Chapter 11
Flashback
Li has a flashback that knocked him down and another jolt he was in the cave singing in Japanese one of the songs his mother sang when was little he was going to teach Little Li Then he saw it again that rift the one he carelessly walked into the day he arrived and he said to himself there's got yo be some connection to it There something that causes it to appear and disappear the explorer in him pushing him to find out what and how he can cross it again motivates his singing louder
A sharp, searing pain ripped through Li’s head, a violent echo of the moment he’d stepped through the shimmering distortion. He stumbled, his knees buckling, the rough stone floor of the tipi a jarring contrast to the soft earth he’d grown accustomed to. He gasped, the air catching in his throat, and found himself back in the cave, not the one he’d left, but this one, this strange, pulsing cavern. He was singing, a melody his mother used to hum when he was a boy, a song of comfort and home, a song he’d promised himself he’d teach his own son. Little Li. A jolt, stronger this time, shuddered through him, and he saw it again – the ripple, the tear in reality that had stolen him away. It shimmered, a phantom presence in the cave, and a fierce curiosity, the explorer’s instinct that had always driven him, surged through him. There had to be a connection, a reason for its appearance and disappearance. He pushed himself to his feet, the ancient melody rising in his voice, a desperate plea and a determined question, louder now, echoing off the damp stone walls.