.

I stared up into the inky blackness at the edge of what my light could illuminate. I’d greatly underestimated how deep the ravine was and had eventually reached a point where I simply couldn’t hold onto the wall any longer. The fall had seemed short and my landing was relatively painless even if it did knock me out. The cold had finally drawn me out of my unconscious state, which brought me to where I was now; looking up at the darkness and the cliff face I knew I couldn’t climb.

My light flickered slightly as I tried to move and happily to noted it didn’t hurt to do so. Pulling myself up into a sitting position, I looked around at the darkness that threatened to swallow the small space I’d carved out of it. There didn’t seem to be anything of interest among the rocks that kept me company, but I could tell the air here was wetter simply by the way it smelled. That alone was enough to get my hopes up since it meant I wouldn’t go thirsty for as long as I was trapped down here.

Once I’d finally stood and checked over my body, I started to walk away from the wall. I didn’t know how large the cave I’d fallen into was nor if I was actually alone, so making sure I wasn’t going to get lost was a must. Even with the precautions I was taking, there remained a possibility of losing my way back to the wall since there was very little to orientate myself with aside from the nearly uniform stone.

It quickly became apparent that the area I’d stumbled into was much larger than I had anticipated. I walked until it felt like my feet would fall off before sitting roughly on the ground. Up until this point, I had been casting [light] constantly since I’d wanted to see as much as possible but it was getting impossible to ignore the cold that was creeping into my limbs.

I had never been scared of the dark, but the sudden lack of any sensory information when I went to change spells was enough to make me panic. The small sparks of [ember] appeared in my palms barely providing enough light for me to see the ground and I curled around them in hopes of warming myself. The brief moment without light had been terrifying simply because, without what it provided, there was nothing but an endless impenetrable black around me.

After letting my feet recover and my body warm, I prepared myself to walk farther into the cave. I had to give up my warmth in order to get enough light to see where I was going and closed my eyes before switching spells. Opening my eyes, I stared at the small ball of light floating near me and watched how it seemed to quiver, reflecting some part of myself I didn’t want to think too hard about.

With the same agonizing pace I was walking, my body slowly grew too cold to ignore even though I’d just finished warming myself up. I didn’t want to restrict myself to walking blindly but if I continued to stop in order to warm up I wasn’t going to go anywhere. The darkness descended on me like a pack of hungry wolves as I stopped feeding my light and let it die. With a slight flicker, the flame in my palms grew as I fed it as much mana as I could. The light it gave off wasn’t enough for me to feel safe but it was going to be a necessity until I warmed up.

With the lack of light, came an increase in movement of the shadows around me. I knew it was just an illusion created by the flicker of the flames I was using to warm myself but it didn’t stop me from slowly becoming more on edge. The longer I walked, the more the darkness seemed to move in the corners of my eyes, and I quickly lost all faith in my safety and cast [light]. I told myself it was just for my own piece of mind so I could know that I really was alone and just seeing things. The shadows simply warbled with the pulse of the light as I moved it around to reveal that I was alone.

At least, that’s what I though until I saw something larger than me in the darkness. In a fit of panic, I almost turned and ran, but it was the lack of movement stopped me from retreating. As much as I hated to admit it, I was weak and anything that would have seen me as a meal wouldn’t have remained still. With a large dose of caution I positioned myself to run if need be and did my best to direct my light over to the shape.

I breathed out a sign of relief when I saw it was just the ruins of a stone building, most likely torn apart for one of the structures in the camp. I walked closer and saw that it was in the same shape as the hut I slept in. At first I couldn’t see the point of keeping anyone down here but then I remembered what Lindi had told me about there being a dungeon underneath the mountain. Seeing the effect recalling the dungeon had had on Lindi I wasn’t keen on entering it, but it seemed likely that it was going to be my only chance of survival.

After looking around the ruins, I continued forward in the same direction as before, occasionally running into the shambles of other buildings and structures. During this time, I began to hear the sound of moving water meaning I was close to satisfying my thirst. Ignoring the cold, I pushed myself forwards a little bit faster in hopes of reaching the water even a second sooner.

When the small underground river finally came into view, I threw caution to the wind and broke into a sprint until I reached its banks. I fell to my hands and knees before placing my face into the stream to greedily drink until I felt like I would pop. Satisfied, I sat back on the bank and tried to look through the darkness to see the other side. With a few adjustments on the position of my light, I was able to just barely make out the opposing bank.

The distance itself wasn’t that far and the river didn’t look that deep or that fast meaning I should be able to wade through it if worse came to worst. I was hopefully optimistic that I would be able to cross it if need be but I wasn’t sure how safely I could make it just because of the waters temperature. If the chill in the air and ground was a creeping cold, than the water was a flood. Just the few gulps I’d taken had robbed me of most of my heat and, if I hadn’t changed back to [ember], I would most likely be shivering.

I drank again before standing and looked down the bank I was on before choosing a direction to walk. There was no way to know what I was going to find, but it made sense to me that most of the ruins would be along the banks. I did have some concerns being near the water leaving me more than a little tense. Being next to the river meant that all I could hear was the sounds it made while running its course which essentially limited me to just my sense of sight and smell. I was still trying to warm myself after drinking from the river meaning I was practically blind and I had absolutely no faith in my ability to smell out an attacker.

In some cruel twist of fate, the extra chill caused by the river was enough to force me to fight in order to remain warm. The constant sounds from the river, the flicker of the flame in my hands as I walked and the uninviting darkness surrounding me had me worked up enough that I considered just stopping to curl up and cry. About the time I was considering moving away from the river so I didn’t drive myself crazy, I managed to make out something low to the ground in the darkness.

I approached with the same caution I’d used the first time I stumbled upon something in the dark and was again grateful to find that I was still alone. I’d come across the remains of a wooden bridge and quickly made my way towards it to see where it led. From what I could piece together, the bridge once spanned the entire length of the river. It wasn’t far enough to warrant a bridge under normal circumstances but definitely needed if there would be constant travel across.

This then, was most likely the correct way to go if I wanted to find the dungeon. Getting across would be easier here as well since there were a few wooden posts in the center of the river that were most likely for holding the bridge up when it was in use. After a quick check, I guessed that I could probably make a jump onto the nearest post and from there to the final post before the rest of the bridge continued unbroken. Having gotten my fill of the bridge and content with having anything resembling a plan, I continued to walk in the same direction I’d started in.

It took several more stops before I finally ran out of cave to walk through but I was again rewarded for my persistence. Lindi had said they were mining crystals here and the remnants of a wooden platform used to get at them had been left behind with dozens of its brethren. This was what I needed, a light source that could keep me warm as well in addition to being something that I could use to finish the bridge so I didn’t have to swim across the river.

I walked closer to see if I could find a piece of wood to take with me and glanced at the large chunks of earth that had been scrapped out of the cavern wall. It was wholly impossible to see anything of interest on the walls with the weak light I had so I ignored them in favor of the wood that had been left behind. After scavenging the broken boards for a piece I could comfortably carry, I moved away from the wrecked scaffolding and tried my best to ignite it.

The small ember in my hands did it’s best to blacken the wood it came in contact with but, aside from smoke, it didn’t seem willing to give me what I wanted. I continued to stubbornly wait, letting the wood smolder as it blacken even further before letting out a cry of happiness when the flames finally took. Careful not to extinguish the fire I had, I lifted my makeshift torch into the air and let the embers sink their teeth into the deeper parts of the wood. A nearly inaudible crackling slowly rose to the pitch I expected from a campfire as the fire grew to devour the side of the board I’d lit.

I purred softly as the larger fire warmed me all the way to my core and I was grateful to finally be able to chase away the cold. The thought of holing up here and warming myself with an even larger fire was extremely tempting but I denied myself that comfort in favor of finishing my explorations. There would be a better time to warm myself, most notably when I wanted to sleep, and I was willing to wait until I was secure enough in my surrounding to nod off.

As far as I was concerned, I’d covered half the distance I needed to. This left me with the remaining portion of the ravine to explore since I only cared about the river and what it held nearby. It felt like several hours had passed and in that time I’d been shown again and again that I really was alone which helped me relax a great deal. Just knowing that I didn’t have to be on edge made the flickering shadows seem more welcoming and whimsical as opposed to hiding something sinister.

Spinning around, I began my return journey towards the bridge and the ruins beyond it. Not having to exert myself to create light or heat gave me the freedom to actually observe my surroundings with a more critical eye. As I walked passed the bridge, I noted that I was most likely going to need to bring wood from the wall to cross the gap. I wasn’t so sure I could make the jumps anymore and I knew the cold would be a death sentence if I weren’t careful.

I continued past the bridge while tracing the lines in the stone floor where carts had been hauled back and forth. There was nothing interesting about the marks on the ground since I had the river to guild me but it made me think of finding another way to the wall I’d ‘climbed’ down depending on how far they went. There had to be a real way up the ravine wall that I’d missed but at the moment I wasn’t about to double back to a dead end.

Soon enough I reached the ruined hut and searched the area in hopes of finding something that was mistakenly left behind. Even though I knew I spent more time than I should rummaging through the ruins, I didn’t feel like I‘d wasted the time. It was…odd. Any choice I’d had to make up until now really wasn’t a choice, just a bad outcome alongside a worse one. All of the decisions I was making now were because I wanted to make them and nothing was forcing my hand.

When my search of the ruins left me empty handed, I continued past them towards the other end of the river. The previous side I’d visited had ended with another wall while the mouth of the river itself came out of an inaccessible cave in the wall. I was curious to see what this side would look like but wasn’t expecting anything different.

Just like the other side, the wall of the ravine loomed over me, signaling yet another dead-end. A quick check was all I needed to see that there was nothing of interest on this side of the ruins, not even a bridge. The end of the river ran right up to the wall before being seemingly swallowed by the rock around it. This effectively limited where I could explore to this side of the river or the dungeon if I decided that I was willing to take that risk.

With nothing of interest to keep me here, I headed back towards the bridge and the promise of warmth past it. My eyes began to droop while making my return trip to the bridge and I considered stopping to sleep before remembering my plan to create a larger fire. The prospect of being able to sleep without interruption from the cold was too good to pass on.

The fire of my torch had consumed most of the board by the time I returned to the ruins and I was forced to drop it in order to avoid burning my hand. This was good information since it gave me a rough idea of how much wood I needed to gather for a fire that would last the entire night. I knew I was probably going to misjudge the amount I needed and end up waking up cold, but that wasn’t something a little extra wood couldn’t fix.

In seemingly no time at all, I had made my return trip to the broken platforms and began to gather wood. Once I had a pile pulled far enough away from the wall so as not to burn more than I needed, I cast [ember] and waited for the boards to catch the fire in my hands. Soon enough there was a small fire going and I curled up next to it after making sure it wasn’t going to smother itself. The warmth was enough to make me nod off and it wasn’t until the fire died that I woke back up.

I didn’t mind being woken but the cold was starting to wear on me and I contemplated lighting another fire and going back to sleep. As tempting as the idea was, I also knew that there was only so much wood and I didn’t know how many pieces I was going to need to close the gap separating the two halves of the bridge. After scrapping together another much smaller fire to warm myself back up, I started to drag one of the larger pieces of wood towards the bridge. After doing this several times, I stopped to drink until was full since I had no other way to stop the growls of my stomach.

It wasn’t until I started to try and position the planks that I realized I’d made a mistake. I simply wasn’t strong enough to lift them up to put them in place. Sure I was able to pick up the planks to drag them around but actually lifting them into place would take more strength then I had. I quietly judged the distance between the first post and myself before trying to slide the plank across the ground and into place.

The board made it about halfway across the gap before it started to dip and lift off of the bridge threatening to fall into the river. Before it could fully tip, I pulled the plank back from the edge and started to think about how to keep the board where I needed it without it falling. Knowing that I didn’t have anything with me that could hold one end down, I thought back to when I looked around the ruined hut in hopes of remembering if I’d seen an easily movable piece of stone I could use.

My gut feeling was no and I couldn’t remember seeing anything aside from the massive blocks of stone that made up the base of the building. I knew I couldn’t move one of those and I debated whether it was worth my time to go back and double check the ruins. After a moment’s consideration, I decided that going back wasn’t going to be worth my time and I wasn’t willing to waste my energy for the walk only to return empty handed.

After another few minutes of thinking I decided to use the only other thing I knew of that would be heavy enough to hold the plank down. I sat on the end of the plank and began to scoot it forwards while occasionally stopping to look over my shoulder to see how close to the post I was. This worked for a little while but I reached a point where I couldn’t keep the board on the ground. What was even more annoying was how close I was to having the first plank in place. The end of the board was practically touching the first post and I tried shifting my weight to lift it enough to get over the lip of the post.

The entire plank slid under me and for a moment I thought it would fall causing me to dig my claws into the wood around me. A few tense breaths later, I opened my eyes and released my grip on the bridge while looking over my shoulder. My shift had successfully placed the plank on the post but it hadn’t gripped immediately causing it to slide. As it was, it didn’t seem like the plank was going to move but I didn’t want to take my chances and slowly got off of it.

Seeing that the plank remained where it had come to rest after I stood, I tentatively put my weight onto it to see if it would hold. The board didn’t shift and I carefully walked out over the river until I reached the post. Even from this spot I didn’t think I could make the jump to the next post meaning I was going to have to get another plank into place. I eyed the plank as it bowed from my crossing it and let out a sigh of relief once I was back on the remains of the much studier bridge.

This first plank had been difficult to move into position and it quickly became clear that it was the easiest of the three. I’d had every advantage I’d needed to get it to balance on the first post but getting the second, or even the third plank, in place was going to be a nightmare. It wasn’t because of the way the bridge curved, no that worked in my favor; it was because I didn’t have the room to work like I had with the first post.

With the first post I could move how I wanted to without hang to worry about tipping over into the river. This was not the case with the remaining two. The lack of room to move on the planks meant that any action I took that put me even slightly off balance was going to lead to me falling into the river. Knowing that I was going to have a hard time getting the next plank into place, I tried to push it over the first to see how far I could get it. Initially, it seemed like I wasn’t going to need to worry about my lack of room, but after getting about halfway across the distance I needed to cross, the plank started to dip down.

I couldn’t solve this problem with the same method I’d used the first time since, even if I sat on the end, I didn’t have anything to hold onto to stop me from being lifted once the plank got far enough over air. But none of this meant I wasn’t willing to try. I’d dragged extra wood over to the bridge incase any of it broke or fell into the river so there was no point in not trying.

Instead of sitting on the end of the plank, I lay down on top of it and started to slide forward taking the board with me. I made sure to move at a slow pace because I didn’t want to fall into the river if I could prevent it. When the plank started to tip again, I held it down by pulling myself against the planks. While this worked better than I had hoped, it also limited how much I could move and I made almost no progress while I worked up the courage to shift forward.

After a few agonizingly tense minutes of shifting myself forwards, I stopped to see where the end of the plank had stopped. I had almost managed to position the board correctly but again ran into the problem of the plank drooping and being just under the lip of the post. At a loss, I started to wiggle the board back and forth in an attempt to get it to jump up onto the post. This movement also moved the plank I had in place and it seemed I moved too much as it ended up slipping off of the post. The only problem was that I was on top if it, meaning that when the board fell into the water I did too.

As the first plank slid off the post, I released my grip on it in hopes of not being pulled under. The plank entered the river with a splash and was quickly carried much farther than I thought it would go in the brief time I had to watch it before being submerged. I sunk deep below the surface and, despite my best efforts, still cried out in shock from the sudden cold. Even more air was squeezed from my body as the plank that had fallen with me impacted against me before being carried far away by the current.

My lungs screamed at me for air and I flailed my limbs enough to get my head above the surface for a half breath before the currents pulled me back underwater. As I was dragged under, I kicked out beneath me, desperate to find the bottom so I could stand, only to have my claws pass through more water. While fighting to reach the surface, the river pulled me into something in its depths, causing me to spin around and lose the little sense of up I had.

More water found its way down my throat and I began to thrash about even harder. The cold was steadily stealing what little strength my limbs had as I continued to flounder in hopes of finding either ground or air. I was again shifted around as the currents spun me in order to throw me onto the bottom of the river and hold me there momentarily. My brief flash of hope was quickly taken as the current ripped me from the mud and once again pulled me into the pitch-black liquid limbo that was rapidly choking the life out of me.

I continued to kick even as my legs screamed in pain from the cold and exertion I was forcing them through. The pressure in my lungs increasing to the point it felt like my chest would cave in if I didn’t breath and I continued to fight against the desire as control of my body slowly slipped from me. While flailing, I felt my fingers breach the river’s surface and I did everything in my power to move in that direction.

The currents fought against me, desperate to keep me in its clutches, as I managed to get my face into the air. I took in as deep a breath as I could, struggling in an attempt to let the air in while keeping the water out. A fit of coughing sent me below the waves causing me to swallow even more water until I fought my way to the surface again.

I gasped for air, for life, as the river’s currents continued to toy with me pulling me in whichever directions they pleased. After keeping myself afloat long enough to take two more breaths, I attempted to move towards either bank. There was nothing special about how I moved, just more kicking as I reached out hoping to grasp anything solid. This eventually turned into a sort of paddling motion and when I felt my feet touch mud I almost collapsed with relief.

Fighting to finally free myself from the water, I slogged through the mud near the bank before finally falling to my knees on dry land. I began to cough violently and my body started to shake in an attempt to regain some heat. My world remained black as I slowly struggled to catch my breath and remove the liquid in my lungs. Everything hurt and I was so, so tired. I wanted to just curl up and sleep so badly but I knew doing that was going to kill me if I didn’t warm up first.

Moving was a chore but I managed to peel off the soaking wet dress from my body and discard it beside me. My pouch joined the dress and I fumbled with the collar around my neck for a moment before giving up and curling in on myself before trying to warm up. I started to cast [ember] only to have the spell snuff itself out from the erratic motions of my shaking hands. After another attempt, I finally got the flame to stay and brought it as close to my body as I could without burning myself. The tiny flame in my palms did what it could to warm me but now that I’d been fully robbed of my heat it seemed like getting it back was going to be a challenge.

I focused on the sound of the running river and my teeth chattering as the water on me slowly dried and stole away what little heat I earned back. Feeling gradually and painfully returned to my hands and feet as the tiny fire in my palms drove away the cold. Needing something to distract myself with, I unwrapped myself from around the flame to take a quick look at where I had washed up. It took me a moment to realize that without casting [light] I wasn’t going to be able to see anything so I simply sat and waited until I stopped shivering.

Once my tremors subsided to a weak shiver, I switched spells to take a look around in an attempt to orientate myself. It seemed I had managed to make it to the other side of the river since the ground lacked the same marks I’d seen before, but I wasn’t sure it was worth the price I’d paid. To make matters worse, I could make out a wall of the ravine even with the small amount of light I had meaning I’d been washed to the other side of the ruins. I remembered how the river swept under the wall and began to shake as the realization of how close I’d been to drowning sank in.

Content with knowing where I was and struggling not to burst into tears, I returned my attention to warming myself allowing what felt like a small eternity to pass. Little by little, I began to shake less as my body returned to a more comfortable temperature. Even though my arms and legs were still cold, I stopped warming them to dry out the collar around my neck. Since I hadn’t been able to take it off, it remained wet and, even worse, was still draining heat from me because of it.

Waiting for the collar to dry took long enough that I need to warm up my body again before rotating the collar. This continued until it felt dry and slightly warm allowing me to focus on my clothing next. With a bit more patience and time, I managed to dry out my dress and happily put it on. The extra layer held off the cold extremely well and I finally stopped shaking altogether after having it on for a few minutes.

Soon enough, I was ready to move again and stood while taking another look around me. I noticed that the bank on this side of the river was much less worn down if the number of rocks was anything to go by. Knowing I had a long way to walk before I made it back to the bridge, I started walking, moving slowly so as not to have another rock go into my foot. This was made difficult by the lack of light I had, but I wasn’t willing to give up the extra heat in exchange of more light just yet.

By the time I reached the bridge, my feet felt like they were going to fall off and I sat down while groaning. Despite the precautions I’d taken, I’d ended up cutting the pads of my feet open several times while making my way back. I had been lucky not to have any of the rocks stay embedded after stepping on them, but it didn’t ease my discomfort. Without a source of natural light to know how long had passed, I could only guess how long it had taken for me to recover from my swim in the river. Add to that the walk back to the bridge and I was tired enough to curl up and rest.

The cold was quick to wake me, which was expected, but I still managed to fall asleep for long enough to feel rested. I stretched while taking a quick look around to orientate myself only to stare into the void around me. Even with [ember] active it was impossible to see more than an arm’s length in front of me. Sighing, I sat only to reposition myself due to feeling pain. I ran my hand over my tailbone, but aside from a slight bump I couldn’t find anything else that would have hurt me.

After warming enough that I felt I could forgo the extra heat, I lit the area around me and began to look around the base of the bridge. Knowing that there were marks on the other side of the bridge from carts being moved, it made sense that there would be similar markings on this side of the river as well. I didn’t want to spend more time than needed wandering in the dark and knowing where I needed to go would prevent that.

The marks in the ground were just as distinct as they were on the other side of the river and, after taking one last look at the bridge for any loose wood, I stared to head deeper into the darkness.

I’d already come to terms with the lack of light but knowing what I was heading towards still made me cautious of my surroundings to the point that I started to jump at shadows again. Working myself into a frenzy was the last thing I needed, but it was hard not to let my nerves get the better of me. Lindi hadn’t painted a great picture of what this dungeon was like and from the sound of it, my survival wasn’t guaranteed by a long shot. I was scared, plain and simple, and that fear was eating at me, breaking down the little bit of confidence I’d managed to build in myself.

As the roof of the cave started to lower, I realized that I was heading into another cave system that looked much more natural this time. There were signs of people being here like the chunks of rock missing from the walls or the occasional wooden support beam but other than that, everything seemed to have a more random pattern to it. The ground had been smoothed from travel which made seeing which direction I needed to go much easier and I slowly relaxed as more signs of people having been here appeared. Be it the metal rungs in the wall where a torch would have rested or discarded rock that hadn’t been hauled away, I kept seeing more things that indicated I was getting close to the dungeon. Not knowing what to expect, I was a little surprised when I saw what appeared to be simple arched doorway.

After everything I was expecting, I had to say I was actually kind of disappointed. There was nothing special to signify that this lead to a dungeon. Quite to the contrary, it seemed to be trying to blend in with the surrounding rock and it was only the work of others that left it so prominent. Walking closer, I was able to make out some runes etched into the stone but I didn’t know if they were new or already part of the doorway. All in all, if it weren’t for a nearly imperceptible shimmer in the doorway caused by my light, there wouldn’t be anything to make the door seem magical.

Less worried now than I was prior to finding the doorway, I started to run my hands over the carved stone while looking it over more carefully. I was more curious than anything else and took note that there were runes on the ground as well, around the entire doorway in fact. It also seemed like the doorway had been stripped of what may have been gems since there were several places that could house them if they hadn’t been absent. There was also the matter of the bowl-sized indention in the ground on the other side of the doorway that had very obviously had something removed from it.

This must have been some of the crystal Lindi was talking about but I honestly couldn’t see the appeal in a giant shiny rock the size of my head. Not wanting to enter just yet, I looked as far as I could see into the doorway and noted that there appeared to be grooves cut into the floor on either side of the tunnel. A tunnel that was all flat with sharp edges connecting the walls to the floor and ceiling. Aside from signaling the start of the dungeon, it also seemed the doorway was the divide between the natural cave formation and a more constructed one.

A few more minutes of looking over the area finally left me with nothing to do besides entering the dungeon but despite that, I still hesitated. If I was going to base what I knew off of what Lindi had told me, the dungeon’s guardian had hunted people sent into it after the demons woke it up. I didn’t like the idea of being hunted but I could have figured something out if it wasn’t for the very apparent lack of places to hide in the corridor in font of me. The more I stood there and though about what Lindi had said, the more inclined I was to give what she’d said credence.

Lindi had said she hadn’t been into the dungeon, but, with what she knew of it, I was starting to think that she meant she hadn’t entered after the guardian had been roused. It made sense that she’s wouldn’t have been sent in since the Demons had other uses for her, for us. I shuddered while directing my attention back to the doorway in hopes of letting that thought and the memories it brought with it die before they could do more damage.

I took another look around, hoping to find something that I could use as an excuse to not enter the dungeon yet but ultimately found nothing but stone. Taking a deep breath, I reached out and let my hand pass though the shimmer that remained in the doorway. The barrier shimmered slightly in response to my hand but, other then that, nothing happened. After letting my hand remain on the other side of the door for a moment I brought it back to my body and looked it over for any changes. Once I was content with the knowledge that moving through the doorway hadn’t done anything I closed my eyes, took another deep breath, and walked through the doorway.

Like a predator waiting for the right time to pounce, the moment I was entirely through the doorway the flame in my hand was extinguished and I was brought to my knees by the force of the air around me. The sudden loss of light by itself was disorientating and I tried to fight against whatever was slowly crushing me. It quickly became apparent that this force wasn’t going to budge regardless of how much I tried to push against it leaving me to slowly drop from my hands and knees to lying prone as the weight pushing me down continuously increased.

While being crushed, I tried my best to move back towards the door but my movement only seemed to agitate the invisible force and it redoubled its efforts to the point I could feel my ribs breaking. It had only taken me a second to realize that this was the strength of the mana in a dungeon and even with Lindi’s warning I had been wholly unprepared for the overwhelming power I was currently trying to fight.

The mana continued to weigh me down, further suffocating me as I started to struggle to breathe against the continuous torrent washing over me. I tried to use what little ability in controlling my own mana that I had to fight back, but the small wisps of mana I managed to get under my control were quickly swept away and out of my reach. It seemed that the longer I lay on the ground, the easier it was for the mana to assert its power over me and I could feel the little control I had over my body ebb away.

Each attempt I made to free myself and get through the door failed and my efforts to escape reached a desperate fervor when it became impossible to breathe. When the air had finally been choked out of me, the force pushing itself against me stopped my body from moving to fill my lungs again, leaving me to the dungeon’s mercy as the life was slowly pressed out of me. I was reminded of my struggle in the river and how, just like then, I was now dying in total darkness in an environment I had no experience with.

Even when my eyes grew heavy and started to flicker shut against my will, I fought to keep them open and stared into the darkness knowing that if they closed now, it would be for good. My fight against the river kept coming to mind because of the similarities to my present situation but moving with the mana’s current seemed to be the thing that was damning me instead of helping. I gave one more desperate gasp for air before finally giving up and letting the mana crush me full force.

When I finally surrendered my fight against the mana, I was immediately assaulted by it flowing directly through me instead of around me. My mouth opened in a soundless scream as every part of me felt like it was being ripped apart only for my healing to pull everything back together again. My concentration momentarily lapsed from the sudden onslaught of pain and I blacked out for a fraction of a second only to be woken again by the mana trying to turn me into a puddle of flesh and blood.

The fear I felt at the thought of blacking out again in combination with my body screaming at me to do something against the mana that was tearing me apart was the last push I needed to focus what little life I had left towards getting just one gulp of air. All of my strength went into trying to push the mana around my lungs but nothing I did seemed to work and I finally felt myself lose my hold on the waking world.

I expected this trip into the darkness of unconsciousness to be my last and was therefore fairly confused when I woke up shivering from the cold. My body still felt like it was on fire, but I was at least able to breath albeit with a great deal of effort. After making sure I wasn’t dreaming by biting my tongue, I tried to move but found that a slight twitch of my fingers and toes was all I could manage at the moment.

Being stranded in a dungeon without the ability to move was highly unnerving, but after surviving the dungeon’s mana I was less concerned than I should have been. It seemed my final push to get air had worked and was likely the only reason I was still alive right now. The continuous brushes with death were more than wearing on me and if I didn’t warm up soon I was going to face that fate yet again.

Knowing that I could breathe, I was able to relax a little and better focus on trying to leave the dungeon. It was clear that trying to control the mana passing through me was meant to be a thing of finesse but I lacked the skill or control to do anything other than use brute force. It didn’t help that as I tried to better control mana the brand on my shoulder started to ache and eventually flared up into a debilitating twisting feeling when I pressed myself a little too far.

I continued to repeatedly battle for a small amount of control without success and eventually relented in my attempts to cast a spell in my current state. After another failed attempt to physically move, I let my mind wander in an effort to ignore the loss of feeling in my hands and feet. It seemed like a stupid idea after what I had been through, but with the amount of mana passing through me and around me it seemed stupid not to try and sense it.

It was, however, a very stupid idea and I quickly developed a headache from the sheer volume of mana inside me. This burst of stupidity still yielded another result aside from the headache, a reminder of how the mana in my horns acted and the knowledge that a small swirling pool of mana had formed in my right lung. There was still a pattern to it and I spent a little more time watching before trying to strengthen the motions. I used a small nudge since that was all I could manage and gradually was able to cause the mana pool to grow large enough to fill about half my lung.

As the pool grew larger, I was met with a noticeable increase in effect and could now take slightly larger breaths which filled my lungs with more that just a small gasp of air. It was incredibly refreshing and, despite my nonexistent control, I continue to prod mana into the swirling pool to increase its size. I continued to see results until my shoulder flared up again and the twisting pain made me lose concentration.

I could only groan as I watched most of my work disappear, once again restricting my breathing to a wheeze. Much to my surprise, even after losing everything I had built up there was still a small swirling pool of mana in my lung even without me trying to direct it. After waiting for the pain from the brand to calm down, I continued my efforts to make the pool of mana larger by prodding it in the right direction. Again, I was rewarded with more air and with the air came the ability to get a little more movement from my limbs.

With a great deal of effort, I managed to claw my way out of the dungeon and to the other side of the doorway. Passing through the shimmer felt like I’d had a large weight taken off of me and I gorged myself on air to the point I became light headed. The loss of feeling in my limbs was the next thing I needed to stop and I fumbled a few times before casting [ember] and curling around it. The small flame did what it could to warm me while my body ineffectively shook to try and ward off the cold.

During this time my breathing became erratic and I did my best to ignore the feeling of a wet heat running down my face. I eventually reached a point where I needed to move and I did my best to sit up while running a hand over my face a few times. Focusing on the flame in my palm, I did my best to stand, falling once or twice, before taking a few steps away from the cursed doorway and collapsing against the tunnel wall. As I warmed up, I struggled to stay awake and slowly nodded off again from the sudden exhaustion.

As I slept, the cold continued to leach heat from me and I gradually began to shiver again. I reached a point where I was shivering violently enough to wake myself and I quickly set about warming up. Things were not going as planned but I’d at least found a way to stop the mana from debilitating me. I rubbed my eyes to remove the excess liquid that had gathered in them while sighing and looked at the doorway again. Encountering two potentially life ending situations in the same day was more than I could handle and I was really questioning if I wanted to enter the dungeon again after what it had done to me on the first visit. Even worse, I knew that I wasn’t going to be making it very far into the dungeon if I didn’t figure out how to move and breath normally and sadly, it was my one shot at getting out of this alive.

My options were incredibly limited and it was either stay here to explore around this side of the river a little bit or go back into the dungeon. Even though exploring wouldn’t be that hard, it would also require me to go near the river again and I really didn’t want to go anywhere near running water in the immediate future if I could avoid it. The same was true of the dungeon but at least I knew how to survive in the dungeon. After another nap I finally worked up enough courage and motivation to step back through the shimmer separating me from the dungeon’s mana.

Once again I dropped to the ground as the mana assaulted me but, instead of panicking from the disappearance of the swirling mana in my lung, I tried to get new mana to circulate there. I found myself nearing the point of blacking out again before I managed to circulate the mana in my lung but I knew that with more practice I wouldn’t have any problems. Having used most of my stamina to do this, I crawled back through the doorway and caught my breath while recovering.

It took another two trips into the dungeon before I could counteract the mana fast enough to breath easily and not collapse at the cost of the brand nearly knocking me out. Pain was something I could survive, so I was willing to push through it if it meant I stayed alive. Even though I could breathe, my movements remained sluggish since I was focusing on getting air. I was okay with this for the moment, but moving freely would become a priority fairly soon if I wanted to get further than the dungeon’s entrance. It had also become increasingly clear that the brand on my shoulder was fighting against me with increasing strength, as the better I got at controlling the mana’s movements, the faster the twisting pain came back.

Since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep maintaining the mana pools, stay warm, and not be crippled by either a headache or the brand I started to test how much the pool would shrink if I purposefully stopped feeding it. At first the result I got was the same as when I accidentally lost control and I could feel the air being squeezed out of me leaving the pool of swirling mana larger than it was before. This was a marked improvement and, while I could only take a stuttering half breath at the moment, it felt like it was enough to move a little deeper into the dungeon.

I wasn’t planning on going very far, just to the end of the hall where it split to travel to either my right or left, and I had a reason for doing so. During my time trying to not be crushed by the mana, I’d been unable to create any light, which had allowed my eyes time to adjust to the dark. This meant I could now see a very faint blue glow coming from the left side of the path. I didn’t know what caused the glow, but it seemed like a safe bet to assume it was from bits of crystal that hadn’t been mined out.

Stepping further into the dungeon when I wasn’t fully prepared was a bad idea, but the light wasn’t that far in and meant I would be able to return to the exit fairly quickly if need be. With that thought in mind, I began to stumble my way down the tunnel while holding onto the wall for support. It only took a few steps, but I quickly realized that the ground was much more uneven and broken than I had first thought. I knew it had to be because of the miners taking the crystal out but that didn’t explain why the floor had looked so smooth from the other side of the doorway.

Putting that thought aside as I reached the end of the wall I was holding onto, I did my best to peek around it ready to run to the exit if I saw danger. Instead of seeing larger crystals or the dungeon guardian, I was met with empty hallway that continued to house the cuts on either side of it. Unlike near the doorway, the floor of this section still had some crystal left in the ground and I pushed myself away from the wall to look at it.

Just like the light it created, the crystal was a light blue that reminded me of a clear sky. I tentatively reached out to touch the crystal with a finger and was rewarded with the same feeling of stone I was used to. Lindi had said the crystal contained mana, but I wasn’t about to try and sense that with the massive headache I’d given myself from just looking at the mana in my body. This left me to just look at the crystal and decide that it was, like the dungeon’s entrance, wholly unimpressive.

At that point I realized something I’d missed while looking at the crystal. During the entire time I was near the crystal, it had been easier to breath and move than when I was in the area devoid of it. I stood a little bit faster then I should have, stumbling slightly, before attempting to cast [ember] for the warmth. A blinding flash of light startled me and I fell to the ground as the spell extinguished itself from my lack of concentration.

The result had been much more…powerful than I had been expecting and was a good reason to not try anything else until I could better handle the extra strength the dungeon’s mana seemed to add. Blinking a few times to help clear the spots in vision, I let my eyes readjust to the darkness before standing and taking a few more steps down the hall. I knew my curiosity was getting the better of me, but I just wanted to know if having more crystal in the ground would return the mana to a survivable level and it seemed like the further in I moved the more crystal that would be left behind.

I continued down the hall while using the wall for balance without stopping until I started to lose feeling in my hands and feet. Sliding down the wall into a sitting position, I closed my eyes tightly while casting [ember] and waited until the large flash ended to open them. The fire in my palm was much large and warmer than I’d ever been able to make it and was comparable to the flame my makeshift torch had produced.

Even after I warmed up, it didn’t make sense to stop the spell since it now provided enough light to see my surroundings easily. At least, this was my thought until I’d been walking for a few minutes. I was ready for the shadows to move with my fire just like they had in the ravine, but having the walls of the dungeon warp and shift as if closing in on me made me uncomfortable enough to stop the spell and wait for my eyes to adjust.

While my eyes slowly got used to the dark I shifted around in place, hoping that my lack of sight wouldn’t be the reason I missed the guardian possibly headed my way. My restlessness seeped away with the darkness as I began to see in the nearly total dark of the hall and, once I made sure there was nothing behind me, I decided to walk for a little longer before turning back.

At some point in my journey the walls had started to blend together making it impossible to tell how far I’d managed to walk and I couldn’t use the soreness of my feet for a rough idea either. I wasn’t used to walking on stone or how it forced me to walk differently than I normally did in order to avoid hurting my feet. The act was, in general, irritating from the way my claw clicked against the stone causing the sound to echo through the hall to the inability to better spread out my weight on the balls of my feet. I much preferred being able to grip the ground I was walking on and the feeling of sinking slightly that came from walking on dirt, both of which were things I couldn’t do with stone.

After reaching a point where I needed to stop for warmth and rest, I was ready to head back to the entrance of the dungeon. Once I situated myself comfortably against the wall I cast [ember] and watched the shadows it cast dance around the hall. While doing this my gaze gradually moved from the floor to the wall, tracing the seemingly random line until I realized that they were actually the boarder of a picture. Standing up, I quickly moved to put as much of the image as I could into the light.

As I put the edge of the mural behind me, I noticed that there was nothing in the picture at first. It wasn’t until I made it to the center of the mural that this changed and I was met by the intricate carving of a featureless Demon man. I shuddered while looking over the carving, avoiding the empty face, and instead focused on what surrounded the Demon. This left me wondering why the entirety of the mural was taken up by just this picture and I took a step forwards to see if there was anything on the far side of the mural.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye causing me to immediately stop moving and extinguish [ember] in hopes of blending into the darkness. Holding my breath, I glanced behind me only to see that the hallway was still just as empty as before leaving me to question where the movement came from. Another tentative step forward led to more movement at the side of my vision and I froze again until I was sure I was alone. While looking behind me, I noticed that the Demon on the wall had shrunk and the start of something new was barely etched into the stone.

This didn’t make sense. The mural on the wall hadn’t changed where it was yet the image on it was different. Then again, the mural shouldn’t be in the same position if I was moving forwards; it should be getting farther behind me. I took another step forwards while looking at the mural and watched as the Demon in it shrunk while the partial carving turned into another Demon, this time female.

Taking a few more steps forwards, I continued to watch as the two figures became equal in size and detail while trees began to appear on the mural’s edge. The two figures danced around each other and I followed their movements until I snagged my foot on something and tripped. Thinking that I’d stumbled because of the lines carved into the ground I idly looked at what I’d tripped over while standing up.

I was a little surprised to see what I’d stumbled on wasn’t the ground but a root coming out of the wall. It shouldn’t be possible for something to grow this deep underground and I walked over to it thinking I could at least eat the root to fill my stomach if nothing else came of it. My stomach growled at the thought of food and I settled myself over the root in anticipation of trying to pull it from the wall. Upon touching the root I was severely disappointed as it turned out to be stone carved in enough detail for me to easily think it was real. I gave the root one more tug just to be sure it really was part of the floor before standing and returning my attention to the mural.

The pair in the mural continued to dance with each other as I moved and the trees around them slowly became more and more detailed till I felt like I’d joined them in the forest. As I continued forwards, curious as to what was going to happen next, I tripped over something far larger than I had the first time. This time I managed to catch myself before falling and, once I was sure nothing living had tripped me, I was rendered speechless by the hallway around me.

What surrounded me was a stone forest, the hallway I had walked through all but gone. The floor was covered with a mix of carved leaves and twigs while the trees in the murals bled out of their place on the wall, shading the area above me with their branches and covering the floor with their roots. If I looked for it, I could still make out the boundaries that marked the surrounding walls, but the trees carved from them lent to the illusion that I had left the hallway far behind me.

I ignored the unconscious whimper I made in favor of returning my attention to the mural. The Demons continued to walk through the forest towards some unknown destination and I felt like I was trailing behind them, having to step over roots or duck underneath low hanging branches.

Gradually the trees fell away as the pair entered a clearing filled with wooden huts that seemed vaguely familiar to ones that sometimes appeared in my dreams. The pair continued forwards, intermixing with other Demons in what looked to be a tribe and I followed along until something in the corner of my vision caused my to freeze.

I turned slowly, watching the features of a Demon on the other side of the wall for any indication that they may be real and not made of stone. There was no smell or heat coming from it, which was why I’d missed it, but those were the same reasons it caught me off guard. Even after waiting for the Demon to move for several seconds I still wasn’t completely satisfied that it was fake. I took a few more steps before relaxing since the Demon’s eye remained facing forwards even after I’d moved passed it; something living would have watched me leave.

As I moved through the hall, several more Demons passed me each with a different weapon at their sides. All of these Demons were male and, aside from the female Demon in the mural, I’d yet to see another woman. I didn’t really find this that odd since it made sense for what I presumed were the guards to all be men. They were — as I could attest — very intimidating mostly because of their large size and the look on their face that I’d seen constantly during the past few weeks, the look of someone who wanted to cause others pain.

Weaving my way passed the statues, I stopped just shy of passing through another doorway. The shimmer separating the two sides of the door reminded me of the entryway into the dungeon and I was hesitant to step through this one because of how far I’d traveled. I took a look around me and noticed that this new door mimicked the entryway into the huts in the mural.

I wanted to believe that the doorway was just there to sever the same purpose as the tree roots I’d needed to avoid but the fact that the shimmer was there made me question that. If I were right, it would mean that the door, and the shimmer, were just for show and wouldn’t hold any surprises like the first door had. But was I really willing to take that chance? My answer, as much as it pained me to admit it, was yes. The way the murals had played out so far made it seem like there was going to be something important happening on the other side of the door and I wanted to know what it was.

After shuffling in place a few times, I braced myself and took two big steps, placing me directly on the other side of the doorway. Just like I’d hoped, instead of being met with the crushing force of the dungeon’s mana I was instead greeted by darkness. I took a small step forwards only to freeze as a dim light appeared on the left wall. I blinked a few times to remove the spots from my eyes before taking another look at both walls.

Instead of the empty stone before the doorway, the walls now resembled the outside of the huts in the mural meaning I was now inside the hut with the Demons. The mural was still present, patiently waiting for me to continue walking before telling its story again, while the new source of light came from what appeared to be a large piece of crystal in the wall. Underneath the light source was a thin line of the same crystal running to the floor connecting to the unbroken line of the same glowing gem the led me deeper into the dungeon.

Another tentative step resulted in the light being blocked from my view even though I could see where it was shining. I took me a minute of pacing back and forth to realize what was happening as the wall moved to cover the light and create the same flickering effect that happened around a campfire. Feeling relatively secure, I took a few steps forwards while watching the mural to see what would happen next.

The two Demons from earlier joined even more Demons around a fire inside the hut. All the Demons present talked for a few steps until food was brought into the hut and what seemed like a celebration began. From there the images on the mural gradually became more blurred and badly defined, usually whenever the male Demon the story was following drank from one of the bowls of liquid being passed around. I felt very uneasy while watching the scene play out and hoped that the familiarity that I was seeing ended there.

As the celebration on the mural continued I started to see more people join and that a select few, those with spears, were still well defined. Several more people with weapons entered the hut and the female Demon next to the stories ‘hero’ was picked up and dragged out of the hut. The main Demon stood to fight against this and did fairly well, the picture within the mural tipping and spinning each time he received a punch.

Eventually, the Demon was knocked out and dragged out of the hut leaving those in hut to continue what they were doing. Once gone, the image on the mural snapped into focus without any of the blurs that accompanied the main Demon and his drink. I continued walking but the scene on the mural didn’t change and I stopped moving when presented with another doorway. This one was more inviting, tempting even, and it was sad to say that I fell for it’s trap and stepped through, eager to see what was going to happen next.

Stepping through the shimmer left me in the dark again and I noticed that the crystal in the floor was just as damaged as it was before entering the section of the story revolving around the hut. I couldn’t figure out why that section would be left alone while the rest of the crystal was taken but it wasn’t something I was too worried about. Having recast [ember], I once again looked to the mural and watched story resume where it had stopped with the Demon being dragged from the hut.

The guards? Soldier? Spearmen? Yeah, spearmen fit best. The spearmen continued to drag the Demon away and the walls reflected this as they returned to the same forest they’d been at the beginning of the story. I continued along with them, hopping over roots and ducking beneath the occasional branch to watch as they walked deeper into the forest. The mural seemed stuck as the Demon was just dragged deeper and deeper into the forest and I started to question turning back about the time the spearmen stopped walking.

After reaching another clearing of sorts, the spearmen had let the Demon fall while picking something off the ground and moving it to the side. I was hard pressed to tell what it was until the Demon was again picked up and thrown into the hole. At this point the mural stopped abruptly, blending back into the wall as if it had never been there in the first place. It was jarring and I walked back a few steps and saw that the mural reappeared; now playing backwards.

I walked back and forth, watching as the mural disappeared and reappeared while trying to figure out why it stopped here. A small whine filled with desire escaped me as I looked down the hall where the story was supposed to be continuing before taking another look behind me at the way I’d come. Pacing in place, I circled around the same spot on the ground a few times before walking past where the mural ended, my eyes never leaving the wall.

About two dozen steps later the mural faded back into existence and with it the hall around me became just like the cave I’d walked in before finally finding the dungeon. I took a few more steps, getting used to the uneven surface before watching the Demon wake from his unconscious state and stand.

He seemed just as confused as I was and began to stumble around in the dark aimlessly. It seemed that the Demon wasn’t as fortunate as I was to have a source of light, but after a few more steps this no longer seemed to be an issue and he began to walk normally which was odd. I found myself doubling back to look at the section where he started walking without any problems and failed to find anything out of the ordinary until I ran my hand over the wall. There were a few pockmarks on the mural and I realized there was meant to be crystal here but someone had removed it just like with the door at the entrance of the dungeon.

Now understanding the sudden change, I was content to watch the Demon plod his way through the tunnels while occasionally stopping to rest. Both of us moved at a constant pace but for some reason the Demon started to stumble again, likely due to the crystal stopping if I had to guess. The Demon continued to stumble forward and it wasn’t until the last minute that I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.

I turned only to stumble backwards, my spell extinguishing itself, as I fell and let out a small cry of fear from the creature in front of me. Curling in on myself for the small amount of protection it would provide, I waited with baited breath for something to happen. After being left alone for long enough to grow uncomfortable in my newly dampened dress, I peeked my head out from underneath my arms to look at the beast blocking the path forwards. When the creature remained lifeless, staring straight ahead without unseeing eyes, I suddenly felt very, very stupid.

The dungeon already had a section where the people in the murals were on the walls, so why would this be any different. I had thought this was the dungeon guardian but now with my eyes barely adjusted to the dim glow the crystals provided I could tell that the creature was made entirely of stone; it was even connected to the wall. Groaning in mild frustration, I cast [ember] and looked over the stone creature one more time to make sure I wasn’t wrong.

Content that I wasn’t going to be mauled, I stood while whimpering quietly as my dress clung to my inner thighs and butt; the small effort I made to separate the two ultimately ended fruitlessly as, once separated, the dress quickly returned to gripping my skin. Doing my best to ignore my dress, I shuffled awkwardly around the stone creature and happily returned my attention to mural.

As I expected, the creature in the hall was also on the mural. I watched as the Demon fought with it, the fight seemingly in favor of the creature. Despite this, the Demon still managed to break free of the creature and he made his way deeper into the cave while running away. The creature chased and, while watching the Demon scramble to avoid the creature, I looked behind me to reassure myself that the stone creature hadn’t moved. Seeing that it remained in the same place helped me relax a little and I shifted my dress in discomfort while watching the mural.

Each step the Demon took was matched by the creature chasing him until he made it to a doorway similar to what I entered at the beginning of the dungeon. The tunnel once again reflected this change as I stared down another doorway, this one lacking the same shimmer that the other three had possessed. After passing though the new doorway, I looked around expecting the hall to change again but it remained the same much to my dissatisfaction.

Setting that aside, I watched the Demon move through the new room only to find various weapons strewn about it. This, the cave around me did mimic, and despite being made of stone the weapons still looked capable of dealing a great deal of damage. The second the Demon touched a weapon the creature chasing him entered the room, causing the two to start fighting again. At this point the Demon danced around the beast, trying to impale it with various weapons only to have each one break or be broken in the process.

As the weapons in the mural dwindled, so to did the weapons in the hall until there was nothing left. This led the Demon with no weapon to use against the creature and I watched him struggle to keep the beast off of him while also looking for something to fight back with. The two continued to bash each other back and forth with the Demon slowly loosing ground until he eventually was thrown against a wall.

While he recovered, the creature made it’s way over to him in what seemed like the last moments for the Demon. Before the beast could reach him, the Demon came to his senses and, not accepting his fate, took one more look around himself for a weapon. His hands found a rod of some sort and he picked it up and used it in one final attempt to fight back. Unlike every other weapon, this one didn’t break.

Using the rod as a club, the Demon beat back the creature and put some distance between them. The two stared each other down and in doing so this gave the Demon time to change how he was holding the rod. As this happened I realized that what he had found was a bow but he lacked both arrows and a string to shoot them. This didn’t stop the Demon from nocking something not present in the mural before drawing his hand back and letting go.

With this action, the creature bent over and stepped back as if it had been hit by something but again the mural did not depict the arrow. Or did it? I stepped closer to the mural, once again running my hand across it to find that there were indents in place of where the arrow and bow string should be; yet more crystal that had been removed. I took a step back and really looked at the mural, trying to mentally fill in what was missing.

Not having the crystal present meant that the end of the fight was empty, dull even, as the Demon fired nonexistent arrows from a bow missing its string. Still, it didn’t stop the Demon from finally killing the creature or at least wounding it enough that when it finally fell it stayed down. The Demon took this as his chance to leave and did so, exiting from a different door and I followed behind him.

Step by step the Demon moved his way through the cave and gradually the ground he walked on started to move upwards, the mural’s perspective shifting to account for this. He continued upwards even further, taking several twists and turns in stride as if he now knew where he needed to go. There was purpose to how he moved now as if something that was previously missing had finally been found.

As the mural ended, so to did the cave trapping the Demon and I stopped moving, letting the echo of my claws fade until I was left with nothing but the soft crackling of the flame lighting my way. A soft light not from the crystals or my flame lit the area in front of me, mimicking the light of the outside world just beyond the mouth of a cave. After all his struggling, the Demon had found a way out of his prison; I was hoping I’d just found mine.

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