The 500 Meter Waterfall

Rishi began to find it easier and easier to walk as the water became more and more shallow. There were large stones once in a while but for the most part it was easy going.

He used the current to guide him and every once in a while he would trek perpendicular to the current to check the side of the cave.

The cave was amazingly smooth here, the current also amazingly gentle, almost not noticeable. The walls became wider and wider.

He walked forward a few hundred meters and the water continued to get more and more shallow.

"There should be some structure coming, either a narrowing of the chamber or the roof above me."

Rishi stopped walking. Feeling up ward he touched the ceiling. "Lucky thing I checked. I'm going to have to be more careful."

He began walking forward scraping the ceiling with his finger tips, as it descended toward his head he thought, "I'll be crawling in a little bit."

That turned out to be quite wrong as in a few feet he stepped off the top of a water fall that didn't currently have very much water flowing off it.

"Oh Crap!" he said as he slid off the edge of the precipice. He thought, "I should have known!" He lost consciousness shortly after.

He awoke, laying on his back in shallow water. His skin burned, his head ached and he tasted blood in his mouth.

"But? I'm still alive? That's impossible," he sad out loud.

He did a body check and found all parts of him in tact, but he felt scrapes on his back. No, they were definitely cuts and his head was throbbing violently.

"I must have struck stone on the way down, but must have landed in a deep sink hole that the waterfall had gouged. That must be why I'm still alive."

This cavern was completely dark. Rishi tasted the water and strained his eyes hoping for a miracle but there was nothing to see here.

He rolled onto his stomach and swam across the flow of the water and his feet touched stone. He felt a bank and crawled onto it. Groping in the darkness he found his way to higher levels in the cave. He felt along the floor and kept climbing. If the spring thaw happened soon he would need to put distance between himself and this gentle river because it would become torrent soon.

He found a round cave entrance. A previous passage point for the river or perhaps an overflow he thought.

He climbed through it and felt glass on the other side. Six sided glass points to be precise. He crawled gingerly over the quartz and proceeded up wards.

He started to feel a bit groggy, like his head was going to float away, and decided that there was enough distance between himself and the potential flood below him. He found a large smooth crystal that reminded him of the one he'd laid on two years early and curled upon it.

He laid in full sunlight, streaming in from the top of the 1000 meter cave, but he couldn't see it because his mind had been concussed. He was lucky to be alive. But if the old man were there he would say, "luck had nothing to do with it."

He might have felt the sun, given enough time, but he had already passed out from exertion.