She didn't know how long she'd been threading through the maze of glowing crystal formations, or how long she'd wandered through the cave in general. An hour? Five? An entire day? She'd lost all sense of time and bearing since the fight with the serpent.
Now she just trudged along. Her left arm hurt. The sharp shards of crystals hadn't gone deep enough to reach bone but the cut throbbed. She felt drained, not defeated, just at a lost for strength and wheres.
Also, her stomach wouldn't stop grumbling. Her lips and throat were patched despite the generous swallow of mineral water earlier. She'd been too nervous to devour more than a few slices of bread and tea for breakfast. For water…would they have permitted her to carry a bottle? She'd not had the courage to ask.
Worse of all, she had the disturbing sense she was going around in circles. Like, she literally stumbled into that stalactite with spiralling patterns some minutes ago…
