The Cavers

            Six boots squished through the muddy wash that afternoon. Six hands carried sticks and checked compasses and uncapped canteens. Six keen eyes strained into a bright and blinding sunset and three mouths didn’t speak a word.

            Children sometimes travel in small pods of personality, and often stories about them reflect this. In a group of four children there will sometimes appear the humor, the intelligence, the worrier or the mischief; nevermind that more often than not each child possesses a fair amount of these traits. In reality these three children should have all been jokers, worriers, or mischief makers, at least in some small part. However they were not. If this were an ordinary story there might be a funny one, a smart one or a scared one. Again, there was not. They were the founding members of the Scientific Observation and Adventure Club and they were ten years old. Admittedly these children were different, as children are oft to be, but the differences were slight and they were regularly confused at children’s parties (or would have been had they been invited.) At this moment it matters little which of these three children we focus on. So we shall do as they might, and go objectively from left to right.

            Wren, on the left, was the smallest boy, a whisper of a child whose bantam features seemed a physical expression the intelligence beneath them. Wren’s shock of bright red hair was, in fact, the only conspicuous thing about him. Many of his schoolmates said if it weren’t for that hair, even his own mother might lose him in a crowd. Wren blinked often, and the tick was more noticeable because of the thick, wide lensed glasses that he wore.

            Peter was next. Peter was the tallest of the three, but only by a few inches. He had sandy brown hair and constantly reminded the other two that he was the strongest of them. This was not a great accomplishment. Peter wore thin black glasses that somehow made the boy appear much older than he was (in his own mind.)

            Last there was Henry. Henry was of average height, average build and, unbeknownst to his two traveling companions, average intelligence. He dressed like them, talked like them and truly believed himself to be one of their ranks, a fledgling master of intellect, a boy wonder. He wore an older pair of gold framed glasses that he had purchased in an antique store a few months back. They had ordinary glass instead of prescription glass but the other boys didn’t seem to notice and Henry never told them.

            They had set out that day to find the cave and now that they stood at it’s entrance their timidity stayed their feet. Each looked to the next, expecting another child to make the first move.

            “It’s interesting that cave means “beware” in Latin.” The first remarked gravely.

            “Notice how the stalactites towards the mouth are thin and conical. Almost like the teeth of a lamprey.” The second gulped.

            “I wonder what’s in it.” Henry said.

           

            After some time the three adventurers finally began to move towards the mouth of the cave. None of them remember who took the first step and it is just as well, all were equally terrified of what might lay within. Their boot-steps echoed off the walls of the cave as the light from the entrance grew smaller and smaller behind them. Then the cave turned and it was gone. Henry reached into his backpack and pulled out the three flashlights that had been packed earlier. He handed them to the other boys.

            With the flashlights they could see much further. The cave rolled out ahead of them like the throat of a sleeping serpent. Where it ended was anybody’s guess, it just seemed to snake on to eternity. The walls weren’t very far apart at times and the echoes bounced excitedly back,

            “A strange acoustic phenomenon. The echoes seem to travel quite rapidly in this area.” Said Wren, stopping to admire the novelty of the cave’s acoustics. The two other boys halted as well and listened. As they stopped their echoes stopped as well, and yet the cave was not yet silent. A strange scratching noise could be heard, like the crinkling of paper. As the boys stood in silence the scratching continued, growing louder and louder, nearer and nearer. 

To Be Cont'd...