by Shane Stern 3rd September 2019, 9:05 pm
“Yeah, it left. Whatever that was,” Shane said as he gave a thoughtful look in the direction that the bipedal creature had left in. The Rune Knight Captain was going over the reasons why the large creature had chosen to abandon the chase, quite certain that it wasn’t because of the blocked punch. Shane had noticed that the creature had stopped just outside the crystal cave’s entrance before it turned away. In fact, its fist hadn’t even crossed over into the cave.
There was something about the cave that had caused it to stop, and Shane began to wonder what would really happen should they venture into the cave. But it was a job that they had taken up, so they couldn’t leave it.
“I guess this is the cave we were supposed to look for,” the male Rune Knight remarked as he walked further into the cave which was bathed in an iridescent assortment of colours, caused by the sunlight outside the cave being filtered through the large crystals of multiple colours jutting out from the floor and walls of the cave. Similar to their initial plan, Shane took point and led the way into the narrow cave. He refrained from touching anything, using only his eyes to take in the sight of the jewel-encrusted cave.
Five minutes later, as the light within the cave began to dim, slowly casting them in darkness, Shane finally saw the other end of the tunnel. And weirdly enough, there was light coming from that end. He shuffled forward at a quicker pace, and when he finally reached the end of the tunnel, which happened to be a cliff as well, Shane came to a very abrupt halt, holding his hands out to his side, just in charge Veronica charged over the cliff by accident.
What laid before him left him speechless. A cavern more than a cave, the cavern appeared to be the remnants of an ancient civilization. The roof of the cavern was entirely covered in stalactites, made entirely out of the crystals with varying colours but the main attraction was the largest of them of all, hanging from the roof in the very center of the cavern like an inverted pyramid. In fact, it was an inverted pyramid but how it had come to be was a mystery to Shane.
And adding its light-producing characteristic, it bathed the cavern in a multitude of colours like a kaleidoscope. Beneath it was an equally large pyramid also made entirely out of crystals with steps carved into it on all four sides, leading from the bottom to the peak. The peaks of both the inverted pyramid and pyramid were aligned, and if he wasn’t mistaken, anyone standing on the peak of the huge pyramid would be able to touch the peak of the inverted one if he raised his arms.
Surrounding the pyramid were walls, standing at roughly ten feet tall, and even then, they were considered minuscule compared to the pyramid. From his position, Shane could see that the walls formed a maze, that ultimately led to the pyramid. Four exits from the maze in total, one for each side of the maze. When the grandeur of the architecture had ceased its beating on his senses, Shane took note of the other pressing issue as well. There were plenty of exits leading away or into the humongous cavern, and it seemed that those would lead to ecosystems of crystalline monsters, as proven by the myriad of creatures roaming around the maze.
A flash of movement caught Shane’s attention, and he directed his gaze towards the peak of the pyramid again. The crystal fox from earlier had reappeared and it sat there on the top of the pyramid, staring pointedly at the two Rune Knights.
[632 words]
[Total WC: 3344 / 7000]