As he stood before the mouth to the cave it felt as though he were looking down the dark maw of a beast. It was wide, spanning about 20 meters with twice the height. A rush of air blew at his face. Liam's eyes widened slightly, there was just something about that air that made him nervous for some unknown reason.
He lingered for a moment, gathering his courage before he took the first step. The cave's floor felt rough under his bare feet. Cold too.
He took a step and then another. The entire surrounding was shrouded in darkness. He could barely see an arms length away from his face.
'This might not be a good idea at all' he thought as he continued to move forward. He pressed a hand at the wall, both for support as well as navigation. In case there were any turns and this cave turned out to be a labyrinth of tunnels he would stick to it not wanting to get lost.
Minutes passed yet they felt like an eternity. His heartbeat felt like a rapidly beating drum within his chest. The darkness persisted and the tunnel only bent once but everything felt relatively the same. Until there was finally a change.
'I can no longer feel the moisture that was in the air...' He must have stepped quite a distance from the clear lake. '...Not only that...'
The concentration of Aether felt slightly higher. Where ever this tunnel led, he must have been getting close.
Indeed it wasn't long before he came across a section of the cave where the walls shimmered with dim purple patterns. Curious Liam stepped closer.
They looked like glyphs of some kind. But they were too dim for him to be sure.
'I must be getting close' he continued moving along. A short while later he came across more and more of the glowing glyphs these one's were brighter, clearer.
'These are runes!' the realization struck him with awe. The concept of runes was a relatively new topic to the human world. Even after 50 years of studying it, much remained unknown. It was a time consuming concept. A field that Liam wanted to take when he enrolled into Star University. It was his last hope of finding a cure to his ailment.
Still the gears in his curious mind started to spin and before he could stop himself he traced his fingers along them. 'I wonder what they do'
The purple light pulsed with energy and he felt the energy flow beneath his fingers like sparks of electricity. However before he could think any further a pressure descended. With a loud thud his knees hit the ground, the impact so rough that faint cracks spread from the point of impact.
His bones creaked as he tried to resist the pressure and blood fell from his lips. His mind became muddled as he tried to force himself to stand. He barely managed to raise his head a little.
Gravity increased and he collapsed to the ground. His chest aching and lungs burning. Breathing became difficult. He felt like fish drawn from the river and onto the deck of a boat. He was suffocating from the very pressure alone.
'No...is this the end?' the thought of death filled him with despair, hopelessness and...unwillingness.
He didn't want to die here. Not like this. Not when he knew there were still things he had to do. His vision began to fade. His body slowly growing numb. Just when he thought it was over
A rumbling voice echoed.
"SO THE LITTLE MOUSE SURVIVES"
…
The voice sounded ancient, regal and…amused?
The pressure vanished in an instant and Liam could finally breathe once more. His entire body was trenched in cold sweat.
'I really thought I was a goner' he thought as he felt the pain from his knees slowly fade. He took a few seconds to breathe before he stood up. Now wasn't the time to relax not when the presence still loomed. It felt as though it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
There was no escape. He felt as if he was standing in the palm of a god. If the god wanted to crush him then there was nothing he could do about it.
His jaw set.
Was this how it was always going to be? Always at the mercy of something bigger than himself?
'I don't like this. Not at all' his fists clenched into tight balls.
"Hmmm…Since you have already made your way to my den might as well come and pay your respects" the ancient voice returned with less intensity this time but still carrying that ancient air around it.
Even if the voice was less forceful than before Liam knew, it wasn't asking.
He didn't say anything. What could he say in this situation? He had no power at all. He was already going in before, he might as well finish this. His eyes burned with a fierce determination. If he was going to face his death then he might as well do it with his back straight.
Liam's journey through the tunnels felt like an eternity. An eternity that a part of him wished didn't end just to prevent him from meeting that powerful entity.
Eternity ended.
The tunnel suddenly opened up to a wider cavern, if the thought the mouth of the cave was wide before, now he didn't. The cavern was as wide as two football stadiums combined. The walls, all of them, were covered in layers upon layers of purple glowing runes, they pulsed with much more intensity than the ones he saw in the tunnels.
And it wasn't just the walls but the entire floor as well.
Liam froze where he stood. Awe and shock filling his heart. He couldn't help but find the entire place beautiful, eerie but beautiful.
His gaze moved up and he saw that the cavern's roof seemed to narrow slightly the higher it rose, taking a conical shape- if you were looking at it from the inside, and at the narrowest tip (but still wide enough to be double the size of the cave's entrance), a beam of sunlight fell through illuminating the center of the tavern where a massive beast lay.
Liam's thought process seemed to stop for a moment.
'Is that a dragon?' he thought in disbelief