The cavern floor sloped gradually downward, cutting farther and farther below the pillars until Solis realized they seemed to be gone entirely. He craned his neck upward, trying to discern to where they’d disappeared to. “Hmm.” He couldn’t quite tell. The only sign of the pillars was a bumpiness in the close walls of the winding downward passage. He followed Telsan, all three quiet save for the occasional grunt or muttering about needing to use a restroom.
Before he realized it, the passage had opened out into another field, this one wavy in topography and devoid of pillars. Small growths like flowering plants sprouted up everywhere, some tall, some more squat like tree stumps.
Before them yawned a large cavern, or rather multiple openings leading into the hill. The valley they traversed seemed to funnel toward it, as the walls of varying angles reached up over either side of the cave door. Climbing around it looked entirely possible, but Solis had a feeling they were meant to progress toward whatever gateway point held the next trial, not just freely explore. There would be opportunity enough, certainly, but they didn’t yet have the lay of this Earth and its Strata.
Better not to test even less familiar waters.
“Anybody else hear growling?” Phoenix asked hesitantly.
Solis cocked his head. Yes . . . yes, he did. From behind them somewhere.
“I’m going to scout a bit,” Telsan suggested, crouching and flaring his dust-colored wings. He took off before Solis or Phoenix could warn him against it, rising upward fifty feet in the space of He waved them over toward the right, and the other two followed with only a brief hesitation. Solis wondered if it was the animal noises he’d been hearing from the other direction. Knowing Telsan’s usual keen hearing, it could very well have been.
“I see something,” Telsan said from high above. “It’s large, and dark, and headed this way.”
Great.
The rumbling growls from behind intensified, driving them onward toward the ominous caverns. Each entrance was equally inviting, or rather uninviting, so they picked the largest and closest. It was too dark inside to make out anything except a faint haziness which wafted outward into the valley.
“How do we know this is the right way?”
Solis snorted. “You just did—you eager to see whatever’s making all those noises behind us?”
Telsan thought for a moment, falling back into step with them after only a moment. “Guess you’re right,” he mumbled.
Phoenix lit their torch once more with a flash of her wing before they delved deeper into the cave-within-a-cave. The light prompted
Inside, as the darkness settled, monsters manifested, glowing eyes and flashing teeth. Snarling faces. They were both drawn and frightened by the torch flame. Hungry-looking faces. Some they saw, others they only heard. Slowly, seeing that none were venturing closer, they pushed on into the tunnel, wordlessly realized that these must be kept here as a test, starved to the point of hunger for whatever new contestants they can get their hands on.
Solis jumped as he felt hands around his waist, then immediately realized it was Phoenix. “You startled me,” he whispered, shaking his head as he raised the torch once more. “You guys think they’re really not going to try to . . . eat us?”
He couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought Telsan shrugged from behind him. That was his only response. He would have felt far safer if they’d brought along the weapons they’d used back in the island games . . . why hadn’t they thought of that?
The cave smelled of must and death, if that was as distinct a blend as it seemed. The atmosphere felt like it clung to his face and hair, like the clammy sweat on his hands. Solis nearly cried out as he stumbled over a bleached bone. It was a hand, connected to only the two forearm bones. Nearby, however, there was more . . .
“Is that, um, another . . .” Phoenix croaked.
Contestant? It seemed so. From long ago.