As he stumbles out of the jungle onto the beach the tang of salt air pierces his nostrils. Salt air? How could there be a salt ocean down here? And how could there be bright sunlight from behind cumulous clouds that pile up in the blue sky above him as far as his eyes can see?
He sprawls in the pristine sand and stares at the continuously lapping waves. Did he somehow emerge out from the underground? But then as he scans the shore line he sees rocks rising from the sand, several hundred metres away. The rocks rise up into the sky until they just… fade into blue.
His jaw drops. There seems to be an entire world under here. Is there another sun? As he looks up into the sky he can't actually pinpoint any light source…
Lowering his gaze to the horizon he spots something out there - a tiny speck out on the vast blue ocean. And at this point he first notices, stationed upon a closer rock to the other side of the beach, a pair of tourist binocular glasses, as a post jutting up from the rock.
On shaky feet he scrambles over to the rock. Holding the glasses carefully he settles them upon the object out in the sea.
After looking for a moment, he pulls back and shakes his head. He should have known, really.
It's the giant wooden duck - the one from the girl's drawing.
Eleventh chapter in an ongoing serial based on @mariannewest's daily #freewrite writing prompts. Here are the previous chapters listed below:
Chapter One>Chapter Two
Chapter Three>Chapter Four
Chapter Five>Chapter Six
Chapter Seven>Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine>Chapter Ten
And here is the link to Chapter Twelve
Written in five minutes from the writing prompt, "glasses" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is also by me. You can view the prompt here and check out the other entries; and be sure you can read them all the way to the bottom line. Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this daily prescription of highly focused literary vision.