The moment his foot crossed over the threshold of the cave mouth, he was assailed by the putrid scent of decayed flesh and rotten fruit, mixed in with the staleness of old urine and a festering of human excrement. Almost as soon as he entered, the blackness that had faced him mere moments ago now characterized the exit of the cave, as if nothing but an empty night's sky lay beyond it. As soon as he made this distinction, all light disappeared from his eyes and he was stranded within an abyss of blackness.
Slowing for a second time, he summoned a small ball of fire and directed it to float in front of him like a living torch, at which point he finally saw the unknown speaker.
