Book One – Chapter 16

Now, sealed within this stone chamber, surrounded by rock and weight, all of that noise had dissipated — Oh, the wind still screamed above, and you could well hear it within the cavern, but compared to the battering that the common Haraak endured in the open, it was muffled to what might well be absolute silence to Nagrak’s standards. He had yet to experience true, unbroken silence.

But the silence did not hold.

Movement began below. Soft at first. Subtle. Almost unheard — just the barest shuffle, the rush of something quick-footed yet hesitant. Nagrak strained to listen. Suddenly, a thump, light but distinct, like something striking the stone floor, far below where his feet dangled. Another followed right after, this one disturbingly heavy.

Scuttling came next, fast and unguarded, no longer suppressed. Right after — an explosion of screeches, a burst of sharp, aggressive shrieks that crashed against the walls and shook the air. They vanished as fast as they erupted, leaving behind all but echoing silence.

For a moment, this silence wrapped around Nagrak once more.

Then, the many came.

They emerged in sudden, erratic patterns, swarming with a restless urgency. Whatever they were, they had been stirred, and now they shifted and swelled and spread. They brought with them a series of warped echoes that twisted the space into something deeper and stranger than it had been a moment ago. It sounded as if the cave grew new passages — side caverns, hollow spaces, tunnels perhaps — though how far they stretched or what they contained, Nagrak could not say.

The swarm swept through the cave, flowing past and then falling still. Nagrak listened harder. Though the silence returned, it had changed — no longer simple, no longer calm. Faint sounds lingered at the edges; soft scratches, tiny impacts, the slow drip of moisture. Some of these noises ran away as if chased or caught, while others lingered and settled in one spot, thick and stubborn, claiming the space.

The screeching had ceased. Whatever had first fallen onto the cavern ground had decided to go quiet again.

Why?

Nagrak’s guess was as good as anyone’s —

then again, not really, since he did not actually have any guess at all.