Hugh entered the cave. When he stepped into its sunless hole, he was blinded by darkness. He saw and heard nothing as he stood there.

Wanting to find his way, he tried to imagine that he could see without eyes and hear without ears. He dreamed that the cave was a living being like himself. and that it would tell him its secrets if he listened.

In a moment, he heard a wind rolling slowly from the heart of the cave, and the wind said, "Huuuuu," calling him. Then he was aware of a light that reflected from the deep-blue glassy rocks that surrounded him in the cave. Far ahead, in a deeper part of the cave, the light was slightly brighter.

Hugh followed the tunnel, searching for the source of the light and sound, and searching for Hansa. He saw tiny white lights flashing from the cavern walls, reflecting like beads on the ocean where he first had seen the swan.

Hugh saw his body reflected in the mirrors of the rocks, and it looked strange -- so shadowy and broken up, as each little angle of the rock shone back a colored light of the boy's form.

He wanted to get beyond the tunnel, to a place where bright light was shining onto his world, and onto his own hands and feet, beneath a familiar azure sky, into his happy eyes.

Now in this dark cave, which seemed so much a dream, his eyes imagined they saw a dim blue figure ahead. Was it, he thought, his own reflection? Not a reflection, it was a man.