Drip. Drop. Drip.
The rhythmic, echoing sound of falling water was the first thing that managed to pierce through the suffocating darkness of Hide's unconscious mind.
He slowly blinked his eyes open, his blurred vision struggling to adjust to the oppressive gloom. He was lying flat on his back on cold, hard stone.
Above him, the jagged ceiling of a natural cavern stretched into the shadows. A thin, freezing stream of water trickled down from somewhere deep within the dark, pooling near his boots before snaking its way down the uneven floor. The cave itself was slanted at a steep angle, sloping sharply upward the deeper it went.
Outside the jagged mouth of the cave, the world was completely obscured. A dense, mysterious fog covered everything and anything, rolling past the entrance like a slow-moving ocean of clouds.
Hide tried to push himself up, but the moment his muscles contracted, he violently froze.
"Gah—!"
