road to transformation

She could hear Gilgamesh gaining on her and she chuckled, swallowing to try and suppress another cough as she raced through what had once been slave quarters. A narrow corridor seemed to angle downwards but the fresh breeze that blew through betrayed its final destination and she took it, down and then up. "You have to catch me first..." she taunted back, her illness wreaking havoc on her stamina, but her stubborn determination was still there in full force. The incline was a slow killer, the tunnel turning left and then right, gradually worn away, carved out by running water over millennia probably, though Modesty would never claim to know for sure.

Fresh air, starlight, and the sound of distantly crashing waves seemed to rain down on her as she finally made her way out of the old palace and into the jungle that surrounded it. The distant wooping of monkeys seeming to cheer the racing wolves on.