4 Cave Exploration

The three boys shrieked uncontrollably, overwhelmed by a sense of abject horror, as if the world were coming to an end.

In an instant the skies were reformed, and the three youths were laughing together, as if nothing had ever occurred. Amyna's chuckling slowed; he felt like he had just forgotten something important, but he quickly brushed aside the feeling as Charlie launched an assault, tackling him from the side. Amyna tried to pull away and stand, but Charlie clamped onto his leg with a death-grip.

"X! A little help here?" Amyna called for assistance from his remaining friend, only to receive an ambivalent shrug.

After some moments of struggle, both Charlie and Amyna lay panting on the floor, exhausted. X looked over the whole scene with a bemused expression.

"Aight. Time to sleep." Charlie announced before closing his eyes, and falling asleep on the spot.

"How... the hell... does he do that?" Amyna panted, still recovering from the impromptu wrestling match.

"Another one of his many mysterious powers?" Xavier shrugged.

"Ha. yeah..." Amyna chuckled, before he too fell quickly into slumber.

X looked curiously at the sleeping pair. It seemed they both have a gift for sleeping at will. He too felt the urge to rest his eyes, and shortly after, unleashed a chorus of snores, dead asleep.

A flash of silver darted nearly imperceptibly past the heads of the sleeping trio.

...

"It's still going!" Charlie's voice echoed from the depth's of a descending cavern. After two days of fruitless searching, the young men finally came across a landmark that wasn't on the map. The chasm's bottom was shrouded in darkness, and an overhang jutting out at an angle made it impractical to drop a light source. When it reached the bottom it would simply be hidden by the rock surface. Hence, why Charlie, the best climber of the three, was currently descending into the cavern with climbing gear and a headlamp.

"Can you see anything at all?" Amyna called back, hoping for a sign of something they could explore below.

"Not really. I'm gonna climb down a bit further!" Charlie reported back, and his rope slid down a bit further along the clasp up top.

"Be careful." Xavier called out, as he peered down below as far as he could. Charlie was already hidden by the rocks, they could only be sure of his safety by the sound of his voice and the sight of the rope.

Out of sight of all three of the young explorers, a sharp edge on the rock face was slowly grinding away at the taut rope swaying back and forth as Charlie leapt down from rock to rock.

"I think I can see the bottom!" Charlie suddenly called out. "Yeah! there's something shining down there!" Excitement permeated his voice as he involuntarily shook under the influence of the emotion. This slight movement was enough to strain the already frayed rope, and to make matters worse, it impacted harshly against the sharp edge of the rock face.

A loud *snap!* echoed, and Amyna and Xavier exchanged panicked glances. "Charlie!" They both cried out in unison.

"I'm alright. I'm on the rocks!" Charlie immediately dispelled any notions of his demise. "I'm gonna have to climb the rest of the way down. I won't make it back up."

After a brief pause in which he and Xavier took sigh of relief, Amyna called back. "Ok! We'll meet you down there!"

Xavier snapped his head up to meet Amyna's gaze once more, vehemently shaking it in denial. "I don't want to climb down there! You just take a rope to him, and both of you climb back up."

"You sure?" Amyna looked surprised. "Come on, X, I thought we wanted to explore the place."

"That was before our friend almost died. We're here to have fun, not risk our lives."

"Says the future Protector." Amyna teased.

"I'll gladly risk my life for something that matters. This is not one of those things." X quickly rebutted.

Shaking his head with a smile, Amyna set up his gear to make the climb down to Charlie. As he stood on the ledge ready to descend, Charlie shouted up at the pair once more.

"Holy crap, guys! You have to see this! Its gorgeous! I think I can jump from here."

"Wait, I-" Amyna tried to call back first, but he heard a loud crash, and then the sound of Charlie screaming in pain.

"Fuck! My legs!" Charlie's shrieks echoed throughout the cave system.

"Xavier! You go find help! I'm gonna keep climbing and see what I can do." Amyna quickly took charge of the situation, and Xavier didn't argue. It was an emergency after all.

"I'm coming, Charlie!" Amyna called out, but he didn't receive a response. His heart racing in ever-increasing worry, Amyna scrambled down the cavern as quickly as he could while still remaining careful. Earlier he had taken note of the sharp rock surface that had frayed Charlie's rope and arranged his own so it wouldn't interfere.

After what felt like eons, Amyna could finally see the bottom, illuminated in his headlamp. He caught sight of Charlie, lying on the ground face-down, his legs shrouded by an overhanging rock. Amyna slid down the rope, descending the last several yards in a flash, before planting his feet on the rocky ground.

"Charlie! Man, what happened?" Amyna rushed to his friends side, and pulled him away from the rocks. He turned Charlie over, and was shocked by what he found.

Charlie was grinning like a fiend and laughing, before leaping theatrically to his feet, arms askew. "Well, you sure hurried your ass down here."

Amyna's face twisted in a mixture of relief and fury. "Charlie, you absolute bastard piece of shit! I was fucking worried about you!"

"I know. You should've seen your face!" Charlie laughed mockingly, earning himself a kick in the knee.

"Well, now how're your legs?" Amyna grumbled while Charlie melodramatically rolled around on the floor.

"I'm dying! You've killed me!" Charlie moaned.

"Stand up." Amyna exasperatedly sighed. "You're making me be the mature one and that's X's job." He held out a hand, pulling Charlie up to his feet, before suddenly slapping his own forehead. "Shit, X! He went to get help for you. How are we supposed to find him, now?"

"Well, while we've got time..." Charlie gestured around the cavern floor and waggled his eyebrows.

"Are you serious?" Amyna incredulously asked.

"Why not? He'll be coming right back here when he's done. In the meantime we get to explore." Charlie convincingly made his case, and Amyna had to accede. After all, what else were they here for but to explore?

The pair aimed their headlamps around the cavern, searching for perhaps another cave or really anything of interest. As Amyna was turning his head, he caught a glimpse of a faint glimmer reflecting his lamp from behind a pile of rocks. Unlike the cave crystals, this glimmer persisted in his vision. 'Perhaps its some kind of treasure!' Amyna excitedly mused as he scurried over to push the rocks aside.

Charlie curiously walked over, observing Amyna's actions. "Found something?"

"I think so!" Amyna proclaimed as he shoved away the last rock, revealing a distinct oddity. The shining object appeared to be an ancient looking sculpture of brown metal. He could just make out the shape of a human abdomen. Retracting it from the stones, Amyna realized it was an ancient Greek styled bronze breastplate, complete with abs.

Charlie whistled in an exclamation of awe. "Is that real?"

Amyna shook his head. "It can't be. How would anything from ancient Greece find its way to the middle of the US?" As Amyna spun the breastplate between his palms, he noticed an etching on the interior.

'γενήσομαι τό μιμητός '

Peering closely he was able to recognize it was some phrase in ancient Greek, but he had no idea how to read it. Charlie looked over Amyna's shoulder as the latter ran his fingers over the inscription. "What does it mean?" Charlie asked in a whisper.

"You think because I'm Greek I can read ancient Greek?" Amyna teased, taking a picture of the inscription with his disposable camera he'd brought along in his backpack. However, after the bulb flashed, the letters suddenly began to transform on their own until the inscription could be read in modern American English.

'Become the Main Character.'

Amyna nearly dropped the breastplate, while Charlie inhaled sharply, and they looked at each other in shock.

"Did that just happen?" Charlie asked in a low voice.