“Quiet, as usual…” I muttered to myself, carefully stepping around another crumbled stone pillar. Despite the silence, I was on high alert, something about these ruins screamed trouble.

  The trees here were ancient, gnarled and twisted, almost glowing as their branches caught the fading beams of the setting sun. The ruins before me were old, covered in moss, and lost to time. Its stonework reduced to rubble from millenia of weathering. The air felt thick and heavy, like the ruins themselves were holding their breath.

  I picked each step carefully, holding my bow at the ready, relying on my senses to alert me to any threats. I strained my ears against the silence, waiting, watching. As I rounded the next corner, I found myself standing on a patchwork of old stone, seemingly embedded in the forest floor.

  Suddenly, the silence was broken. The distinct skittering sound of a small humanoid creature’s footsteps amplified as it charged me from behind. It was over in an instant. I spun on my heels, releasing my arrow before even completing the movement, finding my mark as I had done countless times before. I exhaled.

  “Just a Kobold.” I said to myself as I approached its lifeless form. A small, almost lizard-like creature, that walked on two legs. Known to wander shallow caves and old ruins.

  “Hmm… is that all...? I guess my senses aren’t as keen as I thought.”

  My words were cut short as my next step landed on a loosened stone. It shifted unnaturally with my weight, and before I could react, the patchwork of stone that had made up the ground, crumbled in, pulling me down into darkness.

  “AHHH—!”

  As the ground buckled beneath me and I lost my footing, my body plummeted into the dark abyss, my scream lost to the shadows below.

  I won’t lie and say I didn’t expect that to be it for me. In those brief moments of chaotic weightlessness, my life flashed before my eyes, all of my regrets and wishes bubbling to the surface.

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  But as fast as I had fallen, I just as soon landed with a heavy thud. The sound of stone crashing around me kept me dazed as I tried to reconcile the fact that I was alive. As the debris settled, I patted myself, double-checking the validity of my survival. Satisfied, I stood slowly, scanning the darkness.

  “What the hells… I totally thought I was going to die just then…” I muttered to myself, half in disbelief and half in annoyance. I strained my eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dark space.

  I was in some kind of chamber buried deep beneath the ruins. The walls were built from massive stone blocks, covered in inscriptions. The symbols hadn’t been weathered by rain or time—but I didn’t recognize the language. Intricately carved and cracked stone pillars stretched up into the darkness, holding what remained of the ceiling loosely in place. The now gaping hole in said ceiling let in a trickle of whatever remaining sunlight that was able to find its way through the trees above. The air was stale and heavy, and now that the cave-in had stopped, it was dead silent.

  Looking to the corners of the chamber, I saw pitch black passageways that I had no interest exploring… Though, looking up, there was no way to climb back out the way I’d come in. I turned to check behind me, and that's when I saw it.

  Grand steps led up to a massive slab of stone on the far side of the chamber, and atop it was an ancient statue of two wolves facing each other, their maws distorted into angry snarls. Suspended between them was something small, it looked like a necklace… Curious, I approached cautiously.

  As I walked, the air grew inexplicably cooler, my heart began to race. My legs began moving without command, each step heavier than the last. I clenched my jaw until it ached, trying to stop myself. I couldn’t. Every step closer made my stomach twist, like I was stepping into something I couldn’t escape from. But I couldn’t stop. My hand moved forward like it had a will of its own. I barely remember ascending the brief steps leading up to the statue, and before I knew it, I was holding a small necklace with an ornate circular pendant.

  I inspected the pendant carefully, turning it over in my hands. It appeared to be made of silver, strange runes adorned its border, and in the middle, a depiction of two wolves, one white, and one black, endlessly circling each other, was etched into its surface. Curiously, it was cold to the touch, colder even than the chamber it was held in…

  My eyes, glued to the pendant, barely noticed the forms beginning to take shape in my periphery. The darkness was coming alive all around me.

  Like spilled ink, shadows blacker than night began to coalesce. I turned slowly, every hair on my body standing on end, and I watched in horror as countless, wolf shaped, pure black shadows spilled out of the darkness. At once, I could feel their volatility, black fangs bared like daggers—I was completely surrounded.