It wasn’t that she felt safe when she slept. Felice wasn’t a fool; she knew that exhaustion would dull her senses, break down her intuition. Much as she hated to sleep she also knew pushing herself would only lessen her chances of survival; and so whenever she felt weariness tugging at her, she found someplace to rest. At least for a little while. It was that line of thinking t...

Bats. Of course it was bats. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands; it was impossible to tell. The shadows blended their small bodies together into a single mass, like a giant organism, something completely unknowable. She hesitated at the edge of the tide of bats, which chittered softly, barely reaching her ears. Her back still stung from whatever had jumped on her. If these were blood-sucking bats, would they be a...

It was after she’d shouldered her way through yet another clump of leaves (which were infuriatingly difficult to move, with thick stems and broad stalks, the edges surprisingly sharp and having given her a multitude of small scrapes in past encounters) that there was suddenly a great impact upon her back. It was so shocking that for a moment she stood still, her brain racing to catch up with what her body was telling her...

Felice didn’t want to explore the dungeons. She wasn’t particularly brave, or strong, or smart. It wasn’t like the dungeons held particular promise for her. No positive promise, at least, one that would see her emerging victorious, grand treasure or beautiful relic clutched close. No; if anything it was a dark promise, of danger and terrible things, a lone adventurer stumbling upon her bones years later, wondering wh...