@@@@@ Finally, finally, there was a brightness
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Finally, finally, there was a brightness around the top and bottom of my blindfoldI wished that
it would slip, as I was too frightened to pull it off myselfIt seemed to me that I wouldn't be so
terrified if I could justsee where I was and who was with me
With the light came noiseStrange noise, a low murmuring babbleIt sounded almost like a
waterfall
The babble got louder as we moved forward, and the closer it got, the less it sounded like
waterIt was too varied, low and high pitches mingling and echoingIf it had not been so
discordant, it might have sounded like an uglier version of the constant music I'd heard and sung
on the Singing WorldThe darkness of the blindfold suited that memory, the memory of
blindness
Melanie understood the cacophony before I didI'd never heard the sound because I'd never
been with humans before
It's an argument,she realizedt sounds like so many people arguing
She was drawn by the soundWere there more people here, then? That there were even eight
had surprised us bothWhat was this place?
Hands touched the back of my neck, and I shied away from them
“Easy now,” Jeb saidHe pulled the blindfold off my eyes
I blinked slowly, and the shadows around me settled into shapes I could understand: rough,
uneven walls; a pocked ceiling; a worn, dusty floorWe were underground somewhere in a
natural cave formationWe couldn't be that deepI thought we'd hiked upward longer than we'd
slid downward
The rock walls and ceiling were a dark purpley brown, and they were riddled with shallow
holes like Swiss cheeseThe edges of the lower holes were worn down, but over my head the
circles were more defined, and their rims looked s