21 Into Darkness

  When she came to the outside of the cave, she, with more than a little effort, lit the torch and proceeded inside. The smoke from the torch, to her surprise, didn’t help at all. Yet, this was the one place in the valley besides the dragon’s cave that she hadn’t fully explored. She went into the cave and soon found the pit that the thief had used as his privy. The pit was four feet long, four feet across, and at least three feet deep down to the place where the human waste was. She wasn’t sure how deep it might be but had no intention of finding out. There was a six-inch ledge around the sides of the pit. On the far side, there was what looked like a small opening. The walls of the cave were too far apart for her to reach out and steady herself, and on the other side of this privy was a space just a couple of feet wide.

  Sara was sure about her ability, but the thought of falling in was disturbing. If she didn’t have to hold the torch, she was certain that she could make it across. The torch was burning, but she was unsure if she threw it across it would stay lit, when it landed on the floor. It certainly wouldn’t if it fell into the mess at the bottom of the pit. The hole in the wall on the other side might drop into water or into a deep pit, so trying to throw it through the opening wasn’t an option either.

  Seeing there were no other options other than leaving, which wasn’t really a choice, Sara moved across. When she reached the other side, there was just enough room for her to stand. She could see that the three-foot hole, which was about waist height, looked like it entered into another room, but couldn’t be sure.

  She thought about just sticking her head, but instead decided to shove the torch in first. It was the right choice. When the torch went in, it disturbed a couple of small bats who squeaked and came flying out. Sara pulled back away from the opening, but not towards the pit, but towards the wall on the left. The batts flew off, and a minute later, the startled princess shoved the torch in again. There being no response, Sara stuck her head in behind the outstretched torch. The room on the other side seemed large, and the opening was only about two feet deep. The bats had been hanging from the top of the opening, as there was guano in the opening. There wasn’t a lot, so since there was already some on her hands, she brushed away the rest.

  There was plenty of room for Sara to climb through, so she climbed in a little further and looked down. She had expected the floor of the cavern to be at least as deep as where she came from, but she found she was mistaken. The floor of the cavern was only about two inches below, so she climbed through and stood up.

  She lifted the torch high and was amazed. The room was massive, far bigger than she expected. There were stalagmites, stalactites, and columns filling the room. The color surprised her. She had read about what could be found in caves, but this was the first time she had ever been in one deeper than twenty feet.

  She heard water dripping, and the thought caused her to check her torch. It was doing fine, so she reached down and touched the floor where she had stood. It wasn’t completely dry, but it wasn’t wet, so she took off the pack she was carrying on her back and set it on the ground. She wanted to be able to move around without letting the contents get wet.

  Sara then noticed something. The smell wasn’t as bad here. There was also a slight movement of wind that moved from this room through the hole in the wall. Sara was surprised she hadn’t noticed it but then dismissed it as she realized she was too concerned with not smelling the mess the thief had left.

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  She started to move around the room, staring at the wonders she could see in the light of the torch. When she was twenty feet into the room, everything went wrong. She heard a cracking sound, and the ground where she had just put her foot fell away into nothing.

  Sara yelled and tried to pull back. The action caused her to drop the torch and reach out to grab whatever was around her. The foot she was putting her weight on hit nothing. Sara thought the ground had fallen away, leaving nothing but a deep pit below. The torch fell into the pit, and as she was trying not to follow it down into where it went, she didn’t hear the splash, but she knew when darkness fell.

  When everything stopped moving Sara found one of her arms and legs hung out over nothing, and the others were on solid ground. Sara rolled back over onto solid ground and sighed. There was no light, but she was alive, and though she probably had some bruises, she was okay. Now, however, she had to make her way over to where she had left the pack and her other torch.

  Sara carefully sat up and realized that in the darkness, she had no frame of reference. She had moved towards the center of the room and, in the fall, could now be facing several ways. Panic wanted to set in, but then she remembered that darkness wasn’t her enemy. She had made her way through the house that she had been living in without light. The first few days had been difficult, but she did fine. She thought about where she had been heading and guessed that as long as she didn’t go that way but back in the general direction of the exit, she would be fine.

  Sara sat for a moment and then felt the slight breeze she had first felt on entering this room. The breeze was heading in the same direction she thought she had to go, so she started moving in that direction on her hands and knees. The rocks made it hard, as she was in a dress and her knees had no protection, but she couldn’t take the chance of walking into the hole or finding a weak spot in the ground. She also didn’t want to kick her bag but wanted to find it with her hands.

  It didn’t take her long to get back to her bag and with great care she laid out the second torch and prepared her flint and steel to get it going. The first strike sent out sparks and just enough light for her to see that she was aiming it wrong. She struck several more times, and finally, the torch was lit, and she let out a sigh of relief.

  Sara got up to look around again. The room was just as beautiful as before, but it also carried a new feeling of danger. She walked over to the area that gave way under her, smacking the ground before her with her foot before moving forward. When she reached the edge, she found a pit where there seemed to be solid ground before.

  Looking closer, Sara could see around the edge that the stone floor only looked solid. The stone covering this part of the floor was actually very thin. As she suspected, it opened up to a pit with water at the bottom. Sara was considering what to do when the torch sputtered.

  Sara looked at the torch and waited to see if it might sputter again. It didn’t, but her mind was made up; she wasn’t going to stay in the cave any longer without a backup.

  She moved through the opening and carefully set herself down so that she wouldn’t fall into what she was thinking of as the privy. She still couldn’t believe the man actually did this near where he was sleeping.

  Sara carefully crossed the pit and made it to the other side. The smell wasn’t any better, and she made her way out of the cave, relieved that her torch stayed lit. It wasn’t that she was afraid she would get lost in the dark; it was the fear that she wouldn’t be able to cross the privy in the dark.

  Sara wanted to check out the cave more, but she knew that without reliable light, there was no way she could. That would have to wait for another day. She planned to prepare some proper torches at the farm, and on a day off, she would make her way over to the cave and see where it went. She would never get the chance, which was a good thing. Sara would never know that if she had gone further into the cave, there would be an exit out of the valley. It, however, was not an escape, as that end of the cave was inhabited by a particularly hostile bear.