The Blinding Light

A breeze of frigid wind passes through the dark confines of an empty cave. The silence was commonplace, even the clicks of bats and hisses of scorpions can be heard from a mile away. It has been like this for years...not until recently.

At the far corners of this deep cavern, a spark of light appears out of thin air, slowly growing larger and brighter. Underground creatures panic in distress, creating this foreign noise that echoes throughout.

When the orb of raw blinding light reached its limit, it became stationary. Within it, a soft scream could be heard growing louder and louder

until...

"AGHCK!"

...a man wearing a heavy, brown coat falls off from within the light source.

The man wasn't unconscious, but he wasn't awake either. He lies down sideways, crunching his arms around his stomach, holding back a wave of nausea. Shrieking in pain, he throws up beside him, ruining his coat in the process. It was too much. He needed relief.

He reaches for his bag, grabs an orange pill inside a small container, and hurriedly swallows it. Within a few minutes, the pain subsides, allowing him to calm down and think rationally. The orb shrinks, slowly allowing the darkness to fill the space once again. Without much thought, he lies down and rests on the cold, stone floor.

After three hours, he awakens from the rumble of his empty stomach. He checks the items in his bag and finds some soggy leftover biscuits. With no other choice, he swallows every bit whole without a change of expression.

Because his shirt was drenched in his own puke, it began to stink. He removes his coat and sets it aside, revealing his royal blue skin underneath. He grabs a thin, folded square pad from one of the coat's pockets before folding the coat and putting it inside his bag.

He flips the pad open, which boots up in turn.

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The gadget opens with a mature female voice.

Welcome, a-a-agent Taihen Torauma.

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"Where am I?" he asks the device.

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You are roughly six hundred five meters deep within an unnamed cavern just seven hundred meters away from the Shakin Valley, located in Adil.

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"Adil? I can't remember... how far is the nearest exit?"

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Calculating all possible navigation options...

Distance is about six hundred meters to your right.

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"I can deal with that." he tells himself.

"Show me a map."

The gadget loads a digital map showcasing a rough estimate of the path he has to take to leave the cave system. The path shows a lot of climbing at first, but the path near the end appeared to be a flat surface which gives him some relief.

¤ -------------------------- ¤

An hour has passed, and the flight of constant heights is soon to come to a close. With both of his hands gripping firmly on the cliff edge, he carefully lifts himself up. At one point, his right hand almost slips off but he manages to use his right leg to aid his ascent.

He takes off his bag as he lies on the ground with constant heavy breaths, tapping his chest to calm himself down

"Device!" he calls. "How far until we are there."

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A hundred meters to your right

This was the twelfth time you've asked this question. Would you like an automated reminder?

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"No thanks." he says, slowly pacing his breaths.

As prompted, he stands up and follows the directions. But as soon as he does so, he hears a soft noise. He could tell it was in front of him, so he pauses for a second to listen carefully.

He squeezes his eyes closed and twitches his ears, making his ears much more sensitive to sound, making it painful in the process*. That previously soft, somber noise became much clearer.

"...dani- aghck... min..." a young, innocent voice appears to cry out.

He takes quick yet carefully paced steps toward the noise. Reaching a wide, open area, a young boy wearing a blood-spoiled loincloth skirt slowly loses his breath as he weakly holds his bleeding leg.

With a face reeking of disbelief, he runs in stiff panic, kneels beside the kid, removes his bag, grabs a small polygon-like crescent ear-piece from his pocket, and places it inside his ear.

"Hey hey!" he anxiously whispers, softly tapping the young boy with his left hand whilst clinching his own leg with another.

He couldn't let out a single word, only being able to shiver his leg and lean it towards him. Taihen lifts up the loincloth, revealing an open injury. A fractured bone pierced through his outer skin and porously spilled blood.

He covers his mouth and gags witnessing this. After gulping in preparation, he rubs his palms across his face, processing how to handle this situation as quickly as he could.

As if a time bomb ticked, the kid's eyes sew shut, as if he'd lose his last breath the second Taihen lowers his guard. His breaths became uneven, his nerves constantly shocking him as if an active tesla coil was wrapped around inside of him, his lips shivering like a man without clothes in the cold.

On the brink of having his mind collapse in sheer panic, he calms himself by controlling his breaths into a more steady pace. He gives himself a few seconds to think of a solution, as the one he had thought of beforehand seemed too much of a risk.

He clinches his fist and hits the ground in frustration, almost allowing himself to shed a tear in fear of regret. But it looks as if there was no other choice.

Inside his bag was a crocodile hide leather, zip-tied pouch containing only a small, bright, reflective, green crystal resembling that of a glass shard. He places this crystal atop his left palm and closes it to crush it down, sublimating it into a heavy green mist. The blood from his hands dripped to the ground, seemingly mixing his blood with that of the kid's spilled blood.

The green mist crawls over and around the kid's weakening body and pierces through his delicate skin. As soon as so, the young boy suddenly opens his eyes, inhaling a vast amount of air as his mind goes into shock. The exposed bone slowly creeps back inside. The open wound closes up like threading a damaged cloth. The blood rushes back inside like an overland stream, leaving Taihen's once mixed in blood along with other dust and debris on the cave floor.

The kid screams in pain, horrified by how it felt like his skin being stretched outside-in and his bone piercing his flesh as if it was being cut by a rough knife. Albeit frightened, Taihen keeps himself calm and composed for the kid.

"It's fine it's fine it's fine!" he whispers frantically, stretching both his arms palm-out as a calming gesture for the kid. "It'll be gone soon."

The young boy still continues to scream, now crying and sobbing as he felt the process was painfully slow. Taihen grabs his bag and reaches out for the container with the orange pills, but the wound on his left hand prevents him from touching anything without feeling a soring sting.

A minute or two passes, and the kid has finally calmed themselves down. The wound on his leg, along with the pain, is now gone. Taihen held on to the container, only to realize the kid didn't need it anymore.

With nothing but an awkward stare down, Taihen focuses on getting his own hand treated by using some left-over bandages from his bag. The kid continues to stare at him as if figuring out who he could be, rubbing his leg in still disbelief.

"You... you're that... you are blue...!" the kid points out, raising and crunching his eyebrows, constantly running his eyes thinking whilst being completely clueless at the same time.

Taihen gulps and sighs, shaking his head slowly. "I get that... but I'm not... I'm not dangerous. It's fine."

The kid stands up, carefully walks towards him, and subtly smiles.

"Hey hey, don't- I'm not sure if your leg's-"

"I found you!" the kid proudly calls, battling his own stutter.

"Um... me?" he loses eye contact to focus on this matter.

"Yes..." the kid claims, folding both his hands and squeezes it in excitement.

Not knowing what to do, Taihen keeps himself alert, almost questioning himself on what he had gotten himself involved into.