Part 10

Whilst Knight was stuck, confused by what had just unfolded right before his eyes, the girl had been taken away by another different giant.

After minutes of idle thoughts, Knight realised the uneasy serenity of the cave. ‘Somethings not right.’

The stench of rotting bone mixed with the soundless serenity sent a shiver down Knight’s body, tensing it as he stiffly stepped out of the indentation.

The only sign of life, or the only sign of death, were shattered bones, strewn across the cave floor.

Knight observed every nook and cranny of the cave just to make sure there wasn’t anything at all that could touch him. Although from, what he’s seen, there could very well be something lurking in the walls, something Knight didn’t want to think about.

‘Well, it looks clear. This is such pain but I’ll need to get back to mining in the place before a guard gets there, luckily the previous one is dead...though considering that the girl disappeared, she might have been taken back, meaning, another guard may already be there.’ He took a moment to ponder the possibilities, ‘well, they’re probably going to hurt me no matter what I do. Man, I really fucked up.’

After the realisation that he won’t be able to wiggle his way out of punishment, even if the guard he had attacked was now dead, he decided to return to the way he came; theorising that it was certain if he didn’t go back, after all, there was a chance they hadn’t even noticed he was gone so returning was definitely the better option.

He walked out of the etched-out room to the tunnel intersection: behind him was the mining room; the left and right were both curved offshoots; forward was the way back. Knight remembered that he had gone straight forward to reach the room, and proceeded that way.

The bizarre lights lit up the tunnel towards where he came from, although they were duller the further down the cave they got. Despite knowing that it was like this before, Knight couldn’t help feeling that it was brighter before; he couldn’t see the end.

“Wait” he muttered as he realised the light that previously adorned the ceiling of the right offshoot, now on the left of Knight, were gone, or, at least off. ‘No wonder it feels dimmer than before.’

Deciding not to think on what may be within that tunnel, he started his walk down the dimly lit tunnel, mindlessly kicking a pebble with his two arms tucked firmly inside his pockets (after forcing his dislocated arm inside with his left).

However, it wasn’t long before he stopped again. The pitch-black darkness had crept beside Knight; the lights had fully dimmed – there weren’t any lights left. ‘Something isn’t right...the lights weren’t all that bright but they were bright enough to light the path before...’ so, why was Knight encased in darkness?

“...” one thing Knight knew was that it wasn’t this dark when he entered. He turned around to gaze upon the distant white lights, ‘they feel a lot further away than when I first walked down this path. I can’t even see it’s that dark!’ He didn’t know what was up until, “The hell?” He had remembered that there should be lights shining in from the area he was mining at before he noticed this offshoot.

“Where the hell has it gone…?” He wondered out loud as he resumed walking, only able to as the tunnel was exactly straight.

Knight didn’t like this strange darkness. He pulled out the crystal ball hoping for it to light the way to the exit.

After the crystal finally lighting up, it illuminated the tunnel. It showed a dead-end a few metres in front.

Knight ran back, convinced he must have taken an offshoot by accident. However, he did not.

Confused, he ran back to the dead-end. It was undoubtedly where the exit to where Knight mined was. Yet, it was now blocked off by a natural wall.

Knight, thinking of the possibility of a trap, placed his hand on the wall.

“…!”

Well, that’s what he meant to do. Yet, he couldn’t feel the solid rock. His hand appeared to have gone through the rock. “An illusion?”

Intrigued by what he thought was an illusion, he crept forward,

Just like what happened with his hand, he felt no rock against his foot. The wall allowed his whole leg to go through. Knight was right, it was some sort of illusion.

However, Knight stopped himself from walking through. It could be a trap. It wasn’t there before so there had to be a reason for it. There could be guards waiting for him on the other side.

Despite the suggestion of a trap, Knight had no better option, discarding the other offshoots.

He got as close as possible to the conjured wall and slowly moved his head through.

“…!”

He immediately snapped his head back, running back towards the etched-out room. There were three creatures on the other side. Although they couldn’t have been waiting for Knight, they were looking the other way after all.

Maybe they had just got there and were wondering why he wasn’t there. Knight couldn’t tell if the girl was there but whatever the case, he wasn’t going back.