You can feel drips of cold water fall onto your cheek, effectively waking you up. As you do, you see flashes of white, pinks and purples scurry away from you. Groaning, you clutch at your head, trying to remember what happened.

Feeling yourself, you don’t think you’re hurt, which is a miracle. You happened to land on a bed of moss which cushioned your landing, but a fall that big should’ve hurt you somehow. You wave the puzzlement away, just glad you’re okay.

The flashes of colors appear again, and upon better inspection, you find little mouse-like creatures coming out from their hiding places in the crevices of the rocky walls. Their eyes glow faintly in the dim lighting, looking at you curiously. You’ve never seen creatures like them before.

“Hello.” You whisper, pushing yourself to stand. “Uh, do you know how to get out?”

They squeak cutely, scurrying around as if both curious and scared of you. You can’t help but smile. As you take a step forward, they immediately back away, heading deeper into…a rocky tunnel. It gets darker, and you don’t really want to follow.

“Um, is there no other way out?” You ask them, wondering if they can even understand. “I need to go ‘up.’” You point upwards, at the light from where you fell.

They squeak harder, still going deeper into the tunnel as if leading you. Their glowing eyes allow for a source of light through the darkness. Sighing, you follow, since it’s the only path you see.

The tunnel seems to go on forever. If it weren’t for the glowing eyes and constant squeaking to reassure you, you think you might’ve given up and gone back the other way.

The dark makes you shiver, and down here it’s surprisingly cold.

At last, you see light at the other end. The creatures’ squeaking gets louder and more excited. You break into a run, eager to get out of this suffocating tunnel.

You blink and squint against the burst of light as you finally get out, the creatures scurrying away and before you knew it, they’re gone. You’re alone now, feeling unsure and uneasy.

You realize you’re still underground, despite how bright it is down here. You think you’re under that big mountain.

But down here…it’s amazing.

You stand amongst a beautiful forest, a distinct path leading through it. The light is warm and comfortable, and you find a flurry of flowers growing around you—flowers you’ve never seen before. They don’t exactly look like the flowers growing above-ground. Little orbs of light—similar to fireflies, but you can’t tell exactly what they are—floats about. They move and shift and follow you as you move.

This place seems nothing like your home above-ground. It’s more…magical. More dream-like. Much more beautiful and calming.

Heading down the path, you keep a cautious eye out for anything threatening. So far you’ve only seen a bunny-like creature with antlers hop by. You can hear birds singing…except they sing actual words. You can only catch glimpses of their songs:

…future…set…change…

…mismatched…destiny…lovers…

You decide their songs don’t make much sense.

As the trees lessen and open up to a more airy path, you find a form sitting against a tree trunk. Cautiously, you slow down, taking small, quiet steps towards it.

It looks like a man. He wears something that resembles a uniform your guards or soldiers did, though it looks much more casual. He has no armor on, just a black button-up shirt and a brilliant red cloak covering most of his upper body, a gold crest clipping it in place around his shoulders. In fact, if it weren’t for the crest, he might’ve been mistaken as a bandit.

His dark hair curls over his right eye, and he looks asleep. Comfortably so as the dappled light dances across his features.

You wonder who he is, or who he serves. You’ve never seen the crest before—a bird-like creature that resembles nothing you’ve seen, surrounded by what looks like tongues of fire. You wonder if he’s friend or foe, but if he lives down here, maybe he could become a friend.

You walk up to him, and he doesn’t wake up. You’d think a guard—or whatever he is—would be more alert. “Um, sir? Excuse me, sir.”

He cracks an eye at you, and you gasp immediately.

His eyes.

They glow a strange crimson, a mixture of reds that keeps