He walked along the street for a good while. Looking from either side of the road, not wanting to disturb anything, he walked down the very center of the old street in between the ancient buildings. The narrow walkway was pressed in on both sides by the empty aged buildings. The black stone crowded in on him giving him a harsh feeling of claustrophobia.
He looked to his left as he was passing by the buildings and a huge space opened between them. The solid rock wall of the underground cavern made a massive empty recess in the crowded buildings that lined the streets. The cavern wall was split open in a huge crevasse that he followed up with his eyes. It continued to open the cavern wall well above the four and five story buildings that pressed around it.
Leading up to the open wound in the earth was a majestic archway that allowed access to the opening in the rock. Even though it could fit several people across easily, compared to the openness of every other building entrance in the city this archway seemed restrictive and rather uninviting by comparison.
He walked up to the archway and stopped just on the outside. The arch was ornate and delicately carved. He was instantly reminded of the great works of Donatello and Bernini. No less skilled hands carved this. The arch was comprised of a werewolf on one side and a beautiful woman on the other. The werewolf’s fur and snout were finely carved. The fur looked real enough to move if a strong wind passed down the street. The werewolf was carved from a pale colored stone that shone against the contrast of the black building next to it. The woman was naked with hair that flowed and curled down behind her as low as her waist. Each strand seemed to stand out and apart as if it was being moved by some unseen wind. Her smooth skin curved around her idealized frame. She stood as a specimen of the athletic female and yet exuded pure feminine grace and elegance. She had been carved by the same type of stone as the werewolf.
The two figures had their arms raised over their heads to cup a great orb that made up the apex of the arch. The orb seemed to emit a light and gravity of its own. It didn’t shine like the ceiling crystals, but it didn’t just reflect the light around it either. The stone of the arch seemed to be more alive than he was. There was a life in the figures that he envied at the moment. There was no light emanating from the crevasse on the other side of the arch that he could see. The light from the underground cavern didn’t penetrate any further than the strange subtle light from the upheld orb. There was something peaceful here though. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the mood around this place and the sculptures was calm. He hadn’t felt like this since being around a church. The figures looming over him looked up at their upheld orb paying him no attention. But there was something here.
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He had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts and he felt that he would find something here, whether it be knowledge or peace of mind. He had stumbled onto this place and now that he had found it, he wanted to know what was inside and why this feeling of peace and tranquility seemed to surround this particular area of the city like a blanket. Taking a deep breath and glancing over his shoulder at the familiarity of the street and the light of the cavern he stepped up to the landing and passed through the arch into darkness.
The interior of the crevasse was just as black as he had thought it would be from what he had seen from the street. He was able to make out small details of the space he now found himself in. He was walking down a corridor. But it was nothing like a hallway. The stone of the walls flowed around him in strange waves of rock. It had a polished feel, but it was something that had never been touched by any craftsman’s hands. He reached out and felt one side of the rock wall, then the other. He could almost reach both sides at once, but his arms were a few inches too short for that. He stepped a few feet more into the darkness that enveloped him. The walls were like waves frozen mid tide. The walls were uneven and rippled up and down as well as sideways. The walls were at once smooth as obsidian than inches later as rough as a windswept cliff face that could cut flesh.
As he walked, he kept one hand on the wall for guidance and direction. This was easier said than done. The walls around him dipped and flowed at odd angles. He found himself having to maneuver around a smooth stone outcropping only to have to lean to the side as the rock dipped away from him in the darkness. His mind kept reaching back to how he had knocked his head in the darkness of the tower. He began to make out a lighter area just up ahead of where he was walking. The corridor stretched onward into the light and beyond. He took a few more steps and the dim light that seemed to come from everywhere at once shone on him.
The walls of the corridor rose up and met at an apex in the rock. The apex had the same unfinished, untouched appearance as the rest of the corridor, but the ceiling was jagged and sharp, a total contrast to the wild smooth curves that flexed and flowed around him through the corridor. The light he was standing in was coming from cavern ceiling crystals. But as his eyes adjusted, he could see that there was a lot more light here than just that coming from the crystals.
His eyes drifted down over the flowing rock and focused on what was in front of him. The narrow space seemed to open here under the light.