Hooves clicked softly on the cobbled stone floor as Renault made his way down the corridor. With his gear having been successfully un-bedazzled during his time spent resting by tranquil waters, he felt at least moderately more prepared to continue this dive. He call of the dungeons was a powerful one, and so far, this path he’d discovered had turned out to be very mild-mannered. 

He knew as well as any seasoned courser that could very well mean the path led to a terrible finale, but he was confident he could bow out before it got bad. Maybe he just got the one-in-a-thousand dungeon paths that was actually rather placid. 

Just ahead, the once-finely carved cobble street seemed to shift and break away into a more rugged, natural cave. These sort of transitions were always the most dangerous part of the dungeons, with new dangers lurking in each new segment of the path. Renault slowed to a stop and craned his neck, squinting into the dark of the rough stone. 

It seemed quite enough. Stalagmites spired up from the floor, creating a simple sort of maze to wander, and a trickle of water spread wide over the cave floor, fed by droplets from above. Peering at the water was when Renault noticed the guano. 

He lifted his gaze, and grit his teeth at the sight that met him. Easily over a thousand bats, stretching down as far as he could see into the dim, tucked away amongst themselves on the ceiling. They clung to stalactites, creating eerie pyramids of the sleeping beast. They could be utterly harmless, gentle fruit bats; a crack in the ceiling in a further chamber could be their route to food. Or they could be vampire bats, mutated beasts who feed on the blood of the living after centuries below ground. 

Not in this number, though. Renault studied the shape of the nearest bat, a mother sleepily stretching her wings to surround her young again. Speckles of white on the bodies of her children suggested they weren’t the menacing, fanged terrors that could suck a courser dry, but Renault had already guessed as much. All the coursers in the world wouldn’t be enough to feed such an army; if all these bats were vampiric, they would need to drain a herd a day to get by. With the floor utterly clear of bodies both beneath them and earlier in the dungeons, Renault felt certain the way through was safe…enough. Enough for him, at least. 

Still, he was light on his hooves as he started forward again. Just because they wouldn’t bite him didn’t mean Renault particularly wanted to be lost in a cloud of squeaking bats. Soft, damp clunks of his hooves on the ground were muffled by the stalagmites and the thin layer of water, and though Renault kept a careful eye above him, the bats didn’t stir. Soon, a waft of fresh air from above confirmed his suspicion, and he stepped into a cavern with a cleft in the roof, letting in sparkling moonlight and allowing peaceful fruit bats to come and go in search of food.