1. |
The White Centipede
02:00
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You have walked in near-silence for a time. Only the echoes of your footsteps, the dripping of water, and the crackle of the torch accompany your breathing. The cave forks, and you are past the area of your map now. After looking around, with some relief, you spot on the wall of one fork an Old World glyph for “wheat” chiseled into the rock. That must be the right way!
Suddenly, you begin to hear, in the distance, a sound of something large skittering – and the sound approaches. It’s difficult to tell where it is coming from: the way you came? The other fork? You have to guess one, and hope.
You move a little ways further down the marked passage, and flatten yourself against the wall. The sound grows rapidly louder, and, at least, definitely isn’t coming from the way you are going.
Finally, an eyeless head, pearly-white with feathery antennae and vicious mandibles, comes into view – it is fully the size of a dog. The head is quickly is followed by a chain of chitinous segments, each with a pair of legs moving in a blur. It is coming from the other fork, and is going down the passage you came from! You breathe finally – safe for now, but on your guard.
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2. |
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“Tea?,” asks the Sage, and you can only nod. Their four fingers grip the handle of the cast-iron teapot, while with another paw they tilt it upward to pour chalk-coloured tea into your cup. You sniff it dubiously, but it has a pleasant scent, spicy and earthy, and you take a cautious sip.
They pour their own cup, and drink with deliberation, avoiding wetting whiskers or fur. “What brings you to my storehouse, then?” Then they listen, little furry ears turned towards you, while you explain.
At the end they jump up from the chair with enthusiasm. “I have seeds for these circumstances! Let’s see, four-one-five bee, why seven sea...”. Bemused, you follow them as they dash to a one and then another of a long row metallic containers set into the wall. Their short tail twitches impatiently as each one hums like a person, and opens up by itself. Your shiver is only in part from the draft of icy air that emerges, and part pure dread: sorcery here, for certain. Benevolent, you hope.
Finally there is a heavy burlap bag of seeds in your hands, and words of advice in your head. When you ask about payment, the Sage smooths their whiskers in what seems to be embarrassment. “It is, after all,” they say, “why this place was put here. And why I came here.”
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3. |
Below the Deepest Roots
01:32
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Though you have reached your goal, and a bag of the Sage’s seeds is safely in your pack, it is impossible to go back the way you come. The white centipede waits, ravenous and tireless: you don’t feel you have the strength to elude it a second time, not while climbing upwards.
No going back, so you must go deeper. Bidding the Sage thanks and farewell, you continue downwards. A long, long spiral staircase takes you to a great cavern, stalactites and stalagmites filling it like teeth. A path meanders through the stalagmites and as you tread it cautiously, the cavern narrows, and your torch illuminates only a cramped passageway – winding even farther down into the earth.
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4. |
A Shard of Daylight
02:18
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You are lost. The caves twist and turn, the darkness deepens. Your torch dims. After some unmeasurable amount of wandering, you sit on the cave floor in despair, wedging the torch into a rock crevice. Idly, you take out the bag of seeds. Letting them slide through your fingers, you lament that not only will you become another skeleton down here in the depths, but your village’s chances of a decent harvest are next to nothing.
As you toy with the seeds, something makes you sit up. One flattened oval seed, a little larger than the others, is definitely emitting light – an orange light like the last of a setting sun. You cup it in your hands to make sure it isn’t just reflected torchlight.
With this tiny bit of hope – at least you may be able to keep going after your torch dies – you keep moving, the seed held tight in your fist. Some time later, you pause from setting one foot in front of the other, and you realize the seed’s light is noticeably brighter and yellower than it was.
You walk faster now that you can follow the seed’s guidance: go where it brightens, avoid where it dims. Hours later, your throat parched, you are overjoyed to see a matching glimmer ahead and above you – real daylight. You don’t know where you will emerge, but you are sure you can find your way home from there, seeds in hand, your quest a success.
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Aliivibrio Madison, Wisconsin
".. I don't really like it, it's unsettling, it's painful, it's crazy ... but you know I kind of liked that one bit where something went eeeoooooo-bwangg! - it really got to me, you know?"
- Ursula K. LeGuin, "The Stone Ax and the Muskoxen"
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