✨?
Caves. Wanda never likes staying down in the dark for long. Pressing fear of unknown danger can do horrible damage for someone's psyche, especially hers, when she spent a long time running away from the dark.
But she knows she won't be in here for long. She just needs to find the ancient city of the long-forgotten bug people that used to reign in the Constant. Then, she can leave. Just a quick flick of her watch and she'll be gone. She just needs the map filled out!
The ground under her feet is mushy. Oh it's disgusting, but at least she won't be there for very long.
She keeps her lantern off for now. The wild flora emit quite enough light on their own. She's aware that some of those may be devious monsters looking for a meal, but still, she feels quite safe here. There's no shadows here.
But soon, there are no more lightblubs and glow berries. She fiddles with her lantern switch before plunging into darkness.
There's a narrow hall. Rocky footsteps echo before she's back on wet mud.
Crumbling. She freezes. An earthquake? No, the ground isn't shaking. There's a light in the distance. Cautiously, she begins to approach it.
But by the time she realizes what it is, it's too late. The obelisk tears up the earth, glowing an eerie bright red. Howls reverberate through the caves. Wanda almost drops her lantern.
Immediately, black creatures seep through red cracks. Shadows. So many of them, they're so vivid, they're almost alive. Crawling horrors crack a grin. Terrorbeaks whip their necks around to face her.
In their hollow eyes is a hunger.
Wanda immediately breaks into a sprint. Not again, not again! She runs back into the rocky hall, dropping her lantern down. She digs through her pockets frantically-- where is it, where is it?!
She pulls out a white and gold watch from her pockets. She begins to fiddle with the hands...
SNAP. One of those quick Terrorbeaks caught up to her. She hadn't even seen it. As the present-day creature attempts to interact with her being, her timeline violently attempts to correspond match. In other words, she ages. Very, very rapidly.
"No!" She goes from young to middle aged to elderly in a second. Oh, she should've ran further, but she's not the only hasty one here.
Wanda picks up her lantern again. This time, it hurts to run. Her youthful strength evades her, leaving her with aching bones and weak muscles. She pants and wheezes desperately as she tries to outrun her attacker.
Flick. Oh no. Ohnononono! Her lantern has nothing left in it. It burned through the last of its fuel. Wanda makes a desperate struggle through the dark. She has to be near the lightbulbs, she has to-
A familiar growl. A bone-chilling hiss.
"S-stay away!" Wanda doesn't know if she's still running, but soon, it doesn't matter.
Pain. And then nothing. Time ticks on, as it always does, and as it always will.