Wild Berry Meadow You're not gonna make it.

shardik is skippable from this point on <3

darkness improbable wrapped its hands around him; he was pulled, sucked tetherless into a widening chasm. the rim was silent, but at some unknown depth a quiet thud sounded and shortly thereafter, an ominous host of dust rose from the mouth of the pit. the dust slunk ever upwards, choking light in a brown cloud of thick, unhealthy sheen.

shardik, felled by the merciless hands of gravity, was stilled.

he did not stir as mou scrabbled above him. he did not stir as earth clattered at his immense head, or loosened stones tumbled around his blonde fir. even the quiet, timid voice of an uncertain stranger did not rouse the great beast from his stupor.

what seemed minutes as mou desperately clambered along the basin passed as mere seconds. it was light - unwelcome, unbidden light - that pried open the leviathan's hateful gaze. he slouched, stunned but conscious -- his eyes fastened on the dim, blurry form of a spectre above. sithis -- his prey -- near escape.

a shrill shriek loosened from his terrible jaws, and in fury shardik leapt up along the embankment. each time his advances were met by the crumbling face of brittle earth and weakened stone -- he beat with brutal claws at the earth, rending it under his insensate might -- yet for all of his struggles, the monster's weight was too great for the rim to bear and he sagged ever downward as if being sucked by a malovent will to his own crypt.