Each of Vale's steps echoed faintly, quickly swallowed by the vast silence of the cavern. The stone beneath his boots was uneven—worn smooth in some places, jagged in others—as though countless beings had walked this same path before him. People, creatures… he couldn't be sure.
Though the air was still, it remained deathly cold. His breath misted in short, ragged bursts as he descended deeper along the spiralling path, hopping from one platform to the next.
The platform where he'd started was long out of sight. And though the dragon was too, its presence lingered heavily in his thoughts. He kept replaying how easily the beast could've ended him when he'd fallen from its back.
Had the monster let him go?
His mind burned with questions, spiralling in the silence. Maybe that noise—his own thoughts—was the only thing keeping him sane in the suffocating stillness of yet another cave.
Then, a wild, echoing roar shattered that very same silence.
