Kitsune in the Shadows
Chapter 120 – Amber Eyes

Thankfully, nothing else came after that wave of heat… although it would be hard to call that entirely reassuring with everything that had just happened. None of it made any sense to me, yet I couldn’t deny what I had seen.

I was now just left alone, in a small chamber underground, with… something crawling around in the tunnels, probably lying in wait for me to try and leave, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. I couldn’t understand why it chose to wait instead of just going for me, but no matter what it chose to do, I already knew that there was nothing I’d be able to do to stop it.

Even my knives simply went through their arm before. If they startled them slightly in that moment, it likely wouldn’t have been long until they realised the same thing… It was all just luck that they gave up.

I ended up just sitting in the dark chamber, waiting for something to happen for so long that I was eventually able to stand without the support of the wall, even if it wasn’t all that comfortable. I paced back and forth a little just to make sure that I would actually be able to walk on it without falling to the ground again.

Fortunately, it seemed that it would be okay, at least for a little while… if I kept it slow anyway. There was still a slight throbbing, but I could handle that much as long as it meant I wasn’t left a sitting duck.

What do I do now?

Is there a way out?

Do I even want to get out of here right now?

…

Why can’t someone just tell me what to do?…

I don’t want to be here.

…

I really don’t want to be here.

…

But, at the end of the day, there was only one way I could leave… at least that was what it looked like. There was still the question of how much of this was really an illusion, because if this whole cave wasn’t real… then where was I? Where could I even be? If I just closed my eyes and ignored what was around me, would it all disappear? Could it really be that simple to escape?

…

I closed my eyes, but only for a moment, as a creeping feeling immediately washed over me, telling me that it was a very bad idea; that the moment I stopped paying attention, that thing would come crawling back through the tunnel and straight for me.

…

But I have to do something…

What if no one finds me down here?

…

…

Maybe… I’ll just have a look…

If there’s nothing… then…

I didn’t allow myself to finish that thought and instead made my way towards the tunnel, hugging the wall tightly; only wanting to get a peek at what’s inside.

As my head poked out, however, what I saw stopped my heart for a few beats. It was… dark, pitch-black even.

That’s not right.

I had been able to see perfectly fine in the dark for years. What did it mean if I suddenly couldn’t? What was inside that tunnel? How could it be darker than even Ovia’s domain? It shouldn’t have been possible.

…

My mind screamed at me to back away, that I would have a better chance at just waiting for someone else to get lucky and find me in the maze of tunnels.

Rya said that she was here to deal with all this, so I tried to convince myself that if I just waited long enough, it would all come to an end.

That was all I needed to do. Stay still. Stay silent.

…

Unfortunately, all I was able to manage was a single step back, sending a few coins skating across the stone floor. As soon as I registered what had happened, I was hit with another wave of heat, followed by a growl so piercing that it locked my feet firmly in place, forcing me to keep my eyes trained on the seemingly endless dark tunnel.

That’s when they appeared.

Two huge glowing amber eyes with slit pupils; the only source of light inside that tunnel. They were trained directly on me, yet at the same time, it felt like I was being completely ignored, as they looked straight through me, deep down into my core.

They slowly inched closer towards me, but thankfully, I was able to force myself to take a step back, trying to maintain the distance between us despite my fear. It didn’t move very quickly, but there was only so much further back I could go… it was only a matter of time…

…

It then stopped in its tracks, only inches from escaping the darkness and entering the chamber, its face still hidden.

M-Maybe-

There wasn’t even time for me to think before there was more movement. A giant scaled forelimb reached out of the darkness and towards me, its scales were a dark red, much like the rabbit beastkin’s hair from before. At the end of each of the four fingers was a claw stained a faint yellow, with tiny cracks running through it, although that didn’t matter given the immense size; if one of them went through my chest… I didn’t think even Celica would be able to do anything about it.

Is it really a dragon down here?

Which one was real? This or the… thing from before?

Are neither of them real?

As my thoughts raced, the clawed hand rotated so that its palm was facing upwards.

“Give.”

The deep voice echoed from the tunnel into the chamber, more than loud enough to hurt my ears. I had to cover them just so that the echoes didn’t overwhelm me and my thoughts.

…

But that may have been the wrong thing for me to do.

“Give!” The creature roared even louder than before, pushing me down onto the ground with the sound alone.

W-What do I?!

Should I just give-

No!

I can’t.

Anything but that.

I just-

I held my knives out in front of me, but all that did was make it all the more obvious just how useless they were in the face of something that large. I doubted if they could even leave a mark on one of the scales, let alone actually do any meaningful damage.

…

“U-Umbra…” I whispered as I slipped my hand into my cloak, keeping my eyes trained on the claw closest to me, “G-Give me… something… anything…”

The pressure coming from those amber eyes was making it difficult for me to even think clearly. I wasn’t even sure what Umbra could give me that could help me, but it felt like I didn’t have any other option than to hope for a miracle.

A moment later, something cold met my hand. I instantly latched onto it, pulling it out from inside my cloak along with Umbra. But that wasn’t all that came along, as I accidentally let the talisman Elenia gave me slip out of my pocket in the process, only for it to flutter down a distance in front of me, just a bit too close to the clawed hand for me to even think about grabbing it. Not that it would have been any use down in a cave like that.

…

I brought my focus back to what Umbra had given me. It was a spear, the very same spear that Mom had strapped to my back when I first left Casgolau, more than a month ago now. The big problem with it was that it was far too large for me to really use, especially within that tiny chamber.

“Umbra,” I whispered loudly, trying not to agitate the creature in the tunnel any more than it already was.

Umbra, however, didn’t react at all, just glancing back at me for a second before wandering off into a corner and curling up, even yawning.

Why are you doing this?

Do you not see what’s going on right now?!

Despite the impracticality of it, I held the spear out in front of me with both hands firmly on the shaft, pointing it towards the eyes in the tunnel rather than the clawed hand, which could likely snap it in an instant.

My only hope was that it would be intimidated, even if only a little, just like the rabbit beastkin with my knives… at least that should be the case if these were the same kind of creature.

Immediately, there was a reaction, a tiny recoil, a single blink from the amber eyes… But it wasn’t out of fear. If I had to say, it must have been out of disbelief.

The clawed hand turned back over, the claws scraping against the stone as it reached further in, inching its way along the ground towards me.

“I want it!” It roared, “Give it!”

There was hardly any time to react. My mind was screaming to just give in, to just give the pendant away so I wouldn’t have to deal with whatever was happening to me, yet at the same time, I just couldn’t… I couldn’t give everything that came with it up too.

But I couldn’t just do nothing.

In a moment of desperation, confusion and maybe a little bit of hope, I stabbed downwards with the spear, hoping to hit one of the fingers as it closed in on me.

…

What happened next all took place over the course of only a split second. My spear met its target, but just like with the rabbit beastkin before it, it just passed through; however, as it did, it instead tore straight through the talisman that was lying beneath the hand, scraping against the stone floor as it did.

In an instant, my vision went completely white and I fell backwards… onto something that wasn’t stone, but… grass?

“Got them!” Rya shouted… at least that was who it sounded like through the slight ringing in my ears.

It took a while longer for my vision to actually clear up, but once it did, what I saw before me was no longer the tiny chamber deep underground. Instead, all I could see in front of me was the night sky, the many stars up above glinting down on me… at least that was the case until I sat myself up.

I was in a clearing, probably somewhere in the forest. Around me, I could see everyone, each in different states of disarray. Tybalt looked incredibly frustrated, but largely okay. Rya had her back to me, but she seemed to be perfectly fine, fiddling with something in her arms. Ava and Cattleya, however, were… hugging? Cattleya in particular didn’t look to be doing very well, trembling slightly.

Is this another illusion?

…

“What just-?” I squeaked out, suddenly realising just how thirsty I was.

“I’ve found them!” Someone shouted from the bushes, followed by the sound of far too many people’s footsteps as they pushed through the brush.