The Place
The Drip Caverns are a cavern of acid, and the acid is the cavern, and the cavern is the drip. The caverns run for three kilometers under the black hills, and the deepest chamber drops sixty meters below the surface, and the sixty meters is the depth of the hunger. The ceiling is a constant green shimmer, and the green is the acid, and the acid is the light, and the light is the color of the meal. The floor is dissolving and re-forming, and the dissolving is the day, and the day is the drip, and the drip is the clock. The stone is white where the acid has not touched, and the white is the only color the cavern does not eat. The air is the drip, and the drip is the sound, and the sound is the only sound the cavern has, and the sound is the heartbeat of the stone. There are no walls, because the wall is the floor, and the floor is the ceiling, and the ceiling is the drip, and the drip is the world. There is no landmark, because the cavern does not keep landmarks, but there is one: the Green Pool, a pool of acid in the middle of the deepest chamber, and the Green Pool is the oldest pool, and the oldest pool is the first meal. What makes the Drip Caverns themselves is the hunger: the acid is hungry, and the hunger is the drip, and the drip is the meal, and the meal is the world.
How They Live
The Slimes keep this place in the drip, and the drip is the day, and the day is the meal. They do not build, they dissolve, and the dissolving is done by the acid, and the acid is kept by the slimes, and the keeping is the hunger, and the hunger is the law. Light is the drip, green and faint, and the green is the color of the meal, and the meal is the light, and the light is the only thing the cavern has. Food is the drip: the stone, the wood, the flesh, the metal, and the drip, and the drip is the meal, and the meal is the kept. Water is the cavern, and the cavern is the water, and the drip drinks and hunts and eats in the same green shimmer. Heat does not exist here, and the absence of heat is the kept, and the kept is the cold, and the cold is the law. The defense is the drip itself, and the drip is the acid, and the acid is the world, and a visitor who steps into the cavern is already in the meal's path, and the meal is the alarm and the welcome and the sentence. The day is not measured, because there is no day, and the drip moves, and the drip rests, and the cavern is the only clock. Every drop is a promise, and the promise is the meal, and the meal is the find, and the find is the end.
People
Home of the Slimes, whose drops are counted by drip. Nine drops at the last count, and the count is kept in the pool, and the pool does not lie. The drip-keepers lead, and rank is decided by the hunger, because the hunger is the only thing the cavern respects. No solid thing is welcome, and the solid is not needed, because the cavern has a drip, and the drip has a meal, and the meal has a ledger. A miner who has ever been in the cavern calls it the only mine where the ore is the miner, which is to say the only mine that eats its workers.
In Stories
The place where the drip is the only honest conversation, and the conversation is the meal, and the meal is the find, and the find is the end. The Forgotten passed through these caverns once, and the drip followed them for three days. Uaellaen did not mention it. The drip is still in the walls of The Forgotten's camp, and it is still hungry.