The shadows were thicker here. Denser.
Ash moved low and quiet, freshly shaken from his encounter- the beasts he'd faced earlier were still fresh in his senses.
The ground here felt different beneath his paws- less like forest floor and more like grave-dust.
The path, once flat and dead but forested, had begun to dip steadily, spiraling downward through sloped corridors and crumbling arches. Each step took him deeper beneath the earth, where sunlight no longer reached and the weight of centuries pressed from above.
He glided through a series of winding tunnels carved by time and claw. The path was narrow, walls pressed close enough that his shoulders sometimes scraped stone.
The silence wasn't empty- it throbbed. Drips of unseen moisture echoed like footsteps from deep below.
His claws disturbed nothing. Each step was measured, absorbed by the mossy floor and layers of time-thick dust.
