“You will come across things that radiate with ancient magic; do your best to pay respects to them. It does no good to anger the ancient beings that roam the dungeon.” - Amira’s Notebook, Chapter Four - The Dangers of the Dungeons

This tunnel seemed to go on forever. Sartoris was over it- she was eager to reach the next chamber and find somewhere to rest. Her muscles ached, and her hooves felt like they might decide to fall off any second now.

The ground underfoot changed again to cobble, and the walls to stone bricks. Sartoris could see the end of the hall now, with two archways marking exits into other chambers. She picked up a weary trot, satchel bouncing gently against her side. Her mole stuck its nose out from the bag, sniffing at the air briefly before burrowing back into its dirt.

Dismay wrapped itself around her as she realised the passageway in the taller of the two arches was blocked. The ceiling had caved, rendering the path impassable; she had no choice but to go through the smaller one. Even at her size, she had to duck under the low entranceway; it had clearly been meant for being smaller than she. Making sure her bag didn’t swing against the columns and hurt the mole, she got through the archway and stopped in shock.

The walls were a different stone, reddish-brown in colour and lit by a warm, low-burning brazier that never seemed to go out. Figures danced upon the walls, their proportions strange; fat-bellied Coursers ran on spindly legs across crudely-painted fields and hills. Their forms, preserved on the stone for what may have been centuries, were unlike any Sartoris had ever seen.

New energy flowed through her body, chasing the fatigue from her stance. These paintings were positively ancient. She felt important and insignificant at the same time; she was just one of thousands of adventurers who had travelled the dungeons, their stories lingering like ghost trails through the halls, hoping to leave a legacy. She was here, now, and she felt a strange sense of duty to the Coursers who had come before her, to live to her fullest potential.

She mustn’t let these beings down.