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You’ve made it to the bottom of the website, but your quest has just begun…

You bind your sword to your waist and heroic music swells up behind you.

You push your way past the long-dormant strands of web and past the mouth of the cave. The trickle of running water echoes in the ink-black dark ahead. These caves are haunted, you’ve heard. They’re black even when the sun shines directly into them, and their shadows swallow torchlight. But a child has gone missing.

A figure in the dark!

You sigh in relief. As absurd as it seems, it’s just your reflection. But why drag a mirror down here…? 

Your reflection draws its blade, but your arms have not. There is no mirror, only the air and the dark. You must face yourself.

The shadow of yourself looms. Sword clashes against sword, niether you nor your shadow gaining ground. But eventually you will tire, and this dark version of yourself will not. The battle rages, and you see the lost child.

And it’s you. 

“Please, stop,” your younger self says. “You’re hurting me.”

Perhaps that’s what this cave is. A place to face yourself, but to realize that you shouldn’t be your own enemy. You drop your guard.

The reflection’s sword catches your arm. The child’s face twists up into a wicked grin. The creatures loom. Your defense wavers. 

…in the end, you are forced to leave the cave. The reflection hurt you more than you thought possible, and the child in the dark distracted you with possibilities. But you survived. You are here, in the sunlight, your pulse beating.

And you’ve left the shadows to rot in their cave. That’s a job well done. Reward yourself, for any quest so thoroughly completed must have a reward.

© 2011 – 2021 by Bartholomew Klick & Zachary Stoppel. All rights reserved.