“The Ice Cave”

“Imagine a cave narrow and deep, about twenty feet high. The roof and walls of the cave are rounded knobs and ovoids reminiscent of dense clouds. Light penetrates through these rounded shapes sporadically, creating a feeling that one is in a half-subterranean and half-terrestrial world. The floor of the cave is an immaculate sheet of blue ice. The circular rocks above look like illuminated bombs raining down on one’s head. In the far distance, the light entering from the roof shines much brighter than where one now stands, promising a glorious heaven in one’s future. In the middle of the sheet ice nearby, sits a thick pile of what looks like frozen scree, stone shapes of ice that must have fallen from larger slabs above. And everything here is blue: steel blue, Prussian blue, Egyptian blue, and violet-blue. One expects gnomes here and sorcerers, airy goddesses of the Ice, and ghosts of lost warrior kings.”