Cold.
Wet.
I can hear water dripping from somewhere.
I open my eyes and all I see is pitch black.
…Wait. I should give my eyes a moment to adjust.
…
It took maybe five, maybe ten seconds before shapes begin to emerge from the darkness, faint and vague. I'm lying flat on my back, so all I can really see is the ceiling, if you can call it that. It's stone, uneven, jagged, and glistening. Wet.
A cave?
Wait. Am I in a cave? But how? how did I get here?
I try pushing myself up with my arms, but a sudden wave of pain crashes through my whole body.
"Ugh…!!"
I immediately check myself over. My entire body feels slick, sticky. My uniform, what's left of it, is torn to shreds and hardly recognizable. I also noticed something, even in this poor light, I know the dark sheen covering my torso isn't water.
It's blood.
A lot of it.
I press my hand to my chest and a sharp, stabbing pain shoots through my ribs. Definitely injured. Deeply.
But I have to get up. I try again, bracing with my arm, and another jolt of pain spikes through it.
"Ah..! Damn it…! Just what the hell happened to me…?!"
Okay. Think.
I remember being on a ship headed back home. Laughing with the other soldiers. Celebrating our last night together. Then going to sleep.
And… that's it.
No-no. No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was finally going home. Home. Back to my family. I should be sitting in my favorite chair right now, coffee in hand, watching the sunrise. Hell, I should be making love to someone right now.
"Why now!? Just when things were finally going to get better!"
How did everything go wrong? Did the ship crashed into an iceberg? Did some rogue fire off an explosion spell? Just what the hell happened!?
And how-how did I get here!?
…
Okay.
I need to calm down, I need to do something. Panic won't help me. Getting up will.
I brace myself and try lifting my body again. The pain tears through me, sharp, hot, overwhelming. But pain is something I know. As a soldier, I've trained to work through worse.
I grit my teeth and push.
After a long, shaky struggle, I manage to stand upright.
"Ha… okay… ha… agh… now what…?"
Once my breathing steadies, I look around. The dim light is enough to confirm my earlier guess, I'm in a cave. A wet, sticky, misty cave. But the walls look… wrong. Organic, almost. There's an opening ahead of me, a tunnel leading somewhere.
I should move. I need to move. Who knows what kind of thing is lurking around here. I'm not willing to find out.
I take one step forward—
And nearly gag.
"What the hell is that smell!?"
I clap my hand over my nose instinctively. It's overpowering, easily the most repulsive stench I've ever encountered. I've smelled battlefield rot, latrine pits, festering wounds, but this? This is worse. So much worse. Like a hundred corpses rotting inside a furnace of bile.
"I'm gonna throw up…"
No. Hold it together. I have to keep going.
One step at a time.
"Ugh.. That's right.. One step each"
I limp forward. My muscles scream. My wounds ooze. The smell claws at my throat like a living thing.
…
This isn't a normal cave.
After several minutes, the stench hasn't faded, it's intensifying. Thickening. The walls aren't just red, they're a greenish, pulsing red. Sickening.
I pass broken wooden beams, shattered iron, splintered railings, all familiar fragments of a ship. The ship I rode, maybe. I don't know. I also pass scattered armor and weapons, I recognize some. And some foreign, far too foreign to be here. And all of it… all of it looks like it's melting.
Dissolving.
Digesting.
The thought hits me. Ridiculous, impossible. Something I shouldn't even consider.
What if I'm inside a-
The ground shudders violently.
"An earthquake?!"
No. Something else. The walls bulge as something wet and syrupy gushes out of them, dripping in ropes and sheets. The smell intensifies until tears sting my eyes.
And then-
Skrooooeeenk!!
A sound like a shockwave slams through me. It starts as a deep rumble in my bones, then explodes into a metallic shriek that reverberates everywhere, inside the walls, under my feet, inside my skull. It's a roar. A monstrous, towering roar.
Oh god.
That was a roar.
My earlier suspicion. My insane, ridiculous suspicion solidifies into a cold certainty.
I am inside a monster.