It was warm.
The first thought that crossed the girl's mind as she gained consciousness was how warm the surface beneath her felt. Soft, smooth metal, curving gently against her back like a cocoon.
She was curled up in a position that felt oddly comforting, legs and hands curled up close to her body. The warmth was all-encompassing, somewhat familiar, but it didn't ease the sudden confusion flooding her mind.
She blinked, the world slowly taking shape around her as her eyes adjusted to the dim haze.
Her body was wrapped in something pure and white — silk, soft against her skin, as though she had been clothed in it since birth.
She didn't know why she was wearing it, or where she even was, but somehow it didn't feel too strange. In fact, it almost felt natural.
She took a breath, inhaling deeply, feeling the coolness in her lungs, the stillness in the air.
The confusion still didn't lift.
She sat up slowly, her limbs stiff and hesitant. The metal beneath her shifted slightly with her movement, but it didn't creak.
'Where am I?'
The thought lingered, but it didn't carry panic. Instead, it sat quietly, a question that didn't need an immediate answer.
Her mind was blank. Empty. The weight of her own existence felt distant, as though the concept of who she was was buried under layers she couldn't scrape away.
She stared ahead, her gaze unfocused, feeling the rush of sensory information flood in all at once.
The place was dark, but not entirely. There was a light... somewhere. Now that her upper body wasn't pressed against the warm, calming metal frame she was on, the air felt cold, damp.
A drip leaked from the roof and hit something, causing the sound of ruffling to permeate the space. It echoed, and echoed. She wasn't quite sure she knew what a cave was, yet she knew immediately that she was in one.
Next came a sound.
The girl's ears twitched as the rustling of something caught her attention. It came from the far side, a skittering noise.
The sound made her instincts scream. But she was not afraid. No, fear had not reached her yet, not in any significant way.
There was only a strange curiosity, a yearning to know what had made that sound.
Her body moved before she realized it, drawing her into a crouch, instinctively trying to remain out of sight, though she had no idea why.
She tilted her head to one side, trying to make sense of the noise. The skittering became clearer, like a thousand tiny legs scraping across the ground.
She turned her head and then she saw it.
An animal. No. A creature.
The girl's stomach churned, her limbs stiffening as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
It was like a spider, but not quite. It was huge, its body twisted and bloated, its many legs splayed out in unnatural angles. It was as though someone had taken a spider and turned it inside out, its fleshy insides now exposed in all their sickening detail, preserved only by the gelatinous goo it was suspended in.
And it was fighting something else.
Another of the creature — larger, even more grotesque — was attacking it, its claws digging into the smaller spider-thing with savage force.
The larger creature lifted its prey with a violent motion, its mandibles snapping and its limbs flailing wildly. The smaller creature screeched, a high-pitched, chilling noise that made her skin crawl.
But the larger one wasn't done. It swung the smaller one onto the ground with a sickening crack, before releasing it.
The scene stayed calm for a moment, a bit of respite before it continued.
Reacting to the commotion, vines reached down from the darkness above, thick, sinuous roots that seemed almost hungry. They snaked around the larger creature, constricting with brutal strength from such thin vines. The girl flinched as the vines tightened around the creature's body. They pulled, squeezed, and snapped, breaking the thing apart like paper.
Then, the carcass of the creature was lifted off the ground by the vines, its thick, almost luminous blue blood bursting from its many wounds. Without any resistance the vines violently launched the carcass towards the cave wall. The thing practically exploded, blood splattered across the vine-covered ground, splashing on the dark, mottled leaves beneath it.
Now that she focused, she could see that the leaves and vines weren't just scattered here and there. They covered everything — the floor, the walls, even the ceiling of the cavernous space. A dense mass of tangled foliage and brittle branches.
Some of the vines pulsed, as though something thick moved inside them.
The girl swallowed, feeling the faintest ripple of something like fear finally slip through her guarded mind.
This place was alive.
She curled her toes against the warm metal, anchoring herself as she glanced around, trying not to make a sound.
Her eyes assessed the room from left to right and settled on the shadowed and hollow recesses along the cave walls. Perfect circles, carved with unnatural precision, like the mouths of tunnels leading... somewhere.
Probably nowhere good. But better than staying out there, exposed.
She shifted slightly, and even that tiny motion seemed deafening in the overwhelming quiet that followed the slaughter. The vines twitched, and her heart lurched into her throat.
She froze, every muscle locking tight, half-expecting the withered roots to lash out at her like they had the creature. Seconds passed. Then minutes. The vines settled, the cavern returning to its stillness — not peace, but stillness.
It was a gamble, then. Every step she took might be the one that got her crushed like the spider-things.
The thought made her throat tighten.
Still she couldn't just sit there and wait to be found.
Drawing in a shallow breath, she prepared to move — but another sound made her freeze mid-motion.
The ground seemed to tremble ever so slightly with each impact. Metal striking stone. Boots, maybe? But they weren't hurried footsteps.
Her head turned towards the source, that curious compulsion flaring again despite her better instincts. The noise came from one of the perfectly round tunnels carved into the cave walls. From within the black mouth of it, a figure began to emerge.
It stepped into the faint light pooling from the cracks above, and for a moment she could only stare, wide-eyed.
Towering. Cloaked in tattered, battered armor. Every inch of its body was covered, the metal plating dented and scarred by numerous battles. Around its shoulders, a ruined brown cloth, what remained of a cloak, was loosely wrapped, bearing a faded symbol she could barely make out — two hands reaching toward a distant star.
The knight's helmet turned slowly toward her.
It had no face. Only a blank, impenetrable mask of black steel. Yet somehow, she could feel the searing intensity of its glare.
The full attention of the knight was on her.
It bore down on her like a blade pressing against her neck. She didn't move and she didn't dare breathe.
The knight did not charge, did not roar. It simply stood there for a while. For a long moment, it was as if time itself held its breath.
Then, the knight finally made a move.
A subtle adjustment of its stance, almost casual, but there was nothing casual about the way its hand brushed the hilt of the enormous sword strapped to its back.
It was sizing her up.