Darkness ruled this place. Heavy, endless, comforting. The giant drifted through it with slow, sweeping motions, each limb sliding over the cold currents like shadows moving within shadows. It had no name. It had no voice for names. It knew the world by pressure, vibration, and the taste of drifting minerals.
Home was a wound in the seafloor: the Valley. A sunken pocket beneath the trench, deeper than predators dared to search. It had grown here, stretching larger each season, curling within rock hollows when the cold currents raged. The Valley had always held it. Always protected it. Always kept it alone.
A pulse of movement brushed the creature's skin. Its color flickered pale, then dark again. Not fear. Instinct. It sensed the faint trail of blood drifting from far above—small prey, broken by something stronger. Hunger stirred, but the giant did not rise. Something else whispered beneath it.
A tremor.
Soft at first, like a distant drum. Then firmer, spreading through the valley floor. The creature lowered two tentacles, feeling the vibration ripple through stone. This was wrong. Nothing moved under the Valley. Nothing lived below this depth.
The tremor returned. A deep hum followed, faint but steady. The giant rotated, eye widening, pupil narrowing at the strange glow forming along the cracks in the ground. No light belonged here. No warmth. Yet both seeped upward.
The giant slid closer, circling the glow with cautious grace. It had known darkness since its first breath. It feared nothing in the deep. Yet this warmth stirred something new—something it had no instinct for.
Curiosity.
The crack in the stone widened with a low groan. A plume of shimmering particles drifted up, glowing blue as they swirled around its limbs. The giant touched the cloud with one tentacle. Warm. Too warm. The sensation jolted through its nerves with a memory it didn't understand—shapes above it, massive and slow, sinking into darkness long ago. Leaving it behind.
The hum grew stronger.
Thump.
The water vibrated.
Thump.
A second pulse. Like a heartbeat, but larger than any creature it had sensed in its life. The giant rose slightly, limbs spreading out, tasting the current for danger. Nothing. Only the call from below.
The glow brightened.
Thump.
The giant circled the crack again. Territory meant survival. Territory meant safety. Yet now its own home felt like a shell slowly splitting open. The Valley was changing. Or waking.
The heartbeat deepened.
Thump.
A chunk of stone broke away, falling into the abyss below. The light swirled, brighter than before, washing over the giant's skin and making it flare with pale color. The creature drifted forward again. Instinct pulled it back. Curiosity pulled it down.
It hovered on the edge.
The abyss beneath the valley floor pulsed once more.
Thump.
Warm. Bright. Calling.
For the first time in its life, the giant felt the shape of a choice forming in its mind.
Stay in the darkness it knew.
Or answer the heartbeat from the other side.
End