Civilization

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" - Ian

The wind blows against my back as the sky becomes further and further away. Rocks surround me and my shoulder brushes against the sharp edges, chipping away at my armor until finally, I crash to the ground. The basket on my back cushion the fall, but I know my HP is low after that fall. My whole back stings from the fall, it hurts…

I force myself to roll over and move my arms rigidly around, feeling for the water sack. The darkness creeps in, surrounding me. I feel different things on the ground, rocks, fur, pieces of monster parts, and finally the water sack. Luckily, the water sack wasn\'t broken, Lucina hadn\'t filled the whole water sack to the brim, allowing it some room when it gets squished.

I grab the top with my mouth and drink all the liquid inside the water sack, and the moment I finish, I feel my body slowly healing. The pain faded away slowly, and my breathing stabilized. I lay on the ground, closing my eyes and letting the potion do its work. Unfortunately, the potion didn\'t fully heal me, but at least I\'m at half my health points.

I pick myself up off the ground, my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, but it was still hard to see things. With no other option, I go back to crawling around on the ground, feeling my way through the many objects on the ground. I find my spear or at least just the top half, the butt of the spear had been broken off leaving just the head and a bit of the body.  I found what was left of my second water sack, meaning I have no other method of healing while I\'m stuck down here.

The rest, well there wasn\'t much else left. I slowly get up, using the wall near me to steady myself. I move forward slowly, having my left hand touch the wall. While I may not know the way forward, if I am constantly touching at least one side of the wall, I will always move forward. I heard that in a maze, while it will be longer to clear the maze if you just touch one side and follow it all the way you will eventually exit the maze.

I use that method of thinking while I\'m down here in this dark tunnel. In fact, I don\'t even know if it was a tunnel or not, it was just so dark. I can\'t see anything in front of me. I just feel the small vibrations emitting from the walls. It feels like a heart softly beating against the wall and as I progress forward, it gets softer and softer.

I can feel the incline with my feet. It\'s gradual, but I can feel that I was walking downwards. I also feel a slight chill, like the temperature had dropped a few degrees. I don\'t even know how long I have been walking, following the darkness.

Not only that, but I start to wonder as I walk deeper, what is happening above me?

What happened after I fell down?

What were those stone-like towers that appeared from the ground?

How is everyone?

Are they okay?

I can only wonder to myself about these things. I worry about the situation above me as I keep walking downwards. Furthermore, I\'m going further and further away with each step, but I guess it might be too late to turn back now.

Where am I going?

Where is this darkness leading me?

I feel the sides of the wall start to curve and with a couple more steps, I turn to see a small light in the distance. I don\'t immediately run towards the light, instead, I grip my spear tighter. I look, I stare.

What is it?

Why is there light so deep down?

I move my feet forward. Slowly. I shuffle along the sides trying to figure out the source of the light, but as I get closer I find out there was no danger and the source of the light was the sun itself.

It feels weird. Like this is an illusion.

The walls start to converge to an exit and with the small amount of light seeping into the tunnel, I could see around me. However, it wasn\'t around me that piqued my curiosity, not it was in front of me.

This dark tunnel leads me to a room. From where I am, just outside the room, I can see that light had come in through a small hole in the ceiling. However, I still find it hard to believe that light could travel so far down.

I look around more carefully. In the middle of the room was a golden chest, similar to the ancient ruins that I had found before, but behind it was a statue of a man. A dull gray statue, with its eyes and mouth closed. It wore a stone cloak, over a knight\'s armor, with a sword in its hands. The sword similarly was made out of stone, and the statue\'s hand clasps the handle as the sword penetrates into the ground.

There was little detail in the armor and the cloak, yet the sword felt like it was alive. It was dull and gray much like the rest of the statue yet, the air surrounding it felt like it would cut me the moment I get close.

Moving away from the statue in the center of the room, I look to the left and to the right. On the left, there was a small statue of a lion cub roaring into the sky, and on the right was an adult lion majestically looking upwards. Both look like they were made out of stone, yet they feel as real as the sword.

My heart starts to pound against my chest as I look at them. I feel the danger yet why does it excite me at the same time. I grab my chest with my free hand, feeling my heartbeat through my fingertips.

I gulp down my saliva and took the first step forward into the room. Immediately, I feel the air around me standstill. The temperature drops and the light above the statue disappears. Darkness envelopes the room, and I tense up, holding onto my spear and glancing around desperately. I wait and wait, and for what feels like hours, I continue to wait, yet nothing happens.

My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness and in front of me, I can see the faint glow of the golden box. My brain is telling me it\'s a trap yet at the same time, I feel my body drawn to the box. It\'s enticing. It looks wondrous. Golden, shiny, and within my reach.

I take another step forward.

Red eyes appear on the two lions. They glow brighter than the sun, and I flinch at the sudden light. They, however, do not move. Their eyes stare at me like they are throwing daggers into my body. Sweat starts to form under my armpits and on my forehead. Nothing is happening, yet, but I know the moment I take another step they will move. I\'m not how much they will move, but something will happen. I need to be prepared.

I look at both of the statues and make a decision, moving closer to the lion cub. The statue was smaller, so I had to take my chances with a smaller monster, also why to wait for them to attack me when I can attack them first.

I crouch down and face the lion cub and with a leap using all my strength, I jump towards the lion cub, holding onto my spear high above me. If they trigger some effect with each time I move forward, then it should be better to close the distance and attack the moment the effect occurs.

That was what was rolling through my mind, but what a mistake.

A loud clang could be heard from the middle of the room, but I choose to ignore it and instead focus on the task at hand. However, in the next second, I feel my body yanked from all directions, and in front of me, the adult lion appears.

A moment of hesitation as I try to understand the situation, but the lion didn\'t give me a chance. With me so close to it, its eyes flash scarlet and the stone body moves forward, pouncing, meeting me midair with its paws swiping down on my defenseless left side. Catching me off guard, I take the full brunt of the attack and I get flung towards the place where I had just come in, hitting my back on the edge of the tunnel entrance.

I instinctively, pull my spear in front of me, ready to block the next attack, but it never came. I look around me and the adult lion was back where it belonged, looking majestically up into the ceiling, with its scarlet red eyes fading away. Similarly, the lion cub\'s eyes fade away as well. I pick myself up off the ground and check the side where I got attacked. No major injuries and my status display me with my HP sticking away. I had taken a big hit, reducing my HP to a quarter, but at least I was able to learn something from that encounter.

Something switched after I heard that sound.

Was it me or was it the statues?

I look at the statue in the middle of the room. I can barely see the outline of the statue, but I immediately notice the difference.

The stone-cold face was smiling.

A large white grin.

Its teeth were sharper than my spear as it shines brightly in the darkroom.

I breathe out slowly as I notice the small yellow glint in its eyes.

It\'s looking at me.

It\'s enjoying it.

*CLANG*