A Way Out?

The light blue light made it much easier to see, so at least that was a bonus. The cold however was not going to work well for me. I used the light to my advantage and explored the closest tunnels quickly, looking for either a way out or hopefully something to drink. The heat had dehydrated me pretty well and I was going to need to get something or else risk dying because of my own ignorance. Had I known that the crystals were hypersensitive to mindforce power I probably never would have used ice or fire near them. The crystals seemed to absorb a bit of the force that they came in contact with and then reproduced it and magnified it. If I ever could find my way out of this cave system I'm sure we could put these things to good use. Before I had set out looking for the water I had pondered using electric energy but didn't know what the crystal would do with that and so I left it alone for now. The more I moved about the thirstier I got and the colder I became, I desperately tried to think of a type of force that would produce good light but without any negative side effects by being copied and magnified by the crystal. Eventually I had to settle for less light and used some healing force. The pink hue returned and I continued exploring, at least being in this light was very pleasant and I felt my strength returning.

I recalled the robot ships my society had invaded in the past. I had gone along to help carry things out, I was never much of a fighter. That had to be one of the more exciting things to do, actually. I mean, you went together into a ship that you had no idea what is inside of it and hope to take out the small army of machines that occupy it and come back with some good technology. The reason these caves brought that to mind is because I remember in the ships there was always a floor that was a maze. You could easily get lost in there or be separated from the group, which could mean death if you weren't careful. At least in these caves there were no robots or anything else that might make my life more difficult than it currently was. I felt like I had been exploring these caves for ages and none of them had water or a way out. Despite the light from the crystal making me feel pretty good I still knew I was dehydrated and needed something to drink soon. Finally, after circling back around for what seemed like the hundredth time and seeing the spot I had woken up on I sat down, placing the crystal in front of me. There was no point in continuing my search, I couldn't even remember anymore which tunnels I had gone down in the first place. As I sat there in the feel-good glow of pink I started to lose track of time. I thought about trying a translocation jump despite the danger of doing so. The more I debated it the more it seemed like a good option to me, if I died doing that it would be no different than dying of thirst where I currently was. That decided I stood up, grabbing the crystal to make sure I didn't forget to take it and was about to start charging up the energy to jump when I heard the sound of something moving along the rocky floor.

I looked in every direction I could, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, but it echoed everywhere. I wasn't sure if I should be preparing to defend myself or try to hide, so like an idiot I just stood there and waited. As the sound drew closer the echoes abated enough for me to hear where this thing was approaching from. With the realization of which way it was coming I aimed my shard or pink light towards it, sure enough there was the tunnel I hadn't seen and probably the way out of here right above my head. I moved to the side so that whatever it was wouldn't be able to just drop on top of me. A few pebbles trickled out of the opening as the creature approached the edge. The sound stopped, I knew it was there but it stopped moving. Nothing came down, nothing peeked into the cavern, it just seemed to be sitting there. Deciding that it was better to know than to wait for whatever it was I started walking around the edges of the cave to see if I could get the right angle to see what was up there, unfortunately the opening was not big enough to get an angle and so I was going to have to actually stand under the hole and look up. Cautiously I approached, trying to make sure I didn't stumble. My heart throbbed in my chest harder and harder with each step. I felt like one of the those stupid people in horror movies who don't just run away after seeing the dead body but they have to get closer or look for the thing that did it. My fears screamed run, run you fool while my curiosity told me that we need to see what this is, then we can run. At least they both agreed on the final action: run.