It was too dark to see anything in the cave. To get used to being on his feet again, he circumvented the boulder using his hands as ballast to navigate the enormous sphere. The rock was smooth all the way around and did not feel as though it had been fashioned by nature. Astor knew that he needed to try to get somewhere, but he was afraid to leave the security of the boulder. The boulder, while no longer chained to his ankle, had a different kind of hold on him. It represented a kind of security. The boulder was there. He could feel it, but the impenetrable darkness beyond had no such surety. A man may lose his sanity wandering below the depths of the earth with nothing but the cold stone surface below his hands and feet to tether his reality.