AU🌿fragment 2🌿 This day had gone wrong from the very morning. First, that stupid argument by the waterfall, now these endless, damp, oppressive ruins of an ancient temple deep underground, and to top it all off, my GPS navigator died. I carefully made my way through the crumbling stone tunnels. It wasn’t my first time being left alone… and honestly… I didn’t need anyone. I could handle this perfectly well on my own, without anyone’s lectures, reproaches, or suffocating care. But… would it really have been so hard to just… just show… a single shred of understanding instead of his eternal moralizing? Well, fine, whatever! I will find all the answers myself! I took another step forward, and the echo of my footsteps rang out hollowly beneath the bleak vaults of the tomb, then died away. The moment I was left alone with this ringing silence, my built-up mental armor cracked. A painful lump caught in my throat. Loneliness, my eternal loneliness… and Mom… God, I miss You so much… if only you were here. If only all these clues and the half of the artifact in my backpack truly led to You… I approached the very edge of the precipice, peering into the pitch-black darkness of the bottomless underground abyss. Suddenly, a low, guttural rumble made the ancient stones beneath my feet tremble. A powerful earthquake shook the temple. Century-old columns began to collapse with a thunderous crash, and part of the ledge I was standing on broke away with a dry snap. The ground slipped from under my feet. My heart plummeted into my shoes, and my ears rang from my own scream. Losing my balance, I fell into the gaping chasm. At the absolute last second, driven by pure survival instinct, I desperately threw my hand forward and caught a mossy rock ledge with my fingers. Just one hand. My fingers were slipping from the damp stone, a sharp pain pierced my shoulder, and below, beneath my dangling feet, nothing but an endless, hungry abyss of darkness awaited…
