forgive Rio for the incident outside. It was not the first time that he had traded civil conversation for physical action, after all.
I peeked at the dragon-kin from the corner of my eye. He was silent, as usual. Yet, right now that quiet was as oppressive as a cannon blast. I wondered what he was thinking.
I shook my head, sending dripping tendrils bouncing along my cheeks. I shivered. It was unusual for me to be so conscious of someone else, and the new feeling annoyed me. Unable to sit there in silence for another moment, I walked over to Rio and began to examine the walls with him.
A language I could not understand swirled around images in a delicate scrawl. The drawings were primitive looking and symbolic. Giant fish jumped over mountains, and humanoid beings slew each other with sharp instruments. One being in particular stood out from the rest: a tall man with a blue aura and long, pointed ears.
Tahninym, I deduced.
My teeth chattered as I tried to ignore how sopping wet and cold I was. It was obviously too loud for the half-blood to ignore, and he turned to me with an amused smile.
“Cold?” he asked mockingly.
I glared at him, refusing to speak while my teeth chattered so violently. His attention returned to the scribbles, and I wrapped my arms around my chest.
“It’s a history,” the redhead murmured after a moment.
“Y-you can read it?” I asked, impressed. The images on the walls seemed random to me.
“Not really - just a few words. You don’t really get to learn much mermish from living with your human dad.” He shrugged and we continued to slowly wander around the room.
Once we reached the third and final wall I realized that I saw nothing that resembled a door here. Had Rio been wrong about this particular tunnel being the entrance? I watched the half-blood, but his face was calm and concentrated on his task.
I tore myself from the images and sat on the floor in the middle of the room, rubbing my arms to restore some warmth to my limbs. If we were going to have to turn back soon, I might as well try to recover now. Levent had not moved from his