บท 15: Chapter 15: Heart of the Earth

Something large and solid struck Vix in the back. She was wrenched from Caine, and flipped end over end. A moment later, she crashed into something else, and was sent careening off in another direction. She fell through the total, tumbling dark, bruising her shoulders, her back, her arms, never knowing from where she would be struck next.

Vix tucked herself into a ball and prayed for it to end.

She rolled on her side down a steep slope. Trying to stop herself did no good; the ground was loose and chalky and crumbled away between her fingertips whenever she tried to dig her hands in. It felt like she was sliding down an enormous throat, into the belly of the world.

Suddenly, the ground leveled out. Vix tumbled for several more feet, then came to a stop. She lay there for several seconds, gasping, her body a mass of aches and pains.