The valley was larger than any of them had expected.
Ringed completely by the cliff walls that enclosed it, with no opening visible from inside except the passage they had just emerged from, it sat in total isolation from the world outside.
The surrounding cliffs were high enough that direct sunlight would only reach the valley floor for a few hours each day at most, and the vegetation growing across the ground and up the lower sections of the walls had the pale, adapted quality of plant life that had learned to work with limited light over a very long time.
Stone structures occupied the valley floor. Ruins, though not the kind that came from sudden destruction. These had failed gradually, roofs collapsing inward over decades, walls leaning and settling slowly until sections had given way.
