I'll Never See You Again if I Can't Help It

She was entranced by the carving for a long moment, her eyes trying to make sense of the image before her. How could they, when she'd never seen the creature it depicted? Strange, how even though she had never seen it before, that the terror it depicted was incontrovertible. Some things defied time and language. Like fear. Primal, raw fear. Fable's ears flattened against her skull and she shook off the reverie of the carving before her. Perhaps there were more... maybe only one of them looked terrified. Maybe the next one she'd uncover would picture a pup, frolicking in a meadow! Yeah, right. You're kidding yourself. "Yes," she admitted, reaching out to run her own paw across the cool stone. It was worn soft, like it had been there for eons. "It looks like it's been here a long time. They can't all be making that face, though? Right?"

A cold sweat broke out and she jogged to the next closest spire a few yards away. The dirt here was firm and impossible to move. Fable shook her head and strode further into the depths of the red field until she found another spire with loose soil at its base. That eerie wind started up again, a soft whisper that grew in volume until it seemed as if it was shrieking all around them. She couldn't help herself - a childish whine escaped her lips. All she could think of were cloaked figures and the humming of fireflies. Fable scrambled at the base of this next spire, kicking dirt out from beneath her and sending it in a flying arc until she was almost down to the chest in front of the stone.

She scrambled out of the pit, panting. This carving depicted... nothing. It was worn almost clear away. Fable scrambled back into the pit and then through one of the openings into the center of the spire. It was dark in here. Eerily, it seemed quieter than the world she could see just outside of the stone. Gulping, she began digging again from the other side, hoping to find some other clue. Fable kept thinking she was seeing fireflies blinking in and out of sight, but it had to be her mind playing tricks on her. Your food is disgusting. You are talentless.

Dirt flew, and still she dug deeper. It was colder down here in the ground. Fable looked around, finding herself almost a foot down into the earth on the inside of the stone spire, which spiraled up like a bird cage surrounding her. There! She could begin to see the outline of another carving here. Fable cleared away the dirt, peering through the dim light of the hole she'd dug. It was that same unknown creature, its face twisted into a mask of abject terror. You are talentless. Fable hung her head, scrambling out of the hole she'd dug and passing through the holes in the spire back towards Noor. She took gasping breaths. "I really, really don't like this. It's just more of the same, all the way down... that horrible expression."

"Speech"