everything is dizzying up here. the air: heady with the stench of sunken-in rot. the floor: foul with the mess of spoilt food and monsters. decay is a tangible thing on his tongue, tangy and pungent in taste and presence. he almost turns back as he did not-so-long ago, almost flees from this tomb for the second time, but.
it has been long enough. long enough for fresh ichor to settle into dark murk. for what seemed like pretence to harden into something concrete. for a prickling bad to burgeon into a bloated worse. ( for a curious mind to ask who-what did this? to the thought of something happened here. )
a shaft of light beckons from the other side of the tomb. it was what caught and lost his attention last time, and is what catches and holds his attention now — light means something-there means something-alive means something-new. as he stands there, breath held and shallowly released in half-anticipation and half-disgust, the sliver sways. he rocks with it.
this far up, where the sea has never felt closer, he thinks the light could also mean outside.
he thinks the light could also mean maybe-safe.
the beam of light from his flashlight flickers as he runs, in-and-out to the tempo of the heartbeat battering his chest. it’s annoying ( especially when it seems to get worse the further he goes ), but offers enough vision that he can still comfortably weave between fallen heads and knobbly fingers, so he continues to let it guide him until finally—
there is a new energy to the dizziness of up-here when he reaches that other light. it still reeks, but a note of brine drifts in from outside— because there is an outside. there is a staircase and an opening and light from outside.
it’s— amazing! it’s—...kind of scary. it’s...very daunting.
he should go back. he knows what’s here now, he should go back and gather all his little friends and—
something calls from above. the sound rings familiar in his ears, brings to mind the distant image of something flying. something soaring.
