I shift in my slumber.
Something is here.
An echoing above.
An endless noise.
Loud on stone, muted on sand.
It abruptly stops.
I can smell something.
Something… off.
I know not what it is, but it has come for me.
The stone rumbles as I slither forth.
I surface to see the encroaching creature.
It is a tiny thing, no larger than the tip of my tail.
Was it this tiny thing that I could smell?
I feel the bile rising in my throat.
It reeks of darkness and ash.
It urges the creature it rides into a run.
It wants me to chase it?
Very well then.
A chase it shall have.
I slither after it.
It winds around in tireless circles.
My head surfaces, my gaze locked tightly onto it.
A stinging agony forces my eyes shut, and I almost hear my skull crack as I hit the stone wall.
My mind is blank.
Something light is treading up my back.
It—!
A noise unfamiliar to me scratches at my throat when a sliver pierces my back.
It pierces again, and I scream myself hoarse.
I wriggle myself free and submerge beneath the waterless waves.
I circle the creature again.
A great spire of stone nearly collapses upon me as I scrape against it.
I have no choice.
I must see where—
Another stinging pain and my skull cracks against stone.
My already poor vision is blurred.
It climbs my back.
It pierces.
Again.
And—