Mornings in Dragontown were becoming predictable.
Not easy. Not comfortable. But predictable.
Which was a step up from waking up every morning wondering if so fantasy monster would eat us in our sleep.
I sat by the fire, rubbing the sleep from my eyes while Carn and Daisuke argued about sothing pointless again.
"Look, if you just stack the firewood properly, it won't collapse every night," Daisuke said, adjusting his glasses like so grand intellectual.
Carn scoffed. "And I'm telling you, I like my wood ssy."
"That's what she said—" I started, but Amina kicked my shin before I could finish.
"Please, let's focus on survival instead of terrible jokes."
She had a point. As fun as it was to sit around bickering, Dragontown was still nothing more than a glorified campsite. If we wanted to make this place livable, we needed so kind of order.
"Any of you ever built a city before?" I asked, stretching my arms.
Carn smirked. "Does Minecraft count?"
Daisuke adjusted his glasses. "Technically, urban developnt is a complex field that—"
"Shut up, Daisuke."
"Alright, let's talk priorities," I continued. "We need food, water, and shelter. Which one do we tackle first?"
Daisuke pulled out his notebook. "Technically, water should be our top priority. We need a reliable source within walking distance, or we'll waste too much energy transporting it."
Carn waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. But I'd rather not die from a random wolf attack while looking for it. We need so real weapons."
"I can make spears," Amina offered. "And maybe bows, if we find the right wood."
Caelith, who had been standing motionless behind us like an eerie statue, suddenly spoke. "You lack all forms of proper resource managent. Your efficiency is abysmal."
I sighed. "Thank you, Caelith. That was very helpful."
He blinked. "You're welco."
We decided to split up. One group stayed behind to start reinforcing our camp, while my group headed out to find water.
Carn, Amina, Daisuke, Caelith, and I followed the faint trickle of a stream that we'd found earlier, hoping it led to sothing bigger.
"So," Carn started as we walked. "Anyone else feel like we're in a bad survival movie?"
"We're in a different world, and you're worried about movie tropes?" I muttered.
She shrugged. "It just feels like the part where we split up, get lost, and then sothing eats us."
Daisuke frowned. "Statistically, staying near fresh water increases our survival chances by 80%."
"And statistically, those horror movies always start with so nerd saying 'statistically,'" Carn shot back.
Amina chuckled under her breath. "At least we're not completely losing it yet."
Then, as if on cue, Caelith stopped walking and spoke in that unsettling monotone of his.
"There is sothing ahead."
We stepped through the dense brush, and suddenly, the forest gave way to sothing unexpected.
Massive stone structures jutted out from the earth, half-buried beneath thick layers of vines and moss. So had crumbled into piles of rubble, while others still stood, defying ti.
It was ancient.
And definitely not built by humans.
Daisuke's mouth fell open. "This… This is impossible."
Amina ran her hand along one of the walls. "These carvings—this writing… It's not Elvish. It's not anything I recognize."
Carn whistled. "Okay, new plan. Screw water. We just found a freaking lost civilization."
I walked up to one of the structures, my fingers brushing against the cold stone. There were symbols etched into the surface, worn by ti but still barely visible.
"Caelith?" I glanced at the elf, who was staring at the ruins with an unreadable expression. "Any idea what this is?"
He hesitated. Caelith. Hesitated.
Then he simply said, "This architecture has existed for at least ten thousand years."
A heavy silence settled over us.
I swallowed hard. "So… What you're saying is, this place was here before the Elves? Before any of us?"
"Correct."
Amina exhaled slowly. "That ans we're not the first ones on this planet."
A chill ran down my spine. If sothing lived here before… where did they go?
Then—
Sothing moved inside the ruins.
A deep, slow scrape. Like stone shifting against stone.
We all froze.
Daisuke whispered, "Did… did anyone else hear that?"
The shadows inside the ruined doorway seed to pulse.
Sothing was in there.
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