For years Amren's dreams had been plagued by cryptic and confusing images of a great city and one word whispered over and over again "Bimali".
No he stood there speechlessly staring into the massive cavern in front of him, nature had long ago reclaimed this ancient place.
The cool air flooded in from above, coupled with the filtered beams of the sun's morning glow.
They had travelled through the caves for days in darkness and the group made camp by the shore last night, only able to hear the constant rush of water nearby and unwilling to attempt the cross without a full night's rest.
They waited only to be greated the following morning, with their first natural light since entering the labyrinth of caves.
The dark of night had hidden just how close they were to their final destination, he had read countless records from other ancient civilisations that had made mention of the Bimali.
They were said to be a mighty and powerful race the wielded unparalleled abilities, though in all of these accounts none had thought to say where the Bimali's great city was located - the great city had been lost to time for hundreds of years.
Now he was here, after years of research and travel he had finally found the Lost City of the Bimali - at last he had the chance to seek the answers, to the questions that had riddled his mind day and night.
Who were the Bimali? This was such an ancient civilisation, there was almost no mention of it even in ancient texts.
What was the purpose of the visions that haunted his every moment? There was no meaning in the images, just flashes of people living and then dying tragically one after the other.
When did this happen to the Bimali? The last historical reference to the ancient people was over 5300 years ago, when did they disappear from this place?
Where did the Bimali go? There was no further mention of them, but surely an entire people couldn't just vanish suddenly there had to be a continuation of the people somewhere.
Why was he seeing these visions? Considering he had never heard of them when his dreams first started, why was he seeing a civilisation that most archeologists considered a myth?
Now to find the answers...
What is a Flash Fiction?
Flash fiction is not a short story, short stories are completed tales with all the story there on the page.
Whereas flash fiction is like a snapshot of a story, it can be set during the beginning, middle or end of a story - but it isn't the whole picture just a short part of the text that can stand alone.
The goal here is to set the scene, establish characters and build a storyline - and hopefully leave the reader imagining what is going to happen next.
Each flash fiction piece is inspired by a picture or image that I will include in the post, and from that the story is built or at least a fragment or moment within the story.
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