Etheria was a vast planet, a mere spark among the countless worlds. Yet despite this, it had one aspect that towered above every other, peace.

  It was enormous, almost twice as massive as a regular rock body containing life. Lush lands stretched far and wide, grasping even the darkest ends of the world. One of the only remaining realms still untouched by the endless march of technology.

  It flowed with all kinds of life. Dragons, giants, titans, leviathans, even gods. But without a dominant species gatekeeping the ever-growing population, evolution would soon mechanize these beings into sharp, swift hunters, sculpted only to survive.

  Yet somehow someway, humanity still managed to thrive.

  ***

  Somewhere in a sacred, dense jungle, stood the village of Poterir. A town that took refuge below the surface. The jungle was restless. Towering behemoths of plants trampled over the insects below, as legions of soaring bugs rained hellfire onto every living being it sees, just a mere speck of the firepower nature had accquired. It was a constant battlefield raging onwards through history, leaving bloodshed and devastation, but also giving the tools necessary to learn and grow.

  Humans were no match for their unending fury. In the end, any confident survivors will be swiftly erased by an endless cycle of rebirth that these creatures had adapted.

  They had nothing to lose, while we had everything to gain.

  Poterir burrowed under the caves, an underground complex holding a population high in the hundreds. Despite the jungle's unrelenting forces, the ancestors of this small village managed to build an exploding community out of seemingly nothing.

  Markets circled all around, selling a variety of foods and clothes. As pristine buildings were spotted all over the cave's formats, designs so magnificent, yet crafted and decorated only by wood and vines. Some housing even stretched outwards onto the trees. They were rich in culture and determination, respected by the vibrant life surrounding it.

  And among the endless sea of inhabitants stood Yharim. A curious little boy who craved for something more.

  He would wake up to the sound of bell chimes. Eat breakfast. Go to school. Go home. Sleep. And repeat.

  This was his everyday life, ordinary and normal.

  But his mind was wired differently than the others.

  He was always called a weirdo by his classmates. Always searching for something more, his curiosity was unbeaten and unshakable.

  "Do better in school!" his mom always shouted to him.

  But not matter how hard he tried, the material that school trained him to learn was just... impossible.

  He isn't interested in any maths, or science. Or even english.

  But one subject that stood out was history.

  He was always fascinated by it, not by what his ancestors did or didn't do. But by the knowledge of the outside world he got.

  Confined in the walls of these damp caves, it was unrealistic that he would ever get to see the light of day, yet alone the wonders of the surface.

  People in his town would always yell and order the dangers of going up to the surface, but he always thought that they were fools. I mean, how dumbfounded can you be to not take any risks? isn't that how you succeed in life?

  But no matter what he thought, of course, there was no going against it.

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  One day, he stumbled upon a dead end while traversing the deepest paths of Poterir, just another journey his curiosity took him on. But across it, stood what seemed to be a gaping entrance to something else, guarded by two guards.

  "Stop! You must not go deeper than this point." the guard remarked.

  "But why? I wanna know what's down there." Yharim replied.

  "No one has ever gone deeper and made it out alive, these caves were shaped by our ancestors long ago and they left use one rule. To never tread deeper than the rooms that they made."

  That day, the rain was pouring heavily onto the jungle. Its fluorescent smell reaching into even the deepest part of the caves.

  "Pretty please?"

  "No."

  "Pretty pretty pleeeassseee??"

  "Kid, I'll tell you what, if you return back to your house right now, I will give you a little treat, a mini chocolate bar. Do we have a deal?"

  "...Deal!"

  But he didn't listen to his words, instead he plotted a devious plan that he was sure would be unstoppable.

  He waited until nighttime, and returned back to the destination. Expecting to see the guards clouding the entrance, he clothed himself in all black to hide in the shadows. Hoping that the tiredness of the guards would be enough of a burden to let him pass.

  But it turns out they were both knocked out. The humming atmosphere produced by the rain had soothed their bodies, allowing the small boy to pass.

  As he looked down the never-ending hole, he gazed into the eyes of the void. As its hands stretched out and seemed to grip his legs, shifting them forward. He couldn't order his legs to back off, it was as if an imaginary force was pulling on it.

  And he plummeted down the bottomless abyss.

  His heart pounded like gunfire. Seconds endlessly stretched, eyes inevitably closed. He prepared for the end.

  But instead, the loud crash was transformed into a mere thud.

  He had been salvaged by a soft, warm blanket that carpeted the jagged floor.

  His eyes lifted, as the swarm of dread began to flee. He could see a soft fuzzy floor, looming to the darkest ends of his vision. It was woven by an array of materials that was bounded only to humans. Could it be, that more people resided in these pits?

  While questions raided his mind, he carefully treaded forward, the abyss mocking him. He feared what could spray out of the darkness any second. But as he approached closer to the center of the circle, an odd egg reached his vision.

  It was massive and scarred with cracks, looking as if it would shatter in any moment.

  Through its unending ravines you could almost see a flickering new world. An endless circle where kingdoms rose, empires crumbled, and repeat. Blazing in an endless maelstrom of raging fire.

  Yharim stood in awe. Never in his life had he thought of the existence of such marvels. But before he could grasp the sheer moment. Suddenly, the cavern roof trembled. Dripstones rattling as if the earth itself had been stirred.

  The temperature spiked.

  When. A brutal roar burned through the air.

  It shook the caves. As the endless marching of a gargantuan beast pounded harder and harder.

  In an instant, brilliant blue flames shot up the darkness. Barely missing Yharim's frail body.

  Through the blinking illumination, he could see a feral dragon, its head the only one present bursting from a hole-like pathway.

  The rest of his form was being held back by the earth itself. Vines of staggering rocks tying up its wings.

  As the caves kept this roaring monstrosity inside its belly.

  Though its firepower remained restrained, it still showed relentless force.

  Its maw swung with the heat of a dying star, as it tried to rattle its way through the closing airways.

  But to no avail.

  Its teeth disgustingly dripped with thirsting saliva, while Yharim stood there. Stunned.

  Not by fear, but by pure amazement.

  A creature beyond his imagination, only whispered through ancient tales, had just presented its glorifying presence to him.

  His thoughts raced from the top through the ends of his body, those flames that had engulfed his vision. It pierced him with fear, but also revealed to him the beauty of the pain.

  Only by braving the darkest pits of hell, will you forge the brightest swords,

  But suddenly, it struggled its head rapidly. As it let out a thunderous roar. Shifting his mind back into place.

  For a minute he left behind his thoughts.

  He quickly snatched the egg, while the dragons mourning cries blared from behind.

  He ran like never before, charging into uncharted regions like a panicking horse. Until another gaping pit stopped him, but this time he could feel unprecedented heat strangely radiating from within.

  It was a dead end.

  Even if the dragon was being chained, he would still die here without any food or resources.

  And when he thought things couldn't get any worse. Suddenly, a storm of razor sharp stones imploded from behind, drawing blood from his skin.

  As he looked back, in utter shock, he saw the dragons grotesque form, now fully uncloaked.

  Its roaring flames chanted its name, lighting up the path to slaughter its next victim.

  He watched, as more and more of the caves attempts at sealing it were being easily put down.

  It came closer, and closer.

  And now he had no choice.

  He had to jump.

  ...

  ***

  The heat weighed his body down a thousand tons. Almost unbearable, his thoughts again concluded this would be the end. But as his eyes lifted, awe caught him for a second time.

  An endless, stretching pool of lava blazed through the cavernous hollow. Its spacious expanse immense and unmeasurable. It looked like it could hold a thriving city.

  Ecosystems never seen before flowed through every inch, as even the deepest reaches were overtook by the beauty.

  A living utopia of nature.

  Not only that, looking further he saw traces of wood and human life embedded onto the cave roof. A mineshaft.

  So, people really did go down here after all...