There was light in the cave, how, the man without a name did not know. Like everywhere else, it was a dim twilight. It seemed to go on deep. It was spacious, enough for him to lose track of the walls. But with the slope marking his way, the man went deeper.

Sound seemed to intensify in the cave. First his footsteps, echoing in a way he could not comprehend. The sound would repeat four or five times, but in all directions around him. It was deafening when it was only the steps.

But soon, it became his heartbeat, his breath, even a twitch of a finger could be heard spiraling back in a cacophony. Even with the lack of the comfort brought by his thought, he delved deeper.

The sound did not fade, but it did not grow worse. This was little solace for the man, who existed in a hell of all his own creation. He cursed so heavily his wasted movements, his easy exhaustion. Any attempt to quiet himself further would be met with new disordinant orchestras. But still, even after failing his meager counterattack at the cave’s oddity, he went further down still.

For a moment he stopped on his journey. He ceased breathing, his body went still. He let it all go, and silence consumed him. In that silence he imagined for a moment, that he had probably already gone deeper than hell was. And then the sound came back, all at once the previous orchestra playing every instrument at once, recapturing the entirety of his journey in a terrible gale of auditory attacks. His heart took him deeper, reembracing the chaos of sound.

For the first time in his journey in the sands, the man saw an unrestrained light. In his descent it seemed the cave faded away, and all that existed above and to his sides were an endless expanse. The ground was shallow water, sitting in an utter calm. The source of light was a sun as small as an apple, closer in the sky than he’d ever thought possible.

It existed above the shallow water, close enough for the man to touch if he had wished to approach it. There was no harshness to the light, it simply filled the area with its embrace. And the cool chill of the cave was now replaced by a comforting heat that surrounded the body.

But the man felt odd, for the path behind had gone away. He now stood in the endless waters, aimless again.

Once he had wandered the sands as a matter of fact. It was all he knew, and all he did. His rhythmic journey was the solution he had wanted for such an unbelievably long time. It was not repetition, it was a page that burned when it was written. That was how he lived.

Truthfully to wander in the waters would be no different, except for the sun that shone. He’d be bathed in the light, and perhaps he could walk a bit farther, and rest a bit easier knowing nothing lurked in the dark. The idea discomforted him.

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In the waters, the light shone. It revealed his reflection, not scrawny but certainly not a brute. A meager countenance. His hair was blonde, like the fairies. His eyes were the dullest brown, they truthfully did not reflect too much of the light back. His face was sculpted, soft in eyes, but sharp everywhere else. And atop his face, the crown which he had seen as others had seen for the first time. He did not understand why, but a pang of pain went through his heart at the sight of it.

But his eyes did not stay on himself. Instead he looked up, and scanned his surroundings once more. Truly endless, was all he could think. He couldn’t fathom picking a direction and moving forward. For what if he lost his way back? Could he not follow the light?

The man paid more attention to the light now, looking at it now in detail. He felt that maybe with the comfort of the thing, he could accept that his journey ended. Perhaps his dignity was that of a wanderer, and now he’d found a new place for his calling.

He thought that perhaps the light would shine on some unseen exit amongst the waters. It would take an eternity in the endless calm, but with the help of the light he could find his way home.

And, if he were to ever be far away and not know where to return, he could always follow the light that hung in the sky. That way, he’d know that he could always look back. Even if he were to go deeper and the light would grow distant, he knew that if any danger was too great he could return to the light, and bask in its glow once more.

And all this felt quite funny to the man, who had grown used to things being only distant. The Fairy, The Coward,The Reaper, The Dragon. All enigma’s he could not understand. All distant figures, all of which he thought of in great detail. But the light, as he stared at it, did not fill him with the same awe.

It was all there, on the surface. The projection of its light, and the reflection that surrounded it made a beautiful scenery. But it was omnipresent, and the only thing that cast a shadow was him, and yet it was not a shadow. It was a reflection, detailed in a way that made him look at himself all the more than he had ever thought to before.

But in his reflection, he did not see the Fairy, nor the Dragon, or the Coward, or the Reaper. All he saw was himself, and it gave him no clarity.

He turned to the light, reaching his hand outward. Slowly, he curled his fingers around it, placing it in his palm. It did not burn, but the light began to fade. He slowly added pressure, and gradually the light grew dimmer. And dimmer, and dimmer. Until the light was so meager it matched that of the twilight outside.

With a gentle breath, he blew the sun back into the air. And there it stayed, now covering the area with its glow once again.

The man thought for a moment of the peculiarity of what had just occurred, but the thought quickly passed. He instead now focused on the sight that lay before him. No more endless horizon, and the clear reflection that he once had was murky and unshapely. And in that shape, he could not say what he saw, but it was much more beautiful.

And he realized that now there were walls, and a ceiling which the light hung under, just barely. And as he walked forward again, the water began to cease. As he walked forward, the light followed him, matching his pace almost exactly, but always leaving an absolute darkness, just barely ahead.

And again, the man descends.