The Cave, the Forest & the Lake: Part 1
Painting by Fereshteh Azarian
“What do you seek voyager?” The voice echoed in the cave, through the blinking sunlight shining through the hole, far away.
-“The key” she answered quickly. The voice shouted again: “What is it that you seek voyager?”
-“I do not know”
The footsteps were getting closer. The madding silence in the cave is interrupted by the dripping waterdrops lost in the deep waters of the river that seem to lead into infinity.
“You are running child”
-“Show yourself!”
“Forgive your past and it shall bring you peace” it whispered quietly.
The voice seemed to go in circles, consuming her existence with fear and void, revealing the bitter truth.
“Remember child, you shall never get too far, if what you are running from is who you are” -“I am searching for the key. The witch sent me to find you. She said you hold a map. Lead me to it and I shall pay the price.”
“The key comes with a price too grand for men to settle”
-“Do you not know about the prophecy?” she whispered in doubt. As she stared into the void and the darkness of the cave. Her eyes were wide and full of secrets she knew she cannot hide from whatever it was that spoke to her.
“The powers of the key shall only bring destruction to the human world”
-“So I have been warned.” She interrupted.
The voice disappeared. She turned around and looked for a clue but it seemed that she was alone;
As if she had been, all this time. She took a slow step and suddenly, the blinking sunlight was getting bigger every second. She put her hand up but her knees felt weak and she fell to the ground.
“Follow the brightest star, and it shall lead you beneath the sea stay true to your quest if you seek the key” The voice whispered, as it slowly faded away.
The sun was shining bright as she opened her eyes. She took a moment just to lay still, and wonder about what happened in the cave. She felt naked, though her shirt and trousers were as they were, for the voice spoke of things she wished to remain hidden forever. The sky was bright and blue and all she could feel was the warmth of sand against her skin, and all she could hear was the longing of sea waves not far from her boots.
“AREDRA?!”
-Over here!
“How in the world did you get here?!” -I do
not know.
She paused for a second, still and calm as she looked up at the sky.
-It was the strangest thing Skylos. It knew who I was, it knew everything and yet, not the
the slightest concern of might yet to come.
“Did you get the map?!”
-It spoke only of a riddle right at the end.
Skylos was panting and anxious. After all, Aredra appeared far from where she first entered the
cave and Skylos was merely a small Tamias. Though bigger than its kind and much furrier, and
white as the frozen mountains of northern Apaxtra. If it wasn’t for the enormous black almond
eyes of the creature, it could hardly be seen against Aredra’s shoulder. She deemed it a blessing,
for it drew less attention. Skylos was surely a peculiar kind and she feared what often follows
curious men.
I began to write a story in 2020 when the world was lost in chaos but also, incredibly quiet. What started as a simple way to escape, flourished into a passion project to continue the story of our characters.
There is nothing I love more than storytelling, and when the story first formed in my imagination, the clothes and customs of the characters inspired many of my designs.