Slid Into Abyss

He kicked his foot against something small, but hard. His brow furrowed in pain as he looked down.

And just as his gaze dropped—

SHEEWWW!

He was thrown off balance by a force, cold and invisible, which shoved him backward. His arms flailed as he tripped, slipped, and slid down a rough incline in the stone floor, his screams echoing briefly before the slope swallowed him.

The slope was of a cliff-like nature that sped him through, down into a dark abyss that had no detectable ending.

THUMP!

Laz finally landed, covered in darkness, tumbling to a stop at the foot of a stone incline. A loud grunt escaped his lips as he slammed the back of his head gently, yet oddly comfortably, into something cold, firm and smooth.

If only he could see what he had landed on, but he could tell from its texture that it wasn't a jagged stone or damp soil. No. It felt more like a stone with a silky surface, like obsidian carved by divine hands and chilled in eternal frost.

Whatever it was, Laz guessed it wasn't going to be a trouble since he had fallen into a totally silent environment. Groaning, he lay still for a moment, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath.

"Phew... not dead."

As soon as the words escaped his mouth, he began to hear some sound.

Tap... tap... tap…

His body movements ceased. His eyes flickered around, with the hope of being able to view anything, but there was zero to no hope. No source of light to serve as an illuminant, at least to light his path in case of danger.

To worsen the situation, the sound continued.

It started faint, deliberate, then steady. As if something was walking barefoot across the stone floor. If there was an onlooker from the other end, Laz's total disengagement from his normal composure wouldn't go unnoticed through his eyes.

Still, he tried as much as he could to remain mute, avoiding movement of any sort or sound.

Then, a shadow seemed to move. First, it passed from his right to the left, and then from left to right. This occurrence lasted continuously for a few seconds, until another change started.

Laz felt the surrounding air suddenly turn cold, brushing against his skin, affecting his lungs, bones, and his mind. It was as if the darkness was going to consume him, but it first tried to make him become aware of it.

A dim blue glow followed suit, sparking somewhere deep within the abyss. Then it vanished.

Then an eye.

And a flame.

The whole experience was disengaging as Laz shut his eyes tightly.

'Just the fall,' he clamored in thought. 'It's the fall messing with my head.'

Once his eyelid parted to bring light upon his eyes, he no longer saw any of the former. Now, a string of faint, hovering dots like fireflies began to twirl in the blackness. Their movement were in different patterns — spiralling at first, then flattening to take the form of a net, and finally converging to form a strange, almost humanoid shape.

The last form stood, staring at Laz for a moment as if it existed.

Laz blinked.

It was gone.

Then again, closer. It was really gone.

Laz jolted from his relaxing position, dragging his hands against the cold stone floor in a panicked crawl backward. He tried to soothe himself, assuring himself that what he experienced wasn't real.

'I was just hyper vigilant. My brain just created things so that I could hear, see or possibly feel. They were not real, they are all products from my mind.'

Laz hoped so.

He was only hallucinating.

The palm he dragged backward scraped against something, grainy and soft, like specks of dust or pollen, but oddly warm. He retracted his hands immediately and, acting on instinct, brought them to his lips, trying to hush a gasp.

His tongue met the particles that had entangled on his palm.

Sweet.

The taste was like honey and spice. For a second, the terror he once felt seemed to vanish, and he found himself licking his lips subconsciously.

"I found food?" he mumbled in disbelief, coughing a laugh, causing an echo to fill the environment.

As if the substance he had just tasted had side effects, it caused his vision to flicker.

For the briefest moment, Laz thought he was seeing another unreal thing. This time, he not only saw shapes, but outlines. The outlines of his body sprawled like a ragdoll.

Sensing from the little illumination that suddenly pierced into the darkness, Laz looked beneath him and finally saw what he had fallen upon.

It wasn't stone.

Neither was it the root of a tree.

He had fallen on scales.

'Damn it.'

The object he thought was anything massively hard began to pulse softly with a blue hue. More light pierced into the darkness, almost concealing it.

Then, a low rumble.

The floor he had rested on shifted.

No. Not the floor.

The creature, whatever it was, had begun to move.

One scale lifted.

Then another.

And another.

Laz came to realize he had witnessed this immense darkness as a result of this large form. Its stillness in position was the cause.

The vast form began to uncurl, slithering slightly, with terrifying grace. Laz watched as a sinuous neck stretched into the air, arcing like a mountain lifting its head for the very first time in a long time.

Two glowing slits opened in the now dim-lit environment, the eyes looked like twin crescents of ice and fire, staring directly into Laz's soul.

Now that the whole place was well lit from the creature's uncurl, Laz discerned its view.

It possessed the obsidian horns of a dragon, but hard, smoothened scales. A few inches down from its neck was a protruding object — two small wings existing on both sides of the creature's body.

Below, Laz could see two very small limbs with their claws, directly below the wings. To make things clear for Laz, a long, formed tongue flicked from the creature's mouth, tasting the air.

'Two horns, wings, legs, and scales of a snake,' he memorized.

'Oh. Shit. A dragon snake?'

It has awakened, or he has woken it.

And now, it is facing him.

Frozen, Laz couldn't move, couldn't breathe. His heart pounded so hard he was sure the creature could hear it.

Then, for the first time in his entire history, Laz had a voice.

"Shall I take you now... or hear your reason?"

His lips parted as if he had something to say, but no words came.

The dragon-snake leaned in, massive fangs glinting in the low glow of its body.

Laz swallowed hard, but he remained still, trying as hard to regain composure and still every possible movement.

Then—

A deep hiss that seemed to produce a sound.

"Very well."

[Author: We finally got contracted at this point. If you've read till this chapter, do not fail to support the book with PS, golden tickets, and even gifts.]