So Fonce .. There is this Cavern

... ah fuck

so sahli is not sahli
or so I am told
and the answer rests deep
in the darkness and cold

so come into the light
through the portal of hell
turn the key in the lock
if you want them to tell

all their secrets and lies
to one such as you
but do not attempt
if your soul is not true

or they'll tear you asunder
and rip you apart
they want to be free
even if through your heart

but if you are brave
and your courage is real
come along with me now
as we start to reveal ...


T'zuri and I arrived at the main fires and Sahli walked right up to me and told me he needed to speak to me. Now .. I am not the big bad Ubar person and a lot of people do not treat me like the Ubar which is fine with me .. I am not really the kind of guy that is into all the saluting and bowing and kissing of ass that comes with the position. In fact a lot of people talk shit about me at my own main fires and I have never punished any of them for their disrespect of me or of their Tribe. But I do know .. and I am aware. I would rather they were free to express their opinions and if it is important enough to them they will eventually get the courage to say it to my face. I am just Fonce and I like to be approachable as much as possible .. I am bad enough just me ... if I started acting all full of myself I imagine no one would be able to get near me and that is not functional for my position.

So I did not take offense to Sahli approaching me as he did .. what I did notice is ... that is not like Sahli. However as the warrior approached I let T'zuri slide off my shoulder and I gave him my full attention. He said he needed my advice .. at this point T'zuri is puttering around Jaella and so I let the women do their .. thing as I listened to what Sahli had to say.

He spoke of the area where the old Harigga was and where the stream had left its course and the chasm that was left. He spoke of the old bridge that no one used and how he and Jaella had gone there. About finding a cavern .. one he returned to without Jaella. Now at first I pondered never hearing of this cavern but .. the longer he spoke I realized that it was probably the caves that everyone spoke of .. the sacred caves that some ... Ina in particular had tried to get me to go to.

Yeah .. right. No one had ever gotten me inside a cave yet ... good luck with that. I nearly died of a heart attack just waking up inside a dweller's house once .. I doubt my soul could survive a cave.

He spoke of a more ancient water course .. the diverting of the stream. He spoke of virgin flowers and moving from one cavern to the next .. barely able to fit through ... good Sky the man was insane. How could he even do it .. I nearly broke out into a cold sweat just listening to him. Not only that he went in .. he kept going ... further.

Tick

He spoke of hearing hundreds of voices. Of them begging ... that he passed out and got lost. I tried to encourage him to keep talking to me .. it seemed the more he remembered the more lost he became in his speech. I asked him what they begged for. He said he became disoriented and woke up much further in the belly of the cavern and that he wandered for many ahn lost. But that he was not alone .. there was something down there .. a lot of somethings. Now that might have stood the hair up on any other man but .. my hair was all ready standing on end just with the thought of the cavern itself and big spooky entities were normal and nothing in comparison to that. Entities do not bother me .. I live with one of the most ancient and primeval of them. At this point they are like .. family.

He said they .. the somethings ... were begging to be freed. I had a moment of empathy for them. He showed me his hands where he had used them to claw his way out. I asked Sahli for a day .. this was going to take some investigation on my part and I wanted to speak to a couple of elders before I went off half notched. But Jaella then spoke to me and tried to fill in some of the gaps she felt that Sahli had skipped over .. one of them being ... he was just not really himself since this had happened. I told her that was perfectly normal .. most people would not be themselves. I wanted to ease her fears .. I was all ready aware Sahli was different ... how different I planned on seeing for myself. I would be pretty fucking different myself if I woke up lost inside a cavern.