The old man spun around immediately at the echo of another voice at the edge of the lantern-light -- and he held up the flame to get a better, squinting look at the big-hatted man and his strange birdlike companion. Instinctively he stepped to the side, shielding the young and timid Laphi from anything this new potential threat could conjure.

[color=lightblue]"An [i]exit![/i]"[/color] he huffed, his long beard waggling. His wild dark eyes gleamed in the light. [color=lightblue]"The very worst error you could make in these caves is to [i]search[/i] for what you want -- because when you find it, you'll never know if it's real."[/color] He peered into Edric's eyes, and saw there a telltale gleam. [color=lightblue]"So you already know."[/color]

He looked up, above Edric's head, at a glinting in the distant darkness. Sunny's voice echoed on the walls, but her words were impossible to make out -- if it was her speaking at all.

The air was beginning to thicken with the faint musky smell of woodsmoke and copper. Somewhere, chains clinked. A woman sobbed. A metal door slammed shut with the click of a lock. The griffin screeched.

[color=7a33ff][i]"I hate you,"[/i][/color] a faint, child's voice whispered all around.

The darkness thickened, encroached upon the edges of the light, pressed closer and darker as if it intended to swallow them all whole.

[color=lightblue]"Blast your nightmares,"[/color] the old man breathed, watching around him carefully. The fears and horrors of those gathered were slowly manifesting, reverberating in the rough stone walls, trembling in the haunting mosaics of civilizations swallowed by dreams.

The cavern, long deprived, was hungry.

[color=lightblue]"Come, keep moving. The only way out is --"[/color] The old man strode forward, resolute on his bony legs, but skidded to a halt as his light revealed the iron gleam of a cage wall. He lifted the lantern, explored to each side -- but in the darkness they had been quietly imprisoned, a cage that had materialized around them while they had discussed the nature of nightmares.

The old man growled. [color=lightblue]"Which of you is responsible for this?"[/color] he demanded, accusing.

The cage walls slowly, silently moved inward -- trapped them, forced them to move closer together, threatened to eventually crush them between the bars. The darkness loomed just behind it, to snuff out their light and to suffocate them in its black nothingness.

[color=lightblue]"Destroy it, damn you!"[/color] the old man hollered, stumbling backward into Edric to avoid the encroaching iron bars.