"Neleve."

He heard the voice muttering his name. His eyes opened and adjusted to the dawn: veering branches and leaves, white cloth swaying above, doubles of everything.

"Neleve, it's time." Adjusting to the new light of day, his eyes focused on Kalen's clear face staring down at him. Consequentially, he greeted with a yawn wide and loud.

"I guess it can't be helped," he muttered, lifting himself to sitting position, then reacting to his first impulse by scratching his back. "The others?" he inquired.

"Dane is lurking about," Kalen answered. "But I have not seen Sencis."

So Neleve stood up and quickly brushed off the dust, then started sauntering aimlessly downhill, Kalen observing without following.

On and on during his excursion into the grove, he called her name, "Sencis!" until he suddenly stumbled over an unseen rock. And he would curse his collapse within that same instant before his body rolled down to the beating of dirt. Roll, the blur of light; twigs and trees filled his swirling vision as his body hit coarse soil. Eventually, he rolled off a slick boulder near the bottom of the hill and rustled a large bush.

He lay on his back, facing the large treetops, too hesitant to move due to the soreness setting in with messenger's haste. "I have fallen," he grumbled to himself.

"Neleve!"

Her voice. He heard Sencis calling from above, realizing it was her figure he witnessed on his path downward, now relieved she had not stumbled on his clumsy path. Thus, he slowly rose to his feet with the intent of staying on them, then brushed off the dirt. After a shake of the head, something unexpected caught his eye. There was a hollowed cavity in the hillside, big enough for a full-grown man to step through. So, spurred by the distraction, he allowed himself a harmless peer inward. However, found nothing distinct from the hole.

"Neleve..."

He turned around, observing Sencis behind him in her cloak. Her sanguine cheeks said enough about how long she'd been awake, but he could not tell whether it was her strapping attire or her unwavering eye contact that made her look so bold.

She briefly inspected Neleve, then looked passed him after noticing the looming cave. "And where does that lead?" she asked, pointing.

"I just encountered it myself," he told her.

"Hmm." She stepped observantly, speculating. Meanwhile, Neleve simply turned around and set foot within the hollowness. "What are you doing?"

"I am exploring?" he casually remarked.

Warily, she decidedly followed him before his entire body could disappear. Their hands were pressed against the solid corridor of rock, its wall directing them down the dark subterranean. At first, weighted by uncertainty, Sencis's curiosity slowly fell in line with Neleve's. Before long, a narrow strip of light fixed their path, its origin regressive.

Visions of luminescence allured Sencis. Anything that provided a glimmer arrested Neleve's attention. In time, the thin and rocky corridor expanded to reveal a grand interior cavity indigestible by the eye's limit.

Both explorers surrendered to awe, the cavern seemingly spanning an entire, unseen section of shoreline. Hence, they could not behold its full length or distinguish its features in the dimness. But an array of boulders outlined the area before them, the salted soil lowering itself below sea level, into an eroded surface of sand. Waves from the morning tides poured part of themselves inward, through a crevice partially blocked—but not altogether impeded—by jagged rocks. Like a mouth of teeth filed by thrashing tides, it spat then beckoned the flow of water. It was a mouth from which outside light entered, fed by dawn.

Another source of light sprung forth from the ceiling, caressing Neleve and Sencis in their forward stride until they stopped before soil damp by last night's tides. It dawned on them; they stood directly beneath a shore-side cliff. "What is this place?" asked Sencis.

"A strange, peculiar, natural chamber that is well hidden," exclaimed Neleve. "An extraordinary rarity." The tide continued to push and pull at the cavern's opening. Sencis dug her hand into the soft sand where water filled in small and static puddles. And she wondered, with aspiring energy, what they'd find if present during dusk. "I have never seen anything like this! Never forever never!"

"What if someone could live here? No. More. Many people!" Sencis declared.

"Do you hear something?" asked Neleve.

Sencis stopped and stood silent. They heard a faint voice echo behind them.

"Sencis!... Neleve!"

"I think that's Kalen," said Sencis, worriedly.

"By Evnin, I forgot!" ejaculated Neleve, considering Dane's original objective. He then started back towards the rocky corridor, while Sencis eyed him inquisitively. But she soon followed.

Midway, Neleve bumped into a stopping hand and was thus shoved back a few steps.

"What are you doing in here?" the voice questioned. It was certainly Kalen's.

"Dallying, Kallen!" he stammered. "I can barely see you."

"Concluding this investigation, I must inform thee that Dane awaits." Kalen started toward the tunnel exit. "That is to say, you and Sencis ought feel free to join us!"

"Wait!" beckoned Sencis, making him pause. "Don't you wish to see what we found?"

"Unless it is sacred, I do not encourage any more distractions."

There were a few seconds of silence between the three of them.

"You sure?" she pressed.

"Yes! Now let us ascend."

All three of them bowed their heads before the tunnel exit, reacquainting themselves with the sunlight, followed by a slow trudge up the hill.

Dane waited on the hilltop, by his own steed, curiously inspecting the leaves of a tall oak. The live specimen intrigued him for the way its branches arched and troughed in twisted extensions. By simple observation, it seemed an ugly thing, yet it fascinated him how something exceedingly unsymmetrical held both beauty and wonder.

As his companion's footsteps drew near, he let go of the aged bough. Those same fingers, he ran them across his palfrey's blonde mane before heaving himself on the saddle. Horseback often felt like a compromising position for him, but the unique and steady ambling of his companion energized him for the ride ahead. By then, Kalen arrived at their behest.

"Ready to go!" Neleve exclaimed, as they arrived by their respective horses.

"Just how far does Mak' Dris lie?" asked Sencis.

"Not far," replied Dane. "Expect to be there by midday, if not sooner. A steady gallop should afford no less." That's when Neleve rode alongside Dane. "Do we intend to board the first ship we find?" he asked

"That depends."

"Does it?"

"A warship shall not accommodate us."

"Don't suppose that was ever an option."

"You said, 'the first ship we find.'"

"Right," Neleve grinned. "Thus, the first non-warship is what I should have said. Non-warship..., trade ship, civilian vessel or otherwise."

"Correct," Dane monotonously confirmed.

"I comply with the plan," added Kalen, trotting closer. "But is there a specific reason to avoid sailing aboard a naval vessel?"

And Dane paused, letting temporary silence fill the space between them. "Several, but none of which are an immediate concern," he replied. Were there another thought between them, it was foregone by Dane's gallop down onto the beach. So the others followed downhill, over and past the thick boughs, departing the grove and returning to the lower sands that would link them to Mak' Dris.