Once recovered Gar stood and looked at the split in the tunnel the left side he had already explored the right side that continued on straight for as far as his dark vision could see. The right hand tunnel that was his next place to explore. Gar moved at a much more cautious pace once he was going into unexplored territory keeping three badgers spread out in front of him and Bodger bringing up the rear, they kept moving at a slow but constant pace not stopping. It became tougher work as the tunnel started to angle upwards at a steeper and steeper rate, which reduced their pace more and more. Gar was so focused on placing one foot in front of the other while maintaining his balance and keeping an eye ahead, that it was only when he stopped and looked around did he realise how wide the cave he was in had gotten.
It was wide enough that looking to his left or right his dark vision cut off before he saw the walls. Even though he was in a cave he felt exposed and in the open. He started moving to his left trying to find the wall, to be less exposed and have one side guarded by the stone. When he got to the wall he realised he was in a massive crack in the rock that had opened up, he could see the stone coming together until there was nothing more than a hairline fracture in the rock. Fortunately the badgers still seemed to be able to move relatively freely despite the rather steep angle and narrowed space.
This place was going to need to be explored carefully so he didn’t miss any off shoots or side tunnels. With the angle the floor was at he was making rapid progress up he figured he would have to be at least three or four hundred meters up by that point. Gar moved out from the wall a bit until he could stand and move comfortably then reorganised the badgers one in front and behind him as well as one on either side of him. He would have liked a rock wall on one side and two badgers on the other side, unfortunately with the way the floor and ceiling closed together that wasn’t possible and there was too much room where he couldn’t walk but something could crawl out from to leave one side unguarded. Despite that it was still better than being out in the open in the middle of the room. Gar did not want to do it despite knowing it was for the best, he wanted to find out what was at the top, how high it would go. Instead he turned back the way he had come, facing down the slope and started walking. The tunnel had gotten so wide without him realising that he could have walked right past an opening or some creature that might ambush him later he had decided it was better to go back to check. There was nothing he had missed he moved all the way down until he could see both sides of the tunnel again to be sure, he hadn’t missed anything.
He grumbled to himself a little about wasted time as he turned and started his ascent again, remaining close to the wall this time. He continued on trying to estimate how high up he was going as he went, he guessed he was at least six hundred meters up when he got to the top and had to stop. He had reached a wall, literally the stone was a solid wall. There was a slight crack running along the floor and ceiling not even big enough to fit his little finger in. It was as if a large stone had been slammed down and cut off the rest of the cave completely blocking the cave while not being attached to it. There was nothing for it he needed to explore along the top then down the other side of the room, he had made so much progress up he was more than halfway to the surface he just hopped there was another way out to continue on up. Gar made his way along the top of the slope looking for another way out anything even a small chute to crawl in would do, he was getting more desperate the further along he went.
There was no other way out just the same tiny crack top and bottom and a solid wall of stone. It wasn’t over as he hadn’t gone down the other side but he hadn’t realised how much the hope of a way out had done for him and how much it hurt upon being ripped away even after only such a short amount of time. Slowly and carefully more looking for a tunnel than any concern for monsters, Gar made his way down the other side. Then upon not finding anything he made his way up again crossing back and forth checking floor and ceiling for any way out. He was forced to admit there was none he had checked everywhere this tunnel was clear and lead nowhere.
Gar trudged back along the tunnel to the cave snails any excitement for exploring lost in the gain and loss of hope for an exit. He tried consoling himself that their where more tunnels to check more places to explore. It was of only minor relief as what stung worse for Gar was that he thought he had known better than to get his hopes up and it seemed it wasn’t that easy to control. Once back at the cave snail cavern he needed to decide if he was done for the day or to explore some more. He really wasn’t in the mood to do more exploring any fun had been drained out of it; on the other hand if he called it there he would mope and be unmotivated for the rest of the day. He was unsure what was best, would he be in the right frame of mind for the appropriate caution if he continued or would he end up doing something stupid if he went back to base in this dower mood.
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Gar went to slap his face to bring some sense back into him. What he actually did was catch his hand on the horn that curled round his ear. The point piercing his palm and giving him a small scratch causing Gar to let out a “Hisss” from the pain and squeezing his fist to stop the trickle of blood. It hadn’t been what he was aiming for but it did the trick, the pain and the anger at the stupidity of it pushed the mood he had settled into from his mind. He wasn’t going to stop after one minor setback he moved off marching towards another tunnel.
All other things being equal and with no better reason he went to the closer of the two unexplored tunnels. As he got closer he slowed down again this was a new tunnel he needed to be cautious he had no idea what could be down there, and it was down there. The tunnel he had chosen had a downwards slope right from the outset, the celling was about three meters high and it was the same wide. With the size of the tunnel Gar decided it would be best to go with three badgers in front and one behind again. Slowly and as quietly as they could his whole formation moved along the tunnel, Gar keeping his head moving this time watching ahead and the walls even giving glances to check the ceiling, he wasn’t going to end up out in the middle again. It hadn’t cost him last time and he wasn’t going to give it the opportunity to next time.
Just a short way down the tunnel Gar came across multiple surprises. First he came across a snail eating on a patch of fungus, it was strange because there had been no sign the snails ever entered the other tunnel he had been down. He brought the badgers in close and moved along the far side of the tunnel from the snail, moving slowly but consistently with no loud noises or sudden movements so as not to freak the snail out. For the snails part it acted much the same as the ones in the cavern, it was as if it hadn’t even noticed there existence and kept eating.
The other surprise was not far past the snail Gar came to a crossroads. With three options to choose from Gar kept it simple and chose the left most tunnel, figuring if he always chose left it would be harder to get lost. Over the next few hours Gar would find that the whole area was a maze; of interconnected caverns, of tunnels that connected and split off from each other. Despite all this the only other life he saw where more of the giant cave snails and the moss and fungus they were eating. On a couple of occasions he heard the sound of something scurrying about outside his visions range but he was never able to get sight of it.
Eventually he called it a day and backtracked through his entire route. He was pretty sure he had crossed a few areas twice and if he took a different turn he would cut chunks off his journey, still he took the long way following his exact route back the way he came. He much preferred to take a route he was sure of even if it did take a bit longer, as opposed to taking a route that might be wrong because one wrong turn in that maze of tunnels would turn into a lifetime of lost even if it wouldn’t be that long a life.
Back at camp despite his hunger and thirst Gar took another damp coal from the fire pit and crushed it to paste in his hand. Using the paste he added to his map, starting with the other passage of the long tunnel and the slopped room. He then moved across to another section of the blank wall and started trying to map out the maze off the other tunnel.
“Cartography levelled up cartography level 3”
There were lots of smudges and marks where he realised he was wrong about parts or he hadn’t left enough space and parts started overlapping. Eventually though he got to a point where he had something he was happy with, it wasn’t perfect and he was sure there were some mistakes even with that it was good enough for him to be happy with it so he started copying it across to his main map.
“Cartography levelled up cartography level 4”
With the map drawn before he could forget Gar went back outside to grab a drink from the barrel, he scooped cup after cup of water into his mouth while holding the flat disk of a lid in the other hand. Once his thirst was sated Gar started to form an idea from the circular lid, it would have to wait though it had taken longer to get out than Gar had thought and all he wanted at that point was to eat then sleep, which is exactly what he did.
Gar crawled out of his shelter to find it would be a good day, the rain had stopped. The sky was still grey and heavy with clouds but at that moment it wasn’t raining. Not taking the time to enjoy the now strange, dry weather Gar got on with his morning climb. As he climbed he started planning out his day that was until he made a grab he should have easily been able to complete only to slip and fall hard. As he sat contemplating his sore behind he realised how complacent he had gotten with his climbing, between the surprise dry weather and his regularity of climbing he had stopped paying attention and a bruised behind was what he got for it. He realised he wasn’t doing the climbing for fun or to exercise it was to push and improve his skill and that was only going to happen if he gave it his full attention. So he pushed thoughts of other things out of his mind, only thinking about the climb, what he could do better, smoother more efficient he had a long climb he couldn’t be wasting energy. He focused on what he was doing to the exclusion of all else and it got results.
“Climb levelled up climb level 7”
Even after getting the message Gar ignored it keeping his focus on just climbing it wasn’t about the numbers, he needed to be better at climbing to succeed. He kept climbing until he was sore from the exercise, only then did he call it done.
