The Wizard – The Cave and the Voice
The advance was slow, painfully slow. In the darkness of the cave, the greatest challenge was to keep a straight line, not get lost, not get turned around, and not end up going in circles. He was using his stick for that. By placing it on the cave floor and moving it forward ever so slowly, he was proceeding in a straight line, advancing. Though it…
The advance was slow, painfully slow. In the darkness of the cave, the greatest challenge was to keep a straight line, not get lost, not get turned around, and not end up going in circles. He was using his stick for that. By placing it on the cave floor and moving it forward ever so slowly, he was proceeding in a straight line, advancing. Though it…
“It feels pointless,” came the voice, a feminine voice, from somewhere and sometime. An old and familiar voice. It was his imagination playing games in the darkness of the cave.
“Always the rational one, way too rational. You… yes, I may be in your head, but does that mean that I don’t exist?”
He didn’t answer the voice.
“Oh, playing the ice king? I thought only women played that role. Whatever, I was going to say that if it feels pointless, it might as well be.”
He kept moving forward, slowly sliding the stick over the floor, creeping forward, always keeping a hand on the stick to not lose it. Rise and repeat.
“What dedication, my guy. Hoorah! You heard another human voice after so long, and you choose to ignore her? Do you know how silly you look?”
He kept moving forward, slowly sliding the stick over the floor, creeping forward, always keeping a hand on the stick to not lose it. Rise and repeat.
“I had forgotten those powers of your concentration, always with whatever is in front of you, never what is around you, never willing to understand. That made you a bit slow, and I am being kind… because I was always kind to you, and yet you never saw it, you never understood it, me.”
He stopped mid-movement.
“Oh, finally hit a nerve, didn’t I?”
He began to move again.
“In this cave, there is little besides us, and I depend on you to exist, you idiot, which means that I am damned. But whatever. At least tell me what’s the plan.”
He kept moving forward, slowly sliding the stick over the floor, creeping forward, always keeping a hand on the stick to not lose it. Rise and repeat.
“You can keep ignoring me, but that won’t make me go away, not in this situation. Stop being silly and talk to me.”
He didn’t stop but explained the plan to the voice.
“Finally acknowledging me, progress!” The voice was dripping with sarcasm. “So, you are just taking it a problem at a time? Well… given the situation, I can’t really complain,” though the tone left the implication that it wanted to complain.
“Hey! At least acknowledge me beyond it! Please?”
He remained silent, ignoring the voice and slowly traversing the dark and vast cavern.
“You have been doing this thing for far too long. Don’t you want to just stop and use another of your clever tricks to know where to go?”
It did have a point.
“Hey.”
He stopped and listened. His stomach grumbled a bit, but he ignored it; hunger could be more manageable than thirst, though he knew that he was on a tight timer. Without a reliable water source, death could be mere hours away, and he didn’t know how far the pool of water was at this point.
“Also, remember that you couldn’t purify the water. Who knows what you drank!” said the voice cheerily.
Yeah, there was also that. Anyway, listening, because he couldn’t really see… though things were a bit clearer now, he was approaching the light source, and tin, tin, tin, the sound of water falling.
“Are you sure this is the right way? Sometimes things feel just too good to be true.”
He ignored the voice and kept going.
“Ignoring me is going to cost you.”
