Well, I should have foreseen that.

After shattering the layer of ranked stone that supported me in the narrow upper chamber, I fell to the soil I now lie. The crater surrounding me may be considerable, but as expected, I came out unharmed. The fall was far, but I hardly gained enough momentum to so much as scratch my scales.

It helped that the soil here is so soft.

Before I can drag myself out of the earth, little Scia pops into existence in front of me. She squeaks in my face, berating me as if I had any control over the ground cracking beneath me.

I give a light swat at her with my tail as I slither out of the crater. Scia dodges and immediately appears on the tip of my nose again, turning up her snout and looking away from me.

I successfully refrain from snorting.

While the large cavern I’ve fallen into appears much the same as the first, it is not identical. We’d been slithering through the upper chamber for quite a few sleeps before the ground had to go and shatter, so I’m sure we’ve travelled far. Now that we’ve fallen down again, I’m hesitant to climb back up.

Should I go through the effort to reach the upper cavern, I’ll only face the same problem. The ranked stone in the ceiling of the shallow cave is a lot thicker than what I have to brace against. Any more attempts will only end the same.

Surprisingly, I don’t feel all too bothered. I’ve failed to go farther, but I’ve still achieved my original goal to discover what was on the other side of the labyrinth border. It may have led to my arrogance almost getting me killed, but I’m in good spirits.

My eyes follow Scia as she subtly glances back at me.

The next border will be better. Hopefully, this area is the odd one out, and is the only place spatial distortions don’t exist. I’d rather not live without.

So, not feeling too bad about being unable to progress, I slither toward the nearest mushroom tunnel. The things are everywhere in these wide caverns. And now that I know these caves occur one after the other — revealed by each of the breaching holes between the shallow and vast caverns — I can make a confident guess that this isn’t limited to this region alone. This is what is beyond all Labyrinthine Passages.

Knowing that, I’ve no fear of being unable to return in the future. Should each of the other borders remain impassable, I’ll come back and expand my search. Surely there’s something here to find. But for now, I’ll follow these countless bugs and dive through the viscous liquid of the fungi trap.

Ugh.

And right after I shed, too.

❖❖❖

It took longer than I expected to find my warped tunnels. The labyrinth is more confusing to traverse going down than up, oddly. At least once spatial holes and bends appeared, it became easier for me. Any creature without true-sight would find it impossible to path.

I relish in the feeling of swimming through the air again. No longer do I need to grind my stomach against the ground to move forward.

My spine flexes satisfyingly as I curve between bends. I’ve been feeling especially great ever since I ate that centipede; so much better, in fact, that time filters by rapidly as I tilt my focus toward another border. Only Scia’s constant squeaks and desire for attention keep me from forgetting my goal and meandering.

I’ve felt this intense satisfaction when I’ve consumed past apex predators, but usually it’s a slim remnant by the time my slumber ends. Never have I felt this… energetic. Not only does my body feel good, but the newfound emotions that came with sapience are muted. It’s like a good meal suppresses all my problems.

Of course, the issue is that after a meal as large as that, I won’t need to eat for a long time. And no other prey has given that feeling. Will I need to cross the labyrinthine tunnels for each of my hunts going forward?

Leaving that aside, I swim through the air, carried by the bends in space as I look for our next destination. Scia clings to the back of my head now that I’m smaller.

When I finally find a spatial hole to a suitable place, a thought hits me.

I never did get Scia back for avoiding the fungi tunnel jam, did I?

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A slight hiss escapes my lips before I can cut it off. Scia tilts her head as she looks down at me, but I don’t give her the benefit of a return glance, lest she somehow discover my plan from my eyes.

As the target hole approaches, I do my best to obscure my objective. To the little sciacylch riding me, it appears as if I’m simply floating beside it. At least, until I jerk my body through the hole and dive into the pool of water.

It’s not sticky fluid, but drenching the fur of my little passenger should be a suitable replacement.

She squeaks in surprise and instinctively goes to make a bend to take her away, but I am ready. Softly, but quickly, I push the tip of my tail through the bend, pushing Scia out of the way and disrupting the bend before it fully forms.

I still have no idea how she makes the spatial distortions, but I’ve seen enough by now to figure I could interrupt her. And this only proves it.

As planned, Scia joins me as we dive deep into the water. She is soaked and can do nothing about it. When she gasps and breathes in water in her panic, I wrap her tight in my tail and pull us both from the water.

She coughs up water while I laugh in short, hissing bursts. Once in control of her breathing, she glares up at me accusingly, which only makes my hissed chuckles intensify.

At no point has she stopped trying to blink away, but I won’t let her. She’s going to stay drenched for as long as I find it amusing.

Realising my game, she huffs and turns away. Though, I notice she never seems to lean away from my touch, despite it being the only thing stopping her from getting dry. In fact, after she stops struggling and I begin to take my tail away, she immediately summons another bend, forcing me to stop it again. Surely, if she was attempting to escape my grip, she would have physically struggled.

After sitting like that for some time, I turn back to the water hole I brought us to. Scia instantly blinks away. I swear she looks disappointed at having succeeded.

Ignoring the little source of amusement, I dive back into the water. Between the fine grains of sand along the edges and the soft submerged moss growing in the middle, it’s the perfect place to buff and shine my scales.

As I wash myself, I notice Scia stares down into the depths after me, but never follows. My gaze turns between her and the nearby rift that would take me to a series of drowned tunnels. Scia cannot breathe underwater. Well, I can’t either, but I can at least hold my breath long enough for it not to matter. If I wanted, I could leave and she couldn’t follow.

But… I can’t do that anymore.

I can’t run from Scia.

Scia chirps happily when I rise from the waters to join her. My joke at her expense all but forgotten. She doesn’t delay and blinks on her spot right behind my head. Obviously, Scia is ready to take on whatever new adventure I’m about to take her on, even if she doesn’t know what it might be.

I watch her for a few moments, just observing her unrestrained excitement as she clings tight to the grooves between my scales. In a way, it would be nice to revert to the blissful ignorance I’d once had so many thousands of sleeps ago. But I also refuse any notion that I could have possibly been as dumbly trusting as this little creature has been to me.

Scia squeaks, tilting her head at me at my lack of movement.

I take that as encouragement to return to the search for the borders. As my eyes fall on the pool of water before leaving, a thought occurs to me; if I’m to keep Scia by my side, I cannot search the Crippling Depths.

Even the Magma Ocean might be difficult.

My search may have become a lot more difficult, but it’s a problem I’ll just have to deal with. I’ve got time. If anything, the longer the search, the more it means what lies beyond will be worth it. I tell myself that, but until there’s proof anything more than an endless expanse of rock exists out there, I cannot believe it.

But, the more I tell this hope — or lie — to myself, the easier it is to fight against the pride still snapping against the Titan’s words.

Oh? Talking about the Magma Ocean; There it is.

A rift appears at the farthest edge of my sight, leading into the molten sea. While the water slides off my now impeccable scales, we slither toward the burning border.

The heat wafting through the rift is strong, but nothing compared to what lies beyond. As I pass the distortion that takes us far, whatever remaining liquid sits on my scales evaporates immediately.

Below, an ocean of molten rock flows and bubbles with an intense heat that dries out my tongue the moment it darts out. Best not taste the air for the time being. Like water in other caverns, magma flows through bends and holes from within the depths, only to tumble back into the vast volume. Sometimes, multiple spatial bends disrupt the molten falls, creating suspended liquid rivers through the air.

There are no tunnels here. Ranked or not, stone melts on contact with the magma, only adding to its mass. I swim through a bubble of air, but most of this expanse is some level of viscous rock.

A whimper reminds me I am not alone. Through bent space, I see Scia struggling with the immense heat. She pants as her body slumps over my scales.

Immediately, I dive through a hole that leads us near a flow of water. We’re still above the Magma Ocean, but the water shooting through a rift explodes into mist, giving some reprieve from the heat.

Thankfully, little Scia recovers her breath and picks herself back up. Unlike before, she doesn’t flee from the water drenching her fur.

Once again, I’m reminded of just how fragile she is. As a lesser creature, taking her even the slightest outside the domain she’s adapted to is enough to kill her. Forget the Crippling Depths, even the Magma Ocean is too much.

But… I’ve already had to give up on the Labyrinthine Passages. If I have to give up searching the Magma Ocean in addition to the Crippling Depths, then where do I still have to search? The Wind Channels? I’ve already spent so long on them without result.

I look down at the burning expanse through the mist. This isn’t something I can give up. What if what I’m looking for is right there, just waiting for me behind a spatial hole or two? I’ve already learnt that there is more than I know beyond the Labyrinthine Passages, so why would the others be any different?

My head twists to look at Scia directly, not through a spatial bend. It’ll only be temporary, but I need to leave her behind.