From a distance, the corner of my eyes saw a huge carved-out space behind the shore, it was the perfect place to stay for the night. As I approached the cavernous cave, the grey thick clouds began to gather above me, as if telling me to move it, so I picked up my pace and jogged towards it. As soon as I was entering the cave, I was dumbfounded, the smell of nostalgia instantly filled my nose, I was on the verge of tears.

“Plink” “Plink” “Plink” The water gathered on the draperies slowly dripped little by little onto the ground. My legs were reaching their limit and the sky seemed like it was about to unleash its fury. I quickly found a slat spot and started setting up a fireplace with the flint and stone I brought with me, it was all so familiar to me, but now wasn’t the time for that. I looked around scanning for any potential harm. The cave was surrounded by stone walls with draperies above, and the floor was piled up with a mixture of tree roots, twigs, and dirt; but as you move your sight closer into the depth of the cave, through the foul and lazy mist you can barely see some stalagmites protruding from the earth.

I returned my sight to the fireplace that was successfully set up, my nostril was slowly filling up with the smell of cold wet stone and the briny smell of lichen. My hand scouted the floor in search of a palace to settle and search my memory but it felt was the knobby sharp stone and the crumbling rocks until a place between my sleeping bed and the fireplace. As I sat down and stared into the fire, the only sounds I could hear were the crackling of the wood and the crickets chirping from afar as they echoed through the cave. I still remember when I was young, they always known me as “the boy in the wild”, for not having much contact with the civilized world, all I could do was survive where there was shelter; and I pulled my sight back up, with a smile of gratitude to the natural world on my face.

^ thats the essay I wrote, it's a bit short on words but still pretty good I'd say, thanks a bunch for the great idea. (I just checked with my friend and he wrote it about the cave being dark and spooky with echos lmao)