INTO THE BAT CAVE

One beautiful evening while we were staying at a palace in Kothariya, the group took a short hike behind our palace to watch the sunset from the hilltop and to explore the age-old fortress that used to defend the world's second-oldest dynasty. We missed the sunset just barely, but we got to see the fort, sit on its edge, and gaze out at the mountains to our left and the parched river valley to our right.

When the sun's light had left the sky, Graham, Palmer, Mollie and I were walking along the fort wall. Suddenly Graham noticed a stream of dark winged creatures pouring out of a small pitch-black doorway below us at the base of the fort. The moon was not to come up for several minutes, so it was difficult to make out their flapping forms, but we could hear and smell the colony of sightless animals as they sped into the thick darkness in search of prey. We observed the phenomenon for a moment, and then Graham and Mollie continued walking. But before I could turn to join them, it happened. He said it.

Before Palmer offered his insufferably irresistible suggestion, I had not even considered the possibility. Even after he first mentioned the idea, I did not believe we would actually venture into the terrible, unknowable darkness. This hive of flurrying fangs contained the creature that had inspired fear in the hearts of men for eons. Surely we could not dream of crossing the boundary between our world and the resting place of archetypal earthly evil. After all, this was the very home of human terror.

And yet his words echoed in the not-so-quiet night.

“Dude let's go into the cave!”

So, inevitably, we crept, crawled, and squished our way INTO THE BAT CAVE.

After dinner we showed the footage to the whole group, and we met responses of disgust, disbelief, fear, and fascination. The next morning, Ben, Graham, and I woke at 6:00 to watch the sunrise and conduct a second expedition into the cave.