We have spent many sleeps within this large cavern. Enough time to know that there aren’t any passages through the walls themselves.

The tall, vertical walls do eventually circle around to meet again, but even along all that length, they remain unnaturally flat. Sure, there are some rocky protrusions here and there, but never enough to provide a platform to climb.

I’d expected some form of cave along its length, but nothing of the kind appeared. Above, in the ceiling, there are the occasional wide, yet shallow holes in the rock, but without a way to climb up there, they are out of my reach.

While the Nareau are numerous, I’ve yet to see another of the Ōmukade. The huge centipede was the only of its kind in the area. Not surprising considering the blood-thirst of the creature; a second would only intrude on their hunting grounds.

I want to climb to the ceiling. I want to see what lies above. But to reach those holes far above, some destructive digging will be required. Something I wanted to hold off until certain there was no other way up.

Those walls might very well be the only thing holding all the rock above from collapsing on us. Cave-ins have always been dangerous, but now that I have Scia with me, well…

Before that, my scales itch.

The tightness of my skin has grown more restrictive with each passing moment. I’ve done my best to ignore it until now, but I can’t put off my moult any longer. The stiffness of my transparent eye scales is growing to be a problem.

The only reason I’ve held it off this long is because I was hoping to find water. Shedding is far easier and more pleasant underwater than trying to do so while rubbing against earth. Of course, I wasn’t lucky enough to find some lake to do so, nor did I have as long of a warning as usual, so I’ll have to settle for where I am.

After signalling Scia to move, I press my head down into the dirt. My snout brushes away mounds of normal dirt and rock before I reach ranked stone and scrape my foremost scales against the sharp cropping until they tear.

To my side, Scia pushes her own head into the dirt, imitating me.

I distinctly remember this being far easier than it is now, back a hundred hunts ago. It takes a while of rubbing and accidentally crashing through the ranked stone for my outer scales to finally wear down enough to break apart. When it tears, it does so along one of the scars left by the Ōmukade.

Scia squeaks, and I have to hiss to get her to blink away from my face again.

With the skin broken, the irritation along my scales increases rapidly. I rub up against the wall, doing my best to push through the small tear and widen it.

It is a slow process to remove the old skin, but when it is finally done, it feels amazing. The irritating tightness along my body is replaced with a pleasant sensation of freedom. My body, after having spent the last while cramped within skin too small for it, relishes the escape.

Scia chirps as she lands on the snout of my shed skin. She looks between me and the body I’ve just vacated with confused eyes. The hollow scales don’t even bend beneath her minuscule weight.

While stretching my tail out, I stroke the tip of my snout. Scia takes the invitation, chirping happy as ever at receiving my attention. She wiggles a little as I watch her, but soon settles down and returns her gaze to my old skin.

She discreetly sniffs the scales she sits on, obviously checking her new ride for quality. When she huffs out a little satisfied breath and slumps to her belly, I can’t restrain the hiss of amusement that bellows out through my chest.

The noise startles Scia back to her feet — along with a few dozen other creatures in the distance — but she soon relaxes and accepts her new place.

Now that I’ve dealt with my moult, I scan my new scales with pleasure. Smooth and unblemished, they are perfect. The only thing that could make it better, is if I didn’t have to slither along the earth so soon after my skin’s renewal. My ventral scales will get scratched up without spatial distortions, but there’s nothing that can be done about that. At least in my full size, my scales should be hard enough to resist most damage. It’s just unfortunate that ranked stone counteracts much of that benefit.

With no easy path ahead of us, it looks like I’ll have to attempt a climb up the wall, after all. The tall surface of stone is daunting even for one of my size. Falling from such height wouldn’t be an issue, but the earth is brittle and weak; if I push too hard I may bury myself, and Scia.

It has happened plenty in the past; whether by tremor or my own efforts, caves have collapsed on me. But back then, the distortion of space will either give me an escape, or carve tunnels through the fallen rock quickly. Here, I’ll have to dig through an unbelievable quantity of stone, lacking any idea which way is an escape.

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Not to mention the difficulty of preventing Scia from being crushed.

As dangerous as it might be, I don’t want to give up here without even trying to reach whatever might lie above.

Sliding up along the wall, I angle myself up. With this much of my length along the surface, I barely put any weight on my grip on the vertical rock face, and yet it still crumbles under my mass. It’s not much of an issue until only the tip of my tail holds my weight and I can’t proceed further without gripping the wall.

Even stretched fully as I am, I barely reach halfway up the vertical surface. Rock crumbles out of my way rather than giving my ventral scales something to grip, and the ranked stone beneath is too smooth to cling to.

I know the moment I transfer my weight from the ground to the wall, it will crumble, but I do so anyway. And as expected, it cannot hold me. A sheet of rock along a good portion of the wall tumbles down with me the moment I clench my stomach scales. All that’s left of the vertical surface in this area is the ranked stone previously hidden within.

Annoyed, but not ready to give up, I glance back at Scia before slithering over to an undamaged section of wall.

Before I make my next attempt, I give a cautious look around the cavern, checking to make sure there is no additional Ōmukade waiting in ambush. Satisfied by what I see — or lack thereof — and Scia’s silence, I allow myself to shrink again. I shrink to where it shouldn’t be difficult to crush what rock I want, while leaving myself light enough not to collapse the stone I don’t.

It works much better this time. Scia hangs from my back — hopefully watching for any unseen threats — while I cling to the path I dig through stone. Eventually, we reach the ceiling and the memory of that voided shaft returns to my mind.

The ceiling of this cavern may not be as high as what that empty column had risen, but I do not have my spatial distortions to cushion my fall. As I look down, an ever so slight feeling of discomfort crawls through my muscles. The Nareaus could handle falling from such height, so I know I would have no problem, and yet the height is disconcerting.

Now that I’ve reached where the wall curves into the ceiling, I’ve hit another problem; the rock above is entirely ranked. If I had better support, breaking through would be no issue, but clinging to the weaker, standard stone, such destruction of ranked mineral is impossible; My support would be the first thing to break.

My only option is to reach one of the few large holes in the ceiling. Cautiously, I shrink down further and reach off the wall for a stalactite before curling around it. It takes a bit to get used to, but soon I can slither between the rock formations as if it were the ground itself. I just need to clench around the outsides of a couple spiky rocks — being careful not to press too hard lest I break them — and I slither across the ceiling without issue.

I reach a hole without difficulty. As I peer within, I find there is a cavern on the other side. It’s too shallow for my full size, but from what I can see, it extends a good distance around the hole.

The stalactites end before I can reach the lip of the hole. Despite being common all along the ceiling, they strangely disappear only around the rim. Almost like an intentional deterrent to stop me climbing up… not that it will stop me.

Twisting the lower length of my tail tight around a pair of stalactites, I slowly lift my body out toward the lip of the hole. I trust my strength for this, but I doubt the strength of the rock I cling to. My movements are little more than a crawl until I curl my head up into the cavern above. Once I have my grip, my tail loosens and I pull the rest of my length up behind me.

What I find in this cavern… is a whole lot of nothing. It’s just a flat stone ceiling and ground as far as I can see. It’s narrow, but there are no points I can see where the upper and lower rock slabs connect.

It may be too shallow to hold my full size, but I increase my mass as high as I can without it getting in the way. After the last cavern, I won’t leave myself vulnerable again.

Scia chirps, and now that I know there’s more to her hearing than I understand, I realise she must be getting a better look — listen — at our surroundings. I wait a few moments. When she doesn’t screech in panic, I start moving.

It’s still frustrating to know that my senses aren’t as supreme now that I’m outside my spatial distortions, but having the little bat that — I’ll begrudgingly admit — has a better way to detect threats, is helpful.

❖❖❖

We slither through the cavern for a long time, consistently following the upward slope in search of a further way up, but none appears.

What we do find, is thousands of Nareau and Ōmukade young skittering around. Compared to their grown forms, they are tiny and pose absolutely no threat, but considering they always dive at the other species’ throats the moment they see one another, it’s surprising any grow old enough to become those beasts down below.

There are plenty of holes leading down below, but none above. I’ve been searching so long now, that I doubt there even is a way up beyond following this ever so slight incline in the cavern — but even that I’m not sure isn’t just gravity playing tricks on me again. It does that rather often in the warped tunnels.

I let out a hiss of annoyance as the cavern finally tapers to a close. Far in the distance, the ground and ceiling connect, but the cavern grows too narrow to pass far earlier than that.

We’ve passed a hundred holes leading to the enormous caverns below — identical, but separate from the one we came — and yet there hasn’t been a single path up. I have to face it now. There won’t be a way.

But that’s fine; I’ll just have to make my own.

Scia chirps in response to my hiss, and I realise I’d rather not have her riding me while I destroy some rock. A single misplaced stone might be enough to end her.

With the tip of my tail, I tap the ground nearby. Her eyes flicker between me and the point I indicate before blinking toward it. While she does as I say, her look of doubt is clear. I wince only slightly; she probably thinks I’m still trying to abandon her.

With Scia out of the way, I flick my tail at the ceiling. My strike makes a deep recession in the ranked stone, but it reveals nothing beyond. I realise I’ll need to put more strength into it. Coiling up, I gather my strength and snap toward the ceiling, only for the opposite to happen.

The ground collapses beneath me.