Sound of water droplets falling on the floor ringing in Unta’s ears.

Unta tried to open his eyes slowly.

His eyesight not very clear. His head feel really dizzy.

After a moment, his eyes opened wide. He found himself lying on rough wet floor.

He stood up slowly because his head feels dizzy.

“Api!”

He suddenly yelled a spell while putting his right hand in front of him to form a small fire on his right palm.

The fire is bright enough to make the area around him can be seen.

“Where am I?”

Unta muttered asking himself and looking around him.

“Cave?”

He realised that he’s in a cave. Deep inside a cave without a slight of light from outside.

“Oh! I need to get out of this cave before they catch me.”

Unta suddenly remembered someone’s trying to catch him. He tried to run to find the entrance of the cave, but his head feels really dizzy.

He just walks slowly with his right hand holding a small magical fire to give him a proper vision in the dark cave.

“Screech”

A very noisy sound coming from the ceiling of the cave. It’s the sound of bats that are flying around the cave’s ceiling.

“Bats huh?”

Unta puts his left hand up towards the ceiling then suddenly grip his hand and form a fist.

“Bakar!”

Those bats start burning and fly without direction because of Unta’s magic. The bats became noisier.

Thousands of bats fall onto the cave’s floor and died. The noises of the bats reduced.

“So, they know how to keep quiet huh?”

The smell of burned bats is really strong. Unta watched around him and start to talk to himself.

“I’m kinda hungry right now. Should I try these things? Hmm… Maybe not.”

He looks at those dead bats while putting an evil smile on his face. He intended to eat those bats because he’s really hungry. But he knows those bats will not satisfy his tummy, he will end up sick instead.

Then, he continued searching for the entrance of the cave.

While searching for the entrance, Unta suddenly hear sound of flowing water. Without any delay, he increases his walking speed and go toward the sound. He was expecting it was sound of subterranean river—river that runs beneath the ground surface. Unfortunately, it’s out of his expectation.

“Waterfall in the middle of cave? Where in the world am I right now?”

He sighed. He was really confused.

He tried to follow the flow of the waterfall but it’s falling inside a big hole. Not even brightness from small flame on his palm can reach the end of the hole. It’s just too deep.

Unta looks up from where the waterfall comes. It comes from a big hole on the cave’s ceiling.

“It comes from a hole but no sign of light from outside huh? That means there is another level of this cave above me or maybe there are more than two levels.”

Unta tried to figure out his current situation. It seems pretty bad for him if this cave has many levels. That means he needs to climb up in order to escape from this cave.

He sits on the floor and make the flame on his hand vanished. He is in a posture of someone who is having meditation.

He’s trying to clear up his mind and remember how he ended up inside a cave. Everything that he can recall is he’s running from someone.

Unta suddenly opened his eyes wide.

“Ah! I remember now. We are still on war and Pari’s army was trying to catch me. But how did I get into this cave?”

He still can’t recall how he ended up in the cave.

He then got an idea how to escape.

“Maybe I need to create a hole beneath me and follow the flow of the water.”

He slammed the floor with his right leg only once. The cave started shaking like an earthquake is happening. He jumps backward about 20 meter. What a strong leg.

“Api!”

He forms a small fire on his right hand to give him proper vision about the situation in the cave. The floor that slammed by him started to fall apart. A big hole with diameter about 10 meter created.

Unta puts his left hand on his head.

“Argh! All this shaking makes my head feel worse.”

The shaking in the cave stopped. Unta moving forward to the hole and looks into it.

He throws the flame on his right hand into the hole. The hole’s really deep. He sighed.

“How can I go into this hole without dying? It seems there’s no subterranean river too at that floor. Maybe I can find other ways to escape this cave on from this floor.”

He cast the same fire spell and leaves the hole he created and continue searching any safer way to escape from the cave.

As he walks, he’s talking to himself.

“Why bad things always happened to me when we’re in a bad situation. I hope they manage to defend the town from that damn Pari.”

He was talking about the current war that’s happening before he lost his conscious and woke up in the cave.

After walk for a long time, he decided to take a break.

“This is really frustrating!”

He can’t handle the situation anymore.

“I think there’s no one in this cave besides me. Maybe they won’t find me here.”

Unta drops his small fire on the floor and lie beside a stalagmite. Staring at the cave’s ceiling. Enjoying how beautiful the scenery around him.

“Maybe this is not bad. I can stay here but I need to find foods. Perhaps bats from back then can taste delicious too…”

His voice sounded like he has given up on finding escape route from the cave. Maybe he also given up on his life by imagining eating those bats.

Unta slowly closed his eyes and fall asleep.

***

*Tap…tap…tap…*

Unta opened his eyes after he heard sound of footstep echoing in the cave. He put out the fire and hide behind a stalagmite.

“Enemy?”

He’s having dialog with himself.

He saw a light far away from his hiding place. The light’s not as orange as Unta’s fire. It’s white and in form of light beam. The light keeps moving up, down, right and left.

“Is that some kind of new magic? Never saw that before.”

The number of lights suddenly increased by four make it five altogether.

Unta started to worry about his safety.

“Is it safe for five versus one? I don’t think so…”

He asked and answer himself. He’s putting his guard on.