I found myself in a cave.

Looking up, I could see the stairwell I'd taken shelter under - it was still intact, but the floor below it was not, which was fortunate for me as I could see some pretty gnarly looking wreckage protruding into the space I'd just occupied.

That said, it wasn't all sunshine and roses as I found myself perhaps 3 or 4 meters down, and I hurt all over from the fall. I'd stayed conscious, but when the floor feel out from under me, it stopped when it hit the ground below. My head, held up by only my slender shoulders and not so robust neck muscles, did not stop, and I wracked it pretty good on the stone. Even now, my vision was a little blurry, and the world wasn't quite stable. Here's hoping I didn't have anything bleeding inside my head - there apparently wasn't much blood up there on a good day, I needed it all to stay in the right place.

I shouldn't have been surprised that this building stood on some unstable geology. Permitting was more or less a matter of bribery, and had been for quite some time. Same for other forms of licensing, so you couldn't really trust any sort of public service anymore. Not that most of them had any real benefit for the 'public' at this point.

Wow, I must have bumped my head pretty good to be having stray thoughts about the body politic at this point. Anyway.

The space I was in was clearly natural, and the product of some pretty long-past erosion as well. It didn't appear that there was much in the way of active cave-building down here, what with as little useful rain as we received. It was damp, to be sure, but not like one would expect from a cave.

I explored the space mostly with my hands as it was quite dark, with the only light filtering down vaguely from up above, a flickering cacophony of reds and grays. I could smell a more immediate form of burning now, above the burnt smell the extractor had wafting about its non-person.

I still didn't know what to think about the sentience I felt when I was in contact with it. Had it been a person? Had it gained it as a result of what had been done to turn it into an extractor in the first place? It was too far removed from its original form for me to gather any useful details in that matter. Something for another time, perhaps.

I eventually found that a corner of the pit I was in had a small opening off to one side, and seeing as my only options where to go that way or to transform into a spider and walk across the ceiling, I chose to go that way. I'd had my fill of animals for one week.

The passageway was claustrophobically tight, so I pushed through with me arms spread out in such a way that I wouldn't get permanently stuck if it narrowed too much. Luckily, I didn't have to traverse far before I saw some light and shortly thereafter it opened up into a fairly wide cavern.

The light itself came from some form of bioluminescent moss covering the walls, and it appeared that it was brightening in response to me as when I moved closer it got brighter. Convenient, if not a little creepy. Highlighted by the moss was some truly magnificent mushrooms, big enough to serve as tables and seating.

Surrounding those was a cacophony of rock and stone that pushed up in every direction, as though the mushrooms had burst through the floor like there was beer waiting for them on the other side.

The thought of beer made me realize I'd actually spend a significant amount of time doing what was effectively a raid on the building I now found myself under, and hadn't even managed to eat or drink in the intervening period. Of course this realization made me instantly famished, even though I hadn't noticed earlier.

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I wasn't about to eat the giant mushrooms, the only thing they'd possibly give me was a bad trip, or so I assumed. I'd also heard raw mushrooms can make your stomach upset, probably from Gran. She was a great cook, so I assumed she was right.

Pushing past all my buzzing thoughts, I saw another exit to this room on the far side. There were some crystalline formations around, but they all seemed pretty worthless and not the kind of thing you'd sell. More rock salt than diamonds, as it were. Not like I was about to burden myself with carrying any of it out of here anyway.

The following space had nothing much more than a shallow sandy beach and a pond. This time though, I could clearly see the glow brighten as I moved towards it, making it clear any further progress would be through the water, and I hated the thought of swimming. Not because I couldn't mind you, although I wasn't great, but because I kind of had an irrational fear of the water. Maybe too many warnings from Gran that it all needed to be boiled had given my brain the impression it was the enemy.

I sat down in the sand, half wondering how it had gotten there, and took stock of my situation. I knew I would have to press my way forward, but I wanted to wait until my head calmed down a bit.

A few moments later, I sat bolt upright. I'd some how fallen asleep sitting, which wasn't good at all. I didn't recall feeling tired, and knew that probably mean that the air in the cave wasn't great. It could be that I brought most of the oxygen I'd been breathing with me when the roof fell in. This water was going to be sealing the gap between here and the other side, so I could be swimming forward only to get myself in more trouble.

I shook my head to clear the negative thoughts and dove in, taking a running start. The moss under the water flared up as it I hit the surface, and I forced my eyes to stay open as I swam, not about to fumble about blindly with a limited air supply and no good way to sort of my sense of direction. Luckily the water hadn't become too murky, though a quick glance at my feet showed that I was kicking up enough of a mess with my progress that turning back would be difficult.

I pulled myself through the space as much as I actively swam, trying to keep the extra movements down but keeping moving to avoid the silt cloud keeping up with me. I had a bit of help in the form of a slight "headwind" of current from in front of me, but at one narrow point I almost stopped and had to fight down rising panic as a blinding swirl of debris went in front of me.

Making it past this, I had a brief thought that it was odd I was able to hold my breath as long as I had, but I quickly pushed it out of the way and made a final effort before my head popped up on the other side.

Fortunately here, the air felt much fresher, and a bit warmer, which meant that this portion of the cave was probably open to the outside. I shook myself off as I exited the water, pushing my feet deep into more sand as I stepped forward. The whole bottom of the cave on this side was sandy, something evidently washed in by whatever flooding event brought the water. My eyes stung a little, probably from the silt I'd briefly been immersed in, although my tears quickly washed it out, leaving little streaks of dirt down my cheeks.

There was a tunnel that looked man-made, and it went forward through what appeared to be dense dirt. It did seem a little on the short side, although beggars can't be choosers. Halfway through, I was amused to see some writing on the wall.

"Karl was here."

Smiling at the 'autograph', I felt reassured that this was the right direction - hopefully I'd be out soon. In addition, I could now feel a distinct current of air from the front, and to some extent could visualize the very weak nature energy in the wind, which made it unique compared to most the rest of what I could find.

Rounding a corner, I quickly found out why, as there was a vibrant assortment of plants arrayed around a monolith of wood in the center of the clearing. Two arching arms of wood reached towards the ceiling, and there was a depression in the rock at the base, in which I could see water welling up.

It was the 'artwork' I'd created when I had formed my core from the motes.

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