Quoted By:
“Oh. Wow.”
The green valley swept down to two mighty structures, one standing high at a significant lurch, the other on its side, slammed into and through the bottom of the first. The first was once a powerful tower, a great golden bird sculpture perched atop it. Birds of all kinds perched on its smooth blue walls, even now glimmering with a bit of polish in the sun. The second building might have been a tower once, but now lay on its side, buried in the bottom of the first. The second tower seemed almost a foil of the first, rough brown stones and practical architecture jarring with the sleek elegance of the tower above. Bits of rubble and architecture from both buildings littered the valley, and a long wide path of torn and disheveled earth leading to the base of the second tower left the impression that it had been hurled or thrown at the first, scraping along the ground in some mighty catastrophe.
Mel descended down the valley, scanning the two buildings for some point of entry. Drawing closer to the fallen tower she found an actual doorway, the rotting lumber of the door it once held shattered in the frame. A doorway? She stared at the opening to the dark interior of the tower. If there was a door that implied that the tower wasn’t a tower at all, and more of a long complex on the ground…that had been hurled into another building like a spear.
Lantern held high she stepped into the door frame, wincing as beetles scurried away from the light of her lantern. Carvings seemed to decorate the walls of the interior, bugs of all kinds from beetles to dragonflies, with wriggling worms surrounding each carving like a frame. A thick layer of old leaves and ancient organic matter carpeted the floor. Her inspection was cut short by a hissing sound from the deeper darkness, and a chattering clack-clack-clack sound. Mel narrowed her eyes and stared into the dark, lantern held out. Something large was shifting in the darkness beyond her light, although it seemed content to hiss and threaten, at least while she was only barely in its home. Best to give it some space for the moment at least.
She ducked back out of the lower section, the Worm Complex might be a decent name? It was certainly full of enough bugs. A section of collapsed wall formed a serviceable ramp and she climbed upward toward the upright tower. Birds of all kinds watched her passively as she approached and slipped through the only opening she could find, a shattered window not blocked in with rubble.
“Who.”