She fell.
Darkness swallowed her.
Y/N landed hard, her back smacking against damp stone. Pain jolted through her body like a warning bell, but she was alive - bruised, breathless, but alive.
"Ow. Great. Love that for me."
She blinked, adjusting to the dim glow around her. A massive underground chamber unfolded before her - circular and towering, lit by eerie green torches embedded in jagged stone walls.
All around her, the walls curved into a ring of one hundred doors - each one ancient and tall, etched with faded runes and strange symbols. Some glowed faintly. Others leaked black mist from the cracks.
She stood, legs shaking slightly, heart thudding against her ribs.
Then came the voice - thick, smoke-like, and not even close to human:
[ "Choose a door. Solve the riddle. Survive the Redder. Or become part of the stone."]
The Redder? Her heart pounded. That name sounded like rot and blood. She didn't want to see it.
"What now?" she whispered, eyes darting upward. "Why can't anything just be normal for once?"
Her chest tightened. That name - the Redder - sounded like rot and blood and nightmares.
She turned slowly, surveying the massive doors. Most were still. Silent. Waiting.
But three pulsed with unnatural light:
Door 7 - carved with the Ouroboros, a serpent devouring its own tail. It glowed a deep, pulsing red. Ominous.
Door 18 - shrouded in thick black silk, webbed like a cocoon. A lock with five glowing runes pulsed at its center.
Door 31 - its wood flickered between light and shadow, humming with unstable magic like it might explode at any second.
Y/N squinted. "Well, that one looks like it wants to eat me. That one looks like it might implode. And that one-" she pointed to Door 18, "is giving haunted spider vibes... but somehow feels right?"
Something pulled her toward the silk-covered door. Her hand
The puzzle lock blinked to life.
The Riddle:
The lock had five glowing buttons:
[Fire] [Water] [Earth] [Wind] [Void]
Above them, words burned into the stone:
"I devour all, yet am never full.
I feed on wood, but drown in tears.
Choose me, and I will open."
She whispered the answer before even realizing it
"Fire."
Her finger hovered... then pressed the rune for fire.
Click.
The door shuddered. The webs curled back and burned away, revealing a tunnel behind.
Y/N stepped into a narrow passage, walls slick with moisture and thick strands of web. The air was heavy - too warm, like something breathed just ahead.
She heard it.
Skitter. Skitter.
A wet sound. Something massive. Legs scraping over stone.
...And then silence.
Y/N halted mid-step, her throat tightening. The tunnel behind her had sealed shut - silk creeping back over the stone like a living curtain. No going back. Of course.
YOU ARE READING
The Enchanted Warriors (Dragon Riders AU)
FantasyThey meet each other when they are kids they don't realize what is coming for them. They will meet the legendary creatures that everyone believed were a myth, and the demon will wake up. Everything will come to the point that nobody knows what is go...
