Twilight Elysium

Chapter 15: Don't mess with stuff that's not yours I guess

Haha April Fools I'll never update again

jk, I'm back from an unexpected hiatus

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When you woke up from your power nap, you were seated in the statue's lap rather than laying down. Your book was still rested on the large stone thigh that you had originally put it on. Balalaila had rested her upper half on your shoulder with her head tucked into your neck. You giggled. She reminded you of a baby.

You cautiously made your way down from the statue, making sure to grab your book on the way down. Your shoes squished against your feet, filling you with an uncomfortable sensation. You retched at the feeling of wet socks and shoes. You subconsciously tangled your fingers in the ewe's soft coat, twirling the wool fibers in the tips of your fingers. Letting out a deep sigh, you continue deeper into the ever winding labyrinth.

~

After roughly 30 minutes (you had given up keeping track of time by now), you reached what seemed to be another area of the maze. You noticed that the walls had changed to some type of sandstone. The mucky dirt ground slowly faded into sand. Well, wet sand, but it was still sand. Against your better judgment, you slip off your soaked shoes and socks and carry them along with you.

"Balalaila," you whispered to yourself, desperate for any form of entertainment, "Balalaila, Balalaila." No matter how much you said her name, she didn't stir. It was probably a good thing, you didn't want to witness her wrath.

You dragged your feet in the sand, the fine, silky grains passing by your toes. It was strangely therapeutic. You shifted Balalaila to your other shoulder only to have her wriggle about in your arms. She sniffed the air before jumping from your arms and dashing down the pathway. The ewe kicked up sand as she ran.

"Please stop running away!" You shouted after her, "Last time you did I almost got killed!"

She didn't listen. You groaned and chased after her.

~

When you caught up to her, you found yourself at a dead end. Balalaila was standing in one of the corners in a defensive stance that you didn't know sheep could take. You surveyed the area to find what looked to be a Bronze dragon curled in on itself. You could feel your eyes widen.

"I thought they had been dead for centuries," you gasped to yourself.

Before you could grab Balalaila, she stalked over to one of the dragon's massive talons. She made an angry noise (that you once again didn't think was possible for such an adorable animal to make) and pulled the talon open.

"What are you doing!" You hissed, your voice just above a whisper, to which she bleated at you rather rudely.

She pried the talon open and dragged the item that had been enclosed in it to you. She looked at you expectantly. You squatted down to inspect the item.

It was a backpack of sorts. The leather was worn and old, but it held together with the help of some leather cordage. The top flap was woven with bright colors. On top of the colorful display was a stitched on image of a closed eye, it's eyelashes resting gracefully. You carefully unfastened the top flap and looked inside.

There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was equivalent to looking in a mirror that had been painted over with black. You couldn't even see the bottom of the pack. You reached a hand in. It seemed like your arm had been swallowed by the abyss, but you could still feel it. You moved your arm around until you felt something brush your fingers. A soft tinkling sound echoed from the depths of the bag. Taking a hold of it, you fished it out of the bag.

A bell? Why would a bell be in such a strange bag? You shook it. It produced a high pitched whine that nearly burst your ear drums. You dropped it into the sand, scooting away from it. The further you got, the more you remembered that there was a slumbering dragon right next to you.

"Balalaila!" You shouted, figuring that there was probably nothing wrong with shouting at this point, as you had essentially just screwed yourself over. "Balalaila we have to get out of here!"
The sheep didn't move, she just sat down in her place. You groaned and scooped her up in your arms, turning for the exit, only to find that it wasn't there anymore. You whipped your head around to find that you had been completely closed in.

You looked back at the gargantuan beast, fearing the worst. It's arm hadn't moved, neither had the rest of its body. Come to think of it, the dragon didn't even seem to be breathing. Taking your chances, you slowly sidled closer to it.

The scales on its body were weathered and beaten down, as if it had been there for a while. The body looked malnourished and starved. Its frill plates were encroaching in on its face. You bit your lip. Had it gotten trapped in here, too? You placed a hand on its back leg and knelt down, only to find that you had went even lower than before. You could feel the sand shift below your feet. Wait, shift?

Your eyes snapped to find that the sand looked like it had been sucked into a vortex of some sort. Your eyes followed the moving sand to see the bell at the eye of the sand vortex. It was slowly sinking into the ground, taking all of the sand with it. Well, shit.

"Hey, uh, Balalaila?" you whimpered, "You wouldn't happen to know any pages in this book about falling into sandtraps, would you?"