Chapter 3: Over a Thousand Years (1/2)
Drip, Drip, Drip,
”Arghh... urg... Mhm... my head, what's going on? why does it hurt so much...
why does it feel like I just walked out of a furnace? what happened to me?...
Where am I?
What is this place?”
As the water drops fell on his forehead, he slowly opened his eyes trying to take in his surroundings, the place was dark and it felt a little damp and gloomy. He blinked a few times as he couldn't process the information his eyes were sending his throbbing brain.
After adapting to the dark and damp environment, he was able to see quite well in the dark, he turned his head left then right and took in his surroundings, trying his best to hold back the pain he was feeling all over his body. There were grayish-brown rocks all around him it looked like he was in a crater underground or in some kind of cave, or maybe it was the bottom of a dried-up lake located underground, he really couldn't tell.
Looking up at the ceiling it was just the same Rocky soil as the grayish-brown rocks around him, 'Did I fall...' he wasn't sure what happened to him.
After some time spent in observation, he closed his eyes and took deep breaths in preparation for what he was about to do next. He then fought through the pain and started to move, he wanted to get up, the pain he felt had gotten a lot more bearable, it wasn't as bad as when he had first woken up.
After finally pulling himself off the ground staggered a bit, he started to walk, he aimed to leave this place, there was nothing down here but rocks. He took a step and was surprised by how light his feet were, his body had felt like a ton of bricks only a moment ago, he continued his movement as he approached the wall.
The only opening he had found during his observations was a few meters above the ground, vines or roots were growing on the walls, almost like this was somewhere underneath a Forest. He was not in a cave or pit, it looked like there used to be some kind of lake here or maybe an underground spring, but it had obviously dried up.
He took one more looked around after getting to the wall and placed his right hand on a vine. 'An underground lake huh, how did I get here___ Ouch ouch ouch... my head hurts, it's a little hard to breathe down here, I can't even think properly, I should first get out of here before I think of anything else.' He started climbing the walls using the vines as rope, lucky for him they were quite sturdy. He climbed up to the crack in the wall he had noticed earlier on and found himself in a very narrow tunnel, it wasn't large enough for him to stand or crouch he had to get on all fours, so he started crawling.
After a while the tunnel started broadening, it had gotten a little bigger, enough for him to no longer be on all fours, as he slowly got up and started to walk, the tunnel seems to slant slightly upwards which he thought was a good thing. The pain he felt was now getting better, the air was getting better as well, there were no odors or smells almost as if his nose wasn't working and he could not pick up on any scent. He didn't think about it too much as his only priority was getting out, he had seen some other openings in the tunnel that lead who knows where. He decided to trust his sense of direction as he felt he had a good one, and also take the part that leads upwards.
It's been more than an hour already and he hadn't seen a change yet, the tunnel looked the same since he started walking on his feet.
He was starting to doubt his sense of direction, but at the moment something else was going through his mind.
'My head still hurts quite a bit, but my body feels fine now, how long have I been walking for now, yet I don't feel a bit of fatigue. I must have quite a lot of stamina, hee hee, in more ways than one aha haha... sigh, I'm an idiot, I should focus.' after amusing himself in thought he started to walk faster.
Two hours later he finally saw light, he had broken into a jog for some reason in the last hour or so. He then climbed out of the tunnel, the exit was steep but fortunately, there were more vines here, unlike the tunnel.
The first thing he saw was the big bright moon, the moon lit up the area almost as well as the sun did at day. Taking a moment to adjust his sight he felt a cool breeze, it blew past him and touched his entire body, yes, it touched everything... that's when it hit him, he had finally realized that something precious was dangling in the wind____ he was naked.
Feeling a bit embarrassed he frantically looked around, luckily there was no one there 'Phew... that would've been embarrassing.' After his sigh of relief, he started to look around again, in a more composed manner, his eyes widened as he took in his new environment. There were trees all around him, it seems to be a forest with incredibly tall trees and strange vegetation around him but even with the height of these trees he could still see that there was a building at a distance to the east (Or what he assumed was east) it looked to be some sort of castle. After organizing his thoughts he decided to head for the castle if just to get some damn clothes.
Now that he was finally out of the tunnel he could breathe much better and his sense of smell seemed to have returned, his headache was milder now so he could now think clearly. As he walked towards the castle he started to think about who he was and how he ended up underground, he couldn't remember much but he finally remembered something, his name.
Tyler Falls, but he still couldn't remember what happened to him or how he got to that dried-up spring or lake. After more than 30 minutes of walking, he saw the entrance/exit of the forest, there were strange large birds perched up in the tall trees at the entrance/exit watching him. Apart from some strange insects, he hadn't seen any other living being on his way. He finally came out of the forest and saw the castle some distance away, the castle was insanely large and wide, it looked like the size of several football stadiums, although it was hardly noticeable Tyler could see the outer walls were partially destroyed.