Stomachless

It has been a couple days since we left Tenebris's settlement and everything has been calm. In that time, Fesha and I have been able to ascend five layers. The first three layers we past after leaving the settlement were not that much different from what we had already seen. We traversed through the same dilapidated housing with dirty yellow bricks, shattered windows, and overgrown wooden roofs. Wild plants, animals, and small streams of water were sprinkled throughout our journey. As we ascended more into the last two layers, we began to see change in the abandoned buildings. They became larger and wider and had less windows. The overgrowth of fauna had become more widespread and wild animals were less frequently seen. Roads and alleys became much wider. Along with the new sights, new sounds and smells had also emerged. The faint scent of rusted metal and burnt material filled the air. The creaking of old metal scrapping against itself echoed through the dark ends of the vacant walls. The new sounds were eerie at first, but after spending time in these new layers, silence felt much more unsettling.

Our travels so far have been nothing but peaceful with the occasional hunting of wild game. Sleep has been bothersome with less moss growing in these parts. The layer we have been exploring now has been far less green with more cracked and shattered stone bricks, glass, and metal in its place. Each step I took along the side of every building made loud crunching and scrapping against the scattered debris. Each sound getting more and more grating, I had to distract myself. Fesha and I have been consistently finding the paths upward that still remained close to skylight, and with consistency like that, it couldn't be coincidence.

Fesha and I had not spoken a lot the last couple days, so I decided to converse. "Hey Fesha, are you familiar with this area?" I asked.

"Why yes, I took this very same path downward before meeting thee, though thee was not the person i had originally set out to find." She responded.

I had almost forgotten that Fesha had only been down so low in order to find her friend. I felt somewhat closer to Fesha at this point so I decided to pry a bit. "Right, that friend you mentioned. Were you two close?"

Fesha paused. "Inseparable." She said in a longing tone. I couldn't see the face she was making but I'm sure she was holding back tears.

I did not dwell on the subject further. Seems a pried a little too much just after one question. Instead, I tried to switch the topic. "So... what are dragons like?" My voice went high in pitch.

"Thou art truly a piece of work, reminding me of something sorrowful and ignoring it right after." She jested, seemingly still trying to hold back tears.

Seems I still couldn't bear the thought of prying once more, so I continued. "So the dragons?"

Fesha chuckled then took a deep breath, possibly trying to rid the sadness I had given her. "Well dragons have always been mysterious creatures. All we really know is that they were birthed by that wretched god whose greed for the sky knows no bounds. Other than that, they are indeed ferocious to fight, but slaying one is far worth the reward. Their meat tasteth dreadful, but their scales sell for high."

I became invested. "So what's it like fighting one.

Fesha turned to look at me. "The gleam in thine eye is so childlike. Haha! Nevertheless, I shall tell tales. Dragons are fearsome indeed. Their screech is gut wrenching, their scales tougher than any known material, and their breath melts anything it touches... and I have slain many in my time, for only the miracle my god offers can fell the greatest dragons."

Her statement had me suspicious. "If they're so great, how'd you lose to Tenebris?"

She stared at me in confusion, as if what I had told her had been in a completely foreign language. Then she snapped out of it. "Ah that, yes. I have hardly ever fought humans, let alone one cursed by a god. He moved much quicker than any dragon I've faced, and I haven't had to fight since before Caelum's fall." She said in embarrassment.

Fesha then went on about many of her fights with the dragons, how she once climb ones back as it took off, or how another one nearly bit her in half. At some point, I had to interrupt her.

"So a dragon was trying to eat you? That must've been traumatizing." I said.

Fesha looked at me with a smile. like she was hoping I would ask that question. "No, that is where a mystery lies. Many dragons have been observed and studied, and there is not a single record of what they eat. One was once dissected and it was discovered that they don't even have a stomach."

"So how do they get energy?" I asked.

"Yet another mystery. There has been no record of one sleeping either, so no one truly knows. Perhaps it is knowledge reserved only for the gods." Fesha responded elegantly.

We continued up a stretch of road where sections of it had crumbled revealing the layer just below. The sky light had dipped low, illuminating only the the very edge of the fractured road side. I walked closer to the edge to gaze toward the top of the spire. The pinhole of sky was definitely closer than before, yet still seemed impossibly far away. Still, the glimmer of light that pinhole allowed through gave me hope that I could somehow make it back to my world. I couldn't say why just yet, but I had a feeling the way back to my old world is at the top of this spire, and if not, maybe somewhere out there in this world of fantasy.

Soon, the light dimmed once again and Fesha and I settled in a nook between two buildings. We ate the dinner our hunt had blessed us with a couple days prior and went to sleep against the cold wall. Though I was in no position to sleep well, I still managed to dream.