As I took each step forward, the walls around me tightened slowly, as if they were tasting every part of my small body. Because of my size, I was still able to move ahead; anyone bigger would’ve been trapped long ago between these closing walls. The narrowness forced me to keep the fairy tucked safely in my bag — its fragile glow couldn’t have survived the tight spaces. My breaths, which moments ago were filled with the strange sounds echoing endlessly through the cave, had now become part of those noises themselves. But the slow, soft sound of my footsteps remained unchanged.
At one point, a sharp sting bit into the side of my neck — quick and precise, like the prick of a needle. I brushed my fingers over the spot, but there was nothing there. No insect, no blood. Just a slight warmth spreading under the skin, almost like a hidden burn.I didn’t stop. In places like this, you learned quickly that not everything that touched you wanted to be seen.
The path I thought would end with me crushed between the walls finally opened into a wide space. My curiosity tried to take over, but my instincts held me steady. The earth-scented walls seemed to pull at the potions strapped across my belt. I wasted no time — I uncorked another vial and drank it down. If anything unwanted had gotten into my blood, this potion would force it out — leaving not even a hair of it behind.
Pulling the fairy from my bag once more, I lifted it high. Its glow revealed a massive hall surrendered to a lake, stretching out like a dark, breathing lung. The dripping of water from the stalactites and stalagmites punctured the silence, and tiny shimmering points on the rocks made it look as if the stars themselves had fallen underground.
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Yet what caught my eye wasn’t the glittering stones — it was a faint, swaying light.A lantern, moving across the lake’s far edge.I watched it carefully. Though the hunter’s intent rose faintly like smoke from the water, there was no sound, no sign of any creature in sight.
I moved closer — ten meters from the lake’s edge — and peered into the water.My own reflection stared back at me, clear but distant.I looked deeper, into the blackness of my own pupils.And for a few breaths, everything was still. then, something moved.
From within those black wells, tiny shapes began to pour out —smaller than ants, yet coiling and alive.They slithered and twisted, crawling across the lake’s surface without making a single ripple.Their bodies were translucent, almost ghost-like.Tiny mouths opened and closed hungrily.
My stomach twisted.A heavy, metallic taste rose up my throat.I staggered backward, doubling over as I vomited hard onto the stone floor.The retching left my ribs aching and my throat raw.
Panting, I wiped my mouth and looked down.
Something was writhing inside the mess.
Tiny forms.Translucent. Squirming. Still alive.
Neverslacks.
