The End of the Tunnel

The cavern stretches on, the only sounds your footsteps and the dripping of water from the ceiling. Your worn, dulled sword hangs loosely in your grip, your fatigue almost overwhelming your desire to reach a less unpleasant place.

You vaguely hear something scuttling away in the darkness, but that is quickly overtaken by something else. You see… something. A spot of brightness in the distance ahead of you.

Is that light?

Your feet carry you faster at the thought, your strides longer and your heart hammering. The possibility that you might see the sun without a hundred canopies of leaves between you and the sky gives you a burst of energy, and you feel a faint smile on your lips as the pinprick becomes a star becomes a burst.

As the light grows, you can see that it is indeed an end to the cave, and as it comes closer you break out into a jog and then a run.

The light is blinding as you leave the cave, and you hear the call of sea-birds and the crashing of waves. Shielding your eyes and laughing as you finally find a place that feels a little like everything you lost, you let your vision acclimate to the sudden bright daylight, even if the sun is beginning to fall in the West.

The sea flashes with the light of the setting sun against the shore, and the sky is beginning to turn that familiar collage of red and gold and pink.

It almost feels like you’re back on the shores of a lake near your home.

Looking around, you study your surroundings in more detail. Behind you, the cave extends seemingly endlessly into the dark. To your left there is a brilliant, flashing sea crashing against a sandy shore. Ahead there is shrubland broken by arches and spires of sandstone or some similar rock. And to the right, you see a great jagged hill or plateau. Atop it stands a tower that rises high into the air, a fortress built at its base and the tower itself taller than any structure you have before seen.

And you feel almost drawn to it. Like something is calling you closer, to something inside.