The Fickle Winds of Autumn

“We can’t just leave you here!” Kira said.

“No,” said Ellis, “we just need to rest a short while and try to think - my arms are still aching from all that crawling anyway - we just need a moment.”

Kira flopped back down to the dejected cavern floor and gasped into the miserable dark. Ellis scrunched down near her.

“Mmmh,” Aldwyn complained, “I had hoped with all the meals we’ve missed recently, I would have been slim enough to get through.”

“Well, your diet hasn’t worked,” Ellis said, “so we’ll have to think of something else.”

“Yes, we’re in no hurry,” Kira added. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

“That’s easy for you to say!” Aldwyn replied. “Your old bones are not the ones wedged fast in here!”

Kira drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees.

Surely there was some way to help Aldwyn?

It didn’t seem fair to have come all that way just for him to be stuck now.

She flexed her ankle.

Her foot wobbled and dislodged the shadowy weight of a loose stone; a gritty rumble echoed around the cavern.

“Wait!” she said. “There’s a rock just down here by my feet - perhaps we could use it to chip away at the gap and make it a bit bigger for you, Aldwyn?”

“Good thinking!” said Ellis. “There are plenty near me too - I’ll hack away from this side and you try the other.”

Kira stood and groped for the rock; she lifted it with both hands. Her body seemed refreshed from its recent ordeals, her energy somehow renewed - perhaps the brief respite of sitting down had helped her - or perhaps the kind words of Ellis had spurred her on.

She had never managed to have a good idea before - all of her ideas until then had been thoroughly bad ones - as the ever-watchful nuns had been keen to assure her - and the dark of the cave seemed slightly brighter beneath the glow of this complement.

“You’d better try to protect your eyes, Aldwyn,” she said. “Cover them with your hands if you can.”

She lifted the stone to her head, and brought it down sharply on the lip of the crevice, as close to Aldwyn as she dared. A loud echoing boom shuddered out and filled the cavern; a dry, clattering skitter tumbled near her feet.

The noise suggested that several smaller flakes of stone had been removed.

Her wary fingers rubbed along the edge of the rock opening - the sharp stone rim was smoother and wider than before.

“It’s working Aldwyn!” she said. “A bit broke off!”

Ellis thudded and hammered on the other side of the fissure; the reverberations of his efforts thundered through the cold darkness.

“Yes,” he agreed, “we’ll soon have you out of there now!”

Kira bashed at the rock again; her fragile hands vibrated from the jolting blows; her arms burned and ached in their exhaustion; the resilient stone thumped and fractured and echoed.

She toiled through the determined darkness. Aldwyn was depending on her; she battled through the weary fatigue - she would not abandon her friend - not now - not when there was a possibility, a hope, of exit from the gloomy prison that had snared and stifled them for so long.

The shattered fragments of rock crumpled and bounced to the rattling ground; the thick darkness seemed alive with the percussive pounding.

“Wait!” said Aldwyn. “I felt the rock shift just then - it seems a bit looser around me now - try pulling me out again.”

Kira’s grateful hands dropped the hefty rock; it thudded to the ground; the stabbing echo recoiled across the darkness, then the ominous silence stalked the cavern once more.

She felt for Aldwyn’s wrinkled hand.

“Pull!” said Ellis.

She leant backwards; Aldwyn’s weight writhed and shook in her straining fingers; she pulled and stepped away from the cavern wall; Aldwyn’s arm travelled with her; Ellis gasped, his boots crunched.

“It’s working!” said Aldwyn. “Keep pulling!”

Kira drove her resolute feet down and heaved again; she manoeuvred away from the crevice opening.

A sudden rasping rattle of Aldwyn’s boots surprised her; his weight thudded into her startled body and knocked her to the hard, unforgiving ground; his heavy frame thumped down on top of her and pinned her to the cold, lumpy floor.

“Ow!” grumbled Aldwyn. “My poor old bones can’t take much more of this type of treatment!”

“Now you know how it feels to be a cork in a flagon of old Mr Mulwort’s cyder!” Ellis laughed.

“Well,” Aldwyn replied, “it’s one way to get out, I suppose. And I’m still alive, at least.”

The frigid stones jabbed and dug into Kira’s uncomfortable body; Aldwyn’s oppressive weight trapped her legs. The peculiar sound of laughter in such bleak surroundings jarred and clashed and pleased her. An alleviating calm eased through her; she lay still and gulped down the air, glad that they were all together, and of the chance for a rest.

Aldwyn’s bulk moved and lifted up from her.

“Thank you for catching me Kira,” he said. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever squeeze through that gap.”

“Well, we could hardly just leave you there!” said Ellis.

“Oh! My legs and shoulders!” Aldwyn continued. “I never thought I would appreciate just being able to stand up straight!”

“Yes, it feels strange to begin with,” Kira agreed. “I can just about feel the blood returning to my legs now!”

“Is it just me,” Aldwyn asked, “or has anyone else noticed that smell?”

“Yes, we both keep catching a sniff of it,” said Kira. “It might be faint, but it’s still unpleasant, whatever it is.”

“And that rustling noise,” Aldwyn said, “can you both hear that too? Or are my old ears playing tricks on me?”

“We hear it too,” said Ellis.

“Perhaps it’s the wind outside,” Kira suggested, “or water or something - but we could be very near an exit.”

“Well, for the sake of my old bones, I hope you’re right about that,” said Aldwyn. “But for now, we should still proceed with caution - it’s still completely black in here, so we don’t know what hazards may yet await us. I’ll get my tunic back on, then we should keep moving - but take our time and try not to take any risks.”

Kira levered herself up and patted the debris from her clothes.

The dirt and grit, which had caked onto her eyelids from grubbing along the tunnel floor, stung and irritated.

Her weary legs were not keen to walk - but the sound of her companions’ shallow footsteps encouraged her forward. She pushed her arms out, towards the immense, unquenchable darkness, and staggered and wobbled across the unwieldy, uneven ground.

Her feet refused to move with any clarity or precision; they scraped and scratched across a shifting carpet of lumps and bumps.

The shuffling echoes and disturbances of Aldwyn and Ellis moved alongside her; she was pleased to have company - and to be able to walk upright - but was not certain if she regretted the loss of her responsibility for leading the way.

The thick, musty odour gathered more strongly in her nostrils; the whispering, buzzing rattle grew hazily louder and more frequent.

Perhaps it was another waterfall after all?

Perhaps the rumbling echo of the cavern had deceived her ears?

If so, they could be near an exit - they could be nearly safe!

Her clumsy foot slipped; she staggered heavily to the side; something on the floor shattered beneath her lurching weight. A garish crack echoed and fractured across the dark stillness; she froze to the spot; her heart raced and recovered.

The fierce reverberation died away to the black, motionless hush.

“Are you all right Kira?” Ellis whispered.

“Yes, I’m fine - I think,” she replied.

“What happened?” Aldwyn asked.

“I don’t know,” Kira said. “Something snapped under me.”

She bent down into the inscrutable blackness. Her fingers scrabbled about on the floor by her wayward foot; they brushed across a long, smooth object, perhaps the length of her own arm, with shallow, curving grooves at either end.

“I think it might be some sort of bone,” she said tentatively.

Aldwyn’s shuffling gait moved nearer to her. She picked the object up and handed it to where she hoped he might be.

“Here, what do you think, Aldwyn?” she asked.

“Yes, definitely a bone of some sort,” he confirmed. “Perhaps the femur of a horse or even a large ox, in my estimation.”

“So these things were walking over - they’re bones, you think?” said Ellis.

A rummaging, scratching sound came from around Aldwyn’s feet.

“It seems a reasonable assumption,” he said.

“But how did they all get here?” Kira asked. Her rushing pulse already seemed to fear the answer.

“Well,” Aldwyn replied in hushed tones, “evidently this was the cave of some sort of animal, and these are the remains of its meals.”

“Do you think it’s still in here?” asked Ellis.

“I’m not sure,” Aldwyn replied. “We should move cautiously and make as little noise as possible - but we also need to get out of here as quickly as we can - just in case.”

An anxious shiver ran through Kira; the ominous, lurking blackness gathered more closely about her; she peered out into its thick, forbidding depths with more urgency - they must escape before their remains could be added to the covering of bones beneath her feet. The vague rustling noise had ceased and refused to break the painful silence.

Aldwyn and Ellis shuffled and scratched their way forward.

“Wait!” she whispered - the menacing, hungry darkness stole the volume from her voice.

“It’s difficult to tell after so long in these tunnels, but can you see - it seems to be a little lighter just up ahead there - over to our left?”

“I can’t see anything,” said Ellis.

“My old eyes are much too weak to see in this gloom,” Aldwyn added. “But if you can see something, then I think we should head towards it.”

Kira shuffled forward; her arms and feet groped through the dense, obscure atmosphere.

She must not to make a sound.

She must not reveal their presence to some dreadful, unknown predator.

The foul smell grew stronger and curdled about her; the voiceless, restless hum started again and echoed out to her - more constant and insistent than before.

Her eyes squinted deeper into the sombre, stalking darkness; they seemed to trace the silhouetted edges of a cavern wall.

Perhaps it was a corner - a steep bend in the cave, faintly illuminated from behind by a distant source of light - an exit?

Her thoughts reeled and rushed - the warmth of a fire - food and water and freedom from the sinister, crushing rock.

Or perhaps the cramped, weary days in the tunnel had tricked her eyes into the folly of hope?

The brittle bones crunched and fractured beneath her slow, cautious feet.

Taut anxiety prickled across her skin.

Perhaps it was still there?

The killer - the bone-maker?

Waiting for her in the cowering blackness?

Did every step take her closer to an exit - or closer to its deadly, unseen jaws?

The nuns had often warned about her over-active imagination.

Perhaps they had been right?

She must fight through these fears and this smothering darkness.

She must keep walking and get out.

She must lead the others to safety.

The distant, rustling drone bubbled louder; the rank, putrid odour clotted and deepened about her.

Her tired arms and feet shuffled forward and struggled through her trembling apprehension; the quivering, rushing blood pulsed through her ears.

A sudden, piercing stab stung the back of her right hand. The sharp, cutting shock jolted along her arm. She jerked it back to her chest and tried to stifle her cry, but a painful yelp escaped through her panicked lips.

She wrung her hand and pressed it to her mouth; her tongue tasted the salty blood.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked Ellis.

“Something just bit my hand,” she said.