she switched off her flashlight.

Reaching the opposite mouth of the cave, which looked identical to the one through which she had entered, Sally emerged in a grassy field, but one quite unlike the one at the opposite end. The rain seemed to have stopped, but the sky was overcast and a thin mist permeated the ground. Tall pine trees surrounded the field and a medium-sized pond with perfectly still, glassy water was nestled in the glades not far off. The most arresting feature of the landscape however was an imposing gray castle far off in the distant hills that overlooked the scene. It was built upward, almost like a tower, with turrets and battlements that appeared to be stacked on top of each other instead of aside one another. A cool breeze sailed across the tall green grass and sent the mist into swirls. Sally shivered, remembering the water still residing in her damp clothes, but she was thankful the downpour had ceased.

But had it? She had the vaguest feeling of something being off. It was this strange feeling of being displaced somehow, like she wasn’t where she ought to be. She had little time to think about this phenomenon though for she was suddenly distracted by a great flapping noise somewhere in the distance. She fixed her eyes toward the distant hills and the great castle-tower. As the flapping intensified, she soon saw a dark shape moving over the horizon.

The shape was small and indistinguishable at first but with each great booming flap, its features became clearer. It was certainly large and undeniably the source of the noise. As it approached, Sally realized that more specifically two great bat-like wings rhythmically moving up and down was the dreadful cause. A long tail swayed and danced through the sky behind the flying thing and soon sharp claws and a fat, black, scaly body began to be defined. The creature was sailing directly towards her and she cowered back into the cave in fright, huddling just at the point where the passage began to dip downward, waiting, watching. The beast was so close now that she lost sight of it entirely and the sound of its beating wings was so loud, they blotted out all sound. But then the flapping began to slow and Sally watched in horror as some immense monster landed with a thud directly outside the cave’s entrance, its dark shape blotting out all light. She crouched in deep fear, breathing as silently as she could. All was darkness.

And then an immense set of sharp teeth that glowed bright white in the darkness and seemed to fill the cave’s entire entranceway appeared. Sally couldn’t be sure, but the set of teeth seemed to be grinning malevolently at her. She had seen enough. Stumbling to her feet, she darted back into the cave passageway, downward and downward, back the way she had come.

Soon she stopped to catch her breath and upon doing so realized that nothing was chasing her and she seemed to be quite safe. She waited a moment and then switched her flashlight on. There was nothing behind her and ahead of her the underground passway extended downward. She tried to wipe the memory of those awful grinning teeth away and pressed onward. She would take the rain, she thought.

After walking for some time, she once again felt herself moving upward, and once again couldn’t tell exactly when the shift had occurred. It was uncanny, almost like the passageway was fluid somehow, that it morphed to her steps and changed in a way that was simply unperceivable to her. As she walked further and further upward, she strained her ears for the sound of rain, but she heard nothing. Instead, she soon began to hear the sound of fresh air again, and began to feel it as well. It was chilly. This time daylight didn’t loom ahead, but a much paler light instead. Sally reached the other entrance of the cave soon enough and stumbled slightly, for she had barely taken three steps out of the cave’s mouth when she literally could not walk a single step more.

She was standing not in a grassy field, but on a small, rocky outcropping at some impossible height above an ocean of thick, bubbly silver-white clouds. And instead of a gloomy, cloudy daytime sky pouring water onto the world, an unfathomably beautiful starry night sky loomed overhead and all around. The stars were so many, in the billions and billions, that she could see perfectly, even with no moon in sight. She turned around and looked up at a sheer rock wall that extended upwards into the heavens with no end in sight. To her left and right, what appeared to be some immense mountainside extended beyond eyesight. A chilling gale suddenly overtook her and she stepped backward in a hurry, clutching for the inner wall of the cave for fear she might fall. She felt herself slide the cave’s floor. She needed to rest.

She sat watching the stars there for several minutes, almost in a daze, before a single shooting star cut through the sky in a white gleam and brought her back to her senses. She stood up, took one last look at the nightscape high above the clouds, and then turned back towards the cave. She descended into its darkness, apprehensive yet also curious as to what would be waiting on the opposite end.

The cave’s dark interior had not changed and Sally’s little flashlight lit the way. Soon the descent subtly turned into an ascent, once again without her noticing how or when the turnover had occurred, and eventually an even colder air overtook her than the one atop the cliff. She reached the opposite entrance and stepped out upon a miraculous vision.

A perfectly flat and seemingly endless white tundra stretched before her in all directions, only broken here and there by slender, featureless trees, their tiny branches barren and black. But the landscape was secondary to what she noticed first: a colossal crescent moon that took up half the sky dominated the vista, a thin silver sickle that touched the horizon and arced into the heavens. The pearly ground shimmered in a trillion tiny sparkles beneath the crescent’s all-encompassing glow. The sky around the moon was deep dark azure and dotted with tiny white stars. But the sky was not entirely clear; bizarre, jagged clouds that appeared to be made of frost hung low in the sky, complementing the entire strange scene.

Hypnotized by the fantastical frozen landscape, Sally almost paid no attention to a distant thudding sound somewhere far to her right. Soft at first, it soon became a very noticeable “clomping” that echoed around the empty world. She peered into the distance, but she didn’t have to strain too hard as the flat land did not hold many secrets. A figure, tall and glowing in the moonlight, was moving towards her at a steady pace. Shrinking back towards the cave, she waited in its shadow, breathless, as the clomping got louder and louder, until it was right outside the cave, and then…

Sally was awestruck. A massive, gleaming white horse that looked as large as an elephant trotted placidly into view. It stopped just outside the cave, lowering its head and nudging the thin layer of snow on the ground. Its mane flowed and shimmered in downy waves in the night air and its tail was long and sleek. Its eyes were silver, almost the same color as the moon. It shuffled its massive hooves and huffed. Then, to Sally’s shock, its large silver eye seemed to focus on her. The horse lifted its head and for a moment the little girl and the great white beast stared at one another, both completely still. A moment later, the horse seemed to lose interest in the girl and with another idle huff it resumed its calm moonlit stroll through the tundra. As the sound of its hooves grew fainter and fainter, far, far off in the distance another white horse idled on the horizon, and from such a distance it was impossible to tell how large it really was.

As Sally watched this distant second horse, a soft, delicate snowfall began to trickle down from the frozen clouds, creating hundreds of isolated little squalls of snowflakes that twinkled in the moon-glow across the land. Although taken aback by the beauty of it all, Sally knew she wouldn’t survive long in this land. It was cold, of course, but not as cold as one might think; it was mainly that the barren landscape showed no signs of harboring any kind of respite. She could walk for miles and miles and find nothing. Keeping this majestic land in her thoughts, she turned back to the cave.

She wondered what strange sight she would see next as she walked through the lonely dark passage. Somewhere behind this thought, another thought lingered, but she couldn’t quite place it.

It was silent as she ascended the opposite end of the caveway. The cave had always been quiet, but this silence was different. It was more noticeable, more palpable. She could feel it. A murky light was ahead and Sally curiously felt herself more excited than frightened.

She slowly emerged from the cave’s entranceway and found herself standing on a rocky ledge deep beneath the ocean, except miraculously she could breath and didn’t feel as though she were in water at all. The quiet world around her was an infinite abyss of beautiful jade that stretched upwards and outwards and even far below. Entrancing, shifting luminescent shapes of white and gold drifted through the water, seeming to fade in and out of existence in the watery expanse. Then, gigantic rotating structures began to slowly rise from the depths, twisting and tying and forming together before her eyes, their rainbow colors constantly changing. They looked like some kind of gigantic coral that spun and danced with the phasing shapes. The myriad colors turned the jade sea into a world of shifting rainbow. Hypnotized by the deep-sea light show, Sally found herself moving towards the edge of the precipice she was standing on, and in so doing caught a hint of her own reflection directly before her. Puzzled, she slowly reached out her hand and her fingers grazed a soft, smooth texture. Looking all around her now, she realized the trick: she was standing in some kind of gigantic bubble that had latched itself onto the entrance of the cave. She noticed more giant bubbles now, floating timelessly out there in the water; globes of purple and red and green that were like deep-sea disco balls amongst the twisting coral and drifting shapes.

Suddenly a low beat began to resound from somewhere deep below. It thumped in rhythm and got louder and louder until a strange platform that looked like a giant white shell that was supported by the twisted coral rose from the depths in the middle of the scene. A lone human-shaped figure was standing on it, its back turned to Sally. The beat slowed and grew fainter and fainter, until it ceased altogether.

Then, all at once the beat picked up and the lights began pulsating as the figure briskly turned around. It was tall, slender, and white as a pearl, with a scaly fish for a head and bulging white eyes. It bounced its knee to the pounding rhythm, and then, raising a microphone that appeared to be made of coral and a giant pearl to its large mouth, it began to sing in a warped, warbling tone. It moved its hips and its other hand and soon began doing a strange dance where it bent its limbs in ways that reminded Sally of a rubber band. The creature moved up and down the platform, dancing and singing its gurgling song. The lights flashed, the sourceless backbeat resounded through the water and made Sally’s giant bubble enclosure vibrate, and although Sally had no idea what was going on, she found herself closing her eyes and moving to the beat.

As she opened her eyes and smiled, doing a little dance to the surprise undersea concert, she suddenly jumped back a little as two colossal scaly appendages rose into view followed by two great creatures that encircled and swam in a spiral around two of the great coral stalks on either side of the central platform. The creatures then spun around the singing, dancing fish-person before slowing, when Sally saw that they were gigantic sea serpents of some kind, with glowing white fins that fluttered in the water and silver scales. Numerous long, thin tendrils emanated from their heads, which were dotted with what seemed like dozens of tiny white pearls that must have been the creatures’ eyes. The two creatures spun around the performer again, which was now bouncing up and down on one hand and belting out loud, warbling gurgles into its “microphone”, and did a dance of their own. Sally let the lights and sound wash through her as she danced and smiled and felt her heart thump to the rhythm. All was light and gleeful energy.

Then, almost as soon as the whole incredible scene had started, it stopped. All at once, the two serpents swam off into the ether in a frightfully speedy motion and the fish-person ended their performance on a sudden loud note and turned around again, completely still. The now jarringly stoic creature and their platform sank back to the ocean depths, with the great coral stalks dimming and uncurling and following suit. The phasing, shifting shapes faded and then disappeared altogether. As the light sources faded, so did the ocean world, turning darker and dimmer, from bright jade to deep, dark blue. All that was left were the giant bubbles, bobbing listlessly in the boundless silence, devoid of color and almost invisible.

Sally blinked. Everything was still for a moment and then she noticed one of the giant bubbles suddenly evaporate before her eyes. Had something popped it? Then another one disappeared, this time closer to her. Then another one. And another one and another one. The bubbles were popping one by one in a chain reaction that was getting closer and closer to Sally.

She could see where this was going. She turned to take refuge in the cave, but it was too late.

In a flash, she saw her bubble burst out of the corner of her eye as she was turning around. She immediately began running as fast as she could into the cave’s darkness as the deafening roar of water cascaded behind her. She dashed through the pitch blackness, having no time to even turn her flashlight on. It was no use though. She had gotten a fair lead on the chasing deluge but it quickly caught up with her and she found herself plunged into the icy water in an instant.

The water carried her at terrifying speed through the passage, and it was all she could do to hold her breath as long as she could. Then everything seemed to slow and then stop. It was so cold. It was so dark.

Then Sally knew she was no longer submerged in water. She knew she could breath, but strangely did not feel the deep need to do so. It was silent. Somehow even more so than when she had first entered the ocean world. She felt weightless. She slowly opened her eyes.

She was floating softly in mid-air. Beads of water drifted quietly past her.

Light. Blackness. Stars. Planets.

She was in outer space. And somehow she could breathe. She drifted silently and slowly forward. Coming to her senses now, she clutched a large rock nearby and brought herself to the small outcropping of rocky ground beneath her. She looked behind her and saw the cave’s entrance. There were globs of water scattered around it, drifting forward into space. They looked like rain drops frozen in time. The cave appeared to be situated in the side of a small asteroid drifting through space. She turned back around.

A great planet nearby filled her vision. It was a deep blue, almost purple, with pristine white streaks swirling around it. An asteroid belt of glimmering white particles swirled across her vision, what seemed like a parade of lights marching through the cosmos, illuminated by a nearby sparkling sun. Another planet was not far off, this one small and orange. Other moons and spheres lay beyond, reds and silvers and pinks.

Most peculiar of all was a strange silver contraption that seemed to be orbiting the great blue planet. It was some kind of cylinder with gigantic dishes attached to either end. A tower rose from its center, with a faintly pulsing yellow light at its top. It drifted peacefully, almost imperceptibly.

Sally pulled herself closer to the rock as she felt herself rising. She idly wondered how she was able to breathe out here; there didn’t seem to be a giant bubble this time…

She felt a sense of peace as she hugged the rock and felt her body floating in nothingness. It was so blissfully quiet. So serenely still. She closed her eyes.

All was nothing.

Was it possible to fall asleep in space? Sally wasn’t sure, but she felt herself being roused awake by something. She squinted and blinked and hazily opened her eyes.

She stumbled backwards as she caught sight of a group of eerie beings that seemed to be staring at her.

They stood before her in a semicircle like statues, about eight of them, tall things in long black cloaks with globes of yellow light for heads. Beyond them was the familiar starry landscape of space she had fallen asleep to, but strangely she was no longer floating, but sitting normally on the rocky ground. The beings simply stood for a moment, perhaps watching her, perhaps not, for there was no way to tell for sure. They felt impossibly distant and alien. Suddenly, one by one, they began to start walking away. They walked straight off of the rocky terrace of the asteroid and into the void of space, seeming to drift across an invisible walkway through the stars. A rectangle of yellow light then appeared out of nowhere, small at first and then rising to a tall height. The beings passed through the doorway of light one by one, and as they left, Sally felt an odd longing. With the last being disappearing into the light, the rectangle shrunk and disappeared, almost as if space itself had swallowed the beings whole. As soon as they disappeared, Sally found herself rising upwards again, no longer grounded, once more at the mercy of outer space’s lack of gravity. She reached out and managed to grab the same rock again.

She turned towards the cave, and then positioning her feet on the large rock and kicking off of it, propelled herself to the entranceway of the dark passage. In a brief moment of panic, she found herself floating just within its entrance, searching for something to grasp onto. She managed to reach out and clutch the rocky wall, and used it to guide herself further inward. She took her flashlight from her pocket, one hand still clutching the wall, and switched it on. Luckily it had not been damaged in the flood. She kicked off from the wall further into the cave and found herself having to leap from wall to wall to move further down the descending passage. Amazingly, there was no water in sight and the cave seemed to be completely dry.

Had long had she slept? Had she even slept at all?

After moving through the cave in her wall-to-wall manner for some time, she suddenly and abruptly went crashing to the ground. Gravity, it seemed, had been turned back on. She looked behind her, but only saw the dark passage winding upward. She was way too far in to see the opposite entrance. She entertained the idea of going back the way she had come. Would she suddenly start floating again? Or would she find something new? She decided it was best not to dwell on these things. She was cold and weary. She just wanted to get home.

Home. The concept seemed strange. She hoped and prayed that the opposite side of the cave would somehow lead back to where she had come from, a place that seemed so distant, almost like a far-off memory. She had even almost forgotten about it. She had to hold onto that memory though. She marched onward.

And soon upward. As she climbed the opposite ascent, she felt soggy and heavy. Each footstep was like a lead weight tying her down. She felt like curling up right there and closing her eyes again.

But she kept walking forward. And soon there was light ahead. Daylight. Sunlight. Sally felt hope. She took a deep breath and moved towards whatever bizarre sight she would encounter next.

She emerged from the cave in a grove of trees, in what appeared to be quite an ordinary-looking wood. It was not the familiar field she had first entered the cave from, but it far more normal than the places she had been to previously. Sunshine lilted through the canopy overhead and birds chirped nearby. Curious, she moved further into the woods. It was nice. Calming. Eventually, she reached the end of the trees and came to a hilltop covered in bright green grass. The sky was boundless and blue, not a cloud in sight; just a bright, cheery, ordinary sun. Sally stepped forward, closing her eyes and spreading her arms, letting the sunlight warm her cold and battered body. When she opened her eyes, she saw to her surprise that the grassy hill she was on led down to a quaint dirt road. The road winded through the countryside and led to a picturesque-looking village off in the distance, with a light stream of smoke rising from one of its buildings’ bricked chimneys. Was she back? Had the cave transported her to a different location back in her world? She looked behind her. Somewhere back in those trees was the unassuming cave, waiting to be discovered, waiting to lead someone astray to strange new worlds. She turned back towards the village, slumbering peacefully off in the distant hills.

She decided to walk to it.