When Selene opened her eyes, she was positive that she was already dead. There was nothing to see, just infinite blackness. Her body was stiff and sore, but she found herself able to move. There was a buzzing in her ears, and her throat was stiff and scratchy. She tried to lift an arm in the darkness but met with resistance. She strained, felt something break free, and she fell over with the sudden loss of tension.
There was a splash as her hand jerked forward, breaking the surface of the water. Suddenly things started to come clear to Selene. She wasn’t dead, she wasn’t blind. She was underground, up to her chest in water. It was dark because there wasn’t any sunlight down here. She leaned back, her head resting against what felt like a rock wall. She took a deep breath, and thought.
It was a flash flood that had brought her down here. Deserts were strange like that; you could go weeks without a drop of rain, and then suddenly out of nowhere, torrents. Down in the gorge that she had found herself in, it was particularly deadly. She was surprised that she hadn’t broken any bones as she was swept through the winding maze of pillars and down whatever chaotic mountain tunnels had brought her to where she was now. She only hoped that she’d be able to find a way out. But she had no light, and no inkling of where she was.
She tried to move. She was sore, probably covered in bruises. She hadn’t broken anything, but she’d still been slammed around quite a bit in that downpour of water. She braced herself against the rock wall, slowly shifting herself upward and bringing her legs beneath her, pushing up and rising precariously to her feet. Most of her weight still pressed against the wall, she tried to let her legs readjust to bearing her weight. She listened to the soft plinking sounds of water dripping from her clothes, dripping into the water below. She needed to get out of here, and soon. Who knew how long she’d been sitting here soaking in water. No time but the present to get started. She tested the ground in front of her, then took a step. Her legs didn’t buckle, even though they did protest. She paused, taking a deep breath. She looked around, then squinted.
Off in the distance, in some far corner, things seemed a little brighter. Bluish, maybe green. Perhaps it was just her light-starved eyes playing tricks on her, but heading that direction seemed like the best bet. She took another deep breath and took another step out, her hand remaining against the rock wall as a guide. It wasn’t long before she fell flat forward onto her face once the wall wasn’t there anymore.
She came up for air quickly after she splashed into the water. She stood up again, reaching out in search of the wall, but there was nothing there. She flailed about a bit, trying to get her bearings before common sense took over and she stood stark still. She peered out carefully, pinpointing the faint bluish area she had been headed towards. Her position confirmed, she reached out again to where the wall had been. There was nothing there.
Realization dawned. There had never been a wall. Selene reached for her belt, only to find that her sword was missing; no doubt carried away in the downpour. She was unarmed, and worse yet she was beginning to think she wasn’t alone. She listened carefully, but heard nothing. She held her hand out to where the wall had been, then lowered it to the surface. There she found something, hard and tough.
“Not like a wall,” she thought to herself. “Like a carapace.”
Alone in the dark with a megalocrab, unarmed and without her eyes, Selene began to panic.
Selene Artemis 