Sojourn under the Earth: Part 1

Fred decided that the best course of action would be to backtrack and try the right-hand passage at the last fork he passed, hoping that it would take him somewhere interesting....maybe even to the mysterious clanging noises he could even now still hear.

As Fred made his way back to the last fork, the clanging sound ended abruptly. Fred stopped and listened for a few minutes, but heard nothing other than the distant drip-drop of water from the wetter areas of the cave system he had come from originally.

Looking back just to be safe, Fred then continued on and finally reached the fork. Taking the right-hand passage this time, Fred began what would amount to being a long-winded journey of danger and mystery in a world entirely underground....

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Fred had been walking for hours, and still the tunnel he had chosen plowed straight ahead, never deviating more than a couple of feet and still the same size as before. He was growing weary and unsure of himself at this point, not fancying the concept of being stuck in a straight tunnel that would take hours to escape from. 'This is an archer's paradise,' Fred thought. '.......or a Dragon's.'

After several more hours still, and just as Fred was about to stop and reconsider this passage, and perhaps this whole mission, Fred spotted a side-tunnel to his left, far ahead of him. The original passage itself kept going farther still, with no end in (his somewhat limited) sight.

Walking up to the side-tunnel, Fred noticed it was a little thinner than the passage he had been following, and was about one and a-half armslengths from side to side. It sloped gently upwards as well, and was obstructed by the rough terrain and strewn with cave boulders. This part of the cave was even dustier and drier than the passage he was in now, and he realized that his water was running low. He made a mental note to retrieve some at the next best opportunity.

Fred took the side-passage and began climbing over the boulders and uneven rock-formations obstructing his path. Sometimes it was a tight fit next to the ceiling, something Fred did not at all relish. After about twenty minutes of climbing under and over boulders, around corners and up small rock faces, Fred came to a large, roughly-circular cavern with many passages going off in different directions, almost, Fred thought, like the fabled "Room of Doors."

Fred noted that, from left to right in this cavern, starting at his uttermost left, were six passages. The first three were on ground level and seemed to be level with the cavern's elevation; the fourth was a smaller tunnel (yet still traversable by one of Fred's stature) that jutted into a mess of rocky formations about halfway up to the ceiling; the fifth was a particularly large corridor that went straight off into the darkness, and the sixth was a smaller passage near the ground that would definitely require Fred to crawl through it---and it seemed to be sloping downward, something Fred was appalled at the thought of making his way through.

1. Fred enters the first tunnel (on his uttermost left)
2. Fred enters the second tunnel (on his left)
3. Fred enters the third tunnel (on his left)
4. Fred enters the fourth tunnel, a smaller passage halfway to the ceiling (ahead of him)
5. Fred enters the fifth tunnel, a large corridor-like passage (on his right)
6. Fred enters the sixth tunnel, a small opening near the floor (on his uttermost right)
7. Fred turns back, feeling very uneasy now (behind him)

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