My heart is still pounding

Something...... happened.

Which is a bit ironic, since I just told you nothing really happens, haha.....

But, uh, someone came down here. Someone I don't know.

I've set up a sort of trap along one of the tunnels you have to walk through to get to where I am. It's not much of a trap, honestly, just some rope and a bucket and things, but it make one hell of a loud sound when it's set off. That's the purpose, to alarm me to someone coming.

C is pretty good at dodging the trap by now, but even they sometimes set it off. When that happens, however, they always, always, call out that it's just them. This time after the alarm... nothing.

I'm immediately on guard, of course because someone is coming here?? No one is supposed to come here, I'm not supposed to be here, I am a fugitive and no one can see me. So I hide, something you'll recall I've been very good at since a kid.

A man walks by me, a big, burly man. At least I assume it's a man, the Cordalian gendertypes are pretty easy to differentiate most of the time. But that's not the point, the point is, there is a big, mean looking dude in the catacombs and I don't know who he is or what he's looking for. Me? Maybe? Him shuffling through my stuff would indicate that. Luckily I don't keep much in the room, there's just the godawful cot really, since everything else I own is little enough to keep with me at all times.

He looks over the cot, around the room. He doesn't notice me. He moves onto the next tunnel. I decide to push my luck and see what he does. If someone is looking for me I need to know. He does the same in the next few rooms; looks around, inspects the random shit that's lying around. He doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about anything he finds, but I only get glimpses of his face, so it's a bit hard to tell.

Eventually we loop back around to the main area I spend my sad life in and he looks into the last room. Big mistake on his part, 'cause that's where the soot dragons roost. The mama is immediately on the defensive, hissing and spitting at the man, who takes a startled step back before grunting something in a language I don't speak and shooing at them with his hand. The mama stands up to her full height, completely ready to throw down, growls at him and snaps her teeth.

He mutters about "waste of time" in Cordalian and then leaves. The mama stares after him for a long while, and when she finally relaxes, I know he's gone and I can finally breathe again.

The mama and her hatchlings have been keeping me company since then as I've been writing this letter to you. The keep trying to nibble at the corners of the pages, so I apologise if there's tooth or soot marks on the paper.

I'm still a bit shaken about the whole thing, it's not been that long since it yet, but I needed to get this written down now while it's still fresh in my memory. In the end I didn't find out know who he was or what he wanted, but I am quite concerned now... It They know I'm here...

I just hope he doesn't come back.

~Mal