Fairy Tale -- Part 5

CubicHoney0146 found himself in a claustrophobic cave tunnel, completely consumed by darkness except for a faint luminous haze from somewhere up ahead.

He toiled through the narrow passages, recoiling at the tacky touch of the handholds. Eventually he found the light's source.

Emanations from a crevice in the wall appeared to be living light, buzzing with the excitement of being.

CubicHoney0146 squeezed sideways through the crevice and found himself in a giant amphitheater-like space, lit up and down by hundreds of torches affixed to the wall.

The first ring of these torches was high enough above his head, he wasn't worried yet about melting.

In the center of the room was a very tall figure, cloaked in black. The figure's head was downturned toward a giant spherical crystal of smoky quartz, its multifaceted surface half buried in the stone floor. In the depths of the crystal ball, puffs of smoke and tissue-like sheets of haze were all moving like spirits through the stone.

The figure turned. His face was completely hidden behind an oval mirror that appeared to be sewed into the hood of his cloak. CubicHoney0146 was faced with his own reflection, and the question of what kind of mask of his own he might get.

"So," the mirror-faced man said, "the Raven has arrived."

In the mirror, his default face flickered. It was replaced by the vivid mask of a raven, with an awesomely stylized beak and iridescent black feathers.

CubicHoney0146 quietly uttered a raven sound.

"I should have charged you a legendary sanity token for that mask," the towering man said. "But no one ever plays this game.

"By the way, I'm your Spirit Guide. And you are a Raven. Very, very rare--but I knew it as you came up the tunnel. Raven is a magical entity, master of the four elements. With the Crow, it sings the song of World's End.

"But I fear I'm boring you. I need to install your Exposure Sensory System and your Hunger Meter. Then we'll get you into the woods.

"Come. Follow me. The game awaits."

+10 MYTH

#fairytale

{this concludes iNstallment five}

here is the link back to the first installment:
https://steemit.com/hive-169911/@william8wayward/fairy-tale-and-and-and-000