The lizard pressed its face against the floor while the throne's occupant waited.
"We spotted humans entering the domain, my King," it whispered as the pressure made its claws tremble.
The figure did not move, but the darkness around its throne seemed to listen.
Silence thickened inside the impossible hut until each breath scraped the messenger's throat.
'It disturbed me for the sake of humans, when the outer ruins receive them every cycle?'
Worms swallowed the weak, and stone guardians crushed anyone capable of reaching the buried road.
No human squad had ever crossed the full patrol route.
"Is that the entire report," the King asked as the sickly wall light stopped pulsing. "You interrupted me to announce corpses that have not fallen yet?"
"No, my King. The guards are dead," the lizard said as its voice broke.
Silence smothered the throne room beneath the weight of that answer.
