Treish ran her hand across the slippery rock surface. She inhaled short, sharp breaths. Her heart hammered against her chest. A single bead of sweat trickled down her neck, she instinctively flinched. A bell tolled in the distance, ricocheting off the narrow stone walls. She turned towards the sound. She forced her eyes shut as her back pressed against the cold tunnel and she calmed her breathing.
Her father had taken her to the cavity once before, when she was barely old enough to remember. She could recall the arduous journey her father had taken down through the tunnels. Her bright pink hard-hat scarcely avoided scraping the ceiling as she sat on his shoulders. The dust scratched at her eyes and throat. Dim torches shone on nothing but black rock. But she had seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
Treish tried to picture her father's face now. The jaggared chin, bushy eyebrows and his smile. The thought strengthened her resolve and she steadied herself before opening her eyes. Her last candle burned brighter than the others, the oxygen levels increasing with every mile closer. She continued on, her pace slow and quiet.
Footsteps sounded behind her, echoing throughout the tunnel. She started to run. Praying that her candle would remain lit despite waving it around as she pushed her body to go faster, her feet pounded against the hard surface causing new aches to flare. Loose rocks littered the floor causing her to slip. Somebody shouted behind her. She picked up the pace again, caring less about the chance of falling into darkness and fearing more about being caught.
Her foot landed on a large rock, her ankle snapped as she went down and hit her head on the wall. Her candle extinguished as she tumbled unconscious.
~ ~ ~
“Darling, you’ve been so brave.”
A hand gently caressed Treish’s face as she opened her eyes.
“Dad?”
Panic took over her as she took in her father's face and the ghostly luminescence surrounding them.
“Don’t worry my darling, you’re not dead, at least not yet.” He chuckled, the sound soothing Treish’s thoughts.
“They will look after you now, you must forget your past, including me, you will understand when you wake up.”
He traced his thumb across her creased forehead. She didn't know what was happening.
~ ~ ~
Pain slammed into her body forcing her to wake up screaming. Her ankle was definitely broken. Hands grabbed at her arms trying to hold her down, she shouted and fought, kicking out despite the pain. She took a second to take in her surroundings before someone knocked her out once more.
This time she dreamt of a field of colours. Stalks blowing in a silent wind, their tips a spectrum of colours. She watched from the outside of the field, the reeds too far away to tickle her skin.
She woke again, this time the pain in her leg was dulled, along with all other feelings. The fear that had carried her down the tunnels was gone. She knew there were reasons to still feel fear; she didn’t know where she was, she couldn’t escape with her injury, and there had definitely been people around her the last time she woke up, yet she couldn't rouse the panic that had for so long constricted her chest.
She pushed herself up on her elbows and took a look at her surroundings. Jagged stone walls crowded every direction. The floor was smooth black stone. Her hands found the soft fabric of a crimson blanket that kept her from the chill of the ground. Her foot was heavily bandaged and she observed her ripped and bloody trousers. Her hair a tangled mess and she could taste the acrid stale sweat that clung to her body.
Someone appeared from a doorway that she hadn’t noticed. They carried a board with what Treish could only assume was food. The man set the board on the floor next to her and left. She wondered why she hadn’t reacted when he entered, why she hadn’t tried to escape, or why she hadn’t been alarmed at his presence. She had thought about doing each of those in turn, but had dismissed them before the ideas could blossom.
Looking at the small platter of food, each piece looked as strange as the next. A clear blue egg, a bowl of brown leaves, little black pellets, and a bright yellow stick. There was also a cup filled with water. She tried that first. The cold water soothed her throat and quenched a thirst she hadn't even realised she had.
She looked at the food skeptically, but her stomach cried out for nourishment. Each miniscule bite brought an eruption of flavours to her mouth. She finished the small meal and found her hunger had disappeared. She lay back and closed her eyes, immediately drifting off to sleep.
The nightmare came out of nowhere. The field of rainbow coloured wheat turned black and rotten, crumbling to dust at her touch. Rain fell from the cave roof, like bullets; every drop an explosion of acid burrowing into her skin. A faceless man threw a spear that impaled her piercing her heart.
She woke up screaming, skin dripping with sweat, her heart racing and gasping for breathe.
Someone appeared at the invisible doorway. The memory of the faceless figure still clung to her mind she only screamed louder as she struggled to crawl across the stone away from the man. She applied too much pressure to her broken limb and cried out in pain.
“Stop, you’re hurting yourself.”
The man stepped closer, light dappled across his face from the permeation in the stone wall.
Treish stopped moving, the exertion had depleted what little strength she had left.
“Please, let me help you.” He held his hands up to show he wasn’t a threat. “Does your foot hurt?”
Treish nodded, her eyes beginning to lose focus.
“I will look at it, but you need to take this, it will numb the pain.”
She didn’t fight as he placed a powdery tablet on her tongue. The agony dissipated to a dull ache. The gnawing of panic also disappeared. She watched as he unwrapped her leg and inspected the damage. Spasms danced up her leg as he realigned the splint and re-bandaged her foot.
“What made you wake up?”
The memory seemed trivial with the numbness over her mind. She wondered about the other effects of the pain relief tablet. She knew she should withhold her nightmare but the words escaped unguarded.
“A man with no face. He killed me.”
The man frowned as he finished bandaging her foot.
“A bad dream?” he asked.
Treish nodded.
He walked over to a bucket in the corner of the room, that Triesh hadn't registered in the dim light. He returned with a cup of water.
“Drink, it will help.”
Treish took it without question and drank.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled.
“I‘m Leith.” His smile faltered. “Why were you running towards us?”
Fear lashed in Treish’s eyes despite the numbing of her emotions.
“I was being chased. They want to kill me.”
“Why?”
“I did something wrong.”
He didn’t press the issue further. She drank another cup of water and was ordered to go back to sleep. She decided to accept her fate, her ankle becoming a significant handicap should she try to escape.
She lay back on the thin blanket and closed her eyes, before falling asleep she mumbled.
“The cave with fields of colour is beautiful.”
~ ~ ~
Three days later, Leith returned to her room with a hand carved wooden crutch. Treish inspected the impressive quality of the work before testing its strength in holding her weight.
“My father made it, he always wanted me to follow in his footsteps, I never could get my head around wood carving.”
Leith helped her to her feet and she tested the staff walking a few paces before leaning against the wall. She no longer felt frightened of Leith, or his associates. She had been assured the people following her had been lead back out of the tunnels and would not be able to find the cavity. Her night-terrors of dying had receded and her foot was slowly mending.
Over the last few days, Leith had spent more and more time with her, asking questions, and answering any she had. She had not been allowed to leave the room, mainly for her lack of means, but Treish knew they didn’t trust her.
“It’s beautiful, your father should be proud of his work. What is it that you do, if you don’t carve walking sticks for cripples?”
He flitted his hands over the room.
“I look after you.”
She laughed as she mustered the strength to push off from the wall and leaned against the staff. The few days she had been injured had taken its toll on her stamina, she had to keep reminding herself she was no athlete and wouldn't be able to run before she could walk.
She paced around the room, finding a new balance with the staff in her hand.
“Are you up for a walk?”
She smiled mischievously, she was dying to get into the cavity and explore. Leith had been reluctant to give her too much information. But she had gathered enough to know an entire race lived secluded from the life on the surface of the earth.
Leith lead her through a maze of tunnels and caverns. She tried to keep track but the only light was from a series of lichens and fungi covering the rock face, not bright enough for her inexperienced eyes. They entered a large cavern, easily the length of a football pitch. Treish looked up at the rock crystal ceiling that provided ample illumination for her eyes to see across the room.
People milled around and sat at tables in small groups. They stopped talking and turned to stare at her as they passed. Treish wondered at her own judgement for leaving her room, when she could only hobble after Leith. The sheer number of people worried her, though non moved an inch as she proceeded in Leith’s footsteps.
She followed Leith through a new tunnel, he smiled as he turned back at her.
“You ready for this?”
She didn’t know the answer. She didn’t know where they were, or what Leith was about to reveal.
At the end of the passage, they entered a cavern that was four times the size of the last one. Warm bright light filtered down from the ceiling that was hundreds of feet above. A gentle breeze wafted through the air. Treish stood stunned. In front of her was incomprehensible. The image from her dream stood as evidence before her. It was as if a field of wildflowers had merged with a field of wheat. The colourful stalks moving with the wind.
Treish put a hand up to her heart, feeling the sharp pain of the javelin, and the blood covering her hands. She screamed in terror at the hallucination.
Leith caught her before she fell unconscious.
~ ~ ~
She woke to the sound of muffled voices. Her throat scratched as she tried to speak.
“You’re awake. Thank you, I will talk to him later.” Leith dismissed the woman he had been talking to and came to Treish’s side, offering her some water. “You worried me for a minute, you just started screaming, it was terrifying.”
Treish sat up and accepted the drops of cool liquid.
“What happened to me?” Her voice croaked.
“I don’t really know. We were in The Field Of Dreams for barely a minute before you…” He trailed off looking ashamed. “I shouldn’t have taken you there.”
“The field of dreams?”
“Yes it is a holy place for my people. We go there to tell our secrets, our hopes and dreams. I thought… You mentioned something about it a few days ago. I thought you must know what it was.”
“I have seen it before in a dream. The one where the man killed me.” Treish shivered.
She drank some more. Steeling herself for the coming conversation.
“I did something, something on the surface, something bad.” She sighed with resignation. “They kill people for what I did. Execution in the form of a javelin to the heart. It’s the custom to kill those that have committed the worst kinds of crimes. I dreamt of the field of dreams dying, the colour turning black, and then I was killed. The people who were chasing after me before I came here, they were going to execute me.
“In the eyes of the law I committed patricide, I killed my own father. He was dying from a rare disease, it was excruciatingly painful for him. He asked me to kill him and to destroy our home, to protect the cavity. He had spent his whole life researching this place, he brought me here when I was young. He had ledgers and notes in the house. I burnt them all, everything. But someone had known about the secrets, they accused me of murder, they must have thought I knew more than I did. I ran away the first chance I got and found my way down here. They followed me. I would have died if you hadn't been here.”
Treish wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. Her breathing steady she felt a weight lift from her heart.
Leith kept a clear expression on his face as he took everything in.
“I need to discuss everything that you’ve told me with my superiors.”
He stood and left without looking back. Treish felt a tug in her stomach. A new kind of fear found its way into her mind. She had only been here a short time and most of that had been as a prisoner and a patient. But she felt drawn to this place. If they wanted her dead here and they wanted her dead on the surface, she was truly out of options.
Leith returned with a sombre expression. He didn’t say a word as he sat down next to her. His hand found hers and they held onto each other.
Questions sprang up in her mind but she maintained the silence.
~ ~ ~
“We are an ancient race descended from the surface walkers. We have adapted and survived for centuries. There have been few cases of surface walkers venturing to the depths of our home and surviving. Those that thrive in our environment are welcomed and those who do not are released to their home lands.
“We have our own rules of order and anyone that lives here must abide by them. We therefore ask that you swear loyalty to the Old Code and renounce your previous way of life. Your past is no longer a part of your present. Today you are reborn as a man of the earth, a light in the dark, a member of the cavity.”
Treish stood before a council in a large stone chamber. Her heart hammered in her chest. She had waited patiently while the leaders assessed the facts and made their decisions. After days of uncertainty she had been offered a lifeline: assimilate.
Her eyes flicked to Leith, he sat in the front row of the audience with a big grin on his face. Treish stepped forward, still using the cane for support.
“I swear loyalty to the Old Code as written by the first men of the cavity. I renounce my previous life and step wholly into my new one. With the hands of my new community lifting me up to be the best I can be. Today I come home.”
This is my entry to @Calluna’s #TellAStoryToMe Contest run on the 
Find out about the contest here.
Image from Pixabay