City of IF

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Chapter 3- Water in the hole!

Indecision gripped Rel as he fought over whether or not to go further into the cave. How can he even be sure that the voice was coming from there?

He needed proof before he did anything stupid. Quickly, he devised a simple way to check if the voice was coming from the Door or the tunnel. He would throw something, probably a stone, and see if there was a reply.

He could see no rocks around the smooth cave floor, which somewhat hindered this plan. A moment of contemplation later, however, an idea hit him. Walking rather briskly over to one of the many stalagmites, he wrapped his hands around the top of it, planted his feet as firmly as he could against the rock, and pulled.

The stalagmite was quite brittle, and the top broke off easily, sending Rel tumbling once again onto the cold hard floor. He got up, and now with a decent sized rock in hand; he proceeded to throw it into the misty apparition of the Door.

It flew in a wide arc, past the Door’s left, and shattered onto the ground with a loud crack. He had missed.

Cursing his luck and his lack of skill in throwing things, he retrieved another rock-tip, this time from a hanging stalactite. Instead of throwing from where he broke the stone off, he walked right in front of the Door, so that he would not miss again, and threw.

The projectile immediately vanished into the Door. Some dust and tiny pieces of grit came back through on his end, which he assumed to be from the rock hitting and breaking on whatever obstacle was on the other side. However, he had heard nothing that could be related to a breaking stone.

The voice from before started to giggle, in a way that was definitely feminine.

I was… haha… wondering what you were going to do with that rock, whoever was talking to him was obviously having trouble recovering from this fit of hysterics, Testing where I… hehe… where I am, eh? And here I was thinking I’d made it clear… If you still don’t know, I’m in this tunnel.

So his gut feeling was right. However, he couldn’t just go in there after having just found out where this person, or whatever it was, resided. He needed to check whether it was dangerous or not.

Breaking yet another piece of limestone from a stalagmite, he threw it, as hard as he could, into the tunnel.

This time the rock was aimed and thrown well, and it flew into the darkness of the cave, out of sight. A few seconds later a told him it had either hit a wall or the ground of the cave.

Hey! came the now indignant reply, That could’ve hit me! I didn’t tell you where I am for you to throw stuff at me!

The voice, despite its strange quality of seemingly coming from all directions, had the effect of making Rel feel guilty. He felt like he was still a child, and that he’d done something to upset a parent.

“S, Sorry,” he called rather meekly, “I didn’t… umm…”

I’ll forgive you if you help me out, interrupted the woman (for by now Rel was sure this person was female), I’m kind of stuck here.

The knowledge that someone was in need of help added a sense of urgency to Rel’s movements as he made his way in a wide semi-circle around the Door, and straight into the cave. The faint glow of the light passing through the Door wasn’t quite enough to light his way, so once again he was forced to use his sense of touch as a guide.

Thankfully, his hand did not encounter any more slimy plant growth, and the ground did not slope down too much, so it was almost a comfortable walk, if not for the fact that he couldn’t see.

A slight sense of fear, of going into the unknown, gripped him as he walked further down into the depths of the caverns. He had no idea what could be down here, and his imagination wasn't helping; images of reptilian horrors were making his legs weak and his steps awkward.

Then he was stopped abruptly as his hand reached what seemed to be a sudden turn in the rock. He flailed his arm around a bit, trying to find where the wall led off to, before realizing there was no point as he could simply feel his way on from where he left off.

After continuing to follow this and then ending up on the other side of the tunnel, he figured he’d reached a dead end. He was sure, though, that he should’ve found whoever was talking to him, or at least tripped over them.

Don’t go back out, called the voice, I’m on the dead end… Search higher.

Could this person be hanging up?, he thought. Somewhat confused, Rel nonetheless obeyed this strange advice, and reached up as high as he could, feeling for perhaps a foot.

After a minute or so he grabbed onto something, though it wasn’t a foot. In fact, judging by touch alone, Rel could tell it wasn’t even likely to be alive. It felt cold and smooth, like the handle of some sort of tool.

There you go, came the voice’s cry of excitement, Now pull me… here, it paused, pull it out!

Assuming it was a handle or lever of some sort, Rel applied as much of his weight as possible to it. The protruding object, whatever it was, didn’t budge.

I said pull it OUT, not pull it down.

Adjusting his footing so that he had one foot on the ground as an anchor, and one foot on the wall for more leverage, he pulled upon the strange object with all his strength. It slid out with a scrape on the rock, but the force of his own pull threw Rel onto the ground. The thing he had been pulling was now in his hand, accompanied by a spurt of water that drenched his face.

“Wha?”

Success! Now get out before the tunnel floods!

Too surprised to even protest, Relius scrambled back onto his feet and struggled to run back to the wide cavern with the Door. After a few slip ups and running face first into one of the side walls, he managed to put himself in the right direction, and sprinted as fast as he could back up.

He spotted the barely visible light of the Door high up in front, and ran like a fleeing rabbit. Behind him, echoing sounds of water falling on water suddenly changed into a deafening crash of granite on granite, which turned back into the sounds of liquid, albeit many times amplified.

That would be the sound of the cave wall collapsing. You might want to run a bit faster if you don’t want to end up a drowned corpse.

Sparing a glance behind him as he fled, he could tell despite the darkness that the body of water was catching up to him with unimaginable speeds. Turning his head back towards his goal, he prepared himself for a flat out sprint to the hole in the ground in which he had been so ungraciously deposited.

Unfortunately, whilst he was looking at the surging body of water behind him, he had covered nearly all the ground between himself and the Door in the cavern. Now unable to halt his momentum and turn, he prepared himself to use his arms to lessen the impact of the obstacle which he knew must surely be there, and continue up.

As expected, his fingers passed through the Door fine. Unexpectedly, the rest of him followed without a problem.

“Eh?”

That rather inarticulate expression was all Rel could manage before he passed through completely, and was thrust into a completely different place.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

There you go! The third chapter. If the HeadEater would kindly review this SG now. :)

Also, the DP is where, to as much detail as you can use, has Rel gone to? I know most location DPs aren't well liked, but if I went and expanded on this I don't think I'd have ended up with a satisfactory one.

[Crunchyfrog]

I wanna know about this voice!

Quote: There you go, came the voice’s cry of excitement, Now pull me… here, it paused, pull it out!

He's got this smooth handle-like object still in his hands, right? Was that what was talking? Wherever he's gone through this door, one of the first things he should do is examine this thing! I wonder if its proximity to the Door kind of 'unlocked' it somehow, allowing Rel to go through. Maybe it has some power over the randomness of the Doors. Or maybe it was the water... Hmmm.



For the DP - I'd like to stay with the water theme. With a tidal wave gushing towards the Door, it only makes sense that some of the water is flowing through. He's found himself inside a locked room, which is rapidly filling up with water that is flowing in through the Door. There's a window, right near the ceiling, and it is daylight outside.

[Head Eater]

Thisss ssstorygame isss worthy of the Fantasssy Foressst.

Congratulationssss!

[The White Blacksmith]

Congrats! And just so you know, I'm still keeping a word count on this. And still considering a time limit on how long you're allowed between chapters.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Thankee kindly. :D

I've thought over how he managed to go through the Door beforehand, and I assure you, it's got nothing to do with magic or the... *cough* object in his hand. It's slightly more logical than you may think, and from my point of view, quite humorous.

I like the idea of the locked room. I'd intended to do a bit of a slow moving chapter next and throw out some info, and let him examine this object. This DP option is giving me some good ideas.

And Whitey, a suggestion on the DP would be nice. :x

::EDITZ::

Added a paragraph or two to improve it.

And BTW, I'm surprised no one has flamed me as of yet for the horrible chapter title. Surely I'm not the only one who was disgusted by it? :?

[The White Blacksmith]

Where are the extra few paragraphs? I can't be bothered to get up and read through it again.

I didn't comment on that title because I didn't think I needed to. Surely even you are intelligent enough to notice that's not on?

And for the DP, I suggest it's a small fishing boat, with a fisherman in it wondering why a large door has appeared in the middle of his boat. And why a boy has just come through it. And why he can hear a mass of water rushing towards his small and breakable boat.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Everyone seems to like the water theme so far. Or maybe they just want to see Rel drown? :lol:

Anyhow, I'll aim to put up the poll some time in a week. I might throw in a couple of options of my own, too, if I can think of any.

[TruePurple]

In the middle of a crowded village center, people will be supicious of the strange creature that came with him. He won't have much to tell them. He'll have to figure out what to say and do.

Or perhaps in some freezing outdoor place, where he has to depend on her to save him.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Okay, I completely forgot, but here's the poll.

It was actually up a few hours ago, but I forgot to post about it.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Poll going down sometime tomorrow, as long as my internet connection doesn't throw a tantrum then.

When it's gone you can probably expect the chapter up soon (As in about-a-week soon), although that depends on my ideas and, once again, my internet.

::EDITZ::

And the poll is closed. Winning option is the locked room (This is more for my own benefit than yours; I don't want to forget which one it was).