Moonspear Find a way to keep hiding your secrets

wc:327

It was both curiosity and the need for space that drove Bronco to pass beyond the rolling foothills and up the slopes of Moonspear. His muscles had not forgotten the effort it took to climb up the slopes, but by now he knew the route up the mountainside toward the ravine he and Meerkat had previously shared. It was mid afternoon by the time he reached it, and he took a deep breath in as he entered the verdant cashm in the earth, meandering along as he watched the walls of the ravine reach higher and higher. He passed by the first cave, and shuddered as he remembered the bats that had spooked him the last time he'd gone in there. He halted in front of the open mouth of the cave he and Meerkat had shared; he could still see the faint dusting of mica dust on the ground.

He approached with timid pawsteps, peering into the darkness and inching forward bit by bit until the shadows crept along the bridge of his muzzle and over the nape of his neck. There, he stopped, before he finally took a step, bringing his front paws into the very mouth of the den. Staring straight toward the back of the cave, where the walls shimmered slightly in the dark like oily snake skins, he was fine. But as soon as he looked up, it struck.

He feinted sideways from the sweep of nausea, and he felt his throat squeeze shut. The world closed in on him and he scrambled backwards though it only took a few steps for him to be back out in daylight again, heaving hard, laboured breaths as he stared into the darkness of the simple, welcoming den he'd once lived in. It hadn't caved in, and it hadn't changed at all- the swirling darkness he could've sworn that'd been charging toward him, hadn't. It was just a cave, and he was just a coward.