#scale shift

The cave was endless. I'd spent over an hour painstakingly searching out nooks and crannies, marking them with backwards-facing torches to find my way out. I thought I'd finished, until, backtracking, I noticed a dim area and a block of copper ore. As I broke it down, a vast chasm appeared on the other side, a cavern with so many offshoots my head went dizzy thinking about it. I felt impossibly small, overwhelmed, as my perception of the world's scale suddenly doubled - tripled - expanded beyond bounds. What control and understanding I'd had over the world vanished, replaced by a trembling, breathless awe.