DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
A Sexual Adventure in a Fantasy World
Chapter V -- Another Place?
Scarlet watched with envy as Alan stood at the edge of the shaft attached to the long rope. Calling the hole a shaft was definitely an understatement; it was a massive vertical cavern, and she hoped to be first down. She argued that if Alan reached the end of the 150-meter rope before he found the bottom, he would need to ascend back up. He hadn't argued that it would be easier for her to climb back up but simply trumped her by pointing out that she had discovered the new cavern. As he was the head of the expedition, she should let him find the bottom of the Dragon Pit.
Alan hesitated on the rim of the shaft. He was about to drop into the unknown. There was something unusual about this hole. Rationally, it was just another section of the cave, but something felt off--mysterious. He wasn't sure. Foreboding? Maybe. Maybe it was just the talk of Dragons. He dropped over the rim into the abyss. There was rock to repel off of for about sixteen descending bounds, and then he found himself hanging free in the thick humid air as the cavern expanded. They had selected a dry place to descend, but there was so much moisture in the air that drips still found him. He descended another thirty feet, then stopped. As he spun around, dangling on the rope, his light disappeared into the inky darkness. There was nothing to see but glimpses of the spectral cavern wall. Shining the light upward, he saw the overhang he had dropped off of and the light coming from the team above; that was all. He considered ascending the rope because the may have been no bottom, but there was no such thing as a bottomless pit--was there? That thought passed: if the bottom was there, he needed to find it. He looked up and shouted, "I'm hanging free. This hole is even bigger than it looks from up there."
"Be careful," he heard.
"You put a knot in the rope, didn't you," said a second male voice. It had happened--rappelling off the end of the rope, but this was attended as a joke. There was a big stop that he could not slide past. He hoped. The descent down the rope was slower than usual as he considered the enormity of the place.
For the crew above, it seemed like a long time before he radioed up the shaft. He said there was rope to spare, but not much, perhaps twelve feet...fricking remarkable. Marcus asked him what it was like, and he only replied that it would be worth the climb back up. The only other thing he was firm about was that they should pull the hoisting gear through the small passage just in case.
Nicolet knew what that meant: in case she or Sean was too weak for the climb out. At least she was not uninvited from seeing the bottom after squeezing through the crack. She looked at Sean, wondering if, at some point, he would chicken out. He had shown more courage than she expected, but she still thought he was more bluster than substance. She asked herself, 'Are you still sour from the other night, Nicky? Maybe his bravery was because of you. Would his out be to gallantly volunteer to stay with his scared girlfriend if she balked? Well, if that's it, he's going to be in this to the end.'
Scarlet had not been the second down but the last. She began to look around as her feet hit the ground amongst the other wandering headlamps. As soon as she was off the rope, Alan moved them into an adjoining cavern to dry off. The diffuse moisture coming down the shaft somehow soaked them through on their descent.
"Now that we are here, what do you think?" Alan asked no one in particular.
"This is fucking amazing, Alan," said Marcus. "We have discovered something truly remarkable. It's hard to believe, but the dripstone here looks to be even more impressive than above. It seems alive."
"In a sense, it is. At this depth, with all this water, these features are actively growing. Not like up in the drier portions."
"Did you get a good look at those huge rippling drapes hanging from the roof," said Scarlet.
"There must be a set of parallel fractures that focus the water like that," added Alan. "I think we are in the land of giants, and there looks to be a lot more beyond the range of our headlamps."
"Still, this is a place of dragons, Dominic?" asked Nicolet.
"If I was one, this is where I'd be. You could fit a mighty big dragon in here."
"What does that look like?" Sean asked. shining his headlamp on a nearby column with distinct layering.
"It looks like a version of the Tower of Pisa, a non-leaning version," said Nicolet.
"I looked around some while you guys were prepping to come down. It's quite wet in here. All the water flows toward the south, which is in that direction. The passages in the north, west, and east quadrants don't appear to go very far, but we need to check them all. There are a lot of nooks and crannies, and I can't believe there isn't a massive cave network at this level. I feel it. Regardless, the alcoves I've seen have remarkably beautiful dripstone. Amazing, actually. I think we should call this level Wonderland, and this spot will be Home Base. It's the driest flat place I found in my brief recon."
"The name fits. This is a heck of a rabbit hole," said Jackie, having not spoken for a while, clearly awe-struck.
"So, where does the water go?" asked Scarlet.
"Is there another shaft?" asked Sean, his voice not hiding that he hoped not.
"There is more exploring to do tomorrow, but it feels like we have descended to the depth of the water table. It looks like there might be a lake off in that direction. My light seemed to have reflected off something, but getting there didn't look straightforward. I had to find my way back here, so I didn't venture too far in that direction."
"You think the lake is isolated and perched, or does it connect to something?" asked Marcus.
"I don't know," said Alan, "but I suspect it's not perched. There is a lot of water at this level. We might find ourselves hemmed in by pools and lakes, but there is plenty of cave to explore above water."
"Let's go look for this lake," said Scarlet.
"I'll second that," said Nicolet, fascinated by the thought of an underground lake.
"Hold on, guys. Have any of you looked at your watches? It is after 8 p.m. Let's haul the gear over, establish camp, and have something to eat. We can explore and map tomorrow. Even if we don't find a major cave system branching away from here, just mapping these alcoves will be incredibly fascinating."
"It's feeling a bit tropical down here," observed Sean, "humid and warm."
"Dragon's breath," said Dominic.
"Sean's right," said Scarlet. "It's warmed up a bit more than you would expect from just the geothermal gradient. Some of the inflowing water may be hot. Hope you guys don't mind if I sleep naked."
Nicolet chuckled but then realized that maybe Scarlet was not kidding. It was uncomfortably warm for what she was wearing, especially for sleeping. This was something she had not expected in a cave. Everyone she had been in so far had been comfortably cool.
<<<< -- >>>>
The realization that it was well into the evening caused Scarlet and everyone else to notice their hunger. They quickly, very business-like, set up camp on a rise a couple of feet above the cavern floor. There was a quick freeze-dried meal, and people were coming down from the excitement and settling in. Scarlet was not coming down. She was aroused by the day's excitement and asked Alan, "Can you show me some of the dripstone in these alcoves before we settle in?"
