Yonder lieth the Castle
Looking down for the first time in quite a while, you realize that you are in a wide U-shaped valley with a flat bottom and steep sides. You're not sure if you can get above the mountains, so it looks like you have to land somewhere in the valley, preferably somewhere you can take off again.
The mountain sides are sleek and smooth and don't seem to offer much in the way of footholds - unless you are a giant fly. The bottom of the valley is covered with forest - that doesn't look very good to land on either. There are some open areas, but they look too small to land on, and far too small to take off from... assuming you can take off from flat ground at all!
You have just started considering the possibility of turning back and seeing if you can reach the cave, when you spot a small castle with tall towers standing on a steep crag in the middle of the valley. Perfect! Well, good enough at least.
Wings aching from exhaustion, you circle the castle for a quick overview. There are no signs of life, with luck it's abandoned. The corner towers have sharp pointy spires and look a bit flimsy for your current bulk, but the central tower looks more sturdy and has a flat top ringed by a low wall. It's not quite big enough for you to sit or stand on, but at least you should be able to cling to the sides and rest your wings for a while.
Landing is tricky business. You realize a moment too late that you are coming in too fast, and before you have time to spread your wings you smash into the side of the tower. A blast of fire bursts out of your mouth, scorching the top of the tower. Good thing there wasn't anyone or anything flammable up here!
As you cling on to the edge with your foreclaws, gasping for air and your hindlegs scrabbling for a foothold, you discover that while the tower may be strong enough to hold your dead weight, the impact of your violent landing was a bit too much for it. As the top of the tower starts crumbling under you, you hear the sound of someone starting to scream.
Written by Won-Tolla on 16 July 2007
The end (for now)