The Cave - Part 2

"We have to see what it is, don't we."

"Of course. We can't just not check it out."

Sylvia and Octavia both sat there staring down the cave at the sparkling light with the thundering rain as background noise. There was little else to do in the cave aside from talk and probably for Octavia to teach Sylvia some card games. But right now, the sparkling light down in the cave was too juicy a treat to pass up.

Getting up from the cold hard ground, Octavia picked up her poleaxe and Sylvia her machete, and they both started down the cave.

The light continued to start and stop randomly as they headed towards it, no pattern being seen in it.

Slowly moving down the cave, the sound of the rain grew weaker and weaker. It was at this point that they realised that the sparkling light was not accompanied by any sound itself. Whether that was good or bad, neither of them knew.

They remained in silence, fearful that there was something in the cave, and that they had missed it when first arriving.

Getting closer, to what they believed was the end of the cave and where the light was, they found that the cave actually changed direction. With how dark it had been when they arrived, Octavia had missed that fact.

Poleaxe more at the ready given this revelation, they headed towards it.

The light that they had been seeing was the light of something else hitting the back of the cave. The source of the light was actually somewhere down this other section. The back of the cave they had been sitting in had stone that was almost like glass, allowing it to reflect the light.

Now knowing this, they continued on their journey and headed around the bend.

Off in the distance of this part of the cave, they saw what looked to be the source of the light.

"Are those…crystals," Octavia whispered as they came into view.

Now at the back of this new section of the cave was a whole wall of crystals. The light they had been seeing wasn't from the crystals specifically, but from the moonlight that peered through a hole in the top of the cave. The periodic flashing was from the moon being shrouded in clouds every now and then.

Getting closer they again found that the cave diverged, splitting where the crystals were and headed in two different directions. This meant that where they thought the crystals had just coated the end of this narrow part of the cave, it was actually a larger amount than they realised.

Reaching the end, they saw that the crystals coated the walls of both splits in the cave.

Thankfully, with all the light in this area, they could actually see that these two splits in the cave were in fact dead ends. Down one, the crystals stopped before the end, and they could clearly see a pile of rocks which made up the dead end. It was possible they blocked off more of cave, but for now, it was clearly a dead end in the cave.

Down the other, the crystals coated the back wall as well, and they could clearly see that there were no other tunnels that end either.

Happy that there wasn't anywhere further they could go and that there wasn't any monsters making the cave their home, they lowered their weapons and checked out the crystals. Octavia had been using her vision to check all along the cave, including these splits for any signs of life, but no heat signatures came back.

"What are these?" Octavia asked.

"No idea. I've been to plenty of shops in town, both here and where I live, but I haven't seen these before."

The crystals themselves were very similar to quartz back on Earth. Whether they were made up of the same material she had no idea.

All of them were a murky white colour but were still able to reflect the moonlight very easily and made up of many shapes and sizes.

"I wonder if they are expensive?"

If a noble such as Sylvia had not seen them before, neither in shops or in any nobles estate, they must be very rare. Rare generally meant expensive. Not that Octavia was being greedy, but being on the run meant they would need more pico eventually.

"Maybe. While I haven't seen them before, I'm sure someone has. We could take a few…or several for when we get to the next village. Someone there may have seen them before."

Octavia being the cautious one touched the crystal first to see whether there was anything dangerous with it.

Thankfully there wasn't.

So, not seeing a problem with them or Sylvia's suggestion, they decided to go for it. The only problem was that they were not miners.

Both gripped and pulled a few of the crystals, hoping to yank them from the cave wall. But with all the groaning and moaning they could not. Not even Octavia's increased strength could help in pulling them.

Without a pickaxe, it seemed hopeless.

That is until Sylvia grabbed one that shifted slightly.

"Ohh, I might be able to pull this one out."

As she had before, Sylvia pulled and pulled with all her might, but had to hand the torch over to Octavia when she failed.

Annoyingly, she wound up failing as well.

"Ah, hold on."

Going into her bag, she pulled out her knife. Pickaxe it wasn't, but it may be enough to chip away at the loose part of the crystal and free it.

*clang**clang**clang*

"Ah."

With enough force and hitting it in the right place, Octavia managed to free the crystal. It snapped at the rocky base and fell into her hands.

"See if you can find others that are loose." Octavia said.

Sylvia nodding went along and started to just grab and pull at any random crystal to see if it would move. Then when she found one, she would call Octavia over who would then proceed to pry it off the wall.

…

Before long, they had quite the collection of crystals. They had single ones, crystals with branches, small ones, long ones, fat ones. Any type you wanted they had a version of it.

They had managed to pry off around a dozen, and by now the sound of the rain had stopped. They were free to leave without facing mother nature outside, but like treasure seekers, the allure of more treasure kept them going.

Well, kept them going for a little while longer at least.

At crystal number thirteen, Octavia hacked away at the base of the crystal. It was all going well, and eventually the crystal gave. It snapped at the base, but as she went to catch it, she missed.

It slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor, hitting it with a clang that echoed throughout the cave and bounced along the walls. The sound was so loud that everything they had done since then paled in comparison to it hitting the rock on the floor. How that was the case, neither of them knew. All they could do was watch it bounce around while they held their hands over their ears.

It eventually came to a stop and the two dropped their hands. It was at this point they realised that they had enough and should probably move on.

That thought was further solidified as they heard a growl nearby.

Surprise hitting both of them at what it could be, they first looked the way they came, expecting to see a wolf or something. But all they saw was darkness. Even Octavia's vision showed nothing.

The growling grew loader and eventually the sound of rock moving against rock could be heard.

They had initially thought it was beast making the sound, but after hearing the rocks shifting, the worst-case scenario of a cave in cropped up in Octavia's head.

"We need to go!"

Picking up all their stuff, they headed down back the way they came, not even thinking to pick up the crystal that had dropped.

They sped down the narrow cave system which thankfully was not that long, and eventually made it back to where they had set up camp.

Looking around, nothing appeared to be moving. The entrance to the cave was as solidly build as it had been. The sound of the rocks shifting against each other continued, even though it was fainter than when they were deeper in the cave.

Not taking a risk, they got to work packing. To be even safer, they moved their gear outside of the cave, before they got to work with storing it all.

Rumbling and growling continued, and the shifting of rocks was joined by rocks hitting others.

Doing a rush job, they eventually managed to pack everything up and all they could do was look back at the cave in confusion. Nothing had collapsed. Nothing had moved. So, what had that sound came from.

*Growl*

That is until they saw the shadows shifting at the back of the cave, blocking the sparkling lights. What they saw answered all their questions. Although the answers it provided, were not ones they wanted to know.