Hope moved cautiously through the rocky terrain, every step calculated, his eyes darting around as he scanned for signs of danger.
The cave loomed ahead, its entrance jagged and uneven, like the gaping maw of some ancient beast. The air around it was thick, carrying the scent of decay and damp earth, and as he stepped closer, a faint chill ran down his spine.
He knew Walker had chosen another path, splitting off to cover more ground and divide the workload. That meant, for now, Hope was on his own.
His fingers tightened around the hilt of his double daggers, the cool metal offering a small sense of comfort. He moved forward, his footsteps silent against the hard stone, the only sound accompanying him being the faint drip of water echoing from within the depths of the cave.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the darkness swallowed him whole.
Inside the Cave
The interior was damp and cold, the walls lined with thick, twisting vines that pulsed faintly, as though something alive ran through them. Their texture was leathery, and some seemed to move ever so slightly, reacting to his presence.
Hope's breath was slow, controlled.
His eyes adjusted to the dimness, revealing a landscape of scattered bones and skeletal remains littering the ground.
Some were small, the bones of lesser creatures—rodents, birds, maybe even scavengers like himself who had been unlucky enough to wander in.
Others, however, were massive, their jagged remains stretched out unnaturally, the ribcages of beasts Hope couldn't even begin to identify.
Some skeletons still had shreds of armor clinging to them, rusted beyond use, their weapons broken or embedded in the cave floor as if they had fought to the very end.
Hope swallowed.
This place was a graveyard.
He tried to move carefully, stepping lightly over the bones, his heart hammering against his ribs. The last thing he wanted was to—
Crunch.
The sound echoed through the cave like a gunshot.
Hope froze, his blood turning to ice.
He had stepped on one of the dried skeletons, the brittle bone snapping under his weight.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then came the growl.
It was low, guttural—inhuman.
It didn't come from one direction but from everywhere at once, bouncing off the cave walls, making it impossible to pinpoint the source.
Hope's grip on his daggers tightened until his knuckles turned white.
His breathing slowed, his body tensed, every muscle coiled like a spring ready to snap.
Then, just as suddenly as it had come—
The growl died down.
The silence that followed was almost worse.
Whatever had been watching him, whatever had heard him, had decided—not to attack.
Not yet.
Hope exhaled slowly, forcing his heart rate to steady.
He took another step, his movements even more careful than before, and continued his way deeper into the cave.