Weekly Prompt: Tall Trees

It was in this labyrinth of shadows and monsters that you awoke. Distressed, disoriented, dehydrated, and blind. Your eyes had yet to adjust to what little light gave the age structure, but this was really the least of your worries. Your bones ached, and your limbs were awfully weak as if you had been lying in a heap on this cold ground for a long while.

What seemed like seconds ed, or minutes perhaps. Already, your concept of time was beginning to vanish, but your legs had begun to move again and finally you were able to stand. You now had mobility, but your ears rang and your tongue was still yet dry. 'So,' you thought, 'which way?'

There were only two options, and neither of which seemed more pleasing than the other. You decided to go forwards after a moment's pondering, and on you went. The halls twisted, turned, dipped, and dropped, but only black still lay ahead, and only dark behind. By some miracle, there was light down here. Luminescent moss, that of which you could not imagine quite how it survived down here, created a warm, but small light. It was not very bright, and against the dense shadows it did little to light your way, but you thought to take a bundle off the wall.

The light did not fade, much to your delight. As you gazed into its tough, dry fibers, you found that it was not the moss that glowed afterall, but spores of some sort. It tasted musty with a hint of ginger, but you doubted that it would kill you. You continued.

It was by the third hour, or so you thought, that you began to stumble and stagger. Without water, you grew gradually weaker until no longer could you even hobble. Everything was the same here- the walls, the floor, the dusty stench in the air laced with scents of decay of which you could not pinpoint. It was here you lay again, waiting.

Alas, from the abyss, something approached you. Your vision blurred, and your head spinning to no end, you were too feeble to understand the shape until it was right in front of your nose. Even then, you wondered if it was only a figment of your fading imagination. It was someone like you, a canine, you found, and in its maws it held a pouch of some sort. "You are lucky that I found you, and that I was not some other creature of the dark." It spoke, and nudged the pouch now open and wide enough for your muzzle to squeeze through towards your cracked lips. "Drink, I implore you."

You were in no condition to deny whatever the substance was, and so you did as it asked. The liquid, smooth, rich, and thick on your tongue had a strange sourness to it, and then all of a sudden it was sweet. Though not exactly instantaneous, it brought upon you a new strength.

"Welcome to the labyrinth. My name is Tianshan, and I am your guide. Do you want to survive?" Inquired the wolf.

#weeklyprompts