Abbey's Drawtober 2021

Day 11: Beast in the Maze

The labyrinth rises stories high, cold and smooth corridors that twist and turn and drop randomly into deep pits where you can't see the bottom. Sure, the sun shines far above, but the walls cast cold shadows that block the warmth, except on rare occasions when the sun is directly above where I'm standing.

I revel in those moments. When the warmth touches my skin, I feel human again. It's hard to feel human in this place. It clearly wasn't built for us.

Sometimes, I'll come upon steps that are waist high for me. The corridors themselves at times are wide enough that twenty of me could lay end to end across them.

I used to be claustrophobic you know? Couldn't stand elevators or closets. Now I wish I could press myself into a small space and stay there. But there are none in this maze. I'm constantly exposed. I know that if I came across something big enough to go up those steps, to cross those pits, I'd have nowhere to hide.

For the last couple days I've been traveling south, aligning myself by the sun. I eventually came to a promising corridor that lead directly north. In the distance, I knew  it would turn, but it was my most promising lead. The only issue, I realized as I was already miles along, was that there was a pit in the middle.

I wasn't confident there'd be a way around it. But I wasn't going to give upon my plans so early. I'd made that mistake in my early days here. And look where that had gotten me.

And so I trucked on. As I got closer and closer to the pit, I began to feel something odd. It was getting warmer. I decided to ignore it. Follow the plan.

As I closed in on the edge, I could feel sweat gathering on my skin for the first time in a very long time. It wasn't unbearable, but it was noticeable. Like an early summer's day. I glanced over the edge of the pit at a safe distance, looking for the source.

Deep, in that dark pit, I saw something shimmering. Something moved at the bottom, the faint light glancing off its red scales. Shit. I must have gasped, because the scaly thing began moving much quicker.

I stumbled backwards, keeping my eyes on the pit. I knew that I couldn't run. Whatever was in there was too large to run from. I gulped.

The thing's horned head soon rose above the ledge, looking at me with yellow eyes. All at once I felt paralyzing fear and excitement.

The dragon looked down at me. I could feel it's hot breath on my skin, but tried not to move. Running made me prey. It tilted its massive head, looking me over.

And then I did something stupid.

I held out my hand.