“Yes, Nic, I will bring back the oxygen tanks. Thank you for reminding me.” This earned him an idle hand wave from Nicolas. Maybe Charles was right, Nicolas could be a real pain in the ass sometimes but he didn’t go out of his way to be an asshole, at least not all the time. Maybe it was William’s turn to put forth the effort to be civil.
Katherine seemed to see the internal conversation he was having with himself and smiled, “There is a flashlight in the kitchen area, under the sink.”
William nodded his thanks and went to go get it. When he came back Katherine and Charles were standing up facing him. “You don’t need to go back up there this late in the day, William. It can wait till tomorrow.”
“Katherine, I’ll be fine. I won’t stay too long today I promise. Besides, I have to get our stuff back. That stuff was pretty expensive. I can’t believe that I left it up there.”
With that William went into the far corner of the apartment. Closing his eyes he found the familiar membrane and pushed.
He reached the spot of the plateau through the Whyte Plain without incident. Looking around he noticed that Charles had been right. The sun was only just over the peaks around him. It would be dark within the hour. Well, I guess I’d better get started, then. He wasn’t going to spend another night searching around in the dark again.
He backtracked toward the steep incline he had traversed yesterday and found his pack sitting exactly as he had left it. He picked it up and slung it onto his back. It slammed against his lower back with a thud, causing him to grunt painfully.
Shrugging off the pain he walked back deeper onto the plateau. Even though it was fairly flat it was still rough going. The rocks and uneven ground was not exactly treacherous but he really didn’t want to break an ankle by being careless. He walked for some time, scanning to his right and left looking at the mountain ranges along the plateau.
The place was eerily quiet, all except for the wind that passed up over the terrain and the crags around him making a mournful sound that sounded like something in between crying and soft sighing. It was unnerving whatever it was.
The sunlight dimmed around him, as the golden orb finally sunk down past the peaks in the west. He stopped and studied his surroundings. The wind was getting colder, and his breathing was getting a little labored, even on the flat terrain the air was still super thin and his lungs burned, not enough to need any oxygen just yet, but soon.
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Looking over his left shoulder he saw a darkness along the far side of the plateau as it met with a sheer cliff face. He decided to go check it out. He would leave soon anyway, might as well not leave with his curiosity unsated.
He made his way to the dark patch along the mountain wall, as the shadows around him grew longer and longer. Soon he would need the flashlight, or shift into werewolf form. As he approached the patch of darkness, he realized that the darkness had depth. It was a cave of sorts, at least that’s what he hoped it was.
He stopped just outside the strange opening into the mountain face, and turned on the flashlight. A beam of light shot out from the cold metal and illuminated the cave to reveal it was a lot deeper than he has first supposed. Arching an eyebrow at the strangeness of it all he cautiously entered the cave.
The cave was loud with the sound of the wind sweeping past its mouth. The sound echoed inside the cave loudly, like a high-pitched whistling that just wouldn’t stop. So, this is what a wind tunnel sounds like. The beam from the flashlight bounced off the rock around him as he climbed deeper into the cave. The deeper he went, the tighter the space around him got. Yeah, that’s not frightening or anything. I wonder if there are Mynocks in here, or giant vampire bats.
He climbed over the strange rock formations that littered the ground around him, what were they called stalactites? Stalagmites? He could never remember which one was ground based and which one was for the ceiling.
There was something strange about this cave though. He couldn’t put his finger on it. The place seemed… odd. He wanted to leave, but something kept him going. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he got to the end. Of course with caves there could be no end. He could have happened along a spelunker’s vein that could wind endlessly through the mountains, if he was willing to crawl along on his belly and climb in the dark for days. Hadn’t there been a horror movie about something like that?
He just happened to shine his flashlight up along the ceiling of the cave and what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks.
The ceiling of the cave was covered in pictures, strange symbols which could have been writing, and other things that he couldn’t hope to identify. He scrambled back the way he had come. The flashlight switching from the ceiling to the ground as he followed the strange pictures that were all around him.
He looked as the walls and ceiling above him told a story, a story that he couldn’t possibly hope to fully understand. He saw tall two-legged beings, depicted under a bright moon. Their skin was pale white and their ears were elongated. They were numerous but always drawn in tight groups, outsiders, maybe?
There was another group painted next to them holding their fists in defiance of them. The two groups were drawn in battle. The bodies of both sides littered the ground then a red sun was depicted rising and its red light bathed mountains to the west.
It must have been some kind of omen, or sign, because the next picture showed a scene of holy men or priests, some sort of emissaries from both sides sitting beneath the full moon again looking towards the east.