Jumping Spelunking
You don’t know why you’re the one that has to decide this, but, you don’t know how fast this thing is or if you can outrun it proper. But you do NOT feel like sitting around and seeing if it’s a friendly dingo or a wild, savage animal that wants to try some kangaroo-slash-human meat.
“I guess the cave, then,” you say.
“Good choice,” Erin says. “C’mon, then.”
She starts jumping toward it and you follow suit. You hear the howl again, but, you try to ignore the sense of impending dread filling your stomach as the two of you leap up to the path that takes you into the cave’s maw. It’s way too dark for you to see how deep it goes, but, right now, you don’t care.
Seconds after you enter the cave, you find the air itself has chilled a lot - you can feel it is colder inside, and the air seems a little thicker, too.
You try not to let it bother you as you follow Erin deeper in, unsure of whether or not this will prove to be a good idea, or a horrible one. Her hopping slows, and so you slow as well. You end up moving at a slower, steadier pace.
The ground is soft beneath your furry, large feet, yet coarse to the touch. It’s not painful to feel, but, this, combined with the rocks jutting out at random points, and the myriad of pebbles and little dips you spot, means you need to be much more careful going forward. You don’t need to get impaled, or run into some thick rocky wall, or trip, or get your feet stuck… none of that.
“Eesh,” Erin says, quieter now, but audible enough for you. “I forgot how dark this bloody cave can be when the sun ain’t hitting it just right.” She grunts. “Piss. At least it ain’t so dark that we can’t see anything in front of us, but, watch your step all the same, yeah?”
“I assume you’ve been in here before?” you ask.
“Aye, a handful of times,” Erin replies.
“And… where does it lead?” you ask. “How big is it it, anyways?”
“No bloody clue,” Erin admits.
You stop then, and you look around. The cave is dimly lit enough that your eyes have adjusted to it, somewhat, but, you don’t exactly feel comfortable going into a big, dark, unknown cave when you don’t know where it goes.
“You don’t know?” you ask Erin, confused.
Erin pauses to look at you. Dark as it is, you can see her features enough to register the sheepish expression she’s giving you.
“To be honest, I… erm.” There’s a beat of silence as Erin groans. “I’ve only explored to a certain degree, okay? I always try to go deeper and deeper in each time, but I end up getting a bit freaked out, so, I’ve never really gotten to the end of it, if there even is one.”
You blink a few times. “Oh.”
“What?” Erin crosses her arms, and the image is admittedly humorous given the fact she’s in the form of a tall, bulky male kangaroo. “YOU try delving into a large, creepy, stinky cave on your own. Ain’t exactly something you can be prepared for in this state,” she gestures to herself and you, “and for all we know, the cave could be a dead-end. Or, it can have some big-arse hole in it that we fall to our deaths in. I haven’t been in the mind to test that out fully.”
You concede to this point with a nod. “Fair enough.”
“Look, we can take our time, for now,” Erin says. “And I know a good amount of this cave, so I can say without a shred of doubt that there’s gonna be a fork in the road coming up.” She points forward. “We can figure out how to proceed when we get there. Cave’s definitely going to mess with the dingo, either way.”
“Are you sure about that?” you ask. You don’t really know her, but, more than that, you don’t know if this is actually going to be beneficial. For all you know, your idea will get one or both of you caught by the dingo, especially if it turns out there’s a dead end just waiting for you to run into it.
She smirks. “Definitely. Take a whiff. Tell me what you smell.”
You frown at this, unsure of what that has to do with anything, but, you take her advice and do so - you breathe in deep, and you smell… you don’t know exactly, but your nose scrunches up as several less than pleasant odors hit your nose at once. The air is stale and musty, for sure, and you can smell the obvious odor of dankness, which all seem to meld together at once.
You make a noise of disgust.
“Stinks, don’t it?” Erin asks. “The cave reeks something fierce, but that’s a good thing. Means the dingo, whether or not it’s like us or a normal one, will have a harder time tracking us via smell. Deeper in we go, the better our chance is of losing the bugger. Now, let’s get moving, yeah? Hop to it, mate.”
You stare at her curiously. “Did… did you really…?”
She gives a grumble. “Yes, I did, I realized right when I said it.”
You smile at this, but, only briefly. Then it’s back to following Erin into the cave.
After a few minutes of slower, more cautious bouncing into the darkness of the cave, you come to another stop, only this time, it’s because you have found the ‘fork’ that Erin was referring to. Before you, the cave splits into three different paths, one that goes straight, one that goes left, and one that goes to the right.
“Which we do we go now?” you ask. You look from one to the other to the other. “These all look like they go different directions. How does that help us?”
“That’s the thing,” Erin replies. “I dunno which is the ‘best’ to go. But, it doesn’t really matter at this point, I’d say.” She nods to the splitting paths. “I’ve gone down all three at one point in time or another. All were safe for as far as I went into ‘em, so, that’s on our side. Thing is, we should be quick about picking where to go.” She eyes you thoughtfully. “What do you think?”
You furrow your brow and look from one path to the next. Three different choices, but you have no clue which is the right one to go down - you can’t tell where any of them lead, save for maybe the central path that goes straight.
Yet even that one is so dark, you don’t see what’s ahead. You only have Erin’s reassurance to work off of, and that’s it. So what way do you want to go?
Written by Hollowpages on 21 August 2020