The bay Courser with the simple dun markings walked through the corridor. It had slowly gone from dirty to soft and squishy. The moisture seemed to almost flow off the wall. The corridor of the dark and moist cave started to fall downwards. It wasn’t steep. The bay Courser could easily walk it down despite the fact that it was a wet, bare mountain under his hooves. He still took it slow. Söl could be careful, despite his curious nature. And a broken leg in a cave like this. He didn’t know when someone could be passing by next.
The corridor started expanding. It grew in size from its normal, thin corridor that couldn’t fit two of him to a corridor that could easily fit three of him with space to spare. He could barely see the wall on the opposite side of him and he clung to the side on his right until it made a stern turn. He could tell from the way the sound of his hooves hit the walls that the corridor had suddenly expanded into something much, much bigger. Söl stopped for a moment. Taking in the sudden drop in temperature and the sound of water dripping from the ceiling of the cave onto the surface of water. Söl tried to take in as much information as he could before he made it down the rest of the way to the water.
The water was still, and he knew better than to try and drink from it. Still water is bad water, his father used to say when they both ventured down the caves together. He looked down into the water. There was a small light on the opposite side of the big collection of water.
He slowly made his way over to it so that he could have a better look at both himself and his surroundings. The area around the water was cold, but the water itself seemed to almost steam upwards, collect on the ceiling and either drop back down to repeat the cycle again or to make its way down the side of the cave. He could see small dippers where the most water had travelled down the walls. It was made like rivers in the hard rock by the travelling water. Scoring deeply into it. The water had carved them roughly. He was sure that some water resistant animals were hiding between the cracks.
When he arrived at the light he looked down again into the previously dark water. He could now see colourful invertebrates looking back at him. Almost waving at him. He thought back to the jewelled beetles now calm in his bags and wondered if he could grab any of these small creatures as well. But he decided not. He was not prepared for water creatures, and maybe they could slightly survive being out of the water but he didn’t know. Maybe he would find his way back eventually. Then he could be prepared. He checked his equipment and the beetles. They, for the most part, were balled up and looking up at him. He made sure to drop some food down to see if they would eat. But they stayed balled up. Maybe they preferred to eat by themselves so he decided to focus on his other gear. To make sure that everything was ready to continue. He studied the invertebrates again when he had checked his gear for the second time, following them as they crawled on the ground underneath the surface of the water, occasionally clapping their claws together at him as if they could scare him away. As if their tiny claws could hurt him at all. He slowly rose and grabbed his gear. The dripping water was calming. And he could spend hours by the water. But it felt almost like a trap, as if eventually he would get so engulfed by the tranquillity that he would stop wanting to leave the cave and stay forever. He walked over to the exit of the cave. It wasn’t the same direction he came from. And he hoped he would find this little calm place again. But as he looked back before leaving the small creatures under the water followed him with their gazes. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination. But they looked disappointed. As if they had missed out on something. They wanted him to stay longer. Something might happen if he did. Söl did not want to find out what could happen and as he turned for the final time he decided to ignore the glints underneath the surface of the water that stared back at him like two big eyes. It was all in his imagination. And based on the size between the eyes, it could not follow him in the small corridor. If it was real.