It was utterly dark, not one thing could be seen at all. There was little noise, this dark place was deathly silent.
There was not even the sound of vermin.
This deep quiet was broken by a yell of surprise and a thump.
A grunt lumbered its way out from whatever had fallen, signally that the quiet was most assuredly over.
“Ohhh, what happened? Where am I? Why is it so dark here? Is anyone one here? Hello?” the voice was young, male, but was for some reason or another a bit cracked.
A heavy sigh replied to the young voice. Then trailing tiredly after the sigh was a dry dusty voice.
“Hmm, I am…” The voice paused a bit, as if recalling his own name.
An oubliette, a place where one was supposedly left to be forgotten.
“Well, given you came from mines, and there is no mines here or beyond this oubliette, I suppose you must have slipped from Kigan into Awarth.
Pugh was stunned, he had heard tell of people falling through mirrors, and shadows into Awarth, but he hadn’t realised that one could fall into Awarth through darkness, but he supposed it made sense, given that Awarth was the mirrorworld of Kigan, dark to Kigan’s light. He guessed that some people could end up in Awarth from dreaming.
“This is terrible, how do I get out, how do I get back to Kigan, my home, Darnuth?” Pugh wailed.
Haldluirn gave a coughing laugh, curiously there was a faint clacking.
Pugh fumbled about in the dark until his hands found something. It was a strange rock, one that had the oddest depressions in it. It actually didn’t feel very much like any rock Pugh had felt before.
Pugh fell back in surprise.
Pugh was silent for a time.
Standing on Pugh’s shoulders Haldluirn was able to make the jump, not only that but he was able to fashion rope from his surroundings to get Pugh out of the pit too.
So Haldluirn and Pugh went off in the labyrinth. Haldluirn glad to get his old bones out of the oubliette and Pugh uncertain of his future.