You dart into the passage leading down. Behind you, you can hear the lizard skitter to a stop. You slow down for a moment, listening intently. You can hear it breathing near the entrance of the tunnel, but it doesn't seem to want to follow in. This makes you nervous. You wait for a few minutes, trying to figure out what could be down there that makes the lizard afraid. Then again, it's likely staying by the entrance, meaning you have no way to go but forward.
The tunnel continues to meander down, while curving gently to the left. There is no moss growing here so you're forced to use your lamp to find your way. The air feels stale and still. You listen for any sign of life, but can detect nothing.
After several terrifying minutes, you arrive at the entrance to an enormous chamber, easily the largest one you've entered so far. It is absolutely stunning. The ceilings reach perhaps one hundred feet into the air, arcing to form a cathedral appearance.
The floor is smooth but uneven rolling up and down, making balance difficult. You quickly see why. The floor is littered with bones, which make you fearful at first, until you realize that the bones are all very ancient. You guess dinosaur bones, ancestors to the tribe of lizards that have made your time in this cave absolute hell. In most cases. It looks like a group of them took refuge, or perhaps were trapped in the cave a long time ago, and buried alive in the silt that later petrified the bones. Water has come in and worn away the skeletons in a few places. It's an amazing find.
But there's more, your head lamp catches a glint of light from a near wall. Pieces of what look like broken red glass shine with your lamp on them, except that they aren't glass, but rubies. You lose yourself for a moment and try to pry out the largest one, except that you've got only your hands now and most of them are still deeply embedded in the stone. A couple of small ones have come loose and sit on the ground. You scoop them up and put them in your pocket.
You walk around the room but do not see evidence of another tunnel. The water that drained out appears to have seeped through some porous stone near a low spot on the cavern, and a small amount of standing water remains. Looking up, you can see a single glint of sunlight next to a massive natural stone column. After thinking about it for several moments, you opt to climb.
It's easily the hardest climb of your life. The stone is often smooth, and it takes all of your strength and concentration to not slip. You manage to circle the column at least twice, trying to find decent hand holds to pull yourself up. The light continues to grow more and more steadily, and after nearly an hour of climbing, you reach an opening three feet wide.
With a mighty heave, you pull yourself through and find yourself in a narrow valley where the rock has split. After taking some time to rest, you climb out of the valley.
It's nearly a solid day before you are able to find your way back to a road where someone gives you a ride back to the village where you are staying. You rest, recover, eat a lot of food, and decide to cut your trip short and return home with the rubies in your pocket. It was a long, hard, dangerous journey, but it just might have been worth it.
The End