The Well

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle – #740. Our host is
Brenda Warren; her prompt words for this week are
shown below. Here’s where the prompts took me.

robes – exposed – bind – beads – fabric – form
harmony – chaos – cave – enigma – dwells – well

Dr. Leslie Barr shielded her eyes against the desert wind as her team descended into the newly exposed cave entrance. Years of searching had led them here.

Inside, the cool darkness dwells with secrets. Their headlamps revealed ancient paintings in remarkable form; figures in white and gold robes dancing in perfect harmony around a central well. But something felt wrong.

“Look at this,” called her assistant, Samuel Jones, brushing away layers of dust. Scattered beads covered the floor, hundreds of them. They seemed to bind the entire chamber in a ceremonial pattern, yet sections showed signs of violent disruption …. chaos frozen in time.

Leslie knelt beside a fragment of fabric, impeccably preserved. Woven into it were symbols they’d never seen before, an enigma that challenged everything they knew about this civilization.

“Why would they abandon such a sacred place?” Samuel wondered aloud.

Leslie studied the well’s edge, noticing scratch marks, desperate and deep. Then she understood. They hadn’t abandoned it. They’d fled from it.

As their lights flickered, Leslie felt the temperature drop. Some secrets, she realized too late, were buried for a reason.

“We have to get out of here,” she whispered urgently.

But the entrance had vanished.