My eyes adapted to darkness long before I stepped into the cave and I was afraid of being noticed if someone is hiding in there, so I decided not to craft a torch and make my way silently sneaking along the walls. I had my pocket knife ready in my right arm if someone or something jumps right in front of me.

‘But what if someone strikes me from behind?’ a sudden thought flew through my head and I quickly turned my head back, but no one was there. I resolved that going sideways, leaning on the wall with my back will be a better decision. Step by step, I was inspecting the cave and after a few moments it has become too dark for me to see a thing. A cold breeze sent shivers through my spine and my nose start itching.

‘Wait…’ I whispered to myself, ‘If there is wind, then this cave must have an exit somewhere… damn it! If only I wasn’t afraid of… AH!!!’ my foot slipped on a wet moss, I threw my knife on the ground and tried to recover balance clinging with both hands onto the wall, but my attempt failed and I fell on the ground. I heard how my knife hit the other wall, but it was too dark for me to find it. A second breeze swept through my back and my nose started itching so hard that I couldn’t resist and let out the loudest sneeze in my life and then suddenly right after the sound echoed through a tunnel the whole cave filled with sapphire light. My mouth opened in amazement, this view was stunning and scary at the same time. Somehow, I regained my balance on these slippery rocks and stood up to take my knife back. When I started walking, crystals on the walls answered back to each of my steps, then I figured that these lights responded to sounds. I think they were sleeping and my sneeze woke them up. Maybe it was some sort of warning system to alert everyone if some intruders get inside but it didn’t matter for me anymore. I tried to pluck out some of the crystals and to my surprise they separated with the wall quite easily, gathering a dozen of them in my sac I decided to move forward. My heart started thumping harder with each step I took. Now I had less fear in my eyes than ever before, because I had nothing to lose. I reckoned everyone could hear my sneeze both inside and outside the cave, so there was no point in hiding. I was making my way through the tunnel walking straight down the middle with my nose proudly pointing to the ceiling. I felt like a person from a royal family that everyone admired in our village, despite never seeing them. With all these lights around me, shining like stars in the night’s sky, I completely forgot about caution and why in the first place I stepped into this cave.

‘Senka… I hope he is fine and will find me soon…’ were my thoughts when I turned my head back to look how far I deepened into this enchanted tunnel, but I couldn’t see the entrance. Yet in the front of me I started to see a blue dot, it was constantly growing bigger as I was approaching it, as well as, the wind got stronger and cooler. I started hearing water croaking sounds and when I came up to the end of the tunnel a huge cavern unfolded in front of my eyes. It was so huge that the half of our village could fit in here. A steady river was flowing from left to the right in the middle of the cavern and I couldn’t see from where it was running and where it was heading because the tunnels on both sides were not illuminated. On the other hand, the cavern itself was covered with same sapphire crystals as before and I could see everything like it was daylight. Both sides of the river were filled with flowers that I had never seen before.

‘How can they grow here if there are no bees to pollinate them?’ I whispered to myself in amazement, ‘I need to inspect them more closely…’ I sat down in front of them and was stunned with what I saw. They were made of crystals too! The only thing was different from sapphire crystals that these ones were transparent and had white tint on them. It was like seeing colored glass shaped into the flowers and placed on a wet moss. Then a quiet buzzing noise broke the silence. It was a small stag-beetle flying around me, covered in white crystal dust. The beetle sat down on a flower and started scratching it with its little horns. It was so fascinating, I had never seen anything like that before!

‘Hey! Tariq!’ Senka shouted so loud that his voice echoed through both river tunnels. It was so unexpected that I dropped my knife right into the flowers and fell on my butt.

‘Senka!’ shouted I, turning my head back to him, ‘How did you get here?’

‘I wanted to ask you the same question!’ He was holding a torch in his left hand and a pocket knife in the right hand, ‘Where is your torch, Tariq?’

‘Uhm… I thought that it would be better to go in without one so I could search the cave unnoticed, but eventually it became too dark and I slipped on a wet rock and then crystals lighted my way…’ I decided not to tell Senka how I got crystals working in the first place.

‘I found this cavern through that tunnel,’ Senka pointed his finger towards the cave entrance behind him. ‘I assume you got here from your tunnel right there?’

‘Yeah, exactly… I think this cavern connects most of the tunnels that are going through eastern side of the Cold Peak and I assume this river goes through the mountain…’ I started to think aloud my ideas.

‘It could be, but most importantly had you seen any traces of Hina and her parents in your tunnel?’ and then I finally figured what I was supposed to do there in the first place. Adrenaline rush, fear and every new thing around me obscured my mind and I forgot about our adventure’s first goal – finding Hina.

‘Senka, do you really want to find her so hard? Look at these flowers, look at these shining crystals! Don’t you want to explore the world to see things even more incredible than that?’ I started to reason Senka, ‘Screw Hina and her survival skills! We were alone in the beginning and planned our adventure to be ours, not hers. She was only the girl who left us behind!’

‘Tariq…’ he exhaled deeply and after a few moments of consideration added, ‘Yeah… You are right… but I still want to meet her sometime in the future and show how we changed ourselves,’ and that is when we decided that Hina was only a kick for us to move forward and our true goal is to have a most fascinating adventure ever.