"These guys are unbelievable," Ludwig said as he approached the tree. His anger was clear as day; with a heart now, rage did not just smolder behind the bone, it moved hot in his chest and shook his breath on the way out. The cavern breathed with him, slow, damp exhalations from cracks in the stone, and the light from tar-sputtering sconces crawled over roots like worms. Every other sound died under a single, steady thud. He heard the same heartbeat from within the tree, only several hundred times more, a chorus of wet knocks layered so deep the stone itself seemed to keep time.
"I don't think we should get anywhere close to that, that doesn't look safe," the guard said. Her voice came thinner than she meant; the place stole confidence from the lungs.
