Through pains and spasms, Norbert slowly awakened, mind cloudy and unable to focus, a smith using the inside of his head as an anvil to forge a legendary sword. Now and then, his body would shake a bit, slowly, ever so slowly, the spasms stopped. With each passing moment, his heart beat faster and harder each time. Slowly opening his eyes, Norbert quickly closed them, wanting peace. Slowly he reached down to the side of him, feeling for his bag. His hands hit upon the smooth stone, gliding across it until it bumped against something. Feeling around it was the goblet.
Placing it upright, Norbert searched for more, not wanting any of that liquid, just some water to calm down the headache. Fumbling around, he slowly crawled across the room, searching for the bag. His limbs not responding as they usually would. His head was in the clouds and his body down and buried in the earth. His hands sometimes shot out past what he wanted, causing him to fall, and other times moved so slowly it required all his will just to budge it forward—relied on filled Norbert as his fingers glided into his backpack.
Mindlessly fiddling with the zipper, he opened it, pulling out the desired water bottle. Twisting the cap off, he carefully poured the water into his mouth. He was suckling as it carefully trickled down his mouth. As the water flowed down his throat, he did not realise how parched it was before, like the dry soil, once bleached and cracked by the sun, now once more soil and able to hold life. Slowly the bottle was drained.
With a satisfying sigh, Norbert removed the bottle from his lips, looking out at the cave. A smell wafted over him, with horror slowly coming over his face, mouth agape. He looked down at his body. What was once a clean shirt was now covered in puke and other fluids, completely soaked through the front and darkened, much darker than it should have been. Carefully taking his shirt off so as not to spread the vomit onto anything else, he carefully moved it to the side of the room; while walking, he felt something trickling down his leg. Feeling around his pants, he carefully removed his phone from the pocket. Something once wet now dried onto it.
Nearly puking again in disgust, Norbert closed his eyes, removed his clothes and put them in a pile on the side. Removing another water bottle, he carefully washed his body, removing all of the filth and sweat piled up on his body after diving into the goblet. With fresh clothes one more down and feeling much better, Norbert finally stood up and inspected the cave again.
The details that he once missed now popped out, like there was no light on within the room, inspecting he could now see the etchings on the alter; slowly walking up the stairs again, he looked, and an indentation that was one had the goblet was there, with the purple veins slowly coming off of it. Together they made a pattern, forming around a similar to a Celtic knot, a logo with the leaves he found painted on. Reaching in, Norbert's hand dipped into the altar like sand, forming his hand around the pattern and pulling it out.
The more he tried, the greater the resistance became. The altar, not wanting to let go of the logo, Norbert, not wanting to leave empty-handed, placed his other hand on the altar to push against it. With a cracking of stone, his hand was ripped free. Norbert swayed like a drunken sailor, having so forcefully freed his hand he nearly fell down the stairs that he climbed up.
Carefully Norbert lowered his foot to the ground, standing securely once more. Looking at the altar, all that was left of the insignia was a hole in it, with the indentation of his fist, cracks going all along the altar now.
Whistling, Norbert twirled around, pocketing the piece of stone with the insignia. Twirling, he spotted a door between the two pillars no longer off to the right. Heading off the stairs, he picked up his backpack, leaving behind the soiled clothes and picking up the goblet, holding it up in the air to inspect if anything else was on it.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Having found nothing, he put it in the backpack again and headed through the hallway. As he continued down the hallway, the purple in the walls fading with time, he still had no trouble making out the wall, quickly taking it stride for stride, not waiting to get to the other side of the hallway, the sound of his steps reverberating through the hall.
As he neared the exit, there was once again his nemesis—a Door.
A single door stood in the way, nested inside the wall.
Norbert tried to push against it, the door only rattling a bit. Pulling towards him resulted in the same thing. After trying both sides, he put his back against it, feeling a bit peckish; he took out a bar and his watch.
Looking at the time, it said it was 1:37; biting into his bar, feeling a bit sad that he didn't have Obsius to share it with, Norbert broke off part of it, leaving it on the ground next to the door. His mouth now dry from the bar. He took a mouthful of water from the bottle, still having enough left.
Looking back at the watch, he saw it still said 1:37. Staring at the watch, Norbert waited for the minute hand to tick over, and he started counting, "One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi …. "ending in silence, counting in his head he waited for it to tick over. When he reached ninety Mississippi, he looked at the clock and rewound it, having lost track of how long he was unconscious during his muscle spasms. Standing back up again, he pulled himself up using the door.
GROOOAAANNNN
Looking around in surprise at what the noise could be, Norbert looked again at the door, which had opened slightly, for it was a sliding door. Placing his fingers in the crack on the left side, he pushed it to the right, the door effortlessly gliding across like butter.
On the other side was a tiny little room. Picking up his pack Norbert entered it. As he stepped through, the door closed by itself. Norbert threw his head back in annoyance, hitting his head against the back of it. With a cry out, he rubbed his head out of instinct, brushing a bit of rock off his head.
Looking up, he saw the same notch, with no light coming out. Stepping up, he touched it, and no light was produced, to nobody's surprise. As Norbert went to the front again in frustration to try and open the door, the room started to move.
Crouching down, Norbert looked around for a change but saw nothing, but the feeling of acceleration, his stomach moving down to his feet, was no mistake. Looking around, he realised he was in an elevator, possibly of the magical kind.
Higher and higher he went, the trip continued. Pulling out the altimeter, he saw the number steadily increase, more and more.
Tapping his foot on the ground, waiting for the elevator to rise, he started missing the trashy elevator music; at least it gave him something to do rather than stare at the wall before him, or was it the door? The elevator started slowing down; he must have been coming to the top as it shuddered to a halt.
The wall that was once a door opened again, showing him the outside. Stepping out, he turned around as the door started to close. Behind him was one of the massive trees with purple light coming out of its veins. Looking quizzically at the tree, he brushed his hand against the trunk. He did not hear any reverberation; he took out his knife and cut into it past the bark.
There, Norbert found the unexpected wood. Was it just the same wood one would expect from a tree, no stone, no anything? With a bleak look, Norbert turned around, looking once more off the cliff over the river.
Chirp Chirp
Looking to the left, he saw his old little bird friend Obsius sitting on a tree branch.
Gliding down, he landed on Norbert's head, twittering away.
Nodding along, Norbert agreed to what exactly he had no clue, as his bird was still rusty. Closing his eyes, Norbert walked straight, thinking of what to do next. Still needing to find some town to see people, though looking at the writing from before, he probably couldn't unde…..
One foot hung in the air, and with a shock, Norbert looked down at the river below, too far gone to bring himself back; what he thought was walking along the cliff in thought, he turned to face the cliff.
"Oh well," Norbert exclaimed, before falling to the riverbank, a bang resounding up in the air. Obsius flew in the same position as before, slowly gliding down on Norbert's head, giving it a slight peck to get him moving.