3. A little bit of light.
The barley moving water had become a trickle as suddenly a shimmer of colour came into his grey world. Somewhere in front of him there was a blueish shimmer.
First, he stopped nervously. The sudden change of his routine gave him pause. Then, after shoving a few handfuls of insects and lichen in his mouth, just to be prepared and not losing the burning in the wrong moment, he carfully sneaked forward.
After a few steps he found the cave tunnel he moved through, meeting a bigger space. A big cave, most of it still all in grays, but in it´s middle was a small lake, which seamed to glow in a faint blue light. In this light the fuzzyness of his sight gave way to clear contures of stone and actuall mushrooms instead of lichen and lichen like fungi.
After a while of carfull looking and don´t seeing any danger he moved closer. As he was just a few steps away from the lakeshore he saw that it was not the wateritself which was glowing, it was the ground of the shallow lake of crystall clear water.
Carfully, he wanted to touch this ground, but he stopped. He saw his hands clearly for the first time in this light. They were dirty of course, but not black as they looked like in his new vision. But they had also clearly been changed. His hands were thin and boney, and he would swear that they were longer. Especially the fingers. Then his fingernails. They were thick, sharp and pointy. He tried to get a glimpse of his face on the water surface but had no luck as the light that came from the ground, so he finally touched the ground.
It was again covert in a slimey substance, but this one was also the source of the faint blue light. He scraped a bit of it off and sniffed it. It didn´t quiet smelled the same as the other not shining stuff, but still edible. He waited for his burning to stop and gulped a moutfull of it down. Then he waited, counting his heartbeats. It burned longer than the other slime. Still, not as long as the insects, so he left the lake in peace for now and started to explore the rest of this bigger cave. It was oval. About 10 paces wide and 15 long. It had more than one exit big enough for him to use and a lot of smaler cracks. The tunnel he had come from wasn´t the only source of water that flowed into the lake, but only one other tunnel had water leaving this cave. That one was narrow, but he could see it widen soon. A quick try made clear that he would need to hammer away some stone to get through without injuring himself. Luckyly he still had his hammer and chisel. And years of training using these tools, so it would not hinder him long. But not only that, the water leaving the cave was finally more than just a trickle. He found something he could call flowing water at last. This was his way to freedom.
But first he sniffed at every other tunnel and crack, just to be sure that he had enough fuel for his burning close. After that he tried a little bit of the mushrooms. They were all the same as far he could see. Pale blue or white, hard to say in this light, small, with a poity head over a thin stem. They made his eyes water and his tongue numb with their taste, but they burned, and a mouthful of the water dealt with the rest.
As he was exhausted, he found himself a mostly flat area and lay down to sleep. After that he would widen his exit and hunt for as many insects as he could in between.
He had slept twice in the cave of the glowing lake using his waking hours to hammer away at the stone blocking his path forward and hunting for insects. Hunting had been good and as he ate only mushrooms and worms for now, he had nearly a half full sack of insects by now. He was coming back to the cave from such a trip into the other tunnels as his nose alerted him to a change.
An absolute delightfull smell was in the air. Promissing so much more than even the insects did. He stopped immediately and peered into the cave and saw the source at once.
Outside the light of the lake was a small blob, shining in brilliant white, slowly moving between the mushrooms. His sight didn´t give him more than fuzzy picture without clear contures but it seamed to be something tiny, but bigger than most of the insects he had found until now. Trying to be as stealthy as possible he crept forward. Slowly breathing in deep this delicious scent. As he was just a few steps away from it the pale light of the lake was enough to give him a better look at it. Something small and furry with tiny black eyes reflecting the blue light. It reminded him a little of the rats you sometimes found in the upper parts of the mines, but a lot smaler.
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He wanted it. He hungered for it. The smell teased him and demanded from him to catch it. But as he sneaked nearer it must have sensed him.
In an explosion of speed and smell it rushed away, quieking. He couldn´t follow, even if he were as fast, because the smell overpowered everything. It was so rich and delicious. Way more than anything he had ever tasted or smelled befor. He could only suck it in deep, savoring it, following it´s trail slowly, breathing it in.
He felt a new burning in him. Not deep in his stomach, up higher. A burning that didn´t just stopped but seemed to stay. Like there was a marble of comforting heat just where his rips started to join. He followed the little delicious creature to a crack whilst he breathed in everything he could, storing it in this new delightfull speck of warmth in him.
The crack the little thing had vanished in was too small to even get his head in, so he just stayed there sucking in the scent until it was gone. He wanted more. He needed more! But it was gone. He forgot about hunting and hammering for a while. He stayed there hoping for it to come back, but without any luck. And as the burning in his stomach stopped from lack of fuel, he felt his precious new speck of warmth getting smaller, so he willed himself away, stuffing himself with mushrooms to secure it.
He got back to chiseling but kept a close eye on his enviroment, hoping. But the little thing didn´t come back.
As he had slept another two times, he had the exit wide enough to go foorward, it still had shown itselfe again.
He slept another two times in this cave, just lurking and hoping, but it didn´t come back. So, he had to finally will himself to go on. Telling himself it could not been the only one like it in these caves. Hoping to find another one going forward.
He didn´t have luck as he followed the water. He knew of cource that he made too much noise, and such a small animal would hear him and hide long before he could see it, no matter how bright it shone. He had to force himself to not go back, as the speck of warmth slowly got smaller and smaller, even as he kept the burning hot. He moved slower. Tried to be as stealthy as possible. Still hoping. Sniffing for the delicious smell, but once again he found just lichen, worms, insects and fungi.
At least the number of those seemed to be on the rise. And that was good, as he stuffed so much of those into himself that he couldn´t belief it in the rare moments of selfreflection he had. As he once again lay down to sleep, he realised that he hadn´t needeed to shit at all. He had to piss just normally, but defecating, not since before his recent change. Another question he had no answer to. He had not paid exact attention to it, but he would not be surprised, if he ate more than his own weight by now. Where was all of it going? He had long ago lost count of how often he had slept, but he had stayed at least five “days” and “nights” in the cave of the glowing lake, and at leased as much in the tunnels since his first waking after the change and choosing a Class. A Class which had completely left his thinking since then as he now remembered.
He got up again from his current sleping place, stuffed some insects in his mouth to get the burning going again, and felt courious for this thing that is a Class. It came strangely naturally to him. As if he had some knowledge, he didn´t know how he got. Not like the voice in his memory, that had promised him help in the future, more like this language he had suddenly known after his change.
He just knew he had Mana in himself, and that it would replentish itself if he used it. He knew he had something like a second skin that is called his Aura. He knew he could materialize the Dark Flame in or on his Aura as long it was outside of his body. He knew he could shape his Aura, just a little bit now, but more with training. Infuse it in things that were compatible with it. He did not know what was compatible with it, there he would likely need to experiment.
Very carfully, and full of sceptism of the knowledge that this Dark Flame wouldn´t burn him, he willed some of the Mana in the tip of a finger of his left hand. There was a warm sensation and the tip of his finger and some of the air around it got even deeper black in his vision. It didn´t hurt and he lost it nearly at once. It took some practise to keep it going regularly, but he had the feeling that something inside him helped guide his effort. Something other than just the froreign knowledge. Perhaps that was that Class thing. He regreted that he didn´t remembered to do this at the lake, where he had light, because here he had just a dark, flickering black blob to see. But as he moved his other hand close, he felt that there was no heat at all coming from this Dark Flame.
On the contrary, it gave off a feeling of bitting coldness. He didn´t try to touch it direct of cource, but just getting near chilled his hand, even if he felt only warmth from it from the finger and the hand it burned on. He didn´t know much, but he clearly understood, that this Dark Flame was something very strange. But as it didn´t help him much for now, in his journey to find the world outside of these caves, he just stopped and lay down again to sleep. Just more questions and no answers for his confusion. For now, it was better to put it off and just concentrate on what he could do. Going onward. Following the water.