Abandoned Ruins

Your footprints still cross the sandy floor. The cracks where you found the metal are empty.

Low stone walls follow the slope, their openings half filled with sand. You step through a narrow gap into a roofless room. Shallow grooves mark the threshold, worn smooth beneath your boots.

Something shines between the stones. You crouch and lift a small piece of alloy from the grit. More lie scattered across the floor, some caught in cracks, others exposed to the sun. Their surfaces carry fine ripples that you can feel with a fingernail.

You gather a few pieces and brush them clean. One has a rounded edge that fits against your palm; the others are irregular, surprisingly heavy for their size. You tuck them into your pack and retrace your steps through the walls.

Sunlight falls across the sandy floor. You pause at the threshold.