FICTION | SCIENCE FICTION | FANTASY | ADVENTURE | PSYCHEDELICS

Into the Darkness, Then Into the Light

Wake the Earth- book 1- chapter 6- part 3

To go to the previous part, click on this link.

Cedric sees that the path is bringing them to a cave, and he can see something moving at its mouth.

He looks at the other two and says, “We’re going in there, looks like I’ll be lighting the way at some point.”

He smiles and looks back to the cave, and is startled when he notices the thing in front of the cave moving toward them. He squints his eyes in to try to see what it is when Sarin grabs him and pulls him back out of the way of a dark giant palm frond.

The tree leans forward and slashes at them, and Cedric shoots a blaze into the air in front of him as he jumps back.

Dark grasses sprout from the ground around them as the three of them maneuver their backs to each other. The trees lean in again to swipe downwards upon them, Cedric blasts a plume of fire up to defend them. The fronds light up but aren’t stopping, their burning foliage pushes through the blaze.

Farid whirls a cyclone to increase the damage of the flames and incinerate the fronds before they can hit the three of them. Sarin swirls a stream of acid around them to defend against the grasses, which slowly melt into the liquid.

Farid flies up when the air is clear from attacks, and unleashes a blast of wind in retaliation at the trees. The trees are almost unfazed by this and slash at Farid in the air, and he spirals around to avoid getting hit.

The grasses keep sprouting around Sarin and Cedric, sprouting up closer and closer.

Sarin warns Cedric, “Don’t burn these things when they are this close, the flames can be used against us. Think of a wild grassfire, it would not end well.”

She maneuvers the acid stream closer to them and catches more of the grasses in its flow.

“This acid will be too much for you, you should get away from this,” Sarin tells Cedric.

Cedric blasts off into the air, the force pushes against Sarin’s back. They barely move from the brunt of the eruption. Cedric joins Farid and shoots plume after plume at the trees to help him out. Despite the damage they are taking, the palm fronds keep slashing at the three beings.

The raging blaze grows as the trees continue to attack, the flames jumping to more trees. Farid lets loose another cyclone to amplify the power of the inferno, and the trees reduce to ashes in a heartbeat.

Sarin raises themself a little in a fountain-like flow, preventing the grasses from attacking them. They swirl a river of acid around them and wipe an area clean of the grassy fiends. They set themself back down on the ground, only to see that the grasses are still sprouting up again and surrounding them.

Cedric and Farid look down and aren’t sure about what to do. They can see a figure in the distance running towards the battle. Cedric and Farid set themselves back on the ground near Sarin and wait.

The running figure is close to the grasses, which then turn to attack. The figure swings its arm forward in an arch, and massive chunks of metal ore shoot up from the ground. The ore rises in a line toward the three companions and creates a platform underneath them raising them. Sarin conjures a stream of acid around the platform, and the grasses are unable to continue advancing on them.

“Go toward the cave,” Cedric tells them.

Sarin and Farid comply and Cedric holds his arms out in front of him. An immense burst of flames erupts from his hands and incinerates the landscape in front of him. With the ashes from the last of the grasses blowing away, he turns and begins to walk towards the cave.

The running female figure meets up with them as Cedric catches up to Ehani and Farid. Cedric can’t make out her defining features very well but can see that she is a little taller than him and has a strong build. She walks up to Cedric and holds out her hand to introduce herself.

“Cedric I presume?” she asks. “I am Dunya, I’m quite happy that you are here. That means we are going to leave here soon.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told,” Cedric’s reply is a bit sceptical. “I just don’t fully understand why you three had to wait for me in order to leave.”

“Oh the mysteries we all have to face in life,” Dunya says with a chuckle. “I’ve come to understand that life is destined to be full of mystery, but when the time is right we will learn why things are the way they are.”

“Okay, I think I can accept that,” Cedric finds it easier to answer this time. “So I guess that means I have to point us in the right direction? To the mouth of the cave then.”

The cavern is spacious, but the walls are quite rough and jagged. Cedric is still enamored with the colors that dance all over the walls. The minerals, metals, and crystals that glint throughout the cave are pretty amazing.

“Isn’t it supposed to be dark in a cave,” Cedric asks as he trips out on the patterns, “Like how am I able to see all this?”

“The same way we can see all this,” Sarin says, “you glow in the dark. You just can’t really notice it because it’s coming from you.”

“Actually because he’s a fire elemental, he can see in different spectrums. But yes, thank you for being our glowing beacon, in more ways than one,” Farid tells Cedric. “Who knows what I’d be flying into without you.”

“I don’t think you’ll be doing any stealth missions with that glow,” Ehani comments.

“I guess not unless I get a suit that is able to contain it,” Cedric answers. He is kind of disappointed that he is now more noticeable but then remembers that he is high as fuck. This wouldn’t be this way when he comes out of this guided trip. He will still be able to sneak around in the dark and do all sorts of ninja shit that he loves doing.

The path leads to a steep section of the cavern that rises higher than what is visible, and Cedric looks up at the wall that is in front of them.

“I know that Farid and I both can fly up this,” Cedric begins the statement, “but can either of you do…”

His words trail off into nothingness as he watches Sarin and Dunya make their way up. Sarin is pushing herself up with a stream of steaming water, while Dunya holds onto a stalagmite that rises from the cave’s floor. He smiles and blasts himself up to rejoin the rest of his new companions.

As he reaches the top of the wall and sets himself down with the others, he looks ahead to see the path. The walls of the cavern are covered in glowing mushrooms. The three others are standing in place (even Farid set himself down) and are gawking at the beauty the light gave off.

Cedric is seeing more of the physical definitions of his new friends now, yet still slightly clouded.

“Oh man, I haven’t seen these in so long,” Farid says with a tone of joy in his voice. “I’m going to make a point of finding these when I get back to the physical.”

“Yeah, this is really beautiful,” is Dunya’s response.

“I’m guessing you like these shrooms?” Cedric asks amusedly.

“Like them?” Sarin chimes in. “I’d fuck them if it were possible. They could take ahold of me and have their way with me I love them so much.”

Cedric bursts out laughing.

Farid and Dunya giggle at the comment.

“I know I love sex, and I know I love the mushrooms,” Dunya responds with good humor, “but I don’t know if I would quite go that far.”

“You have no idea what these things did for me,” Sarin explains. “When we get back to the physical realm I’ll explain more about that.”

“Alright let’s keep going,” Cedric says, “if I see all of you again I’ll make sure I have some shrooms with me.”

He smiles and laughs at the thought of trip spirits being in the physical realm.

He leads the way past the mushrooms and far into the cave, which begins to slope back downward. They follow the path until they come to a point where the cavern dips into a pool. Cedric walks up to the water and touches it with his hand. He recoils in a bit of shock as the water is too cold for his liking.

“Well fuck, that sucks,” he says defeatedly.

Sarin steps into the water and walks until they float.

“Well it’s deep enough to swim,” they say to Cedric, “but I can’t see where the path goes. Maybe you should try it out again there hot stuff.”

Cedric puts his hand in again and is happy to find that Sarin swimming in it is warming it. He dives in and looks under the water to see where the path goes to. He resurfaces and informs the rest of them where it goes.

“It goes down for a little ways, but I have a feeling that it will be fine as long as we keep moving. I mean, like why would it point us in this direction if we couldn’t make it, right?”

The two others get in the water and Cedric submerges again swimming in the direction of the path. As they all get going, Sarin pushes them along a little faster using their element. Cedric enjoys this swim, he views it as a bit of a challenge and is glad that Sarin can help with it.

He really likes their strength, and being called hot stuff makes him smile. Now why can’t he find someone like them in the physical realm? He shakes his head and realizes that he is almost developing feelings for someone that exists in his mind.

The path begins to curve back up and the four of them make their way to the surface. Cedric steps onto the shore of the pool and realizes that he held his breath for what had to be a record for him. Then he remembers that he is tripping balls, and the physics in this place is not the same. He looks back at his companions emerging in turn and then turns back in the direction they are headed.

He follows the path for a short distance and finds that it shoots up again, up a seemingly endless shaft.

“So we gotta go up there,” Cedric begins to say as he points to their destination. “So should we race to the top?”

He turns back and smiles at his crew when an eruption of dark flames pushes him into his friends.

A giant ball of black flames rises within the shaft, and Sarin summons a wall of water to defend them from their enemies’ first attack. The flames bounce off the water and swarm back around to rejoin the collective fireball. Cedric gets back on his feet and looks at the fireball, the dark flames swirl around crackling as they move. The burning monsters are black but have a deep red glow around them.

Cedric runs at the beasts and jumps into the air when he reaches the edge of the shaft. He encases himself in his own flames and blasts off at them in mid-air. As he gets close to them he intensifies his force, trying to see if his strength will simply burn them out. The dark fiends aren’t harmed in any way, but Cedric’s force did push them back away from him. As Cedric flies around the wall of the shaft, some of the monsters circle around in pursuit.

Farid takes to the air as well, pushing as much force as he can into his wind to break apart the dark fireball. The force pushes them away from each other and they have to regroup. They fly around trying to get close enough to Farid to inflict wounds, but he circles the wind around him to protect himself.

Sarin brings a stream up to circle the shaft that takes out parts of the dark fireball. They create water gauntlets as large as Sarin is tall and smother the monsters out of existence, the creatures hissing as they die. The dark flames fly away as Sarin chases them around the wall of the shaft.

The beasts are dodging Farid’s winds as well, so he and Sarin combine their efforts. The combination of these two attacks is devastating the collective ball as Farid’s winds link with Sarin’s acidic water, sizzling them out of the air.

Dunya stands at the edge of the shaft and watches the flames chasing Cedric. Whenever the flames get close enough to the wall, she cups her hands and claps them together. Doing so summons domes of metal that pop out of the shaft wall and catch some of the monsters. The domes are airtight and deprive the fiends of oxygen as they burn themselves out.

The fireball is dwindling into nothing when another billows up from the depth of the shaft. The force pushes Dunya back from the edge of the shaft and bounces Cedric off the wall mid-flight. Sarin encases themself in a shield of water and holds onto the wall, the force pushing hard against them. The force pushes Farid a bit, but with his wind shielding him he receives no damage.

The new dark fireball adds to what is left over from the first wave and grows in strength. The four of them start extinguishing flames all over again. They snuff out a large number of their opponents and are feeling good about nearly being finished with them when another fireball rises from the depths of the shaft. Cedric flies back over to the edge they had arrived from and stands by Dunya.

“This is getting annoying,” he says to Dunya, “I think they’re just trying to wear us down to beat us. We gotta stamp them out at their source.”

“Good thinking,” she replies and leaps off the edge and into the shaft.

“Whoa, what the fuck?” Cedric sputters and jumps off after her.

He blasts himself down the shaft to catch up, but by the time he reaches her, she pulls a thin bar of metal out of the wall and hangs from it.

“You had me worried for a moment,” he says to her as he sits himself down on the bar.

“Yeah, that’s not necessary,” she replies as she looks below her, “this realm’s environment reacts well to our abilities.

Dunya lifts herself onto the bar beside Cedric and kisses him on the cheek.

“But thank you for the thought,” she says to him as she looks below once more.

They can see that the bottom of the shaft cups around a crack in the wall, and that the flames are building another ball. Then Cedric notices that the flames are igniting gas coming from the crack.

“I think I can fit in there,” Cedric says to Dunya, “I’ll detonate their fuel source. It’ll probably collapse the cave, at least where the gas is coming from. Do you think you can keep the rest of the shaft from collapsing on us?”

She nods her head in response.

She adds, “I think you’re psychotic, but that’s great.”

“Alright, here goes,” Cedric says and fires himself into the split in the wall.

The crack erupts with flames, shooting Cedric back out towards the wall. A golden geometric pattern lights up as Dunya swipes her left hand right to left, and immediately catches him in a pouch of soft gold.

At the same time, a deep blue geometric pattern lights up as she swipes her right hand across from left to right. A flat sheet of metal alloy shears itself across the bottom of the shaft and into the opposite side. The metal bites into the wall and contains the explosion in the pocket where the gas was coming from. The sheet shakes as the explosion destroys everything within.

As the explosion takes place under the sheet of metal, the pocket of gold containing Cedric is thrust above. Popping up beside Dunya, Cedric steps out of his cushion fit for royalty. He. looks back at what his crash pad is made of and sees a gelatinous-looking piece of oozing gold.

Cedric is the first to speak, “That was awesome, that’s the most expensive pillow I’ve ever been cushioned by.”

They both look up.

“Race you to the top,” Dunya says and grabs onto a metal stalagmite she thrusts out from the bar where she was sitting.

Cedric watches her rise up at an incredible rate and blasts off after her. They reach the area where Farid and Sarin are battling the fiery beasts at the same time and see that Farid is basting wind mixed with Sarin’s water to finish off the last of their opponents.

Cedric doesn’t waste any time and flies in the direction of the path, motioning for the others to follow. They arrive one by one to a small opening in the wall where Cedric waits for them. The opening is a small tunnel that is barely big enough for Sarin to get through. The first three walk through it with ease, while Sarin has to shuffle side-step their way through. Once through the tunnel, they find themselves in a bright crystal.

Cedric looks around and sees there are cracks in different sections of the crystal. He can see his path go up a crack that rises into light. He begins walking towards the light when Sarin grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him in to hug him tight.

“I have to go this way,” they say to him, “but I’ll see you soon.”

Cedric squeezes Sarin back.

He answers with a bit of confusion in his voice, “Okay, I guess I’ll see you later. Uh, maybe in another trip.?.”

Sarin releases him, then walks into another crack and is consumed by the light. Cedric can almost make out some of the definitions of their face as they disappear.

Farid flies up to Cedric and says, “Mushroom picking, we’re doing it and you’re not backing out of it. I’ll see you when I see you, man.”

He holds out his hand in a fist and Cedric bumps it back as he smiles.

“Yeah, if I see you again I will definitely go mushroom-picking with you.”

Farid flies off into the light from within another crack as Dunya walks up and holds her hand out in a fist.

“I like that fist thing you just did with Farid,” she says. “And we’re going picking, we’re holding you to it.”

Cedric bumps her fist, and she turns and walks into the light of a different crack and disappears.

“Yeah, picking mushrooms with some trip spirits,” Cedric says to himself, “yeah we’ll see.”

He turns back towards the path and walks into the light.

“Now we rise up in between this realm and the previous,” Cedric hears Mustafa’s voice say as he fades into the light.

End chapter 6.

Thank you for reading. If you like my writing, you can leave me a tip on my Ko-Fi, or you can subscribe to receive my articles via email right here.

You can also follow me on Twitter, and Instagram to check out my art.