The outline of a young woman hovered over me. Her velvet black hair, tangled and messy, unkempt but still soft, swayed slowly above my face. A small flame burned nearby, blanketing us in warmth and casting mystic shadows on the dampened, dirt walls all around. The sky cracked, releasing rain, thunder, and lightning down onto the Earth. Flashes of light lit up the cave for split seconds, revealing quick glimpses of the body leaning over mine. Our eyes, the flame nearby still dancing within them, scanned each other with anxious and fierce yearning. We sat like that for just a few moments, though it seemed like years. The thunder boomed again, knocking down loose dust from our earthen ceiling and shaking the cold ground beneath us. As if knocked out of a daze, the young woman jolted upright, looked toward the untamed wilderness outside, and ran into it. I sat up, bewildered, staring into the jungle beyond and taking in my rocky surroundings for the first time. I could still see her racing like a panther through the bushes and beneath the trees, but her silhouette was growing fainter, and the embers of the fire were fizzling out. At this point, I knew only two kinds of warmth. So, I ran after her.
The trees were bigger than any I had ever seen. Enormous trunks standing erect like soldiers snapped to attention. They were bare, save for lush branches of foliage at the top, creating a thin canopy blotting out most of the night sky. To the right, the ancient town lay nuzzled at the mountains feet. Inside the lower walls lay a sprawling city. A labyrinth of run down dwellings formed an intricate maze, leading only to the stockade above. It grew ever more foreboding as they neared. The monolithic structure seemed more a shadow than a fortress. Sheer stone walls gleamed ink black in the night. Featureless, and cut with utter precision. It was a structure of engineering perfection, and the very sight of it could not have been more ghastly. p.s. you're awesome
Holy shit, dude. That's a good idea. We should just keep this going and collectively, as a forum, compose some kind of epic fucking novel.