These were all lies, of course, for Orum wasn’t here hoping the creature had moved on. No, he wanted to see those eyes again, even if they turned out to be the last thing he ever laid his own eyes on.

Despite all his talk of searching for a back entrance and masking his smell with stinkmoss, he crept out from the cover of the forest without any thought but reaching the cave mouth as soon as possible. Despite his thirst, he skirted the edge of the burbling pond without stopping to drink from its crystal-clear waters. He climbed the smaller rocks with ease, using clefts in the larger boulders to pull himself up onto the natural shelf that stood before the dark spot in the pile that resembled a massive black eye on the face of a stone giant.

Though he knew it was impossible, that darkness felt as though it was a physical presence, a black wall that would repel him if he attempted to breach it. He laughed inwardly at his own foolish thoughts, careful not to make an audible sound that might alert whatever was slumbering inside to his presence. Still, as he reached the line between light and dark, his hand trembled as he stretched it forward, surprised when he was able to push it all the way into the shadows without any force pushing back in turn.

He followed after, stepping out of the sunlight and into the darkness, the temperature immediately cooling so much that a shiver ran through him. He blinked several times, but the darkness was oppressive, impermeable. There was something unnatural about it; surely some of the sunlight should’ve been able to stretch their rays inside. It wasn’t like it was nighttime. It was the middle of the damn day and he’d only just stepped into the cave.

A sound drew him away from such thoughts. It was a rumble, but not as deep or threatening as thunder. The sound of something very large exhaling. The inhalation came next, a long hiss that must’ve drawn half the air in the cave into massive lungs. For several long moments, the creature simply held the breath inside itself, the following rumble quivering Orum’s bones like plucked strings when it finally pushed itself out.

The creature is still here, Orum thought to himself with almost giddy delight, all false thoughts of relocating himself abandoned in less than a moment. He risked a step forward into the abject blackness, feeling very much as though he was being surrounded, not by walls of stone but by the dark itself, cold arms pulling him into their embrace.

His foot made an inadvertent scraping sound when he didn’t lift his boot high enough from the stone floor. The creature’s deep and steady breathing hitched for a moment. He froze, heart skipping a beat before pounding relentlessly at the inside of his chest. He held his breath, afraid his own inhalations and exhalations would be just as loud as the invisible beast’s.