After the luminous fungi cavern Söl wanted to rest. But it was not the place for it. He was on edge. One time he could dismiss the creature watching him, but twice was almost a pattern. The bay Courser made his way in the small passage carefully. It didn’t reach far but as he walked the walls went from harsh mountain side to carved out stone before it turned into a room. For a moment he sighed happily. Finally he could rest. He glanced around the small room and his eyes stopped at the other end. A big stone was against the wall. There were a few plants growing out of the cracks of the floor around it and it looked out of touch compared to the rest of the well carved room. But on top of the giant rock was an almost equally big toad.
It watched him carefully and Söl returned the glance. The toads' eyes were horizontal pupils. It did not look intelligent at a first glance, but given the way it was holding the long pipe between two of its fingers he figured it knew what it was doing.
The big toad sighed deeply before taking a long breath of his long pipe. A bit of smoke escaped through the gap of his lips as he took out the pipe.
“Who.” He let out the smoke completely. It swirled as it slowly reached the ceiling of the room. “Are you?” He finished the sentence.
Söl had to use every ounce of his strength to throw himself back into the room.
“I am Söl.” He answered the toad’s question but it simply shook its head.
“Who are you?” It said again and Söl could feel a pinch of irritation. He was none other than Söl. If this was a riddle it was a real bad one, he thought to himself.
“I am Söl.” The bay dun took a step forward.
“No.” The toad stood up on the rock. He looked even more menacing now. “I AM ASKING, WHO ARE YOU?” The toad said with a loud voice. It shook the room, it caused something wet and slimy to fall from the ceiling. Söl took an involuntary step backwards.
“I am me.” Söl said, barely conscious of how he spoke between breaths.The toad lifted his eyebrows. “I am cautious but I am brave.” The toad sat himself down. “I am the son of a caver and I am a caver myself. I am me.” The words seemed to have a mind of their own. They barely made any sense as he spoke to them but the toad had now laid back down on the rocks, it was nodding to itself as it took long drafts of the pipe.
“The deeper you go, the more you need to remember who you are. Down there, you can get lost. Your body. The shell that holds your soul. Keep it close, but keep your soul closer.” The toad blew out smoke, it hit Söl in his face and as he closed his eyes he couldn’t help but to cough. It felt as if the smoke was crawling into his lungs. He could see things that were just blurry enough to make out. He stayed in place as he waited for the smoke to disappear.
Suddenly the smoke started to disappear. It vanished quickly and Söl took a deep breath of the cave air. Never had he thought that there would be any smoke as welcomed and fantastic as surface air. Yet here he was breathing in cave air as if it was water on a sunny day.
He opened his eyes, they were teary but barely. It was as if the disappearing of the smoke caused the symptoms of the smoke to also disappear.
The toad was gone. The stone itself was also gone. The only evidence of its existence was the small plot of dirt with the small plants growing. It lacked growth in the space where the rock had been sitting. Behind where the toad had been there was a big opening in the wall.
Söl was quite sure that it had not been there before.
This experience was so much unlike all his earlier ones.
But rather than going back to the eyes that followed him Söl kept his eyes forward and walked onwards.