The Story Spark was: Beach Party. The Writing prompts I took were: Write a story where a character finds an unusual item in an underground cave at the beach, and Is there something in your life that reminds you of a way the tide comes in and out?
The Cave
The tide comes in, and the tide goes out. I love listening to the waves as they strike the shore. I’ve seen and heard that ebb and flow countless times. It’s so peaceful and relaxing. However, this is the first time I have ever seen low tide this far out. I didn’t even know that cave existed. From a distance, it was just a giant boulder as far as I could tell.
What’s neat about low tide is that I can go out further into the water than at high tide and still be standing up.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I walked, then waded out to the cave. As I got to the mouth of the cave, I could see it continued on and on, deeper and deeper. That was very odd, as I had never seen this boulder before. One interesting thing about this cave was that it was dimly lit inside. I’m not sure where the light was coming from.
The path I took in the cave sloped up gradually. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was on dry ground.
I looked back at the opening of the cave and realized my mistake. Since I arrived at the cave at low tide, water was rising behind me. I didn’t think I could make it back to the opening of the cave before it would be completely blocked by high-tide water. My only choice was to keep moving forward and up and hope that there was an exit at some point above the waterline.
Surprisingly, though the light from the opening was now blocked by water, the light in the cave remained. That didn’t make any sense.
I could see no other opening to let light in. The walls of this cave were giving up some luminescence all on their own.
The other confusing thing was that I could breathe normally. Obviously, there must be some source of air or oxygen in here.
It was then that I heard the rumble. It started beneath my feet, and then I saw the walls of the cave vibrate. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear that this cave was moving.
This time the light in the cave turned a deep, dark blue.
I was afraid to move any further. Whatever was happening, I decided I would just sit in place and hope for the best. In my case, I was hoping to survive until the tide receded again and I could escape this trap.
That happened much faster than I expected. Within half an hour, all movement stopped, the water drained, and I was able to work my way back to the opening of the cave.
I certainly never plan on making a foolish choice like that again.
As I reached the opening of the cave. I became aware that I could hear no wave action outside. Something was definitely wrong.
I became even more confused and a bit unnerved as I stepped out of the cave, and there was no longer a beach or water, just a lot of trees, and the sun shining high in a sky covered in white clouds. Oh, and the sun was red.
