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Azara and The EyeAndrew Gould# Azara and the Eye
The tunnel was so narrow Azara couldn't even think of turning back, so tight she had to slide her flaming torch forward, crawl toward it, then slide it forward again.
Now, she slid the torch up a slight rise in the passage, and it immediately disappeared.
Azara scrambled up the rise, reached and just barely snatched the falling torch.
Looking down, she saw a tiny flame reflected in a pool of black water.
The cavern felt open and cool, and she was grateful the smoke could go somewhere other than her lungs.
"Hello!" she shouted.
"Hello!" the cavern echoed.
Azara slid herself away from the edge, and found that she was able to stand.
She couldn't tell how far the drop was, or how deep the water went, or if it was a stream or a massive lake.
If she survived the jump, she'd be swimming in uncertain darkness.
She jumped anyway.
Her stomach lurched into her throat as she fell
fell
fell and –
SPLASH!
Frigid water enveloped Azara’s senses as she plunged into inky blackness.
She came up for air and looked around, trying to get a sense of direction.
But there was nothing to see.
So she swam and swam, and finally, miraculously ran into something.
It felt like a wall. Azara reached, and found another edge.
It was a set of stairs.
Azara climbed the short set of stairs up and out of the water and found herself in another, smaller cavern.
She felt the ground SHAKE, just barely. She lowered to the ground, felt the earth. The ground SHOOK again.
The ground-shake was rhythmic, like a pulse, a HEARTBEAT.
Azara moved deeper into the cavern and found yet another set of stairs, leading up into darkness.
She took the first step, and the piece of stone under her foot lowered mechanically.
Something somewhere at the top of the stairwell SHATTERED.
The rhythmic ground-shake stopped.
The entire cavern RUMBLED AND SHOOK. Dust and rocks fell from the walls.
A pair of glowing eyes appeared at the top of the stairs.
Azara grabbed a small vial from her belt, uncapped the lid, threw it at the eyes, ran back to the water and dove in just seconds before –
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Azara tread underwater until the cavern RUMBLED and SHOOK again.
And all was quiet and still.
She carefully climbed out of the water and saw the black-scaled dragon on the ground, almost fully blocking the stairs.
She felt the earth — no ground-shake.
After climbing up and over the dragon’s tail, Azara reached a small room.
It was mostly empty.
There were some scattered bones, a few open crates, and a pile of empty bags.
Someone had already raided this place.
Then she noticed a small blue glow against the far wall.
There on the ground, Azara found a small, circular, ancient looking thing.
She picked it up. It fit neatly into her palm.
She brushed dirt and dust off the device and studied it.
𝙸𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚢𝚎.
It was forged out of some lightweight metal, and there were 16 runes etched around the edges.
The rune that looked like a sideways hourglass pulsed a soft blue light.
Suddenly, the centerpiece lit up with that same soft blue.
Azara heard voices — faint, distant whispers:
𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗
𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛
𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚕 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚔
𝚑𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎
𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝙸 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛?
Then...
[A vision in her mind's eye](https://eyeforadventurers.com/stories)