You look down at Alia and Max, already propelled down to the bottom of the first cave. Your feet propped on the wall, you lean back holding onto the rope. You look out of the entrance of the cave above you and see the faint shimmer of daylight creeping in.
You knew you'd be anxious your first time, but not this much. You begin to have second thoughts.
Propel down to your friends?
[[yes]]
[[no]]You take a deep breath in and propel down.
[[>>>]]You look at your friends one more time.
"I'm sorry. I can't! It's too scary. I'll just meet you guys at the Papa Johns later."
(END)Your feet hit the floor of the cave, switching your headlamp on, you look around.
To your left is a winding tunnel. Your friends begin down the tunnel, their headlamps illuminating the way.
[[Follow them]]"It's so cold!" you say to one of your friends.
Max looks at you and laughs. "I told you it wouldn't be the coziest outing we've had! But it'll be fun. I promise, just keep following me."
[[continue]]Cave spelunking did sound fun when they brought it up. But this? It's just cold and wet down here. What's the fun in this?
Bringing up the rear, your mind starts to [[wander]]. You try not to focus on the cold or the eerie atmosphere of the cave and instead on the Papa Johns outing that will follow after this "adventure" is over.You think about that double stuff crust pizza you're gonna get.
Mmmm...
Wow. You realize how hungry you are. You [[think]] about what side you'll get with it...The toe of your book catches on an uneven part of the cave floor and you trip forward.
[[Put your arms out to brace your fall]]
[[Take it like a champ and embrace gravity]]You thrust out your arms at the last second, your palms ready to brace your fall.
They hit the ground and slip on the wet surface, grating against your skin and pulling some off in the process[[...]]You let yourself go limp and let gravity take it's course.
Is this the [[end]]?"Ow! Son of a b-"
"Are you okay?" Alia asks, doubling back to you and kneeling on the ground beside you.
You look up, embarassed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. My hands are just a bit scraped up."
"Let me see." She takes your hands in hers and winces at the sight of them.
She wraps them in bandages and your other two friends laugh a bit.
"I know it was your first time cave spelunking, but is it your first time walking too?" Max jokes.
You roll your eyes and laugh but you're still embarrassed you took such a hard fall in front of your [[friends.]]
"Well don't let me slow you guys down, let's keep going!" you [[Suggest to keep going]].No it's not. Don't be stupid, you just tripped.
But something peculiar does happen...
You're suddenly stopped from falling, your backpack snagged on something jutting out from the cave wall. You try to wiggle yourself loose to no avail. You look forward and see your friends headlamps continue without you, they havent heard you trip and get stuck.
You [[call]] out."Hey guys! Wait! I got stuck on something."
Alia doubles back for you.
[[>>]]"Wow. How'd you manage to get snagged on... what is this?" Your friend walks past you to see what your backpack has gotten stuck on.
You're annoyed. "Just unhook it, will you?" You think to yourself.
"Woah, it looks like an old sword! That's crazy!" She says, shaking your backpack loose and getting you unsnagged.
"What? Why would there be a sword down here? I've been down here a hundred times and I've never seen a sword there before." Your friend who invited you to come along says.
"Maybe you just never noticed it before." You suggest.
[[Suggest pulling it out]]
[[Suggest to keep going]]
"Let's try and pull it out!" You say to your friends.
"Ait [[bet]]." Max says.
You and your friends keep walking. You don't want to disturb anything in the cave systems and all agreed it's best to leave things as you found them.
You continue onwards [[into the darkness]].You go to pull out the sword but so does your first friend.
"What are you doing?" He says to you.
"I'm gonna pull the sword out. What does it look like?"
"You think you're strong enough to pull a sword out of a stone wall? You can't even bench more than like 30 lbs." Max responds.
"Max you don't even know what a benchpress is." Alia retorts.
[[Prove to Max how much you can benchpress]]
[[Pull out the sword]]
[[Let Max pull out the sword]]"Ay man you really wana go there? I bet I can benchpress you right now!!" You threaten.
You lie down and motion for Max to lay perpendicular on top of you.
"You want to benchpress me?" He asks, baffled.
"Yeah let's go right now!!"
"You guys are so stupid. I'll pull it out myself." [[Alia]] says.You pull and pull at the sword, trying with all your might.
But you can't pull it out.
[[Let Max pull out the sword]]
Let [[Alia]] pull out the sword"Yeah didn't think you could do it. Let me take care of it, I bench like 380. And that's just as a warm up." Max says.
He walks up to the sword and pulls and pulls at the sword. It doesn't budge at all.
[[Alia]] rolls her eyes.Alia walks up to the sword and pulls on the hilt, which is the only visible part of the sword.
With ease, she slides the sword out of the wall and reveals its metal blade.
[[>>>>]]You, Max, and Simon stare in shock. Alia holds up the sword. The hilt is crusty and covered in dirt and debris, but the blade is somehow clean and shiny, reflecting the light of your headlamps and glistening.
You [[look closer]].You take a closer look at the blade. You notice something is inscribed into the metal.
[[Read the blade]]Your group walks for a long time. Your feet starts to hurt but you enjoy the quiet of the cave system. Maybe this is sort of fun.
You come upon a fork in the path. Max asks which way you want to go, you're the rookie so you get to decide.
[[Left]]
[[Right]]"It says something on it... it looks like it says -" you start to read but your Alia cuts you off.
"Pass go and collect $200?"
[[?]]"Let's [[go ]]. I'm left handed so I like what's familiar.""Let's [[go ]]right. I'm right handed so I like what's familiar."You walk forward and realize both path's looped to the same spot.
You think that's some kind of metaphor...
Maybe about life..
or the futility of [[choice]]
Do you really have a choice or is everything predetermined and there's only an //illusion// of choice?But you don't care much about that.
You [[continue forward]].
You and your friends continue down the tunnel. Walking a bit further you encounter a sudden sharp turn to the left, descending even deeper into the earth.
Your friends want to go down but it gives you an eerie feeling.
[[Descend further down]]
[[Turn back]]Are you sure you want to go down?
[[Go down]]
[[Turn back]]You talk to your friends and eventually convince them not to go down the eerire tunnel.
You all decide to call it a day and [[turn back]].You take a deep breath and descend down into the cave, praying none of your headlights go out[[....]]Once you've all exited the cave system, you are thrilled to feel the sunlight on your face again. The experience was interesting, but caves just aren't your cup of tea.
You and your friends head off to the nearest Papa John's to commemorate your excursion together.
ENDThe tunnel is narrow. //Very// narrow. It makes you feel claustrophobic, somehow even more than before.
Max is leading the way with Alia in between you as you bring up the rear so you can't really see ahead.
[[Ask Max what he sees]]
[[Keep going]]"Max! What's up ahead?" you ask.
"Woah! I'm glad you said something. I was looking down and almost smacked my head into a hanging rock... didn't even notice it. Looks like there's some kind of light coming from the end of the tunnel, though. That'd odd..." Max responds, ducking underneath the rock.
You and Alia [[follow]], the tunnel getting even more narrow and the walls seeming to close in on you.You all continue walking a bit further until you hear a loud //thud// and then Max yelp in pain.
"Ow! Damnit. I didn't see that rock there. Jeez I really hit my head good..." Max says sitting down on the ground rubbing the spot he smacked.
"Wow you both keep getting hurt.. First your hands and now Max's head... Maybe we should just call it a day and [[head back]]." Alia says.Max continues forward, Alia following suit and as you trail behind, they started to get out of your line of sight, the light from the end of the tunnel shinning brighter and brighter.
What could be at the end of the tunnel?
[[You continue through to the end of the tunnel.]]Max's head is only bleeding a little, but you can tell it really hurt a lot, so you all decide it's time to [[turn back]].
Besides, who need's medical attention when you have a lil bit of Papa John's deep dish pizza?Max and Alia step out, not saying a thing at what they see once they step out.
The end of the tunnel is narrow, you are almost crawling, hunched over to see what could be there emanating this light. You know it can't be daylight, so what is it?
You stand up next to Alia and look around you.
You are [[amazed at what you see.]]All around you are (text-colour:cyan)[small, glowing, blue lights].
You can't think. You are just in awe. It's almost as if the night sky has been stuck to the ceiling of the cave.
You look a bit closer, wondering what they are exactly[[..]]You realize they are glowworms! Stuck all around the cave, lighting it up in the darkest crevices.
You switch off your headlamp, and so do your friends. You sit down and look around in awe at the [[beauty of nature.]]
You smile. Your heart feels light, and at ease. Even though the tunnel to get here was eerie and cramped, it brought you to such a beautiful place.You start to understand the beauty of the world around you.
In the end you're [[happy you got outside today]], especially with your friends. You're thankful for the adventure.(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[END.]
Upon further inspection, you all realize it's obviously not a real sword. The metal is dinky and it's inscribed with a phrase from Monopoly. No wonder it was so clean.
"Well that was really disappointing.." Alia says.
"Yeah a bit. But at least we have a sword now. That's kind of a flex I guess." You say.
"I wish we all had swords though, that would be pretty hype." Max says.
[[Wish for more swords]]"Yeah I wish we all had swords too. That would be cool. Here, Max you can have mine." You say, offering the sword to him.
"Thanks!" He says, gratefully taking it.
You step forward to hand it to him, and then step back to where you were standing, in the process hitting your head on [[something behind you.]]"Ow! What the heck was that?" You say, rubbing your head and turning around to see.
Behind you is[[.....]]...[[another sword]]...
in the same place the one you just pulled out was..
"What in the world?" Alia says, pushing you aside to look at the newly protruding hilt. Tentatively, she pulls it out and observes it.
There's no inscription on this one, but it looks similar to the other one, a clean smooth blade with a dusty hilt.You and Max gather around her to observe it, wondering how suddenly another sword just magically appeared in the same spot and no one noticed a thing.
"Well that's ... weird." You say.
Suddenly, another sword //*shinks*// out of the wall, everyone jolts and jumps back in [[surprise.]]Now each of you has a sword. It seems your wish has come true!
Weirded out by all of the occurences, and now decked with swords, you decide to [[turn back]]. Best not to mess with the magical caves.