The Fallen

The tunnel is cold and offers only darkness around each bend.  Each symbol I uncover assures me that I am following the course left behind.  Then in the distance I see a mist and a faint odor fills the tunnel; still I continue moving forward.  As I do so, I run my hand along the wall and note a change in the texture of the rock; it has become moist to the touch.  However, I will not let this deter me.  It isn’t until the cold rock turns soft and my hand is covered in a thick spongy substance, that I question my reason for being here?  I take a sample of the gunge only to discover that the test is inconclusive.  Still I am determined to find the origin of this cave, and it is then that my eyes uncover something new.  There before me is a vast empty void.  Could this be where the symbols were meant to lead me?   Here within the shadows, the walls themselves seem to breath and the distance above appears to soar for hundreds of feet.  I take several samples before exploring the cavern for answers.  Then I find what appears to be an exoskeleton embedded in the sticky matter; it is the remnants of something quite large and unknown to man.  I stand motionless trying to make sense of what I’m looking at.  Although it appears to be a Cicadoidea; a species better known as a Cicada and this is no ordinary Cicada!  This anomaly is the size of a boulder and has the same markings embedded into its shell as those found along the walls of the cavern.  This creature is not of God; but then what force created this creature?