"It's enough, I can't walk another step!"
Alice breathed heavily then fell on the ground tired and exhausted. Albert and her had been roaming this rough labyrinth inside the cave for an entire day yet weren't able to find any exit. The road through which they came seemed to be erased by the ever shifting mist, losing its features in the delicate floating clouds of air. Albert sat down beside his friend catching his breaths and recalling how they ended trapped in this place. Seeing him returns alone was enough to make Alice understand everything, she couldn't hide her sighs and tears but telling her that the princess was happy and satisfied helped, though a little, to ease her sadness. They had one last look at the chamber where the princess went and with looks of gratitude they thanked her for her sacrifice. After that, Albert turned at Alice saying:
"Soon this place will be completely drowned in water; we must hurry and get out of here!"
He said this grasping Alice's hand, and then together they rushed down the path leading outside the cave intending to return to the ship but a quake that shook the whole place blocked their way with the collapsing rocks adding to the misfortune of clouded place with unclear patterns.
Albert closed his eyes. He would never forget the sight that greeted his eyes after the princess put the key down its lock and vanished into the empty lake. Few seconds after her disappearance, amidst the mist, the water gushing through the fissures in the walls and streaming down the eye – carved stones became thicker and faster. It flowed in a perfect transparency that was not tainted by anything, sheer sheets of purity and plenitude drizzling like a crystallized rain, seeping down the walls and filling the empty lake in a untied rhythm. The synchronicity of the little drops was almost unbelievable. Each direction filling his part of the lake in the same rhythm as the others. The water glittered like a thousand shooting stars travelling all at once a serene sky. However, after a while of admiring and being too dazzled to notice anything else, the flowing waterfalls became stronger, coursing through every pore and opening, gliding down every fissure and crack that continued to grow larger, threatening to flood the place sooner or later. At was at the sound of the dashing water when Albert realized he could stay no more, and that he and Alice had to go back to a safe place, away from the spring that threatened soon to overflow the whole cave. The water had to be collected later, when the holy water finally calm down after being dormant for decades, till it gives its blessing to be used.
"I wonder what caused that quake, was it the spring or the cannons?"
Alice wondered staring at the darkness that began to engulf the place the more they went deeper in the cave. Even the young officer felt a little scared, there was no way to make contact with the ship and the more they searched for an exit the more they got lost and trapped and now they were sitting hopeless, afraid and plagued by the different possibilities they could face entrapped in this place, next to each other.
" I'm pretty sure the Amphitrite will miss us and send someone to search for us."
Albert tried to state calmly but Alice was not as optimistic as him, for the first time since the journey, they played the opposite role.
"So what? The cave entrance is now sealed, we can't go out and no one can come in!"
Her words were true, but Albert just couldn't give up, he would not let his dream of wide open seas die in a dark stifling hole.
"Come on, we've been through more difficult situation and surpassed it, this is nothing... at least we're together!"
His words revived the courage inside the young girl's heart who rose again on her feet pushed by the same desire of the young man and once again they kept walking searching for an exit, they even tried to dig one with no avail, the walls were so hard and callous for their bare hands. They continued through tangled paths that were taking them up. Alice notice the change in direction as the road started to get harder to balance one's feet on walk it steadily. She remarked:
"Albert, it seems we're walking toward the mountain top, doesn't this mean we're getting further from the exit?
"I believe this is better; water will flow from the cave bottom drowning it, reaching the top is safer. Perhaps the dashing water will carve our way out..."
Albert weighed this possibility in his mind, wishfully thinking, to which Alice replied in long tired sighs.
" I hope you're right!"
The sound of something rumbling down the mountain made them run along the gravity they were suffering against as if they were chased by a ghost, that sound was followed by another quake, this time louder and stronger. The narrow path they were taking started to collapse too merely at the sound's vibration. Albert exclaimed:
"This is no earthquakes, it's cannonballs!"
"What? Have they forgotten about us?"
"It must be the royal fleet!"
They shouted to each other horrified. Albert grinded his teeth angrily, Alice noticed this and despite the situation they were in, she smiled thinking:
"I knew this, you don't belong to these people, you're different from them... your place is on the Amphitrite!"
Albert had a swift look at her, she was so happy as if she'd retrieved something precious she had long been looking to get back. Her accepting eyes calmed his racing heartbeats and ignited his will once more but suddenly her cheerful expression vanished and was replaced by a shocked one as the sounds of rumbling water and raging cannonballs mixed together shaking the whole mountain. Albert soon found her screaming, her voice becoming more distant the more she rolled down:
"ALBERT!"
Until her scream was lost between the crumbling rocks...