He stared at the thing, at its eyes, if they were eyes. There was no color, no soul. Nothing but a void, a dark so deep the light of the wall vanished into them.

The wolf’s head returned to its normal position, and the beast resumed its growling. Before long, it leaped onto the boys, ready to tear them apart with its dagger-like fangs.

“Run!!” Kai screamed, and Xyron didn’t think twice. They each dodged to their respective sides, causing the beast to miss and bash its empty jaws on the ground.

The walls blurred past Xyron as he ran, flame leaking from his fist in a stuttering trail. His shoulder hit the edge of the round chamber; the shock lit a bolt of pain down his arm, but he didn’t slow down; he couldn’t. Kai was already through the exit, moving faster than his friend had ever seen him run.

The wolf’s first step shook the chamber, sending a shudder up through the stone floor which vibrated the bottoms of the boys’ teeth. The next step was closer. Xyron shoved himself after Kai, breathing in great gulps that bothered his lungs. The heat from his flame brushed his face, almost evaporating the sweat pooling on his forehead and dripping into his eyes, but the air everywhere else was instantly cold. Like the beast was sucking the heat out of the place as it hunted them.

Kai took a right at the first opportunity, tripped on the rough stones, and nearly went down. He caught himself with a hand against the wall, as Xyron was a half-step behind. He could hear the sound of the wolf’s claws grinding on the ground, not behind them but above, or below, or everywhere at once. It was like the sound of the beast lived in the walls, and the walls were crawling with it.

He looked back once and saw the wolf’s shape peeling loose from the corridor behind them, its eyes an incarnation of true horror, its body rippling and phasing like it could shift in and out of the stone at will.

Xyron ran even harder, and the flame finally died, leaving only the thin, sickly white of the wall’s glow. For a second he ran almost fully blind, tripping over the edge of his own boots while praying his feet remembered the path even if his mind didn’t.

There was a crash behind them, almost like a wall shattering. Xyron felt it in his body, and deep in his soul. He didn’t have to look to know the creature had gone through the wall. He heard stone grind, heard the hiss of that burned air, and then it was closer, so close he could feel it press on the back of his neck, a threat of death by the beats’ teeth.

Kai cut left, and Xyron followed right after. The new corridor was narrower, the walls drawn in close enough to scrape his shoulders as he passed. He heard the wolf’s body hammer into the beginning of the passage, followed by a crash of stone on stone, and for a second the sound of the pursuit stopped.

They hurtled into the darkened ruins. The white wall light was fading now, the stone itself starved of whatever magic once had powered it. The only light was Xyron’s new trembling flame, and even that was barely enough to make sense of their surroundings.

Further ahead, Kai slowed a little, and Xyron saw why. A section of the wall had collapsed, spilling a pile of rough stone into the corridor.

In the center of the debris, a crack had opened, splitting the wall into two jagged edges, just wide enough for them to squeeze through if they turned his body sideways and didn’t care about the cost to their clothes and skin. Kai hit the rubble first and looked back at Xyron.

“Hurry!” He said, his voice hardly a whisper, and even in the gloom Xyron could see the panic around his mouth.

Xyron squeezed through, pushing with his elbows and knees. His palms stung where the stone cut through, and he barely managed to keep the flame alive as he wedged himself into the gap. He felt the wall scrape the flesh off his forearm, along some parts of his shirt, but that wasn’t a problem. All that mattered was going forward. All that mattered was not being in the same place as whatever that thing was.

He shoved Kai through first. The boy wriggled, then tumbled out the other side, landing on both feet. Xyron sucked in his chest as he gritted his teeth and forced himself through after his friend.

Just as they thought they were safe, the wolf smashed into the rubble behind them. The entire wall shuddered with the impact. Xyron almost fell backward into the monster's teeth, but he managed to push forward and finally made it through, rolling onto the cold floor next to Kai. The stone behind them crumbled again as the wolf jammed its jaws into the gap.

Its nose and teeth forced through the crack, smoke pouring out in thick waves. For a second, Xyron thought it would burst through, thought they would die right there and then while screaming for their lives.

But the wolf couldn’t fit. The air echoed with the sound of claws dragging furrows through the rock, and the smoke from its mouth looped around Xyron’s head, so cold it made his skin quiver and his scalp lock up.

He lay there, breathing hard. His stare held on the horror just an arm’s length away. It didn’t blink; it didn’t even move in any way. It just wanted them.

Kai lay flat beside him with his hands held over his mouth, trying to stay silent.

The wolf kept at it for a long minute before it pulled back. A howl caught in its throat but never escaped thanks to its frustration. The strange dark smoke retreated with it, and the sound of claws on stone faded deep into the wrecked ruins.

Xyron was completely still, every nerve waiting for the next attack, but thankfully, it never came.

After a while, Kai uncurled, crawled forward, and risked a look through the crack. “I think it’s gone…” he whispered.

Xyron was still shaking in fear but managed to push himself upright. He wiped blood from his forearm, checked to see if the flame had burned his fingers, and found he could barely close his fist. The price of careless magic was great; if a simple small flame could have such drawbacks with misuse, he could only imagine what greater spells could cause.

“We need to move,” Kai said, not waiting for Xyron to agree. They picked a direction toward the weak promise of air, or maybe just toward less terror, and started walking. Xyron’s flame spat and flickered, but it proved enough to keep them from bumping into many obstacles.

They walked for a long time, sometimes in silence, sometimes in gasps. In their minds, every echo was the wolf, every breath of cold air appeared as its fangs. But thankfully, the thing never returned.

At last, they saw the black oval of the exit, the iron rungs of the ladder. Kai didn’t even hesitate. He rushed up first, hands shaking, and vanished into the dusk above. Xyron climbed after, not daring to look down. He didn’t trust himself not to imagine the wolf right behind him, only to drag him down and end him.

When he reached the surface, Kai was already scraping leaves and soil over the trapdoor, hands trembling uncontrollably so badly he could hardly grip the dirt. Xyron helped, and together they buried the entrance as best as they could.

Only after the trapdoor was fully covered did the boys finally rest. The green forest was packed with life, gentle life. Even with the occasional wolf, it was nothing like what they came across down there.

Neither of the boys spoke for a while, still processing the terror they just survived. After thinking about it, Kai broke the silence.

“We have to tell someone.” His voice was rough and cracking.

“I agree… Let’s hurry back home.” Xyron had the same opinion.

And so, the duo got back on their feet, rushing to the village in the distance.