Boundary: The Hidden Forest
The Singing Gorge
Perhaps you were wandering through on a simple stroll, and perhaps you have strayed far from your home by accident. Either way, you find yourself treading through a verdant wood on a rocky mountainside when suddenly the floor in front of you ends. You stop quickly to avoid falling, wondering how many less fortunate creatures found their end if they weren't paying attention...
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Faint ribbons of sunlight filter down from above, creating dappled shadows across sheer stone faces. The drop is steep and dangerous, but there are treasures that await any who can make the climb. The rock is marked with faint striations streaking across the gorge, layer by layer; the result of millions of years of sedimentation. In the nooks and crannies of the striped rock cling lush ferns, their foliage spidering outward in delicate patterns. Moss carpets the boulders at the bottom of the gorge where a creek splashes through before disappearing into the yawning mouth of a cave. The water is crystalline - no doubt meltwater from glaciers high above. Every once in a while there is a dazzling flash of silver scales. Birds and butterflies, insects and rodents all flit about, singing and chirping and chittering. Their voices blend into a wild song, singing of the life that thrives in this place.
And when this song ended, as the others had before it, the land would remember and cherish its Echo.
The Whispering River
Stepping into the mouth of the cave, you feel a noticeable chill. The creek continues onward unperturbed into the dark, carving a silver path to follow. The last vestiges of green mosses and ferns reach as far as they can but eventually give way to delicate arrays of glowing mushrooms. Cave beetles and salamanders scuttle about as the creek widens and tumbles into the earth through a cascade of waterfalls.
There is life here too, and it sings its own quiet song. These caverns are an instrument shaped lovingly by persistent waters over hundreds of thousands of years. They sprawl beneath the land, with secret passageways opening out into the forested valley in many places.
A way to keep watch over the valley while remaining unseen, you realize.
You follow the Echo through the shallower, more familiar tunnels. The gorge is her place; it is where she is strongest, most at home. But she's wandered beneath the land to enjoy its many gifts, many songs and secrets. To observe and cultivate the life that thrives in light and shadow. She carries their songs, the Living Song, along from the forest above, and it is comforting to sing and hear the earth sing back. But she is not the only one; there are others that watch, older, unseen and forgotten, from the deep places in the earth...
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The Silent Depths
The tunnels descend further still, where the strength of the Echo begins to fade. The Living Song is hushed beneath thousands of tons of solid rock. Many sources of water from above have joined with the river, which has slowed considerably. In the absence of the sound of the water, the silence is all suffocating. One finds the urge to snap or whistle just to keep their bearings, and yet there's an undeniable foreboding that this place should stay as quiet as possible. That something else is listening.
The cavern walls suddenly pull away and there's a stark chill as the room opens up. Pale, sightless fish drift in sleepy loops beneath the glassy surface of a vast lake. The water is frigid, fathomless, untouched by the sun for eons. The only light in this place is the cold glitter of cave worms; simple but tenacious creatures that spend their entire lives in the dark. They carpet the ceilings, glimmering like stars. Placed into living constellations of their own design.
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Or someone else's.
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The room is cold, but the chill that settles into the essence of any who may find themselves here is colder. There are secrets here, beneath the still surface of the water... But it is not for you. This place is not for you.
It is time to turn back.