Thankfully, nothing else ca after that wave of heat… although it would be hard to call that entirely reassuring with everything that had just happened. None of it made any sense to , yet I couldn’t deny what I had seen.
I was now just left alone, in a small chamber underground, with… sothing crawling around in the tunnels, probably lying in wait for to try and leave, ready to pounce at a mont’s notice. I couldn’t understand why it chose to wait instead of just going for , but no matter what it chose to do, I already knew that there was nothing I’d be able to do to stop it.
Even my knives simply went through their arm before. If they startled them slightly in that mont, it likely wouldn’t have been long until they realised the sa thing… It was all just luck that they gave up.
I ended up just sitting in the dark chamber, waiting for sothing to happen for so long that I was eventually able to stand without the support of the wall, even if it wasn’t all that comfortable. I paced back and forth a little just to make sure that I would actually be able to walk on it without falling to the ground again.
Fortunately, it seed that it would be okay, at least for a little while… if I kept it slow anyway. There was still a slight throbbing, but I could handle that much as long as it ant I wasn’t left a sitting duck.
What do I do now?
Is there a way out?
Do I even want to get out of here right now?
…
Why can’t soone just tell what to do?…
I don’t want to be here.
…
I really don’t want to be here.
…
But, at the end of the day, there was only one way I could leave… at least that was what it looked like. There was still the question of how much of this was really an illusion, because if this whole cave wasn’t real… then where was I? Where could I even be? If I just closed my eyes and ignored what was around , would it all disappear? Could it really be that simple to escape?
…
I closed my eyes, but only for a mont, as a creeping feeling imdiately washed over , telling that it was a very bad idea; that the mont I stopped paying attention, that thing would co crawling back through the tunnel and straight for .
…
But I have to do sothing…
What if no one finds down here?
…
…
Maybe… I’ll just have a look…
If there’s nothing… then…
I didn’t allow myself to finish that thought and instead made my way towards the tunnel, hugging the wall tightly; only wanting to get a peek at what’s inside.
As my head poked out, however, what I saw stopped my heart for a few beats. It was… dark, pitch-black even.
That’s not right.
I had been able to see perfectly fine in the dark for years. What did it an if I suddenly couldn’t? What was inside that tunnel? How could it be darker than even Ovia’s domain? It shouldn’t have been possible.
…
My mind scread at to back away, that I would have a better chance at just waiting for soone else to get lucky and find in the maze of tunnels.
Rya said that she was here to deal with all this, so I tried to convince myself that if I just waited long enough, it would all co to an end.
That was all I needed to do. Stay still. Stay silent.
…
Unfortunately, all I was able to manage was a single step back, sending a few coins skating across the stone floor. As soon as I registered what had happened, I was hit with another wave of heat, followed by a growl so piercing that it locked my feet firmly in place, forcing to keep my eyes trained on the seemingly endless dark tunnel.
That’s when they appeared.
Two huge glowing amber eyes with slit pupils; the only source of light inside that tunnel. They were trained directly on , yet at the sa ti, it felt like I was being completely ignored, as they looked straight through , deep down into my core.
They slowly inched closer towards , but thankfully, I was able to force myself to take a step back, trying to maintain the distance between us despite my fear. It didn’t move very quickly, but there was only so much further back I could go… it was only a matter of ti…
…
It then stopped in its tracks, only inches from escaping the darkness and entering the chamber, its face still hidden.
M-Maybe-
There wasn’t even ti for to think before there was more movent. A giant scaled forelimb reached out of the darkness and towards , its scales were a dark red, much like the rabbit beastkin’s hair from before. At the end of each of the four fingers was a claw stained a faint yellow, with tiny cracks running through it, although that didn’t matter given the imnse size; if one of them went through my chest… I didn’t think even Celica would be able to do anything about it.
Is it really a dragon down here?
Which one was real? This or the… thing from before?
Are neither of them real?
As my thoughts raced, the clawed hand rotated so that its palm was facing upwards.
“Give.”
The deep voice echoed from the tunnel into the chamber, more than loud enough to hurt my ears. I had to cover them just so that the echoes didn’t overwhelm and my thoughts.
…
But that may have been the wrong thing for to do.
“Give!” The creature roared even louder than before, pushing down onto the ground with the sound alone.
W-What do I?!
Should I just give-
No!
I can’t.
Anything but that.
I just-
I held my knives out in front of , but all that did was make it all the more obvious just how useless they were in the face of sothing that large. I doubted if they could even leave a mark on one of the scales, let alone actually do any aningful damage.
…
“U-Umbra…” I whispered as I slipped my hand into my cloak, keeping my eyes trained on the claw closest to , “G-Give … sothing… anything…”
The pressure coming from those amber eyes was making it difficult for to even think clearly. I wasn’t even sure what Umbra could give that could help , but it felt like I didn’t have any other option than to hope for a miracle.
A mont later, sothing cold t my hand. I instantly latched onto it, pulling it out from inside my cloak along with Umbra. But that wasn’t all that ca along, as I accidentally let the talisman Elenia gave slip out of my pocket in the process, only for it to flutter down a distance in front of , just a bit too close to the clawed hand for to even think about grabbing it. Not that it would have been any use down in a cave like that.
…
I brought my focus back to what Umbra had given . It was a spear, the very sa spear that Mom had strapped to my back when I first left Casgolau, more than a month ago now. The big problem with it was that it was far too large for to really use, especially within that tiny chamber.
“Umbra,” I whispered loudly, trying not to agitate the creature in the tunnel any more than it already was.
Umbra, however, didn’t react at all, just glancing back at for a second before wandering off into a corner and curling up, even yawning.
Why are you doing this?
Do you not see what’s going on right now?!
Despite the impracticality of it, I held the spear out in front of with both hands firmly on the shaft, pointing it towards the eyes in the tunnel rather than the clawed hand, which could likely snap it in an instant.
My only hope was that it would be intimidated, even if only a little, just like the rabbit beastkin with my knives… at least that should be the case if these were the sa kind of creature.
Imdiately, there was a reaction, a tiny recoil, a single blink from the amber eyes… But it wasn’t out of fear. If I had to say, it must have been out of disbelief.
The clawed hand turned back over, the claws scraping against the stone as it reached further in, inching its way along the ground towards .
“I want it!” It roared, “Give it!”
There was hardly any ti to react. My mind was screaming to just give in, to just give the pendant away so I wouldn’t have to deal with whatever was happening to , yet at the sa ti, I just couldn’t… I couldn’t give everything that ca with it up too.
But I couldn’t just do nothing.
In a mont of desperation, confusion and maybe a little bit of hope, I stabbed downwards with the spear, hoping to hit one of the fingers as it closed in on .
…
What happened next all took place over the course of only a split second. My spear t its target, but just like with the rabbit beastkin before it, it just passed through; however, as it did, it instead tore straight through the talisman that was lying beneath the hand, scraping against the stone floor as it did.
In an instant, my vision went completely white and I fell backwards… onto sothing that wasn’t stone, but… grass?
“Got them!” Rya shouted… at least that was who it sounded like through the slight ringing in my ears.
It took a while longer for my vision to actually clear up, but once it did, what I saw before was no longer the tiny chamber deep underground. Instead, all I could see in front of was the night sky, the many stars up above glinting down on … at least that was the case until I sat myself up.
I was in a clearing, probably sowhere in the forest. Around , I could see everyone, each in different states of disarray. Tybalt looked incredibly frustrated, but largely okay. Rya had her back to , but she seed to be perfectly fine, fiddling with sothing in her arms. Ava and Cattleya, however, were… hugging? Cattleya in particular didn’t look to be doing very well, trembling slightly.
Is this another illusion?
…
“What just-?” I squeaked out, suddenly realising just how thirsty I was.
“I’ve found them!” Soone shouted from the bushes, followed by the sound of far too many people’s footsteps as they pushed through the brush.
Reviews
All reviews (0)