29

Another step, and another, straight towards where the wall should be, and it wasn't there. This was very curious indeed. After about 12-15 steps, something shown faintly in the lamp light. It was about four feet high, and looked like a wall with a small basin between the sides. The basin was filled with a liquid that most certainly was not water, for ti was black and shinny. It also looked like it had purple sparkly flecks in it. Les reached out to touch it, mesmerized by it's color and brilliance in the firelight. The liquid was warm to the touch, and dripped like water through her fingers. Les started to wish she had her other hand free, and better lighting to examine it closer. Instinctively she set her lantern down in the stream of black water. As soon as the lantern touched the black water. As soon as the lantern touched it though; the water began to creep up the sides of the device as if it were alive. Les watched dumbfounded as the black water crept up and towards the fire. It crept as if it were drawn to the source of light. As soon as the black reached that height instead of snuffing out the flame, the black water ignited and subsided from the lantern. suddenly the whole basin was aflame.

28

Les looked back in the direction she'd just come from. The light from her room was faint and small. She hadn't realized how far she was traveling. The tunnel kept going in front of her, and so far there had been no turn offs, so she couldn't get lost following one path, so she pressed on. Up ahead the tunnel started to corner. Les kept moving forward, soon the path began to twist and turn before her. She was beginning to forget which way she was traveling, she'd started out traveling in an eastward direction. Now she'd lost her bearings on direction all together. But it was still one path and she wasn't afraid. The darkness around her seemed so complete now, she was glad for her lantern. Eventually she noticed that she could no longer see the wall to her Left, and that she'd been following closely to the wall to her right. She moved the lantern close to where the left wall should have been, but it didn't show in her lamplight. She took a step away from the wall she was following, but the did not show still. Curious, she took another step, and another. Still no Left wall. How wide had this tunnel grown?