Post by Alice on Mar 4, 2014 3:37:13 GMT
it's okay to say you've got a weak spot
you don't always have to be on top!
Alice woke up.
She just... woke up. Not with a start, or a sharp kick to the ribs, or the horrifying sensation of a chamber pot being dumped onto her head. She just opened her eyes, and was greeted by deep, deep blackness and the steady drip of what she hoped to be water onto her forehead. It was too dark down here. Much too dark. A flash of panic gripped her chest when she thought that she might have somehow gone blind overnight. No, that couldn't happen. Could it? Maybe Mactire had struck her blind for some offense. Or... or maybe this was just a really, really dark jail. Arrested, maybe? She hadn't done anything wrong, but that hadn't stopped them before, and weren't dungeons supposed to have a little bit of light in them? All the ones she'd ever been in had. Lights for the guards. She rubbed her eyes with filthy hands, desperately trying to blink away the black. Alice rolled onto her side, and almost cried with relief at the sight of blue, off in the distance. She scrambled to her feet, and started her cautious way over to the light.
So she wasn't blind, that was good.
Alice couldn't see a thing, and no speed guaranteed her feet's safety from cracks in the stone beneath her feet. She stubbed her toes more times than she could count, and the soles of her calloused feet were becoming progressively more bruised and bloody the further she traveled. She made a point, though, to not become distressed. That just worsened bad situations, she'd found, no matter what they were. She'd definitely been in worse. Like that one time in the sewers. Her stomach growled as she was trying to avoid murderous rocks. Then she slammed into a stalagmite, cracking her nose on it. Alice howled, and her stomach growled again, except loud. Really, really loud. When it didn't stop after a few seconds, she stopped (while holding her sore, possibly bleeding nose). In the now dim, but visible, light, something moved. It was thick, segmented, and pale and it was the thing that was making the rumbling noise. It was burrowing, it seemed, and sunk down what she could see was a giant hole in the rock. Or it probably was just, like, the entrance to another cavern, but Alice wasn't the smartest kid on the block.
Regardless of where the thing was going, she was going in the opposite direction, and fast.
Alice hoofed it the last hundred yards or so to the source of the blue light. It was a crevice in the rock, just wide enough for her to get through. It seemed like, beyond the rock, there were... mushrooms? They swayed from side to side, casting a greenish-blue light in the tunnel beyond. She blinked hard. She'd never seen anything like that before. At least, not as big or as bright. One last glance over her shoulder to make sure the... thing... wasn't following her, and Alice shimmied through the crack in the rock. It was a tunnel, alright, and it stretched on for a while. She couldn't see the end of it, so she guessed that it either bent or the mushrooms stopped growing at some point. And speaking of mushrooms, her stomach growled again. Alice paused for a moment, then scurried to the opposite wall and tore a little baby mushroom off from where it just... sprouted from the rock. She sniffed it. It didn't really smell like anything, so she popped it in her mouth and chewed.
Alice spat it out violently, hissing in disgust.
It tasted like-- it just-- it just didn't taste good. It tasted awful and it burned her tongue with how bitter it was. And normally, she would have just eaten it anyway, but just putting that thing in her mouth made her light-headed, so she made what was possibly the wisest decision of her life so far and stopped eating. Alice wiped her mouth, glaring at the rest of the mushroom in her hand and everywhere else. She chucked it down the tunnel, still glaring at it throughout its flight path. She decided she hated mushrooms. Her stomach growled again, though, and drove her onwards.
She wandered for quite some time there, in the tunnels, just kind of... meandering pointlessly, starving.
Alice decided to sing to pass the time.
She just... woke up. Not with a start, or a sharp kick to the ribs, or the horrifying sensation of a chamber pot being dumped onto her head. She just opened her eyes, and was greeted by deep, deep blackness and the steady drip of what she hoped to be water onto her forehead. It was too dark down here. Much too dark. A flash of panic gripped her chest when she thought that she might have somehow gone blind overnight. No, that couldn't happen. Could it? Maybe Mactire had struck her blind for some offense. Or... or maybe this was just a really, really dark jail. Arrested, maybe? She hadn't done anything wrong, but that hadn't stopped them before, and weren't dungeons supposed to have a little bit of light in them? All the ones she'd ever been in had. Lights for the guards. She rubbed her eyes with filthy hands, desperately trying to blink away the black. Alice rolled onto her side, and almost cried with relief at the sight of blue, off in the distance. She scrambled to her feet, and started her cautious way over to the light.
So she wasn't blind, that was good.
Alice couldn't see a thing, and no speed guaranteed her feet's safety from cracks in the stone beneath her feet. She stubbed her toes more times than she could count, and the soles of her calloused feet were becoming progressively more bruised and bloody the further she traveled. She made a point, though, to not become distressed. That just worsened bad situations, she'd found, no matter what they were. She'd definitely been in worse. Like that one time in the sewers. Her stomach growled as she was trying to avoid murderous rocks. Then she slammed into a stalagmite, cracking her nose on it. Alice howled, and her stomach growled again, except loud. Really, really loud. When it didn't stop after a few seconds, she stopped (while holding her sore, possibly bleeding nose). In the now dim, but visible, light, something moved. It was thick, segmented, and pale and it was the thing that was making the rumbling noise. It was burrowing, it seemed, and sunk down what she could see was a giant hole in the rock. Or it probably was just, like, the entrance to another cavern, but Alice wasn't the smartest kid on the block.
Regardless of where the thing was going, she was going in the opposite direction, and fast.
Alice hoofed it the last hundred yards or so to the source of the blue light. It was a crevice in the rock, just wide enough for her to get through. It seemed like, beyond the rock, there were... mushrooms? They swayed from side to side, casting a greenish-blue light in the tunnel beyond. She blinked hard. She'd never seen anything like that before. At least, not as big or as bright. One last glance over her shoulder to make sure the... thing... wasn't following her, and Alice shimmied through the crack in the rock. It was a tunnel, alright, and it stretched on for a while. She couldn't see the end of it, so she guessed that it either bent or the mushrooms stopped growing at some point. And speaking of mushrooms, her stomach growled again. Alice paused for a moment, then scurried to the opposite wall and tore a little baby mushroom off from where it just... sprouted from the rock. She sniffed it. It didn't really smell like anything, so she popped it in her mouth and chewed.
Alice spat it out violently, hissing in disgust.
It tasted like-- it just-- it just didn't taste good. It tasted awful and it burned her tongue with how bitter it was. And normally, she would have just eaten it anyway, but just putting that thing in her mouth made her light-headed, so she made what was possibly the wisest decision of her life so far and stopped eating. Alice wiped her mouth, glaring at the rest of the mushroom in her hand and everywhere else. She chucked it down the tunnel, still glaring at it throughout its flight path. She decided she hated mushrooms. Her stomach growled again, though, and drove her onwards.
She wandered for quite some time there, in the tunnels, just kind of... meandering pointlessly, starving.
Alice decided to sing to pass the time.
