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The Girl in the Cave

Chapter 1

By Aria NorthPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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Drip, drip, drip.

The sound of water splashing on the cave floor echoed as Cam sketched in his pad. Deep in the damp cave, his village bustled, the lanterns in each house and along the road the only source of light. Every chance he got, Cam was at the mouth of the cave, sketching everything he saw from the smallest bug to large predators prowling by.

With only a few days until his eighteenth birthday, he found himself itching to go out on his own. He’d been planning it for months. The places he would go, the things he wanted to see all swirled together in his head for as long as he could remember and he was finally going to go out and get what he had always dreamt of.

Sighing, Cams head fell back against the cave wall and he gazed out at the world he’d longed to be a part of for so long.

The sound of a bell tolling came from the direction of his little town. Curfew. He looked again and sure enough, the sun was setting. Groaning, he packed up his art supplies, got to his feet and started the trek back into the darkness, his pack slung over his shoulder.

He still didn’t know why there was a curfew with the town so tucked out of sight but he didn’t particularly want to find out either. The sounds of his steps echoed around him as he walked, his mind lost in plans for seeing the world. So lost in fact, that he didn’t notice a girl coming straight for him. She looked over her shoulder as if worries someone were following her and the two crashed into each other, falling to the floor of the cave.

“Hey!” Cam yelled, “What do you think you’re doing?” His pack had come open in the tumble so he gathered up his art supplies once more, stuffing them into his pack.

The girl didn’t answer, only grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet along with her, breaking into a run towards the mouth of the cave.

“What are you doing? Home is that way.” Cam panicked. The girl looked over her shoulder again, fear plain in her eyes.

As they reached the mouth of the cave once again, they slowed, the girl looking out cautiously before breaking into a run once more heading straight for the tree line.

Cam looked back at his home as the girl hailed him along and he saw as three Peace Keepers came out of the cave, searching around to see where he and his unwitting companion had gone. As the trees closed around him, he saw them turn and head back inside, clearly not wanting to be out here when the sun sank below the horizon.

“Hey! They’ve stopped following us.” He shouted to the girl and she looked back, nodded and slowed once again, finally letting go of his hand.

“What happened back there?” Cam asked “And who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your concern.” She panted. “As for what happened? I decided I wasn’t going to be controlled anymore and they didn’t like that.”

“I’ve never seen you around. Could you at least tell me your name?” Cam asked, finally catching his breath after the sprint away from the only home he’s ever known.

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “If you absolutely must know, my name is Evelyn. But I prefer to call myself Evie. Evelyn was my grandmothers name.”

“Ok Evie. What exactly had you planned to do once you got out of the cave? Did you even have one?” He looked around for a clearing as he spoke, the need for somewhere safe to sleep creeping up on him.

“Of course I did!” She snapped, looking around to see where they were. “Ok so we need food and a place to hide. What have you got in your pack?”

She was clearly making it up as she eyed Cams pack. He shuffled it higher onto his shoulder protectively, already unsure what the run had done to the thing inside.

“I can guarantee that I don’t have food or anything of worth to you in it so stop looking at it like you’re going to tear it open.” He said sharply.

She jolted, her eyes going wide, then looking down as her face flushed red at being caught.

“Ok, I’m sorry. Let’s just find a place to sleep for the night and we can worry about food tomorrow.” She turned away and started walking deeper into the forest in search of somewhere they could sleep.

Reluctantly Cam followed. He thought of home and his parents waiting for his return, the hot meal they would have ready for him and his stomach gurgled. Shaking his head as if to shake away the memory of safety that was already fading, he remembered something he had read about making shelter out of small branches and how to make a fire in a book about something called camping.

Evie had stopped again in a small clearing bug enough for them to settle down for the night. Cam told her about what he had read and they started collecting small branches and logs. Bringing their collections back to the clearing, the picked out which would be best for a fire and which would be best for shelter and soon, had a little half hut to keep them dry and a small unlit fire.

Cam thought back to what the book said about starting a fire and got to work after finding a flat piece of bark and some dried grass and moss. He rubbed them together with a stick for so long that his hands were starting to blister before he finally got a spark. That spark gave him a renewed vigour and he kept going until he had a tiny flame. He fed it some more dry grass and slipped it into the wood they had gathered for the fire and watched it catch.

Evie help up her hand for a high five and he slapped it with his own before settling down beside her in their little shelter and they quickly fell asleep from the warmth of the fire.

Young Adult
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About the Creator

Aria North

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