“Damn it Chris” I rubbed the back of my head where it had hit the stone ceiling. This tunnel was tighter than it had looked from the outside. Pointing my torch behind me I could see Chris’s teeth showing the massive grin on his face.
“Sorry dude, couldn’t help myself.” He chuckled and ran the butt of his flashlight down the wall again, making that eerie scraping sound that nearly turned my jeans from blue to brown. “See anything up there?”
“Looks like it opens in about 10 meters.” I palmed a pebble as we crawled forward, revenge was needed for the bruise on the back of my head. As I climbed out of the tunnel I clicked my flashlight to the less powerful wider beam to get a look around. From what I had read online this tunnel opened into a super cool cave with a lake at the back. We’d camped a little way from the cave entrance, having taken the best part of the day to hike here. The hike had been awesome, a bit of scottish woodland opening up into hills that we’d had to find our own way up. We’d done most of the most popular hikes across the UK by this point, resorting to hiking forums to find hidden gems.
Chris whistled as he came through the opening. “Nice find, think the lake is through there?” He pointed his torch through the opening at the end of the large cave section we were in.
“Must be. This cave is awesome!” I smiled as I scanned the walls. Mostly plant free, with some roots poking out the roof, the walls were yellow, maybe sandstone? It felt smooth under my hand. Seeing Chris had turned away and was looking at some tree roots I threw the pebble.
“Fuck!!” He jumped back looking around for what had touched him. Ducking my head I tried not to laugh but he was onto me. “You dick, even now?”
“Fair’s fair.” I chuckled, “Come on, let's find this lake.” Moving into the next section of cave I immediately noticed the walls change. The light reflected back from my torch making it hard to see what colour the walls were, walking over it looking like split flint, or maybe obsidian. Dark, glasslike and glossy. I could see the light reflecting off water and stone at the back of the cave. The floor was coated in thick green moss, almost spongy. For some reason the sight of the moss was weird, despite scotland being full of the stuff.
Chris moved forward before stopping before the water. “Yo this is sand!” He walked in a small circle leaving step prints in the black sand.
I picked some up before letting it run through my fingers, it was the finest sand I’d ever felt. “Think it’s the same stuff as the walls?”
“Must be.” Chris found a small stone and threw it into the lake. I scooped some of the water into my hands, it was crystal clear. I flopped onto my back, laying on my back and staring at the cavern roof.
“Aw Crap.” I looked up while Chris checked his pack. ”I forgot my camera. You ok here while I grab it?”
“OK? I’m great! This is awesome.” I lay on the moss as Chris went to leave. “We could even camp here, it's so soft!”
“Great shout, but that means you have to come with me to help carry everything.” Chris shouted from the tunnel entrance.
Sighing, I went to stand but the ground rumbled. Caught on my knees, I looked up to where Chris was pointing a torch back at me, eyes wide as dirt started to fall at the arch between the two caves.
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“Stay back!” I yelled as he went to come this way. No point in both of us being trapped. As soon as he’d stopped there was another shake, and boulders began to fall from the ceiling. I contemplated diving in the water but the thought of drowning wasn’t any better than being crushed. The noise was unlike anything I’d ever heard before, my body unfroze and I scrambled back towards the waters edge as more stones fell. Covering my head, stones pelted me as tremors shook through the cave, before slowly subsiding. Standing, I could see light from my torch shining through some cracks in the black stone hill that was now in front of me. Pushing them aside I picked it up and looked around. There was still some space in the cavern, but the arch between the two was blocked by a mound of blackstone and dirt.
“CAL!”
“Chris! You ok?” Light was showing at the top of the mound so I began climbing.
“Thank fuck man!” Chris had calmed but the stress was evident in his voice.
“Yeah, got lucky there, I could easily have been under that.” As I got to the top I could see the light had been bouncing through a small space, and peering through Chris was looking through the other side. The tunnel the light had come through was a couple of meters long and only a foot or so wide. Large rocks had jammed against each other, maybe even stopping the cave-in from getting worse.
“Think we can clear some of this?” He pulled at some of the rocks but succeeded only in pulling small chunks away.
“Do I look like Eddie Hall? Some of these must weigh a ton!” The joke was forced but better that than let the panic I felt set in.
Chris paused, looking back through the gap before a weak smile spread. “And your fat ass is never getting through this gap.”
“Ha Ha” I looked around. “Think we could clear this with some ropes or something?”
“Worth a shot. Though best to call mountain rescue, you ready to be on those terrible TV shows about the dangers of hiking?”
“At least this wasn’t exactly our fault. Yeah go call them, I’ll be alright here.”
“Ok bro, hang tight I’ll be back in like 20 minutes.” His head disappeared and I could hear him scrambling back down the other side of the mound.
Sighing, I turned back to the lake and clambered down the rocks. As I got to the lake shore my torch caught something I’d missed earlier. About 50 meters back over the lake was a huge cluster of stalactites. Most were around the same size, maybe a meter long but one was massive, easily three times the length of the others. The silence without Chris meant I could hear a faint dripping and shining my torch out with the focused beam I found where it was hitting the lake. Picking up a rock from the cave in, a chunk of flint or some other dark glasslike stone I aimed for where the ripples started and hurled the stone. As I threw it there was a stabbing pain in my hand. The sharp flint like rock had cut into my palm, leaving a long cut down my palm. Fortunately I wasn't an idiot and always hiked with a small first aid kit. This was the first time I’d actually needed it though.
Sitting on the moss I got it out of my bag and went to grab some gauze and a bandage. I noticed some blood had fallen onto the green moss below me. The contrast was startling. Suddenly I realised what felt off about the moss earlier. Don’t green plants need sunlight? I finished up wrapping my hands and stood.
A flash of blue lit the cave, seeming to pulse from where my blood had hit the stone. Honest to god runes lit the walls as pulses of light converged on the central stalactite, which seemed to be collecting the light. With every pulse I felt weaker and weaker. What the hell was going on? My head began to throb and my legs gave out.
Falling to my knees my hands splashed into the lake. I must have stepped forward at some point. The dark water was now being lit from below, symbols pulsing with blue light, and it felt as though blood was being pulled from my palm. The water around me grew cloudy as more of my blood mixed with the water, but I couldn’t stand. Looking up, the giant Stalactite burst with blue light and I felt a scorching pain before everything went dark.
