5 October 2012
I take a breath of damp, old air with a shudder.
The cave is damp, red walls press close to either side of my body. The salty dampness soaking through my clothes.
I edge sideways through the dark, listening intently to everything other than my heavy footsteps.
Silence throbs in my ears as I think of the sun setting outside this rock. It's red, fiery light dancing on the rust coloured stone.
The mist of the waterfall permeates everything, yet I'm so deep in this cave its roar can no longer be heard.
I miss the light.
I miss the noise and the chaos of the world outside. Even time seems different in here as I slip ever closer to the soul of the earth.
Deep inside this mountain of red rock, I take another breath.
The walls are even closer.
It that even possible?
My eyes are blind to the cold wall in front of my face, my hand feels out at the side. I feel a cave spider scuttle away from my approaching fingers.
And then, suddenly, the narrow passage opens out - I stumble from its confines, blinking in the sudden blue-green light.
A pool stretches out, a pale mirror on a world exposed by a single beam of fading, red light.
I look up -
They are still here; great leathery wings rustling in anticipation. Beady orange eyes look down at the stranger in their cavern.
I barely have time to blink again before the ceiling explodes in a flurry of brown-fur and black wings.
The colony move off as one, whizzing past my ears and out into the coming twilight.
Inside Mt. Red Rock • Opuss № I