'...What the hell? Since when has this book been here? I didn't write this... and I don't talk like that... And what's up with the contents? "I cried and screamed until my voice went hoarse?" Why would anyone take note of that, even for a diary...' Cliff started to get lost in thought about this book that was supposedly bound to his soul.
'The rest of the pages are blank. It also says "Day 1," so does that mean I've been in this cave for around a full day? It's impossible to tell how much time has passed here based on the light but the thirst and hunger I'm feeling is not insignificant, so I've at least been here for a day as the book is insinuating.' Cliff sat and pondered for quite a while.
'Also, the part about the "starshade" flowers is... unsettling to say the least. They would have sucked the light out of me if I had any? Is that an advanced form of photosynthesis or something?' Cliff glanced at one of the starshades to see that it still had a dark swirling miasma flowing around it. '...these plants don't exist on Earth... so I'm really on a different planet.' Cliff glanced up at the still iridescently glowing ceiling, his eyes lingering on the beauty of the quiet-yet vibrant lightshow.
'I can't keep staring at the ceiling forever. The cave is almost completely lit because of this phenomenon, so I need to make use of it. I don't know how long it will last after all.' Cliff thought with determination creeping onto his unclean face.
Cliff couldn't see himself very well, but he could tell a few things about himself so far. He still had gauze wrapped all the way up from his feet to the middle of his torso and a loose-fitting burlap cloak draped over his shoulders falling just below his knees. He felt his dark blonde hair was twice as long as it had been previously as well as it being a matted and greasy mess. He also felt patchy facial hair that grew unevenly in every spot. If he was able to see his face he would be able to tell that he had lost some weight, he was already slightly underweight from spending too much money on alcohol rather than food, but now he was gaunt. He felt and looked like a wreck.
'Now that there's some light I should try to stand again.' This time Cliff didn't try to get up all at once. He crawled to a wall and pushed his center of gravity upwards with his arms while putting as little strain on his legs as possible. Eventually he was able to get on his feet, albeit with the help of the wall.
'Nice!' He internally celebrated his feat of standing up, trying not to slump back down because of gravity's weight. 'My legs still feel weak but I can at least move around without crawling now. Should I investigate those flowers more closely? The book gave me some vague information on them, but it could be leading me on trying to get me to get closer to them with that vagueness... for now I'll ignore them. Better to be safe than sorry.'
Cliff grabbed his diary before choosing what to do next. 'This is probably something I should keep on me.' Cliff thought before tucking the book in-between the tight gauze and his body. 'If another entry appears tomorrow then I know that no one is writing this themselves to mess with me, but if that's the case then I'm not sure what to think of this weird book. I'll put that mystery behind me for now. I'm not sure how much longer this lightshow will last for anyways so I need to get moving but, where do I go from here?'
Cliff looked at his surrounding again, this time taking in everything around him without being wonderstruck. There were two opening that he could see. One was a short and narrow path that seemed to get brighter at the end while the other end of the cave was huge, almost open-ended. He walked over to inspect the shorter path.
'Hmm... the narrow path might lead to a way out, but it seems to be tapering at the end. My legs still ache and I don't want to crawl around again so I'll head towards the larger opening for now.' Thought Cliff as he hobbled to the other end of the cave he had now spent quite a while in. 'Not only do my legs feel especially weak, the rest of my body feels weak as well, like when I just wake up and can't control my body that well for a few minutes. Why do I feel like this? Is this an effect of the cave? Or an aftereffect of that mind-numbing pain I felt before I woke up here...' Cliff was getting distracted thinking about all of the mysteries shrouding his current circumstance while walking along with the wall
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He walked with the wall for half of an hour with no change in scenery. His weakened body was feeling fatigued so he started to take note of his surroundings once agian. The rocks still shone with a beautiful blue, purple, and yellow dotted light that allowed him to continue to see where he was going. He spotted a few more starshade flowers that were varying in size, from the size of his open hand to as small as a ping-pong ball. As Cliff got closer to them he realized that the larger ones had bigger, more transparent clouds of shadow swirling around the petals. While the smaller ones had smaller, more condensed, opaque clouds surrounding them. Cliff was tempted to pick one out of the ground, but his anxiety prevented him from doing so. 'They would make a great bookmark but there is too much I don't know about them.' Cliff thought while closely inspecting one of the smaller starshades.
He couldn't make out most of the details of the flowers due to the swirling mass of shadows around the petals but he could now see that the stamens were particularly short and slightly purple-ish at the base. The vestal was even stranger as it was a mix of brown and yellow and somehow shorter than the stamens. Cliff knew some rudimentary knowledge of the anatomy of plants due to tending to his parents flowers at their old house and the small amount of plant biology he recalled learning in school. He started to reminisce his parents, hoping that they would suddenly appear in the cave to give him a hug. He shrugged those thoughts away before he felt the waterworks start flowing again. 'I have to find a way out of this cave first and foremost.' Cliff thought as he steeled himself to continue traveling.
As he continued onwards he began to see a brightly lit opening. As he feverishly entered the opening he was wowed once again. As he looked up after catching his breath he saw a pond, about 20-25 meters wide, with a small tree at it's center. The lake had lily pads interspersed throughout with some having gigantic white lotus flowers growing on them that came up to his knees. The lake water was reflecting the iridescent light that the rocks gave off, leaving streaks and ripples of light floating along the walls of the large opening and around the tree itself which made Cliff wonder if he was in an underwater aquarium instead of a cave. The tree was a bit taller than Cliff himself and had extremely dark brown bark and pure white leaves, with some having small tinges of purple and yellow at the ends. As the light reflecting off the lake approached the tree it took on the form of multiple incorporeal fish that swam in the air aimlessly around it.
Cliff fell back on his knees. He silently looked at the tree and accompanying lightshow, seemingly in a trance at the unparalleled beauty before his eyes. Cliff had never seen anything more fantastical and breathtaking as the scene before him, so he had inadvertently spent quite a while gawking at the incomplete light-fish swimming around. They either didn't notice him standing there or didn't seem to care about his presence. Cliff wanted desperately to drink from and take a bath in that pond, but his instincts were making him hesitate.
'Wow...there's no way someone would do this just to mess with me, that much is almost certain. You could make a fortune just letting people see this... it sure is surreal thought... how does a tree even grow underground like this?' Cliff pondered for quite a while with the thought of taking a drink still in the front of his mind, clouding his judgment.
'This tree is fine with this water so maybe a small amount wouldn't kill me even if it is harmful...' Thinking this, Cliff started to crawl to the edge of the small pond.
As he reached the end he caught his own reflection in the water. He saw his own face, granted he admitted himself he had seen better days. The dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than ever, drooping down to the bridge of his nose. His dirt blonde hair was now medium length still yet to reach his shoulders, but encroaching. 'I always liked having longer hair but my boss... I guess former boss, would say it's bad for business. I don't have to worry about that anymore though!'
Cliff's mood brightened as he lowered his face close to the water to try and smell it. 'Eck!... It kind of smells like fertilizer...' Cliffs desire to drink the pond water waned a small amount before remembering how thirsty he was.
'I don't know if I'll have the strength to keep going if I don't drink something... I also need to find something to eat...' Cliff glanced at his torso where he kept the book.
'Maybe I can eat the pages if push comes to shove...' Cliff quickly dismissed that thought. 'This book is my lifeline right now, it's something I would rather go without eating... for now.' His stomach growled just at the thought of eating.
Taking his mind off of the impending hunger-induced attack on literature, he brought his attention back to the pond. 'I'm sorry Ms. Tree but I'm going to take a bit of your water. I hope you don't mind.' Cliff sent a silent prayer to the tree before dipping his hands in the water. He brought a handful up to his face and downed it as fast as he could.