Kheppa and the Cave - excerpt

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Kheppa and the Cave ©  

story adaptation by Steven Hickcox 
concept by E.M. Hickcox

Kheppa placed his outstretched hand over the warm air rising above the hot spring, and tried to imagine what sunlight felt like.  The sound of flowing water echoed throughout the cave and the boy who lived his whole life inside its walls, smiled as he reminisced about the stories his grandfather had told him of the outside.  When I was smaller than you, I would run through the shadows of trees into the warm sunlight, listening to the laughter of my brothers close behind me as they would chase me from tree to tree. We would climb the branches to pick the ripest fruit, filling our bellies while sitting in the shade, Kheppa recalled.  He wondered if the mushrooms that grow near the hot spring taste anything like the fruit in his grandfather’s stories.

Kheppa was the first of his clan born inside a cave they found refuge in, many years ago, when a fire in the sky came crashing down, destroying their village and trapping them inside.  Eventually, they had learned to live without light, however, Kheppa was by far the most adept of his people to the darkness.