Duncan’s Purse — Revelations

A First Line Fiction Story — Prompt#30: Part XVI

11 min readOct 3, 2025

The cavern bloomed bronze, the walls seeming to caramelize. Pale shadows flickered, stretching toward the ceiling. Though he couldn’t see the threat, the haggard and weary man knew that if he had any chance of saving his family, he had to act now. Releasing the tension in his thighs, he lunged forward, his fingernails split, pressing into the rock as he propelled his head and shoulders from the narrow mountain tunnel and yelled. Then something pulled him back into the tunnel. — Image by author via Leonardo AI.

Previous chapters are available here.

Arpad Nagy

Duncan's Purse. A First Line Fiction Serial Story.

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19 stories

Under a nearly full moon, a throng of men rushes down a forested mountain, heading towards a mountain with a yawning, open entrance to a cavern. A short, stocky, and strong woman stands armed with a bow and arrow among a line of blue-skinned, tall humanoids at the mountain entrance, each with bows, battleaxes, swords, and shields, prepared to fend off the attackers.

A man in his 50s, wearing a short beard and looking rugged and worse for wear, sits on his heels inside a mountain tunnel. In front of him are a dozen gold-skinned people, including his wife and two teenage sons. They are flanked by much taller, blue-skinned humanoids holding golden trumpets. Everyone is looking at an arch of crystal, glowing with white light, on the tunnel’s wall

A split image. The first image shows a man walking alongside a much taller, blue-skinned humanoid. They are entering a narrow tunnel, carved from rock inside a mountain. A white-blue mist surrounds them. The second image shows a haggard, bearded man in his 50s walking behind a stocky woman as she leads them into a tunnel with a golden light at the end.

Part XVI

He felt febrile. Sweat trickled from his neck down the valley of his spine. Though only tepid, the air in the tunnel was dank. Marvin’s eyes ached from his unrelenting gaze up into the cavern, his focus set hard on Becky and the boys. His calves tightened as he flexed his toes, pressing his boots into the slick rock floor. Inching himself forward, his fingertips hooked into the lip of the opening. Like a drawn arrow, Marvin felt ready to launch.

Then, they moved.

The two columns of the gold-skinned people turned in unison, facing away from him. Becky, Samuel and Sawyer anchored the line nearest him. He watched as they raised steepled hands to their chins and bowed.

A growling sound emanated from somewhere ahead, and the blue humanoids appeared, twice as many of them as the people standing in some form of worship who began harmonizing a delicate, airy hymn. The acoustics rose…

First Line Fiction

Duncan’s Purse — Revelations

A First Line Fiction Story — Prompt#30: Part XVI

Duncan's Purse. A First Line Fiction Serial Story.

Part XVI

Published in First Line Fiction

Written by Arpad Nagy

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