《Breaking the Chains》Chapter 37: Rattling Chains
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Aegon looked up at the sky and then back at the hole.
[How is this so dark?] Aegon was completely astonished.
With his mouth gaping open he once again looked at the sky then down at the entrance.
[The light doesn't seem to enter at all, what the hell is this?]
After a few moments of looking up and down and making a complete fool of himself, Aegon let his curiosity get the better of him and took the first step into the cave.
His foot completely disappeared, he couldn't see it at all despite it being only a few centimeters in front of where it was before, Aegon panicked and took his foot right back out.
After thoroughly checking his foot he mustered his courage, extended his arm and put it through the invisible barrier of darkness.
He opened and closed his hand trying to see if there was any difficulty, there was none.
[If he lived here it’s probably safe.] Aegon thought of the alpha wolf.
Armed with that “insurance” the young man walked inside the cave and disappeared into its darkness.
He couldn't see anything up ahead but looking back towards the entrance he could see everything outside clearly.
[This is weird.]
Shrugging his shoulders he continued further down. In complete darkness it was both hard and easy to lose track of time, in the beginning Aegon looked back every five minutes, but he was actually looking back every thirty seconds but as he got used to it and started letting his mind wander about the possibilities this cave had to offer, he soon only looked back every ten minutes, yet in his mind only a few seconds had passed.
After an hour of this pattern he looked back towards the entrance and could only see a small, distant point of light threatening to disappear at any moment..
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[This is as far as I can go.]
Looking around one last time Aegon steeled himself.
[There’s probably nothing here or I would have found it by now.]
Turning on his feet he took his first step back towards the entrance but the rock he chose wasn’t stable and with Aegon’s weight it dislodged itself which made him tumble backwards into the darkness.
His body rolled sideways, picking up speed as he fell, his head, knees, back, arms, every part of his body was getting bruised.
With his mind in turmoil he could only think of shielding himself by curling into the fetal position, and although that lowered his pain and protected his vitals points it also had the side effect of making him roll even faster.
The rolling continued for a few more seconds, and while the whole ordeal only lasted a minute, to Aegon it seemed like an eternity.
It finally came to an end when he reached what he could only hope was the bottom.
[UGHHH, It hurts, everything just hurts…]
Paralyzed by pain, Aegon laid on the ground still in the fetal position.
[I think this is it.]
In a dangerous world people hoped to die a valiant’s death but sometimes they were destined for a more mundane demise.
[Dying from a fall.]
With a painful yet playful smile he added out loud.
“Dying of curiosity.”
“Maybe not today, little one. It’s your lucky day.” At that moment came a voice that seemed to speak directly from the darkness all around Aegon’s body, its powerful echo’s rebounded and assailed the ears.
A moment later, as if whispering, the voice added. ”Or maybe your unluckiest…..”
With every word Aegon felt a diminishment of his pain, and although he couldn't see it, his wounds were healing at an enormous rate..
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Yet his mind couldn't be happy about the matter.
[I’m fucking dead, i’m a dead man breathing…]
Feeling unresigned with what was happening and also paralyzed by his fear Aegon remained curled up in complete silence, hoping that perhaps this was all a bad nightmare, that maybe whatever had spoken before would think he was dead, alas in the real world problems don't go away by playing dead.
“You’re wasting time for both of us, I know you are not dead and you probably figured I'd known that.”
Aegon gritted his teeth, fear gripped his mind tightly, preventing him from moving but as he thought that staying still would lead to the same gruesome fate he mustered the bravery to slowly rise to his feet.
“Good, at least you didn't take too long.”
As the voice sounded once again Aegon stared ahead into the complete darkness that surrounded him, he tried his hardest to see something, grasping for any small information he could glean, grasping for straws clawing at any sense of control he thought he had over his life.
His thoughts were racing, thinking of everything but retaining nothing, to him time passed in a flash and at the same time awfully slowly, and during those agonizing moments a barely heardable clang of metal hitting metal froze those thoughts as well as his whole being.
More of those sounds echoed in the walls of the cave and at that moment Aegon finally saw something, ahead of him a bright gleam from a metallic surface broke through the impenetrable darkness.
As our hero focused on it, it moved, snaking away back into the darkness but in its place more links of equal brightness appeared and soon equally disappeared.
“It’s a chain.” Aegon absently murmured.
All around him the sound had changed from slight clangs of softly clashing metal, the walls now echoed a requiem born from the sound of crashing and dragging metal across the floor, from the sound one could tell that they were extremely heavy chains.
As the sounds began to fade, a bright red light shone from above Aegon’s view and when he looked up to its source, his knees lost their strength and collapsed, leaving him kneeling as if worshiping something.
Hundreds of meters above Aegon’s head, two deep red eyes shone ominously, looking at the measly human.
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