Abandoned Ruins

Sand has settled into your footprints at the foot of the steps. The channel holds only grit.

Broad stone steps descend into a sunken enclosure. Sand has softened their edges, filling the lowest step completely. You climb down beside a leaning wall. Above it, the sky forms a strip between slabs worn hollow by the wind.

You follow a shallow channel cut into the floor. It passes beneath the wall and emerges beyond it, still straight where the surrounding stones have shifted. Grit catches under your boots. The air smells of warm dust.

A glint stops you near the far corner. Pieces of alloy lie scattered along the channel, bright against the sand. You lift two and turn them over. Both carry the same fine curved ridges, though their broken edges refuse to fit together.

You collect a few pieces from between the stones. Their undersides feel cool against your fingers. After brushing away the grit, you stow them in your pack and climb the steps. Loose sand trickles down behind your heels.

You pause at the top of the steps, looking down into the sand.